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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: January 13th, 2015.
Director: Carlos Tobalina
Cast: Dorothy LeMay, Kitty Shayne, Jamie Gillis, Serena, Jesie St. James
Year: 1979
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The Movie:
Vinegar Syndrome continues to release the films of the late Carlos Tobalina. That trend continues with this latest double feature release, once again under their Peekarama double feature line of DVDs, which offers up two films made by 'Troy Benny' in 1979.
Three Ripening Cherries:
The first feature follows the exploits of three young ladies - Lucy (Misty Regan), Ann (Brooke West) and Sally (Dorothy Lemay) - who are, shall we say, curious about the art of love. When the movie begins, their mother, Rose (Kitty Shayne), and their cousin, Claudia (Rose Lee), are sitting at the kitchen table. The girls come back from school and their mother tells them about her first experience in which she got it in with an older man in his living room. From there, she screws a guy in the back seat of his car. With her cherry well and truly popped, she then hooked up with a football player (Mike Horner).
After mom's stories are done and she's warned them about the perils of casual sex, the girls seem to ignore the moral of their mother's follies. They head back to the bedroom that they all share (check out that John Belushi poster on the wall!) and talk about their own sexual fantasies and the men that inhabit them. Of course, as they do their clothes come off and they indulge in a little girl on girl on girl action. This segues into various fantasy scenes becoming 'reality' as the three of them attack one lucky guy (Jon Martin) who magically appears in their room. Cue sexy fantasy stud #2 once he's done for more of the same.
After a half an hour's worth of that, this trio of tasty tarts heads out into the real world to put their newly gained sexpertise into action. Their first attempt to pick up two guys fails - it turns out they're gay! So then they head back to school to try to woo the male faculty members. Lucy gets the gym teacher (Mick South) to a hotel room only to experience firsthand the joys of his erectile dysfunction. Next up, Ann tries with the afro'd math teacher but once she gets him alone learns that he's an S&M freak, and that's just not her bag at all. He's also got a payphone on the wall of his living room for some reason. Have they learned their lesson after all?
The lesbian scene in the middle goes on and on and on but if you like vintage lesbian smut like some of us like vintage lesbian smut you probably won't mind so much. All the females cast in the film are quite fetching, and while the striking Dorothy Lemay is sadly underused, the other girls get a decent enough amount of screen time. There's not much to the story at all and the moralizing that should lead to some sort of epic conclusion just sort of fizzles out and goes nowhere but this is nicely shot with an attractive cast. It's also interesting how in this picture Tobalina keeps the hardcore footage to a minimum. Oh, it's there alright, but the film spends more time emphasizing softcore bumping and grinding then the ol' in-out.
Three Ripening Cherries is not the most memorable of Tobalina's output but worth seeing for fans of any of the actresses featured in the picture.
Sensual Fire:
The second feature revolves around a man named Roy (Jamie Gillis) who is involved in a hot and heavy cohabitation with a beautiful blonde woman (Jesie St. James). They fuck in the opening scene (before we see more of Tobalina's trademark Golden Gate Bridge footage) and their sex life appears to be doing just fine. He even buys her flowers afterwards, driving them over to her place in his swanky Rolls-Royce… or at least intending to until he has car trouble.
They go on their date later that night and the first of many crazy lens flare shots is seen, and after that they snuggle in bed. Things are going great… until her daughter Tina (a pig-tailed Dorothy Lemay) shows up. Roy can't help the feelings he gets when he looks at Tina and before you know it he's peeking into her bedroom and watching her diddle herself and fantasizing about getting in on some of that 'sweet teen' action himself. When he gives to mom later that night you know who he's thinking of, right? It's enough to drive a man to drink! Once he finds himself so distracted that he can't work anymore, he even makes an appointment with a shrink to try and sort this all out.
He goes home and has sex again, while later on in the room next door Tina is fooling around with her new boyfriend. Of course, Roy spies on them. From there he goes to talk to a priest (who wears a pimpish suit and a gold medallion) but that isn't any more help than his session with the shrink. Some weird fisheye lens shots here. This leads him to seek out a lookalike for Tina so that he can screw her in hopes that it will cure him. No dice. Back at the house, Tina has a friend over, which leads to a nice lesbian session between the two girls. Again, Roy watches, fantasizing about a three-way with them. It all boils over when it's time for a masquerade ball. Here Roy, dressed as Zorro, gets to bring Tina back to a bedroom for a good bang session. Will this sort him out for good…?
This is a pretty decent movie despite the over use of the lens flare thing - it's got to show up at least twenty times during the film - thanks mainly to the performances. The script is good enough to keep us interested, peppering the sex scenes with enough in the way of dramatic interludes to ensure we want to know how it's all going to end. The performances help here. Gillis, widely and rightfully regarded as one of the best actors in the adult business, does fine work as Roy. He knows his thoughts are wrong but he can't help himself. Additionally St. James is in fine form here as well. Dorothy Lemay as the tempting jailbait de jour is well cast. Dressed and made up to look younger than she is, she plays the part well and is as sexy here as she has been in anything else she's done. Serena shows up here for a scene too, always a plus.
Throw in a funky, if occasionally familiar, late seventies disco-tinged soundtrack and some nice production values and camerawork and this one turns out to be worth watching for sure.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both features look great in 1.85.1 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. 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. At this point in time anyone who has been following these releases knows to expect excellent quality - this release continues that trend.
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:
Vinegar Syndrome's DVD release of Peekarama: Three Ripening Cherries/Sensual Fire pairs together two Tobalina films worth watching. Each picture features a solid cast, decent sex and some slick production values. The DVD itself is light on extras but it looks great and presents each film in fantastic shape.
