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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: January 19th, 2016.
Director: Victor Nye
Cast: Angel, Ginger Lynn, Lisa De Leeuw, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1984
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The Movie:
When this 1984 Suze Randall production, directed by Victor Nye, begins, the beautiful Betty (played by Angel) and equally alluring Kathy (the legendary Ginger Lynn) are two girls enrolled in an all girl's boarding school run by strict Catholic nuns. They're coming of age, so to speak, and just discovering the joys of their newly found womanhood. When they find themselves at a brothel and put to work there, things start to get weird to the point where Harry Reems is called in to take care of business. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
Kathy talks Betty into coming with her to have some fun. What kind of fun? The kind of fun you have when Jamie Gillis shows up in a Trans Am and picks you up and takes you somewhere to 'party.' And if you know Jamie Gillis, you know what kind of party he wants. Clad in some fancy snakeskin pants, he and Kathy soon disrobe and fuck in front of the naí¯ve Betty. By the time he starts tapping Kathy from behind, Betty's got her skirt up and her fingers in. It's a pretty amazing opening scene with innocent lil' Betty quickly becoming corrupted by her party girl friend.
Meanwhile, in the brothel we see a black man calling himself Mr. Love (Rufus Jefferson) and a pink haired eighties new wave/punk chick (Lois Ayres) going at it. Then Madam Rose (Lisa De Leeuw), who looks an awful lot like Sister Rose, and two masked men are teaming up for a three way. Things are starting to get pretty intense here, but how does Angel factor into all of this? We find out when she's brought into the brothel where a priest, a Nazi, a guy in a loud red shirt and businessman are all enjoying the employees (Bunny Bleu, Raven, Stevie Taylor and Heather Thomas). Angel sits on a mattress in front of them all, watching the bevy of beauties take on the men in a massive orgy scene. She simply spins and dances in front of the group while the go at it from all sorts of different angles and orifices, ending with as big of a mess as you'd expect - but then Angel escapes from the brothel and is picked up by two cops who decide to investigate her case by having sex with her!
After leaving the police, a random flasher chases Angel to an underground lair with a mattress where she proves she's no longer as innocent as she might look but sadly for Angel, she dies after this rendezvous! Or does she? That's where the undertaker, the aforementioned Harry Reems, comes in…
Very loosely based on the Marquis De Sade's Justine, Too Naughty To Say No is glossy, sexy and funny, often all at the same time. The cinematography, lighting and production values are all top notch and Randall and her crew really did a great job assembling a strong cast. The contrast established early on between Angel's innocent character and Lynn's far more experienced and promiscuous schoolgirl is interesting but we know early on that it won't last long - Betty's going to be oh so bad by the time this one is over! There are some interesting and unusual twists here, including the death/undertaker bit with Reems, and a whole lot of eighties fashions and styles on display (the pink hair and Gillis in the snakeskin pants), enough so that the movie has plenty of retro charm. This one works really well, it's creative and well made and stands up to repeat viewings.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Too Naughty To Say No arrives on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome in a new 2k scan from the original 35mm negative framed at 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. Pure Play released it on DVD years ago in a lesser quality fullframe transfer and this new reissue easily trumps that older disc. Colors look excellent here and detail is quite strong. Some of the stock footage inserts stick out a bit but that's to be expected and is hardly a strike against the disc. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and black levels are strong. The image is typically quite clean, there are only a few minor specks throughout and a couple of scratches evident in the first few minutes. Overall the movie looks great, fans should be quite pleased.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mix, the only one available on the disc, sounds fine. You might notice the occasional pop in the mix if you're listening for it but aside from that the levels are properly balanced, dialogue is easy to understand and the score and sound effects are mixed in effectively enough. There are no subtitles provided on this DVD.
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track from Suze Randall and director Victor Nye (Randall's Husband, Humphrey Knipe) moderated by Vinegar Syndrome's own Joe Rubin. Christian McLaughlin from Westgate Gallery and 'Amber' from Suze Randall Productions are also on hand. The track starts out with Knipe talking about how he and Suze made loops for Larry Flynt before that relationship came to a close and they went off to do their own productions for Rueben Sturman. Knipe discusses working with the different cast and crew members on the film, who did what in terms of what was going on behind the camera in regards to his duties and Suze's duties, and quite a bit more. Randall herself chimes a few minutes into the track, talking about how she and Humphrey got together, how she wound up working in the pornography industry, her work as a nude model, and what it was like working in the adult industry of the era both as a photographer and in the film business, including some fun celebrity gossip tidbits. It's a well paced track that covers a good bit of ground serving as both a document of the making of this particular film and a career overview for Randall and Knipe.
Static menus and chapter selection are also provided.
The Final Word:
Suze Randall's Too Naughty To Say No is a funny and reasonably daring adult film that provides some steamy sex scenes while breaking some rules about what kind of content should or should not be in a conventional adult film. Vinegar Syndrome's DVD release provides a nice upgrade over the previous DVD release from Pure Play and includes a genuinely interesting commentary as its main extra feature.
Suze Randall has always been a notch above her peers as she has a polished aesthetic, has a terrific talent for design, and understands what's truly erotic.
I guess most of us were first exposed to her via her Hustler and Penthouse photo sets.