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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: August 12th, 2014.
Director: Bob Chinn
Cast: Georgina Spelvin, Jessie St James, Jon Martin, Ken Scudder
Year: 1979/1979
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The Movies:
Vinegar Syndrome's ongoing Peekrama branded line of dirty movie double features offers up two of Bob Chinn's fine efforts by pairing up Tropic Of Desire and Fantasy World, both made in 1979.
Tropic Of Desire:
When this first film begins, we travel to a Hawaiian brothel during America's involvement in the Second World War. The brother's madame, Frances (Georgina Spelvin), delivers the mail to her working girls and one of the ladies, Rita (Kitty Shayne), gets a letter notifying her that her fiancé was killed in battle. Understandably distraught, she leaves the brothel and heads back to the continental United States.
Meanwhile, a navy man named Jack (Jon Martin) has just arrived after a year and a half at sea and he can't wait to get back to his favorite lady of the evening, Donna (Jesie St. James). He's shown up with two pals, Gus (Ken Scudder) - who is hoping to reconnect with Rita who he believes is actually in love with him, and Phil (Blair Harris) - who is just hoping to get some action for the first time in his life. He winds up getting intimate with Terry (Star Hill) but blacks out, though this doesn't stop her from going at it solo and Jack gets reacquainted with Donna in a big way. Gus, however, is heartbroken, so Frances does everything that she can to lift his spirits while he falls inside a bottle. From there, another Rita-fanatic, this time a British pilot named Malcolm (James Price), shows up looking for her. She's a popular one. No luck, of course, but eventually Malcolm and Gus wind up in a room with Mona (Susan Nero) and Gloria (Mandy Ashley) watching a dirty movie complete with some fisting! Frances, however, has to find a replacement for her most popular girl. When June (Dorothy LeMay) shows up looking for work, the elder madame takes it upon herself to make sure she's got what it takes to make it in the business!
A fairly effective dramedy obviously made with a modest budget, Tropic Of Desire is pretty well made. The cinematography makes the most of the sets and while the vast majority of the film takes place only in a couple of rooms, it's nicely lit and Chinn does a decent job of creating and maintaining the illusion. The period attire and score help here too. The cast, however, are what really make this. Jessie St. James is pretty smoldering here and gets quite a bit of screen time while Susan Nero and Mandy Ashely do fine work as well. Spelvin, not surprisingly, steals the show. She has a solo scene involving a conveniently placed throw pillow early on in the movie but it's her final scene with the beautiful Dorothy LeMay that really cooks. Chinn was definitely recycling some of the ideas that he toyed around with earlier in Sadie, but Tropic Of Desire absolutely has enough going for it in its own right to be quite worthwhile.
Fantasy Word:
The second feature is set in San Francisco (we get some cool location footage that confirms this for us) in the modern day of 1979. Here we discover a sex club called, not so surprisingly, Fantasy World. It might look sketchy, even dangerous from the outside but inside? Well, all your wacky sexy dreams can come true! Enter three ladies on vacation together and on the hunt for serious kicks: Chrissie (Laurien Dominique), Nancy (Jesie St. James), and Ellen (Sharon Kane). They hesitantly make their way inside and then so too do a threesome of sailors enjoying some shore leave - Cal (Jon Martin), Frank (Michael Morrison), and Sloan (Jesse Adams).
As the show begins, their host for the evening (James Price) does his thing and introduces the acts but the guests are unaware that he can seemingly listen in on their thoughts and tailor the entertainment to their particular kinks. This also allows him to transport them off to some sort of, yes, fantasy world, where they get in on the action separate from what's happening on stage. Things start off with a pretty nifty naked snake dance sequence before Frank winds up in a three way fantasy with his wife Audrey (Valerie Darlyn) and another woman. Nancy goes at it with three different dudes while Cal is magically whisked off to enjoy some quality alone time with a geisha girl in full makeup. Chrissie winds up with a different man (Paul Thomas) who sings a love song to her before they get it on while Ellen winds up in a bondage dungeon with Sloan!
More a series of obviously sexualized vignettes playing off of fairly typical fetish and fantasy concepts than a traditional narrative, Fantasy World is nevertheless pretty entertaining stuff. The scenes that take place in the club proper are shadowy and mysterious and Price makes for an interesting host all made up and dressed to the nines. The snake dance sets things off in a mysterious, exotic manner and the movie builds well from there. Many of the cast members here obviously worked with Chinn on the first feature on the disc but they do equally good work here and it's fun to see Paul Thomas show up and perform a musical number. Throw the gorgeous Laurien Dominique and the equally enjoyable Sharon Kane into the mix and Fantasy World turns out to be an excellent companion piece to Tropic Of Desire.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both features look great in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transferred in 2k from their respective 35mm negatives. The elements used were in excellent condition and while there is a scratch or two here and there, for the most part the transfers are as clean and as colorful as you could hope for, especially Tropic Of Desire. Given that Fantasy World is a much darker film in terms of its visuals, the color scheme employed is understandably quite different. Expect some grain, but you'd be silly not to and it's never particularly distracting. These are solid transfers through and through, no serious print damage to complain about, sharp detail, very film like but still crisp and clean. Expect some grain, but you'd be silly not to.
Both movies get the Dolby Digital Mono treatment, in English with no alternate language options or subtitles provided. Both films sound fine. Dialogue remains clear and crisp and the scores sound good. Levels are properly balanced for both features though some might note some minor hiss in a few spots.
The only extras on the disc are static menus, chapter selection and trailers for each feature.
The Final Word:
Both Tropic Of Desire and Fantasy World are quite well made and take full advantage of some seriously A-list casting choices. Both films feature some humor, some style and some drama mixed in with the bumping and grinding and Chinn paces them both quite well. Production values are decent across the board and the presentation from Vinegar Syndrome of both films is not only uncut but in excellent condition as well.
