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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released: February 10th, 2015.
Director: Don Davis
Cast: Marsha Jordan, Ann Perry, Edward Blessington, Sharon Sanford, Capri
Year: 1970/1968/1969
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The Movies:
Vinegar Syndrome dives deep into the depths of sexploitation obscurities and emerges from those waters with a new Drive-In Collection release featuring three Don Davis directed quickies!
Marsha: The Erotic Housewife
First up is 1970's Marsha: The Erotic Housewife, the story of one Marsha Bannister (Marsha Jordan), a newly married woman whose happy marriage to husband Greg (Mark Reynolds) gets rocked when she finds out that she's pregnant. As the ninth month closes in, Greg's less interested in his wife and the decrease in their sex life starts to take its toll on the guy. This is only compounded once Marsha gives birth.
When Greg heads off on a 'business trip' and Marsha discovers some paperwork he's forgotten, she tries to find him at the airport knowing that he'll need this stuff. What she finds is Greg heading off for a little getaway with his secretary Natalie (Luanne Roberts). Marsha figures this affair has been going on for some time, at the very least since Natalie split up with her former husband, George (Roger Gentry) - in fact she has to wonder if the honeymoon she and Greg shared some time ago didn't offer the two the chance for a clandestine beach encounter! With revenge on her mind, Marsha decides to pay her husband back and give him a taste of his own medicine by bumping and grinding with every guy she meets - is there any hope for their marriage at all?
More of a drama than the sexploitation picture the marketing materials and title would lead you to believe, Marsha: The Erotic Housewife isn't any sort of long lost exploitation classic but it does give Marsha Jordan fans a chance to see her in some softcore bumping and grinding. The jazzy score is interesting if occasionally abrasive and we get some moderately interesting Las Vegas location footage tossed into the mix to add to the picture's curiosity value. The editing is noticeably choppy in spots and the sex scenes consist of people not quite naked rolling around and groping one another while post-dubbed 'oohs and aahs' attempt to convince us that the action is real. It doesn't work.
For Single Swingers Only:
Our next feature is more interesting. Two girls who live (and shower) together in a commune, Gracie (Heide Anderson) and Gloria (Sharon Sanford), decide to investigate a newspaper ad that they find advertising an apartment that will be rented to 'single swingers only.' The reasoning is that not much happens to them in the commune these days and they could use some excitement in their lives. They head on down to check the place out, their curiosity getting the better of them, and soon wind up involved with two guys named Dave and Arty. They seem harmless enough at first but it doesn't take our two leading ladies long to find out their true nature. To complicate things even more for the pair, there's Ruth, the landlady whose unhealthy obsession with the ladies lands her in some steamy situations. Topping it all off is a nudist girl named Connie who runs around garnering plenty of attention, mainly because she does it without any clothes on. As the pair become more and more involved in the swinging that happens in the apartment, they start to drift into two different directions and before you know it, Gloria has had enough of the lifestyle and she wants out. But will Gracie come with her or is she took hooked on the cheap kicks that she can find here in abundance?
There's not really a whole lot of story here to drive the events. It's more or less a few steamy sex scenes linked together but a thread of a plot. Likewise, the performances aren't as inspired here nor the dialogue as sharp as we want it to be, but it's fun to watch the ladies try. Heidi Anderson looks great as Gracie but she can't deliver anything even close to a convincing line reading here. This provides for some unusual and unintentional comedy but it's hard to see the picture as much more than that. There are some interesting moments here and the idea is an appealing one but the delivery lacks as much punch as you want it to have. When the film ends, you're left wondering what the point of it was in the first place, and then you remember… oh yeah, naked ladies. That was the point. On that level it works.
Her Odd Tastes:
Last but not least, we return to Marsha Jordan territory with Her Odd Tastes - by far the strangest film in this collection. Jordan plays a woman named Chris who has been carrying on an incestuous lesbian affair with her sister Lisa (Capri). She knows that others are judging her and so she decides to leave her family behind to start a new life as a vibrator saleswoman in the city, providing an opportunity for Chris to test out her wares on herself (cue more dubbed 'oohs and aahs' and more partially clothed groping!).
Soon enough, Chris meets a guy named Charles, a sex researcher. They fall in love and have some mildly kinky sex but once he gets too into their kinks and pulls a knife on her, she pushes back and he lands on the blade, snuffed out in an instant and all for naught as he didn't even get to finish! She splits Charles' place and then meets up with a man named John (Mike Perry) who offers to help her clean up the crime scene. It's here that they find Charles research papers and learn that he was using Chris as a guinea pig in his kinky experiments. As luck would have it, John works in the publishing industry and foots the bill for Chris to carry on Charles' work. Before you know it she's off to Hong Kong looking for a hooker Charles knew only to find some lesbian highjinks in a whorehouse. After that she's off to Africa where she meets a guy named Tom (Steve Vincent). They wind up at a black mass where everyone has their way with Chris. When that's over she's tossed out into the wilderness where she stumbles into a camp run by Tim O'Sullivan (Byron Clark), a big game hunter. He lets her stay and rest up but when he finds out that his son Mark has been fooling around with her he's none too happy. After that she heads to the Middle East to meet a Sheik who may hold the key to unlocking the secret of what Charles was really trying to uncover.
This one is a kick. Yes, it relies on stock footage and cheap interior sets more often than not but it throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Jordan is completely watchable here, molesting herself with sex toys and groping her way past every man and woman she encounters in the film. The story is really just an excuse to put her through a series of kinky set pieces in 'exotic location's but those set pieces tend to be weird enough and/or goofy enough to make for some good, low budget, sleazy entertainment value.
Video/Audio/Extras:
All three movies are presented in 1.33.1 fullframe transferred in 2k from the director's personal prints and for the most part all three movies look pretty good here. Some small splices and scratches pop up here and there as well as some minor specks but detail is good and colors look excellent. What we wind up with here are some nice, film-like transfers taken from materials that were culled from less than perfect sources but which still look very nice. Texture is strong throughout and there are no issues with compression artifacts, noise reduction or edge enhancement. Colors also generally look really good here as well. These transfers are definitely much cleaner and far more colorful than the previous releases, there's a very noticeable upgrade in quality here that fans of these movies will most certainly appreciate.
Each of the films gets a Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack, in English and without any optional language options or subtitles provided. Clarity of each mix is fine. There are some scenes that sound a bit flat in each of the three movies, but that's obviously to do with the original recording. The scores sound good here and the levels are properly balanced. Any hiss or distortion that does creep into the mix is minor and not particularly distracting while the dialogue is consistently easy to understand and follow.
There are no extras, just static menus offering feature and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome offers up three genuinely rare Don Davis films in fine shape. While there are no extras, the fact that the disc offers up a trio of skuzzy little sexploitation oddities should be reason enough for those with an interest in the material to snatch it up, particularly for those who appreciate Marsha Jordan's ample talents.
