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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: July 30th, 2019.
Director: Roger Watkins
Cast: Samantha Fox, Robin Byrd, Christine DeShaffer, Kandi Barbour, Vanessa Del Rio, Robert Kerman, Ron Jeremy
Year: 1979
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The Pink Ladies - Movie Review:
Directed by the late Roger Watkins (credited as Richard Mahler) in 1979, The Pink Ladies opens with a scene where Lori (Samantha Fox), Kay (Kandi Barbour), Jane (Robin Byrd) and Leslie (Christine De Shaffer) are at the gym playing racquetball, watched by a voyeuristic man (Rob Hudd) who imagines three of them servicing him. It's a playful introduction, clearly done with a very intentional sense of humor.
From here, the film lets us get to know these four housewives a little better and it soon becomes obvious that Leslie is going to be the butt of most of the film's jokes. The others poke playful fun at her, and she might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer. It never feels mean-spirited, however, and the film remains genuinely fun throughout its duration.
The film deals mainly in fantasies, we know that from the opening scene. From there, we meet a man named Bert (Robert Bolla) who, after he finishes watching baseball and eating pizza, heads outside to masturbate while he watches his niece (Marica Minor) get it on with her boyfriend. That leads into a scene where Jane gives enthusiastic blowjobs to four guys (one of whom is Ron Jeremy, who does his trademark 'I'm gonna blow myself' move in this scene). After that, Kay gets all aroused by reading a sexy book, which leads to her imaging herself involved in a lesbian tryst with Marlene Willoughby and Barbara Daniels. After that we get a quick bondage fantasy and that leads into a scene where four men sitting on a bench at a train station - Michael Gaunt, Jesse Adams, Robert Kerman and Alan Adrian - spot a beautiful woman (Vanessa Del Rio) and each imagine themselves getting involved with her. The film's big finish is an orgy at a gym where our four housewives get involved with a few of the male stars introduced earlier in the film - with all of the participants wearing colored body paint!
If this isn't Watkins' most memorable adult picture (both Corruption and Her Name Was Lisa show far more creativity both in narrative and direction style), The Pink Ladies is, if nothing else, a whole lot of XXX fun. The whole thing is put together very playfully, devoid of the nihilism inherent in some of the director's darker films which makes it easy to watch and enjoy. The performances are quite good all around, and all of the participants appear to be enjoying themselves. Samantha Fox could have used more screen time but is quite good here, and the lovely Kandi Barbour looks as good here as she ever has. De Shaffer plays the stereotypical airhead character quite well and Robin Byrd is nothing if not enthusiastic. Maybe not so surprisingly, Ms. Del Rio owns the latter half of the film, but the bondage scene is also quite well done, involving both genuine humor and legitimate kink.
The film is well-shot and it features solid production values for an NYC-lensed adult film of the era. It's reasonably glossy, makes good use of varied and interesting locations and the use of music in the picture is inventive and quirky enough to work.
The Pink Ladies - Blu-ray Review:
Vinegar Syndrome debuts The Pink Ladies on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 taken from a new 2k scan of the original 35mm negative and it looks excellent. Detail is very, very strong here and the color reproduction is perfect. There's very little print damage here at all, nothing serious to note. Black levels are nice and deep and skin tones look spot on. There are no noticeable compression problems and the picture is free of any visible noise reduction or edge enhancement. It's another very impressive transfer from Vinegar Syndrome.
The English language DTS-HD Mono track is also very good. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. No problems here, the audio is fine. There's good clarity and the track is properly balanced. The music, some of which will be familiar to Barry Manilow fans, also sounds quite good.
Extras start off with a video Interview with actor John A. Mozzer (Alan Adrian) that runs fourteen-minutes. He speaks here about how he got to work with Watkins and what he thought of him both as a director and a person. He also speaks about the scene he played a part in for the film, how he got along with some of his co-stars and how he feels about the movie. Vinegar Syndrome has also included a nineteen-minute video interview with Watkin's historian and friend, Art Ettinger of Ultra-Violent magazine. In this segment, Ettinger speaks about how Watkins came to be involved in the picture, the director's thoughts on the films and the other adult pictures she shot over the course of his career, how he came to know Watkins after interviewing him for the magazine and how they became friends after that. Both of these are pretty interesting and nice additions to the disc.
Rounding out the extras is a nice production stills gallery, a script & shooting schedule gallery, the film's original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection.
As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie that uses the same restoration and extras. Vinegar Syndrome has packaged this release with some very cool reversible cover artwork and, for the first 2,000 copies purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome, a slick collectible slipcover featuring artwork from Earl Kessler Jr..
The Pink Ladies - The Final Word:
The Pink Ladies isn't Watkins' best adult picture but it just might be his lightest and funniest. A really strong cast headlines the film, and there are some genuinely funny - and truly bizarre - set pieces in this one. Vinegar Syndrome's presentation is beautiful, and there are some very cool extra features on this one as well.
Click on the images below for full sized The Pink Ladies Blu-ray screen caps!
