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Released by: Retro-Seduction Cinema
Released on: 6/14/2011
Director: Nick Phillips/ Ted W. Crestview
Cast: Uschi Digard, Julian Wells, Darian Caine
Year: 1971/1973/2003
Purchase From TLA Video
The Movies:
Born in Sweden then moving to America in the late 1960s, Uschi Digard rose to fame as a big bust model in through the late sixties and the seventies before going on to star in over a hundred exploitation and softcore sex films from 1968 through to the early 1980s when she retired from film and opted out of the public eye. Though she'll probably always be best remembered for either her 8mm stag loops or her work with Russ Meyer (Supervixens, Harry, Cherry And Raquel), it's nice to see some of her more obscure works hitting home video and her many fans ought to eat this one right up - though this material has been released before on the Uschi Digard Buxom Bombshell disc and the Pleasures Of A Woman release, both from Retro-Seduction Cinema.
At any rate, Nick Philips made some pretty strange films in his time, but something about his adult work stands out. Maybe it's the casting of a certain Uschi Digard, who besides being visually impressive, has a certain screen presence lacking in a lot of today's actresses. There's something about films like Roxanna, Lustful Addiction, and more importantly for this review, Pleasures of a Woman, that stick in your head for a while after seeing them.
The plot of Pleasures Of A Woman is pretty simple, which is no surprise for most folks familiar with this genre. Gwen (played by Lynn Harris) has recently lost her uncle, and while attending his funeral in San Francisco, meets her Aunt Martine (Uschi Digard), all decked out in stockings and garters and definitely standing out from the crowd.
Gwen, tired and exhausted from the day's events, decides to spend the night at her aunt's house. This is when things get weird. Martine, thinking Gwen is asleep, grabs one of her shoes and goes 'downtown' with it thinking Gwen to be alseep, while she's all the while peeking in on the shenanigans from behind the door, and digging every second of it.
Later, Gwen decides she needs some manly love, so she looks up an ex-boyfriend and they hook up and get it on, all the while Gwen's mind keeps going back to Martine. When she's finished with her boy toy, she heads back to Martine's house, where they two of them get drunk and of course, the inevitable lesbian antics ensue, and a whole lot of foot fetish, leg worship and thigh high boots are put on display.
It turns out that Martine is not only a sexual deviant, but also a dope fiend as well, and of course the two of them pop some pills together. Gwen starts tripping and imagines a leather clad woman stripping for her, then later wigs out and the trip turns bad as her mind turns to images of dirty old men as she convulses on the bed in an almost epileptic fit.
Is there a moral in there somewhere? Maybe. If so, it's pretty convoluted and not all together too clear. But Pleasures Of A Woman does do a masterful job of combining the erotic with the freaky in a way that died with the decade it was made in.
The camera leers, as it should in a porno film, over every inch of the women in the film, while the narration (there is no dialogue here) and the cliché seventies porn soundtrack serve to add to the trippy atmosphere already beating you over the head with it's strange and taboo sexual situations and depraved and degenerate characters.
Also included in this first disc, the second film in this triple feature, is the 2003 remake of Pleasures Of A Woman by Ted W. Crestview starring Darian Cain and Julian Wells in the roles of Martine and Gwen. It doesn't deviate from the plot of the original very much, though that's not a bad thing as it allows the film to focus on the actresses, both of whom are quite good here. Crestview's take on the story has a bit more flash and style than Philips' original and doesn't get quite as fetish-heavy with the shoes and feet - you might see this as a pro or a con depending on your tastes. Either way, it's not a bad effort at all and as a steamy slice of softcore it works quite well - though honestly, I think most of us would have rather seen a third Uschi feature included here in its place.
In the feature attraction on the second disc, Fancy Lady, we find Ms. Digard starring as Karin Nykquist, a reporter from Copenhagen whose assignment is to conduct the research that she'll need in order to write an in-depth article that will contrast and compare the sexual cultures of America and Denmark. Made without any dialogue and narrated by a woman with an insanely thick Scandinavian accent, the film follows Karin around as she explores the seedy side of San Francisco life where she takes in a dirty movie featuring two lesbians loving it up in big leather boots in the middle of a city park. From here we learn of Karin's own experience in lesbianism as a young, nubile nineteen-year-old girl experimenting with an equally young and nubile friend. From here, Karin meets up with a couple that has recently returned from her own hometown where they went for vacation. She meets them in their pad where they put on a show for her and make wild passionate love to each other while she watches and documents the experience from behind a door left slightly ajar. When it's all over and done with, Karin retires for the evening, exhausted from the day's experiences and craving the sexual satisfaction that a woman can only give to herself using a high heel shoe in place of a dildo. Seriously. It's pretty great.
