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Released by: Distribpix
Released on: March 5, 2013.
Director: John Butterworth, Ray Hoersch
Cast: Paul Taylor, Georgina Spelvin, Any Mathieu, Tina Russell, Helen Madigan, Darby Lloyd Rains
Year: 1973
The Movie:
While these days he may be more involved with pot growing (and the subsequent arrests that tend to go along with that occupation) or forgery (and the subsequent arrests that also tend to go along with that occupation) than with movie making, before he got tossed in the clink Ray Hoersch wrote, produced and directed an adult feature film. Now, it was a long time ago - forty years, at the time of this writing, but he did it, and it's actually a pretty rad little seventy minute movie.
The plot revolves around a man named Barney (Paul Taylor), a man with a compulsive obsession which requires him to record all of his thoughts on the fly by way of the tape recorder he seems to have on him at all times. When we meet him, he explains by way of his internal narration, that he's been through three wives already and is now engaged to a forth - a woman named Alice (Georgina Spelvin). Barney makes some sort of living, we assume, as an artist specializing in three dimensional pieces of erotic art - they hang over his bed to the left and right of a sign that says 'I Fuck, Therefore I Am.' As Barney says, sex is everything. It seems odd then that he's already bored with Alice. She comes out of the bathroom one night dressed in leather and brandishing a whip and it's all he can do to feign a reaction. When she tells him she wants to be raped, not pretend raped but really raped, he begrudgingly agrees but doesn't really seem too into the idea.
And why should he? Sex comes easily to Barney from other sources. There's the schoolgirl who shows up to give him head (Helen Madigan) without asking anything in return and there's the foxy brunette named Susan Tina Rusell) who lets him come over and watch her play with herself. She doesn't want anything more than that, but doesn't mind if he takes matters into his own hands while he watches. And then there's his friend Eddie, who calls him up to hang out one night. When Barney makes a crack about Eddie's promiscuous past, his wife (Darby Lloyd Rains) responds by leaving for a brief moment and then coming back in lingerie. At this point she ties Eddie to the chair, crams her panties into his mouth and screws Barney right in front of her husband. Complicating matters is the presence of a French stripper named Christine (Any Mathieu credited as Amy Hunter). They talk when Barney shows up to watch her, completely by chance, at a dive bar where she performs. When he leaves his wallet there and she winds up with no place to stay, she returns the wallet to him, sans the cash, in hopes that he'll let her crash. He'll let her into his bed, of course, but no, he's not going to let her stay longer than it takes him to get off. As all of this is going on, there is still the lingering matter of Alice's request that he has to contend with. What's a man to do…
This one is pretty twisted and definitely not your average seventies adult feature. Barney's narration, which is as nihilistic as it is self-serving and chauvinistic, carries the film and links the sexual encounters that make up a good portion of the movie. At the same time, those scenes of copulation don't always appear to be legitimately played for the purposes of arousal. They're often quite quick and sometimes performed without any enthusiasm whatsoever, the most obvious example of that being a scene where Barney goes down on Alice while she talks… and talks… and talks. She's not in the least bit aroused or into what he's doing, but he goes at it dutifully because, well, he fucks and therefore he is.
The sense of humor that runs throughout the film is more effective than the sexuality of the picture. A scene in which Christine approaches Barney at the bar to get a bit of money out of him in exchange for some fun is handled well and shows interesting character traits in both parties, while the scene in which Barney visits Eddie only to get some surprise action from his wife is also pretty funny not just in content but in execution. A few odd angles are used here to accentuate the more unusual aspects of this situation. Also rather amusing is the scene in which Alice is eventually surprised by an intruder in the house. She reacts just as you'd think she would, chastising 'Barney' for being so predictable despite the obvious effort there to give her what she's explicitly told him she wants. The movie makes some interesting observations about the lengths that couples can and do go to in order to keep things interesting in the bedroom, though it does so with more than just a little bit of jaded satire.
The performances are strong across the board here, with Spelvin and Taylor really turning in great work. The supporting cast members are also strong, but for the most part our two leads do the bulk of the heavy lifting. Spelvin's character is a bit vapid and we don't necessarily understand why she's into Barney, but it never matters all that much. She's funny and charming in that way that Spelvin can be when given good material to work with. Taylor does a great job here, offering up the narration with just the right amount of distanced disdain for his subjects, and the dialogue is written well enough to provide sufficient comic relief. Though the sex scenes do go into some rougher territory here - rape, golden showers, and even some blood - this one plays more as a strange, comedic satire than as a straight up traditional sex film. However, that doesn't take away from its merits or its entertainment value. Definitely one of a kind!
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Erotic Memoirs Of A Male Chauvinist Pig debuts on DVD for the first time anywhere in the universe in its original fullframe aspect ratio in a transfer taken from the 35mm internegative. Though the image is pretty grainy, clarity is good as is color reproduction. Detail is probably about as strong as you're going to get while black levels remain solid enough. The restoration would seem to have eliminated a lot of print damage, either that or the materials were in good shape to begin with. There are no issues with edge enhancement or compression artifacts nor is there any evidence of noise reduction. All in all, this is a nice, film-like transfer of a grimy looking low budget feature.
The Dolby Digital Mono track, in English, sounds okay. There are some spots where the original recording was obviously not of the best quality so expect some muffled dialogue here and there but outside of that, the levels are properly balanced and if any hiss or distortion creeps in, it was minor enough to have not been too noticeable. No alternate language options or subtitles are provided.
The main extras on the DVD itself is an exclusive interview with leading lady Georgina Spelvin. Though she speaks only briefly about this particular picture, noting that beer was used as a stand in for the golden shower scene and that it left a smell in her hair that was not easy to get rid of, she speaks for roughly fifteen minutes about other aspects of her career. Discussed here is her work with Gerard Damiano on her best known picture, The Devil In Miss Jones, as well as her brush with the Hollywood mainstream in the first Police Academy picture. Throughout the interview Spelvin, joined occasionally by a curious cat in the background, shows she's still got a great sense of humor and comes across as amiable and witty.
Aside from that, Distribpix has also included the film's original theatrical trailer and a still gallery of promotional photos and artwork. Oh, and then there's the not so insignificant matter of the short film that's been included here, the infamous Box Ball. This made the rounds in various tape and DVD-R trading circles and it rose to some infamy because… it's messed up. So what's it all about? Well… spoilers…. a rather haggard looking woman with fairly massive stretch marks gets into bed with her greasy haired beau and twists and pulls at his nuts until she basically forms a phallus out of them. And then she fucks it. She fucks his sack dick from a few different angles. It's both remarkable (that this is even possible) and repulsive at the same time, but here it is, transferred from film elements in all its spiffy, spastic glory.
Also included inside the keepcase, which is housed inside some slick slipcover packaging, are a collectible postcard reproducing the movie's original poster art and a booklet of liner notes by adult film historian Benson Hurst. Absolutely worth reading, the liners detail Hurst's visit to director Ray Hoersch's home in Pennsylvania a few years ago and offer up some fascinating and remarkably bizarre details about his life and work in addition to some interesting facts and trivia about this particular film, its cast and locations.
The Final Word:
The Erotic Memoirs Of A Male Chauvinist Pig isn't the most arousing adult film ever made but it definitely is one of the more atypical XXX features of its day. The performances are strong, the concept is legitimately interesting and the movie is quite well made. Distribpix brings this skuzzy little cinematic oddity to DVD in style, providing some welcome extras and presenting the film in the best condition realistically possible. Recommended.
