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Released by: Alpha Blue Archives
Released on: April 16th, 2024.
Director: Henri Pachard
Cast: Taija Rae, Kelly Nichols, Rhonda Jo Petty, Renee Summers, Ginger Lynn
Year: 1985/1984/1984
Taija Rae Triple Feature – Movie Review:
Alpha Blue Archives offers up three of the beautiful Taija Rae’s movies from her eighties prime on one triple feature DVD. Born Tianna Reilly in 1962, she was an energetic and enthusiastic actress with plenty of charisma and sex appeal and while her work in these three films is really just her in smaller supporting roles, the movies are pretty entertaining.
Climax:
Henri Pachard’s 1985 film, Climax, opens in Atlantic City where Charlie Bartlett (Eric Edwards) is involved in a high stakes poker game and losing quite badly at that. When he runs out of things to wager, he offers his opponent, Doc (Joey Silvera), a night of sex with his wife, Ann (Cody Nicole), in lieu of cash. Doc accepts the bet, and promptly wins the hand. While Charlie is off doing this thing, Ann is sleeping around on him. When Charlie loses the hand, he finds solace in a three-way with a pair of prostitutes (Renee Summers and Rhonda Jo Petty).
When Ann learns of the bargain that her husband made, she is, quite understandably despite her philandering ways, not happy with him at all. Through a series of twists and turns, this plot starts to weave into a subplot involving a psychiatrist named Dr. Howard Elliott (George Payne) who is messing around on his wife (Kelly Nichols) with some of his patients.
When Doc finally decides to collect on his debt, things get interesting…
Although hardly the most realistic story ever told, Climax! is at least a fairly intriguing one. The film benefits from a strong cast (Taija Rae, who looks fantastic in this movie, and Tish Ambrose also have decent supporting roles here), with the principal players all more than capable of handling the dramatic moments in the film with fairly convincing performances. The sex scenes are also decent – well shot, performed with a bit of enthusiasm and believability. Silvera steals the show here, playing the story’s villain really well.
The movie’s pacing is decent, if imperfect, with things taking a bit too long to get started but the second half of the film pays off with some really fun twists and turns.
Hostage Girls:
Once again directed by Henri Pachard (credited as Jackson St. Louis!) for Nibo Films, this film from 1984 follows Judy (Taija Rae), Amanda (Danielle), Sharon (Brooke Fields) and Paula (Renee Summers) as a group of roommates living in New York City. They get along well and are hoping to make it as actresses. Their world is rocked when a trio of escaped convicts – Shifty (Joey Silvera), Swede (George Payne) and Moose (Klaus Multia) - breaks into their apartment and holds them hostage.
But before that happens, Danielle has sex with her boyfriend (Dick Howard). From there, the bad guys show up and have their way with the girls, unaware that other boyfriends like Freddy (Jerry Butler) are slated to stop by later. There isn’t a whole lot of plot here, really, and things are played for goofy, sexy laughs more than anything else but the film is quick in its pacing and it does feature a bevy of beautiful women getting down.
The vast majority of the movie is set inside the apartment so don’t expect a lot of variety in terms of setting or scenery. The use of music is okay and the performances are pretty solid. Joey Silvera as Shifty, the leader of the bad guys, is pretty solid here as is George Payne as a tough guy named Swede. Butler is likeable enough in his typical style as well. The female cast is more impressive, however, with Taija Rae looking fantastic throughout and strutting about in a pink lingerie outfit that definitely flatters her in a very eighties sort of way. Danielle, Brooke Fields and Renee Summers also look great here and perform with plenty of enthusiasm as well.
It’s tonally a strange film, as you expect it to get pretty dark based on how things are set up early on in the picture, but instead it keeps things very light and plays things pretty safe. This takes what could have been a more interesting and subversive adult picture and ensures that it’s more or less a by the numbers eighties XXX feature, but it’s fairly well-shot and worth seeing for the cast alone, all of whom do good work and seem to be enjoying themselves.
Jailhouse Girls:
Last up, we have a third feature directed by, you guessed it, Henri Pachard. Released in 1984, it opens with a scene where a woman named Wendy (Taija Rae) is enjoying some sex with a man named Jerry (Jerry Abel). It’s a house of ill repute and there’s a bust! Poor Joanna (Ginger Lynn) is nabbed by the cops alongside Margaret (Chelsea Blake) and tossed into a van where Joanna is molested by an officer named Jack (Joey Silvera).
They arrive at a prison run by a sinister warden (Paul Thomas) and his right hand woman, an inmate dubbed Killer (Kelly Nichols). Here guards like Jocko (George Payne) and Paulette (Raven) seem to have free reign to have sex with any of the prisoners they want to, any time they see fit! Also looked up in this hell-house are inmates like Jane (Kristara Barrington) and a nameless character played by Jill Cumer.
There’s a catch though – see, Joanna took a job as a secretary, unaware that she was actually working the front desk for a brothel, and in her eyes, she’s innocent. It isn’t long before she’s had enough abuse at the hands of the warden and his crew and starts to plan a big bust out!
Not quite as dark as some of the more infamous women in prison movies out there, Jailhouse Girls is definitely darker than your average eighties adult picture. While it eschews the torture and sadism so often associated with the genre, it hits the rest of the notes that you’d expect, what with the guards abusing the inmates, lesbian sex coercion and the prison setting all featuring into what is admittedly a pretty thin storyline.
As far as the cast goes, Taija Rae is, sadly, only in the opening sequence but a remarkably perky and adorable Ginger Lynn carries the film without any trouble. She’s not only very attractive here but she handles the more dramatic aspects of the story pretty nicely, with her performance really taking off once she’s incarcerated. Kristara Barrington also delivers really good work here, physically and dramatically, while Paul Thomas, as usual, seems to be having a blast playing the heavy.
This was clearly made fairly fast and cheap and the prison sets aren’t always the most convincing, but it’s a pretty decent XXX picture that, while staying out of true roughie territory, delivers the goods.
Taija Rae Triple Feature – DVD Review:
All three movies on the DVD are presented in the 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratios and taken from tape sources (these were shot on film, so tape sources are obviously less than ideal). The quality mirrors the screen caps below, expect things to look soft and a little wobbly at times. Colors are okay but can get murky, skin tones can sometimes look a little too hot or too pink. It’s watchable enough and not likely to look much better anytime soon, as movies shot on tape are always going to look like movies shot on tape.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mixes are on par with the video presentation – it won’t blow you away but it’ll do. Some hiss and background noise is omnipresent but that’s to be expected. Most of the time, the truly gripping dialogue is pretty easy to understand and follow and the levels are fine. There aren’t any subtitles included here, but there isn’t much of a plot to any of the three movies so you really won’t need them even if you are hard of hearing.
There are no extras on the disc, just static menus offering feature and scene selection.
Taija Rae Triple Feature - The Final Word:
Alpha Blue Archives’ DVD release of Taija Rae Triple Feature gives you three features starring the famous eighties superstar all worth seeing, though the quality is definitely rougher than some fans are going to want. Still, two of the three films don’t appear to be available on disc anywhere else, making this one worth checking out for those looking to add a little more Taija Rae to their collection.