Short on plot, thankfully Fancy Lady features enough of the strange Nick Philips kink that makes his work so enjoyable that we're able to completely forgive the shortcomings of the story. Uschi's exploits feature plenty of obvious foot fetishism, especially the last scene where she literally rubs herself off with her black leather shoe, and in the lesbian scene in the park where both girls sport nothing but thigh high leather boots. Those familiar with any of Philips' other softcore films shot in and around the same era now that this type of stuff shows up quite frequently in his work but its shot really well, it's almost always steamy even if it's hard to explain why, and it completely works in the bizarre context of his fantasy world.
But what about Uschi? She's in fine form here. She's positively lovely in everything this writer has seen her in and this film is no exception. Her lesbian scene is top notch and the finale is as hot as anything else from the era. Her completely shapely body looks beautiful on film, and here it's lit to accentuate the curves the good lord gave her in all the right places. The movie isn't exactly a smart film, it doesn't require any thought or deliver any kind of social message, but it is packed with plenty of Uschi action and some very cool footage of San Francisco's red light district circa 1971.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The fullframe presentation appears to be the way that the films were meant to be seen, as there is no noticeable picture information missing. Transferred from the original negative, the colors are quite sharp and despite the fact that this material was made on a pretty low budget under less than ideal shooting conditions, the grain here isn't too distracting either. Overall, Seduction Cinema has done a pretty good job bringing this good looking transfer to DVD. The remake of Pleasures Of A Woman obviously looks a bit better as it's more modern and the elements were in better shape. Shot on video, it shows good detail and nice color reproduction.
The Dolby Digital Mono audio tracks for the seventies films are serviceable. Again, their low budget roots betray them here, like with the video. But for the most part, the narrated dialogue comes in pretty clear over the funky soundtrack despite the presence of mild hiss throughout most of the running time.
As far as the extras go, there's some good stuff hiding in the menus of this two disc set. On the first disc, besides the requisite trailers for other Seduction Cinema and Retro-Seduction Cinema titles, there's a pretty decent interview with adult film historian '42nd St. Pete.' Pete obviously knows his stuff and has a real affection for the piece and especially for Uschi and gives us a bit of background information on her and her films, Pleasures Of A Woman in particular.
Extras on the second disc include a vintage 8mm stag loop featuring Uschi that has been re-titled here as Uschi's Phone Sex and which has some dialogue dubbed over top. This loop appeared on Alpha Blue Archive's release of Uschi's Hot Stud Pick Up as Phone Sex With Uschi sans the narration and with different music looped over top. At any rate, what happens in this one is Ms. Digard is on the phone with someone when she decides to take the yellow pages advice and let her fingers do the walking. Soon she's stripped down to her stockings and garters and is rolling around on the bed. She masturbates quickly, and the clip ends. This clip is just over six-minutes in length.
The second disc also includes five other Bonus Loops. In Bonus Loop #1 Uschi strips down to her garters and stockings and rubs herself up in the living room. In the second one she's already got her boobs out and is playing with them before getting buck naked and rolling around on the couch for a bit. Bonus Loop #3 once again finds Ms. Digard getting turned on by a phone conversation which leads to some masturbation on the couch. Bonus Loop #4 finds Uschi in bed with another gal while a guy in a captain's hat and fuzzy looking brown slacks films the two of them rubbing up against each other. They get him naked and Uschi rubs his feet on her box after licking his toes. The man makes various funny faces and shows off his sideburns while the two women take care of him and of each other. To finish it off, he mounts the second girl while Uschi grabs the camera and lets it roll so she can capture the action before jumping back in and sucking the other girls nipples. The last loop teams Uschi up with Candi Samples for a whole lot of boob licking and rubbing up of various body parts. A dude enters the fray and they have a pretty rad three way with the girls showing more interesting in one another than their male co-star.
The Final Word:
If you don't already have the Buxom Bombshell Collection (which included Dirty Pool, not seen here) and Pleasures Of A Woman, this is a great way to get a whole lot of Uschi for your hard earned dollar. The presentations are pretty strong considering the age of the material and some great extras round out the package very well. This is some pretty high quality vintage sleaze right here….
