Tweet
Released by: Impulse Pictures
Released on: May 6th, 2014.
Director: N/A
Cast: Eric Edwards, Jeffrey Hurst, Valerie Marron, Levi Richards, Lynn Stevens, Mary Stuart
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
The Movies:
Directed by… someone in 1974, The Chambermaids tells the sordid tale of Mary Ellen (Mary Stuart) and Sally (Valerie Marron), two lovely young ladies who make a meager living as hotel maids. They don't dress up in French maid outfits like the girl on the cover art does, unfortunately, but hey, you can't win them all. At any rate, these two maids dig sex and they figure they could have some fun by boffing the various hotel guests that wander through the doors of their place of employment… and maybe they can earn a little extra scratch on the side while they do so.
And that's basically it as far as the story goes. Really, there's little more to discuss. No really interesting plot points of surprising twists, just a rail thin storyline off of which the mysterious uncredited director hangs the sex scenes that make up the vast majority of the movie. So does The Chambermaids pay off in that regard?
Eh… sort of. It's not terrible in that the two leading ladies are nice to look at. Mary Stuart has a lot more charisma than Ms. Marron does both in and out of the bed. Look for seventies porno movie stalwart Eric Edwards to show up here as a newlywed recently hitched to a woman named Carol (Lynn Stevens). Of course, their marriage isn't quite what it seems and given that Mary Ellen and Sally are our two leads, well it only stands to reason that they'd get involved too. There's also a segment involving two business men and one of their wives that's moderately amusing.
The production values are almost non-existent here. This was obviously made fast and cheap and as quickly as possible with little regard for all but the most simple shot setups. The framing is mechanical, almost rudimentary, and it really just focuses in on what audience members were there to see in the first place - penetration, genital stimulation and of course, the after effects of said stimulation - splat! This has all the traits of a one day wonder without some of the spontaneity of the best of those films. It's entertaining enough and yeah, it does feature a few interesting cast members that make it worth seeing if you have an interest in vintage adult films of the mid-seventies, but don't expect much in the way of polish (at least, not of the technical kind - there is a fair bit of knob polishing on display to ogle).
Video/Audio/Extras:
The fullframe transfer on this DVD is in okay shape if you don't mind the print damage. It boasts reasonably good color reproduction and pretty solid detail but expect scratches and specks throughout the movie. All in all, however, the movie is definitely watcahble. There are no issues with compression artifacts, macroblocking or edge enhancement, whatever defects there are can be attributed to the source material.
The Dolby Digital Mono track, in the film's original English language, also sounds fine. The score is properly balanced and the dialogue is easy enough to understand. If there's some occasional minor flatness, that's just part of the fun of a movie like this.
Outside of a static menu offering chapter selection, there are no extra features on this DVD at all.
The Final Word:
The Chambermaids is moderately amusing low rent smut made fast and dirty and without a whole lot of afterthought. The cast all seem to be having fun, however, and the two leading ladies are easy on the eyes. This isn't an essential lost classic by any stretch but it is worth a look for those intrigued by genuine adult film obscurities.
