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Released by: Alpha Blue Archives
Released on: December, 2015.
Director: Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm/Al Mamar/Walt Davis
Cast: Judy Angel, Fifi Watson, Suzanne Fields, Annette Michael, Fran Spector, John Holmes, Gerard Broulard, Susan Wescott, Lynn Holmes
Year: 1970/1971/1971/1971
Hotter Than Hell Plus The Lost Films Of Judy Angel - Movie Reviews:
Alpha Blue Archives offers up four early seventies smut fests featuring buxom blonde actress Judy Angel, who appeared in twenty-two movies between 1970 and 1972, only to then disappear from the public eye. She was unconventionally attractive but attractive nevertheless and had an interesting screen presence.
Mona:
The first film on the disc is 1970's infamous Mona, frequently credited as the first non-documentary hardcore picture to have been made and released theatrically in the United States Of America. Directed by Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm and also known as Mona: The Virgin Nymph, the film opens with a scene where a man and a woman enjoy some wine and a picnic together. He chastises her for only thinking about wine - but she tells him she also thinks about fashion and the beauty parlor. The woman is Mona (Fifi Watson), the man is Jim (Orrin North). They talk about a bird that they see and some apples and when he tries to get her naked for some action, well, she shoots him down - sort of. She does get naked, and so does he, and they do make out and engage in some graphic foreplay, but when it comes time for the ol' in/out she's not having it.
See, Mona's mother (Judy Angel) didn't have sex with her father until he put a ring on her finger and those expectations have been handed down from mother to daughter. That said, Mona is, as the title so clearly suggests, a nymph - she's got a thing for handing out blow jobs. So with that now firmly established, we get a little bit of background information on our heroine - we see her as a kid playing with dolls only to be coerced into giving head to someone she should not be giving head to. Clearly this stuck with her as she grew into adulthood. We see her talk to her mom about this and that - and, more than that, we see her swallow the swords of plenty of men who are not her fiancé. She blows a buy in an alley and then hook up with a sleazy blonde gal afterwards for a drink and a lesbian scene (which is both passionately performed and, to be fair, quite nicely shot). She heads home, talks to mom for a bit, then heads out to the movies, leaving her old lady alone and wistful for the husband she once had. This, of course, leads to Angel masturbating for us using a pretty terrifying tickler of some sort. Who should show up then, but Jim, and Mona's mother is only too happy to take care of her perpetually horny future son-in-law, who is equally happy to give as to receive.
Meanwhile, at the theater (showing a film called One For The Money), Mona plays with herself and eventually gets the attention of the guy sitting next to her (Gerard Broulard). She goes down on him - but then Jim busts in and stops her before she can finish him off! He is, understandably, pissed off and after roughing up the guy, who tells her 'Look, she blows everybody,' Jim tells Mono 'I'm gonna fix you, you little bitch!' At this point, we cut to Jim's place where Mona is tied up in the bedroom. From here, a revolving door of people, male and female, show up and fuck her blue. Well, not really blue because this is a black and white movie, but you get the idea.
This seventy-two-minute black and white picture doesn't have much of a story to it but it is interesting from a historical perspective. It also features some weird harpsicord music on the soundtrack. There isn't much of a story here and like a lot of early seventies porno movies, it has a kinda-sorta moral to it (give blow jobs to strangers and your fiancé will have you gang raped!), but that moral is very confused. The sex is pretty pedestrian but the lesbian scene is very nicely shot and the scene where Mona's mom does the dirty deed with her fiancé is reasonably steamy. Full points to Ms. Angel for pulling that one off.
Fun fact - Fifi Watson would later go on to appear in Deep Tango where she was credited as 'Mona' Watson, based on the notoriety of this film.
Hotter Than Hell:
This one stars 'Paul Dodge' along with all your favorites like Jane Fondler, Elizabeth Tail, Raquel Belch, Englebert Humpsalot, Ronald Regalass, Fanny Fiddler and Lotta Goodbody. It was produced and directed by Al Mamar, Ben Cockright worked the camera, Dick Prixon edited the thing and good ol' Rusty Pecker handled the sound. You know you're in good hands with credits like that.
The film opens with Satan himself laughing maniacally as the fires of Hell burn all around him. What's so funny? Maybe the naked chicks that his two sons have found. Satan wears a furry pink suit and laughs a lot, drinking out of a big goblet and sitting in a fancy chair while his kids whip chicks and stick things in them. Then they make the chicks get it on with each other while they watch.
This isn't quite enough for Satan, however, as he decides to send his two goofball sons back to Earth to corrupt some women and send them to Hell so that he can get his kicks. First we see a pretty blonde gal having a bath while her brunette roommate gets dressed and complains that her boyfriend Steve 'sure is a tit man.' One of the son's pops into the dressing room, introducing himself as a devil and magically making his clothes disappear. Blondie gets out of the bath and joins in on the sex that's started without her. Then it turns into a four way. From there, the sons of Satan head to a fancy house, a mansion even, where a lady resides. One of the dude's pops out of the fireplace and talks her into having a drink and from there, they have sex. After that we get some weird nude, splayed go-go dancing footage that segues into a girl examining herself with a mirror. She starts to diddle herself and the guys show up and bang her. As it comes to a close a girl takes one of the guys up on his offer to try it 'Arab style' which seems to involve sitting on top of a coin operated horsy ride in a wood paneled room and groaning a lot while sitar music plays in the background. It all ends back where it started - in Hell - where everyone agrees that the world is corrupt and then Satan bangs one of the girls himself, laughing maniacally as he goes at it of course.
This feature is pretty funny and the scenes that take place in Hell are awesome because they kind of look like what you think Hell would look like if it were portrayed in a high school drama class or something. Also Satan's costume and incessant laughing is awesome. Angel has a small, uncredited role in this one as Donna.
