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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: September 25th, 2018.
Director: Shaun Costello
Cast: Kim Pope, C.J. Laing, Bobby Astyr, Mary Stuart, Ashley Moore, Marc Stevens, Alan Marlow
Year: 1976/1976
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The Movies:
Vinegar Syndrome's Peekarama line is back, this time with a double dose of one day wonders from Shaun Costello, the man behind Water Power, The Passions Of Carol and plenty more vintage adult classics.
School Girl Reunion:
Roger Caine (as Ray Jeffries) heads into New York City for a high school reunion. While walking along the football field reminiscing about the good times he had there, he comes across a quiet but pretty blonde woman sitting in the stands. He stops to talk to her, and she tells him her story, which we see play out though a few different flashback scenes. We learn how she was madly in love with Roger and would do anything for a chance to be with him, while he never gave her the time of day. We also learn how he played around a lot, even going so far as to sleep with his coach's French wife (Renée Duval). Predictably, she grew into herself and is now quite a stunner while he's lost all his charm and charisma.
Without wanting to spoil too heavily what is actually an amusing story from here on out, let's just say that with the tables turned the battle of the sexes winds up resulting in… a lot of actual sex. C.J. Laing shows up here (and looks great) performing with plenty of enthusiasm in a three-way with Pope and Alan Marlow. Jean Dalton also shows up and gets in on a group session with Marlow and Bobby Astyr. And of course, Pope is really good as the female lead. She can do 'mousy' and 'sexy' equally well and is surprisingly convincing when playing the nerdy character.
Eventually we learn how, in high school where Roger Caine was the king of the jocks, he could have any girl he wanted. He convinces a shy and awkward Melanie, who he knows is crushing on him hard, to spread for him. He has sex with her and then treats her like it didn't matter, pushing her away. Obviously and quite understandably, she's brokenhearted about this.
Aside from Caine, the male members of the cast include Bobby Astyr, funny as always, and Alan Marlow - both stock players in Costello's company of performers. The director himself has an amusing cameo in the picture. Attentive listeners will note 'Tubular Bells' (best known as the music from The Exorcist) used in the soundtrack.
This is a fun comedic-drama with some inspired sex scenes made all the more interesting and amusing by the talented case. It was, like a lot of Costello's output from this point in his career, made fast and cheap but he plays to his strengths. The timing and editing of the movie have a good rhythm and this turns out to be a fun watch.
Alpha Blue Archives previously released this film on their Intrusion Plus The Lost Films Of Kim Pope DVD. Needless to say, the presentation on this restored DVD from Vinegar Syndrome is a pretty massive improvement in terms of transfer quality.
Sensuous Fly Girls:
NASA has a problem - astronauts that are going up into space… are coming back gay! All that time alone up in outer space has had an effect on them, and it would be a public relations disaster if word got out - and given that they're preparing to send some men to Mars, they need to do something about this quickly. So the man in charge (Alan Marlow) approaches the owner of an airline and set-out to interview three of his hottest and horniest flight attendants. Why? So work as a comfort woman on the long journey to and from Mars and to keep our astronauts on the straight and narrow of course!
Our first candidate is brought in and shown a film wherein two astronauts (one of whom is Marc Stevens) double stuff his secretary, to gauge her reaction - and it's a hit! After that, the second candidate is asked about her sexual history and we see her get it on with her horseback riding instructor (Costello himself). Lastly, the third candidate divulges one of her hottest sexual experiences which, again, we see play out in flashback.
With all of that out of the way, who will win the position? There's gonna have to be a big ol' orgy involving most of the characters that we've met to this point to figure that out!
Seriously goofy stuff, Sensuous Fly Girls does earn some points for trying something a little different in its opening scene where we learn that, yeah, okay, maybe these two astronauts going at it with the secretary are enjoying each other's company as much as they are hers! Given that Stevens was gay in his personal life maybe it's not so shocking that Costello would cast him in a scene like this, and while they don't actually screw one another, there's a fair bit of… shall we say, sword fighting here. No one seems to mind though, and they all seem to be having a good time.
The movie is very playful, done with tongue firmly in cheek for pretty much its entire running time. It's wonky the way that a lot of low budget smut films can be, with someone's office standing in for airline headquarters and some stock footage shot at what looks an awful lot like JFK Airport in Queens spliced into the film in a meager attempt to convince us that some sort of airline was involved in this. The girls - Mary Stuart (of Memories Within Miss Aggie and Naked Came The Stranger), Dianne Keating and Holly Wainwright - all do fine work. The movie is quick in its pacing and cut reasonably well. Not Costello's best film but a perfectly enjoyable XXX rated comedy.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Both movies are presented in transfers in standard definition transfer taken from new 2k scans of original 35mm archival elements. Both films are framed at 1.33.1 full frame. There's some mild print damage here and there on each film but nothing so serious as to take you out of the movie. Detail is pretty decent and colors are nicely reproduced. Black levels are fairly solid here and the transfers are free of compression artifacts (save for the opening credits of the first feature), noise reduction and edge enhancement.
Both films get the English language Dolby Digital Mono treatment. Clarity is just fine in each film with the music used in each feature sounding nice and clear. Balance is fine in each picture and while range is understandably limited by the original elements you can always understand the dialogue well enough.
Aside from menus and chapter selection, the disc includes an original theatrical trailer for School Girl Reunion.
The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome's double feature release of Schoolgirl's Reunion/Sensuous Fly Girls presents two Shaun Costello-lensed quickies in nice shape and while neither shows Costello at his best, both are quite amusing and entertaining.
