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Released by: Alpha Blue Archives
Released on: 2006.
Director: Ray Dennis Steckler
Cast: Jana Louisa, Jane Tsentas, Lilly Lamer
Year: 1975/1974/1974
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Cult 70s Porno Director: Ray Dennis Steckler Volume 2 - Movie Review:
The first volume of Alpha Blue Archives Cult 70s Porno Director: Ray Dennis Steckler paired up some quality roller girl action, feeding that unique fetish that some of us perpetually suffer from. This time around? It's all about evil, baby. Sexy, sexy evil. Sort of. Truth be told, when Steckler is concerned, it's hard to say just what it's really about. Or at least as sexy as Steckler was able to conjure. On with the smut!
Sacrilege (1974, 60 Minutes):
The first of the three films on the disc tells the story of a sexy witch named Cassandra (Jane Louisa credited as Jane Tsentas) who runs around the hills, Bat Pussy style, without much rhyme or reason, her evil cape flowing behind her during these strange, prolonged scenes. While running around, Cassandra meets up with studly young Jay and before you know it she's morphed into a sort of sexy bookworm type chick from her previous evil persona.
The pair hangs out for a bit and it turns out that they're both into the occult. They head back to her place, a cat turns into a weird old dude with a creepy smile, and Jay soon figures this bitch be a witch! Then pow! Cassandra turns into her evil witch self again, jumps around the room and seduces him into making hairy, hairy love with her by way of some strange gurgly cat noises.
Later on, Jay talks his girlfriend into swinging by for kicks. She arrives and Jay is out cold. She finds herself drugged and wakes up bound and the cat turns into the freaky bearded guy again. What the fuck is going on in this movie? Soon enough, beardo is humping the gal, and people get it on. Once Cassandra has had her way, Jay and his lady friend make their escape and that's pretty much it.
This movie is mesmerizing in its stupidity. Far more interesting as a curio than any sort of cinematic, well, anything it's hard not to find yourself amused by the sheer lunacy of Steckler's attempts at eroticism. Whoever did Cassandra's eyebrow make up deserves an award and the idea whoever came up with the idea of having a cat turn into a creepy bearded guy deserves at least a high five or two.
Red Heat (1974, 66 Minutes):
The focus, well, if you can call it focus, of this film is basically that a female narrator tells us about how she and some of her pals shot porno movies. Along the way we witness them in action and are treated to much padding by way of various scenic clips of Las Vegas and the surrounding area.
There's really very little plot to divulge here, but it should be noted that the sex scenes in the film are miles above the ones in Steckler's other films leading one to wonder if someone else shot them. The back of Alpha Blue Archives' packaging for this release states 'equal parts off kilter Vegas travelogue, bloody sex killer flick and raunchy loop package, all in one' which hints that maybe the XXX scenes could have been taken from footage not originally shot by Steckler? Obviously it's hard to say for sure but it's interesting food for thought.
As far as the movie itself goes, Alpha Blue Archives' description is pretty much dead on and hard to improve on. There's not much in the way of killing but there certainly is an abundance of mid-seventies footage of the city of sin and its surrounding area. Convenience stores, ranch style homes, apartment building stairways - these exciting attractions and many more can be yours to marvel at in between some sort of rambling plot and a few nicely shot fuck scenes.
Undressed To Kill A.K.A. Sexorcist Devil (1979, 59 Minutes):
Our final film follows the exploits of a hooker (the interestingly named Lilly Lamer in her only credited performance) named Diane operating out of Las Vegas, Steckler's usual stomping grounds, who winds up getting possessed by the demon Volta who is awakened by a sinister cult of Satanists.
When an Emmanuelle-esque female photojournalist named Eva and her occultist amigo, Professor Ernest Von Kleinsmidt, self-proclaimed Sexorcist and Doctor Of Demonology, find out that Volta has plans for world domination, they figure they should probably do something to stop her before it's too late. Unfortunately, Diane has gone on a demonic killing spree, taking down her pimp and her roommate and God only knows who else before the end credits roll.
As seems to be the norm with Steckler's filmography, the movie moves along at a ridiculous pace, it's completely erratic, it's shot with less enthusiasm than your average Doris Wishman cheapie and it's cast with some of the roughest looking folks you're likely to see, particularly when contrasted with the so-called 'beautiful people' populating modern pornography. That said, there's a charm and a sense of wonder that's obvious in these films that works in much the same way that the charm and sense of wonder prevalent in Ed Wood's filmography helps what are otherwise horrible films succeed not so much as cinema but as a document of one man's efforts to at least try to create. Say what you will about Steckler, many of his films are near unwatchable, but he kept going and he did do things his way - for better or worse. The three films collected here aren't well made but they are fun and they are interesting and because of that they're quite entertaining and definitely worth a look.
Cult 70s Porno Director: Ray Dennis Steckler - DVD Review:
All three films on this DVD are presented fullframe, as most readers probably expected. While it's hard to say for sure if they were shot this way or not, we can make a reasonable assumption based on how things look that fullframe is the intended aspect ratio for both of the film on this disc. Compositions on both films seem to be okay, and they've been taken from what appear to be tape sources. The images are scratched and beaten up but watchable.
For the three features on the disc, it's mono all the way. While the quality isn't mind blowing, everything is audible but be prepared to turn the volume up a bit as the levels are lower than normal. The funky score and wonderfully inept dialogue comes through just fine, however and while this isn't a remarkable set of mixes, they get the job done well enough.
Well, considering there are three features on here it's probably not worth complaining about, but this release is completely barebones aside from the menu screen. It's a shame that there aren't any trailers here for any of the three films but who knows if they even still exist.
Cult 70s Porno Director: Ray Dennis Steckler - The Final Word:
A truly strange collection of poorly made but highly entertaining seventies smut films, Cult 70s Porno Director: Ray Dennis Steckler #2 is a must own for fans of the bizarre and the erotic. Or the bizarrely erotic.
