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New York GrindHouse - Avon 7 Triple Feature: House Of Sin/Bizarre Styles/Wicked Schoolgirls

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    Ian Jane
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  • New York GrindHouse - Avon 7 Triple Feature: House Of Sin/Bizarre Styles/Wicked Schoolgirls



    Released by: After Hours Cinema
    Released on: December 20, 2011.
    Director: Carter Stevens
    Cast: Little Velvet Sommers, Annie Sprinkle, Vanessa Del Rio, R. Bolla
    Year: 1980/1981/1982

    The Movies:

    Continuing to delve deep into the obscurities of seventies smut, After Hours Cinema has teamed up with the one and only Carter Stevens to release the trilogy of films that he made for the Avon 7 Theater in the early eighties. Taken from original 16mm film prints these transfers still look pretty rough but are definitely better looking than previous grey market and bootleg releases. With that said, there are a few issues here that fans will want to note. But before we get to that, let's take a look at the movies themselves…

    HOUSE OF SIN (1981):

    When a woman named Evangeline Foster (Long Jeanne Silver) gets into some car trouble she winds up asking a man named Marbus (R. Bolla or Robert Kerman, take your pick) for help. As luck would have it, this man is a cult leader and he and his pals drug her food. She blacks out and they have an orgy but once she wakes up, she quickly learns that she's going to be involved in this too, weather she likes it or not, when Maude (Honey Stevens) introduces her to the joys of lesbian love. Meanwhile a couple (Mistress Candice and David Christopher) put on a fairly graphic BDSM show for the cultists. Jeanne isn't cool with this, particularly once the water sports come into play, and so she decides to make a break for it - but will she make it out alive or is she forever damned to live out her life a slave of the creepy Marbus?

    The tamest of the three films on this two disc set, House Of Sin doesn't quite compare to what Stevens would get into later in terms of on screen depravity but it's reasonably entertaining and it's cool to see Silver in the female lead here even if she doesn't put her stump to the same sort of use she has in better known films (like Alex De Renzy's documentary Long Jeanne Silver for example). The sex scenes aren't as memorable here as they are in the other two films in the collection, but you've got to give Mistress Candice and David Christopher points for giving their all as their scene is not only the kinkiest and most perverse in the movie, but also the most memorable.

    It's also fun to see Kerman, who is actually a half way decent actor, play a cult leader here - you've got to appreciate how he has all the female cultists wander around in skimpy sheer outfits for much of the film. This one is a bit like Ivan Reitman's Cannibal Girls in tone, believe it or not - and that's not a bad thing - with Kerman filling in nicely in the role played by Ronald Ulrich in the Reitman film.




















    BIZARRE STYLES (1982):

    The one and only Vanessa Del Rio plays an early part in this feature from Carter Stevens. Here Del Rio plays a high talent fashion designer in New York City named, maybe not so surprisingly, Vanessa who commands a bevy of lovely ladies at the lingerie store she runs - but what sets this store apart from others is that the female employees are also hookers available if the price is right.

    One day things get a little out of hand in the change room and a lesbian three way breaks out between Vanessa, Annie Sprinkle, and a third woman I didn't recognize. Honey Stevens does a fine job of sexually abusing and humiliating some schmuck, using a whip on him and dressed to the hilt in red leather, finally pissing on him when he's all worked up and ready to go. Annie Sprinkle gets into the action and a woman is tied to a cross only to have her nipples clamped pretty ferociously.

    This one is light on plot but the sex is decent and the three female leads in it are all hot enough that they're able to carry the film on their own without much need for such distractions as plot and story. Stevens' direction captures all the sex in as explicit a manner as possible, the camera leering over the girls as they do their thing. There's also a pretty interesting scene involving high heels and masturbation that'll work for those who dig that particular kink.

    Unfortunately this version of the film from After Hours Cinema is an edited one, as the bit where Annie Sprinkle gets graphically fisted and the golden shower segment have both been removed, and not gently either - the cuts are abrupt (the Alpha Blue Archives version from the Avon Dynasty: The 80s Collection is complete and also contains some music that has been replaced in this version due to copyright issues).
























