Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Expose Me Lovely

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Expose Me, Lovely



    Released by: Video-X-Pix
    Released on:
    Director: Armand Weston
    Cast: Jennifer Welles, Jody Maxwell, Bobby Astyr, Annie Sprinkle, Eve Adams
    Year: 1976
    Purchase From TLA Video

    The Movie:

    Directed by the late, great Armand Weston, 1976's Expose Me, Lovely stars Ras Kean as a man named Nick 'Frosty' Knight, a divorced private eye trying to make a living on the mean streets of New York City with a reputation for catching who he's after and making time with the ladies. He wakes up in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages, and tries to put together the pieces of his own story to find out what happened to him and how he got there. We then learn how he was hired to find a missing man who was all set to inherit his terminally ill politician father's vast fortune and how Knight wound up framed for the man's murder. It also turns out that this missing man has a hot sister who knows more than she probably should about what happened.

    Weston was a filmmaker known for putting story in as important a position as sex in his pictures, and the script he wrote for this feature is no exception. There's a strong plot here, one that borrows from old crime noir films like Lady In The Lake, and the movie is all the better for it. Yes, the sex is prevalent and at times genuinely arousing but it furthers the plot, it doesn't bring it to a complete stand still and here it happens for a reason.

    From the opening sequence, in which a very naked and lithe Jennifer Welles does some interesting nude stretches on a bed underneath the opening credits, through to the big reveal at the end (there's an interesting surprise ending that we won't be spoiling in this review!), the picture is very well shot and like the noir pictures that it draws its inspiration from, it makes excellent use of shadows and light to make for some solid drama and enhance tension.

    As far as the performances go, Ras Kean isn't going to win any awards for his leading man role here. He's not quite sleepwalking but he plays it a little too cool and never seems to quite connect with his character the way he should to make it work. Welles, never the best actress but a woman with some serious screen presence, does a little bit better as the femme fatale/icy blonde type, however, and this turns out to be one of her more memorable dramatic turns if not her most scorching on screen moment. Supporting efforts from the likes of the immortal Annie Sprinkle and the omnipresent Bobby Astyr are fun, and look for the gender bending Eve Adams to appear in the film as well. On top of that, it's got some really solid footage of mid-seventies New York City to boast about, and the script is surprisingly politically tinged for an old porno movie, which winds up leaving the viewer with some welcome food for thought.

    There are hotter seventies adult films out there and there are more memorable ones as well, but you can't knock Weston's work on this picture. It's just a really well made, interesting, and entertaining picture that offers up sex and story in equal doses.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    This isn't one of Video-X-Pix's restored transfers and is taken from a tape source. Presented in 1.33.1 fullframe, the picture is certainly watchable enough but it's a bit soft in spots. The Video-X-Pix bug pops up in the lower right hand corner during the sex scenes. Detail is about as good as the source will allow and while there aren't any compression issues, it'd be nice to see this one benefit from the restorations the company has been doing lately.

    The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mix on the disc is fine. Some scenes are a bit flat but odds are pretty good that they've always sounded that way. There aren't any serious hiss or distortion related issues and the levels are well balanced. It's not a fancy mix but it gets the job done.

    Extras are slim but we get a few trailers for other VXP properties, a menu, and scene selection.

    The Final Word:

    If Expose Me, Lovely isn't Armand Weston's finest moment, it's still very much worth your while if you're a fan of his work or of well made adult films in general. The picture manages to hit the right blend of hot sex and interesting plotting, it moves at a good pace, it offers up some nice footage of seventies New York and it's surprisingly well acted. Worth seeing for Welles' eye catching scenes alone, it's a solid picture through and through.







      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X