Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: March 27th, 2007.
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: Various
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42nd Street Forever - XXX-treme Special Edition - Movie Review:
The third in the series of trailer compilations that Synapse Films have been unleashing on the public over the last couple of years, 42nd Street Forever - XXX-treme Special Edition caters to the raincoat crowd that languished in New York City's infamous Times Square district in the seventies through the eighties. Specifically, we're talking about hardcore porno trailers here, kids.
While the inner city grindhouse cinemas were known for showing martial arts films, exploitation films of all varieties, cheap horror pictures and other seedy genre movies, Times Square in particular was also known for the freakish amounts of pornographic mayhem that flickered across the screens of theaters in the area. While this DVD obviously can't recapture the feeling of being in a stinky, dirty, ramshackle theater watching porno in amongst hustlers, whores, masturbating perverts and dope dealers there's no reason why you can't invite your own over and recreate as authentic an experience as possible when you put this DVD in. With over two hours of fuck film favorites represented here, it's hard not to get excited (possibly get hard because you're excited, but I digress...).
The complete run down of XXX movie trailers contained on this disc is as follows:
Alexandra / All American Girls / Aroused / Beverly Hills Cox / Beyond Desire / Blonde Ambition / Blonde Heat / Burlexxx / Coming Together / Debbie Does'Em All / Debbie Does Dallas III / Desire / Devil In Miss Jones III / Devil In Miss Jones IV / Dracula Exotica / "F" / Fascination / For Services Rendered / Girls On Fire / G-Strings / Heart Throbs / Hot Blooded / Hot Lips / I Want To Be Bad / Making It Big / Matinee Idol / Naked Scents / Nasty Girls / Nothing To Hide / The Oddest Couple / Oriental Jade / Passage Thru Pamela / The Ribald Tales Of Canterbury / Scandalous Simone / Scheherazade / 1001 Erotic Nights / Sensations / Showgirls / Skin Tight / Slip Into Silk / Supergirls Do The General Hospital / Supergirls Do The Navy / Surrender In Paradise / Tickle Pink / Tight And Tender / Trashy Lady / Ultra Flesh
A quick look at that listing shows a veritable pornocopia of classic smut starring favorites such as Ron Jeremy, Eric Edwards, Seka, Ginger Lynn, Harry Reems, Annette Haven and plenty more and the best part is that the trailers included here haven't appeared on any of the other recent trailer compilations from the likes of Ban 1 Productions (who released the excellent Smut Palace Insanity disc) or the Something Weird Video DVD-Rs that have come out recently - or if they have, they certainly haven't looked this good (actually there was a trailer for Ultra Flesh included as an Easter Egg on the Smut Palace Insanity disc, but that's the exception to the rule).
It's interesting to see some of the trailers for sequels to better known classics. Bambi Woods herself appears in the spot for Debbie Does Dallas III but it's obvious that she's just been spliced in from pre-existing materials as she doesn't actually say the title of the movie, instead when it's time for her to say it the trailer just cuts to a basic title card that says DEBBIE DOES DALLAS III against a plain red background. R. Bolla of Cannibal Holocaust fame shows up here again, while Ron Jeremy plays the team coach! The cute lil' Texan accent of the narrator adds some fun camp appeal, particularly because it sounds about as inspired as someone reading the phone book.
1984's Surrender In Paradise is interesting to see. This film makes excellent use of its beach locations and as such it has a little more class than other XXX films of the era as well as some lovely girl on girl clips. 1001 Erotic Nights is another fairly lavish vintage adult film and the trailer for this film really does a good job of emphasizing the production values as much as it does the actual hardcore sex and the interesting cast which consists of notables like Annette Haven, John Leslie (as the great sultan Shaka Khan!) , chesty Lisa De Leeuw, Herschel Savage, Joey Silvera, Jade Wong, Tiger and Mai Lin. They don't make'em like that anymore. On the other side of the spectrum is the trailer for Matinee Idol which basically just focuses in on the sex and nothing else. It's probable that it was an effective trailer in that it cuts right to the chase and caters to the 'pulling it' crowd that was probably going to see these movies theatrically, but it's not as interesting as some of the better spots on the disc.
The two best trailers on the entire disc have to be the promotional spot for Beverly Hills Cox and Ultra Flesh. Ginger Lynn narrates the Beverly Hills Cox trailer, explaining how she'll do anything to get her man over footage of seedy period Los Angeles and various clips of the performers getting it on while a heavy synth score pounds away in the background and Ginger struts around in some ridiculous outfits. The Ultra Flesh trailer is one that fans have probably seen before, but it's worth revisiting just for the sheer zaniness of it all. Other highlights include Skin Tight which features hot chicks pulling up tight pants over their gigantic pubic fuzz to some bad rock sounds, Super Girls Do The Navy which is just plain weird with it's retarded comedic bits over top of hardcore clips, Beyond Desire where Vanessa Del Rio, Seka and a few others do their thing and of course, Dracula Exotica, one of Shaun Costello's later efforts where a frizzy looking Jamie Gillis narrates in a Transylvanian accent before walking through some smoke and sitting down on his evil thrown. Watch him mow down on Vanessa Del Rio, in a movie that claims to be 'bizarre... erotic... shocking and patriotic!' Someone needs to give this one a special edition DVD release with a commentary from Costello, Del Rio and Gillis while they still can. All in all, this is a fantastic collection of old school porno trailers that run the gamut from the genuinely sexy to the unbelievably absurd.
42nd Street Forever - XXX-treme Special Edition - DVD Review:
Synapse presents 42nd Street Forever - XXX-treme Special Edition in a damned impressive 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Those fretting that the fullframe material will appear here compromised and cropped need not worry, as more than a few of the trailers appear here windowboxed within the letterboxed widescreen frame ensuring that the fullframe material looks just fine while still catering to the anamorphic junkies out there. Not a bad compromise.
As far as the quality of the transfer goes, let it suffice to say that you've never seen old porno trailers look this good. Sure, there's a bit of dirt here and there but for the most part the transfer is very detailed and far more colorful than you'd probably expect it to be. Detail is great in both the foreground and the background of the image and there are no problems to report in terms of heavy edge enhancement, mpeg compression artifacts or unnecessary aliasing.
It's mono all the way across the board here but that's not a bad thing. There's little to complain about in terms of quality, it's all fairly clear and you can hear all the corny dialogue, bad voice over narration and of course the sounds of hair performers making sweet, sweet love with plenty of clarity and as much detail as you'd want.
Unfortunately, aside from an animated main menu and a trailer selection sub menu, this disc is barebones. An insert contained inside the case features the disc's cover art on one side and an advertisement for the other two 42nd Street Forever compilations on the other.
42nd Street Forever - XXX-treme Special Edition - The Final Word:
Those who dig on vintage smut will find much to love about 42nd Street Forever - XXXtreme Special Edition's collection golden age XXX movie trailers. With over two hours of content all wonderfully re-mastered Synapse has provided a veritable treasure trove of depravity in one handy-dandy package that filth fans everywhere should eat right up.