    WICKED SCHOOLGIRLS (1980):

    "Little" Velvet Summers' only starring role in an Avon film was in this one, again directed by Carter Stevens where she stars alongside Dave Ruby (who is apparantly still around and working as a court reporter). Though this one isn't as down and dirty or as nasty as a lot of the other films that Avon was involved with, it does give Velvet ample opportunity to strut her stuff as she basically just acts out a few common fetishes but in between kinky set pieces there's a minor plot involving a blackmail scheme and some unseemly pictures of a student/teacher tryst falling into the wrong hands. Velvet decides to call her big brother in to help her out, and you can kind of figure out where it goes from there.

    We get to see Velvet fuck in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit (which always makes for a good time in this writer's opinion) as well as play in the toilet a little bit for those of you who are into such things. There's a solid opening scene in the beginning of the film where Sonya Summers does her thing with David Ruby played for kinky comedic effect and a few great scenes involving Velvet that are definitely more fetish oriented than anything else but which are still quite effective.

    Understandably some of the music (which wasn't used legally) has been changed for this release, whereas the previous bootleg release from Alpha Blue Archives left it intact. Robin Sane also sees quite a bit of action in this movie and for that reason her fan base might want to take note. Velvet would also appear in Dr. Bizarre for Avon in addition to Tales Of The Bizarre and the crown jewel in the Avon collection, The Taming Of Rebecca - all three directed by Phil Prince.



























    Video/Audio/Extras:

    All three films have been transferred from 16mm prints that were obviously pretty worse for wear. Given the obscurity of this material, it's understandable that the transfers weren't culled from pristine prints, but these are scratched and beaten, much like the performers contained therein! Bizarre Styles looks the worst of the lot, showing a fair bit more serious print damage than the other two, but they're hardly mint. Regardless, they are in better shape than those aforementioned bootleg releases from ABA, which were obviously sourced from VHS tapes and as such were a fair bit softer. Each of the three movies contains a new copyright bug on the title card (with a 2010 copyright date indicating that these transfers were obviously done a couple of years ago) but no other noticeable bugs, thankfully.

    Audio chores are handled by Dolby Digital Mono tracks across the board and the quality is on par with the video so expect some hiss, a pop here and there, and a few level jumps. The bits where the music has been replaced are sometimes a little more obvious than you'd probably want them to be, but you can't fault the studio for doing this (nobody wants to get sued, after all).

    The extras on this release are what really make it worth the time for vintage smut fans as Stevens provides a commentary track for both House Of Sin and Wicked Schoolgirls, both of which are quite interesting. While the discussion isn't always scene specific or even film specific, it does shed a lot of light on what it was like making movies for Avon and what it was like working with some of the actors he used here and in a few of his other movies. Stevens is a pretty amiable guy and comes across as a pretty likeable guy with a great sense of humor who doesn't take his work too seriously but takes it seriously enough to avoid getting too jokey. The end result is a pair of informative and interesting tracks that offer some very welcome information on and insight into a very unique period in NYC based porno-moviemaking. 42nd Street Pete and Michael Bowen chime in as well and do a fine job of keeping Stevens talking throughout. Stevens also notes that he NEVER did industrial movies, noting that this was something Bill Landis wrote which was not true.



    Rounding out the extras is a fun eight minute interview with Stevens in which he discusses his career and how he was involved in doing loops and features. He talks about working for Peter Wolf (of High Society and Cherry magazine), who he shot a bunch of 16mm silent loops with and how Wolf introduced him to a few girls he would go on to work with and how the backer of those films didn't follow through, leaving Stevens with a bunch of loop footage. Enter Avon, who were specializing in live sex shows and who wanted some material. Stevens made the match and he was off and running with a three picture deal which he originally intended to use the loop footage for and how versions were released both with and without the S&M footage which lead to the birth of Dead Parrot Productions (a Monty Python reference). The set also includes trailers for a few other Avon releases (some already released by After Hours and some hopefully coming sooner rather than later) and Stevens' films including The Collegiates Collection, Punk Rock/Pleasure Palace, Lickity Split, Rollerbabies, Teenage Twins (“Brooke and Taylor Young, actual twins, show on this screen something never seen before!”), Double Your Pleasure, My Mistress Electra, Kneel Before Me, Dr. Bizarre, Oriental Techniques Of Pain And Pleasure, Prisoner Of Pleasure and Tales Of The Bizarre. Static menus and chapter stops are also included.






    The Final Word:

    To be blunt, even if it's understandable that these are cut it still stings a bit - but the commentaries make up for it. The A/V isn't going to wow you, in fact the films are in pretty rough shape here but the extras definitely make this one that fans of Stevens and of the Avon catalogue will want to snap up.



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