Harlot:
The third feature, again, directed by Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm, is the illicit story of a 'high school girl' named Mary (Fran Spector) who gets her kicks turning tricks. She makes some money on the side going down on random dudes in random cars but seems to enjoy her work well enough. She doesn't really seem to spend too much time in class, as opposed to one of her school acquaintances, Melody (Patty Alexon). A bit more proper than Mary, Melody will fool around with her brother's goofy friend, sure, but she hasn't let him or anyone else go all the way yet.
But Melody is curious. She wants to know more about carnal affairs. As such, she talks Mary into bringing her along on a hooking session one fine day. It isn't long before a horny guy stops to pick the two girls up. At first he and Mary go at it but they're interrupted and he chickens out - until she coerces him into finishing the job after relocating. Later, Mary figures since she's missed so much class she's bound to flunk out, so talking teacher Mr. James (Leroy Jones) into doing the dirty deed with her seems like her only option if she wants to finish the year - it works, and she even gets the female principal to join in! Meanwhile, Moldy takes what she's learned from Mary and puts it into practice when gets picked up by a goofball voyeur with a bit of a masochistic streak in him. Now emboldened by what she's done and ready for bigger things, she takes her next trick, a scruffy looking biker - but this one is more than she bargained for…
Co-directed by Ziehm and Michael Benveniste, Harlot doesn't reinvent the wheel but it's quickly paced and interesting to see. It's not often you get to see early seventies smut films that feature aerial photography, but here they pull it off. What's interesting about this is the locations - a lot of where the sex takes place appears to be pretty much out in public view and there are more than a few shots where you can see people in the background kind of wondering what those closer to the camera are getting up to. Spector's in nice shape and enthusiastic when and where it counts, while Alexon is genuinely pretty and almost as into her work - that makes this pretty fun to watch, until things go into unexpectedly dark territory towards the end. Judy Angel has a small role in the film, cast here as Mrs. Gladstone.
There are no opening or closing titles or credits on the source used for this DVD though it does throw up a 'THE END' card as the final biker rape plays out (though there is some footage missing from the end). The DVD release from Vinegar Syndrome does have a title card and is uncut.
Ole!:
Last but not least, we're treated to a Maja Films production that, if the opening titles are to be believed (they're not), was written and directed by David Stefans (who was, in reality, Walt Davis, director of The Danish Connection and Widow Blue among others). Here, over the course of sixty-three-minutes, we witness the sexy and sordid tale of a matador named Juan Gerardo (Gerard Broulard). When the movie begins, a guy named Steve (John Holmes) and two gals - Angela Dickson (Judy Angel) and Vicky (Lynn Holmes), sit on a neat green couch and smoke cigarettes awaiting his arrival. The girls can't wait for Juan to arrive but Steve shuts them up, telling the girls that Juan uses a French accent to hide the fact that he's a Mexican. This might not be a very politically correct film. Another dude named Tom (Sheldon Lee) and a girl named Alice (Susan Wescott) are also hanging around. When the talk turns to the size of Juan's cock, Steve drops his pants and the two ladies on the couch take care of him right away - but only briefly. Tom even admits that, hey, he's not gay, but Juan? He's like an animal and he turns him on.
Anyway, Juan shows up and plays with Angela's tits - it's a bold way to make an entrance. Introductions are made, Juan gets himself a glass of whiskey and does a quirky Spanish dance for his fans and then he gifts Tom a cape that he 'fucked a hundred broads on.' Alice gets a weird vibrator. Steve, with his monster member hanging out, gets a strap on (which he tells Juan to shove up his ass). Angela gets a headdress of some sort and Vicky gets… nothing. Anyway, Juan decides it's time to party and so he tries to hypnotize the group and, well, it seems to work. Angela is called over to give him head and she does, and then Alice called over so that he can suck her tits. After that, Tom is called over to give Juan head - and he does! (it seems simulated) - and then, last but not least, he calls Vicky over and goes down on her. Not enough for one such as Juan, he calls Steve over and goes down on him (again, simulated)!
Steve runs out of the room with Vicky and they screw in the bedroom. Tom and Alice are put under on the couch but when they wake up are uncontrollably horny and immediately start screwing. Juan, on the other hand, takes Angela over to the other couch to have his filthy way with her. After that, the other two couples come into the room and everyone gets down with a big old orgy, during which an Avon Lady (Ann Perry) shows up and joins in on the action!
This one is pretty funny thanks mostly to Gerard Broulard's performance. His accent is genuinely wacky and his performance truly inspired. He plays the arrogant matador really well here, definitely having a lot of fun with the part and clearly enjoying bossing everyone around. The ladies score full points here for performing with plenty of enthusiasm, Ms. Angel getting more screen time here than she does in any of the other three films in the set. Humorous and well-paced, this is the best of the four movies in the collection.
Hotter Than Hell Plus The Lost Films Of Judy Angel - DVD Review:
All four films on this disc are presented in 1.33.1 fullframe, which would appear to be their proper aspect ratios. The black and white Mona looks about as good as the dated analogue source will allow for. Hotter Than Hell looks pretty decent, taken from a worn but more than watchable print. Harlot starts off looking awful for the first few seconds, incredibly dark and unwatchable, but thankfully that changes quickly though it never rises above the old tape source that it's been transferred from and it's still the weakest of the transfers one the disc. Ole! looks the best of the four movies, it's in pretty nice shape with good color and solid detail, but still leans towards the soft side of things. It's also worth noting that occasionally alphabluearchives.com watermarks show up for a few seconds in the lower left hand corner of each movie.
The only audio option for the three feature attractions are English language Dolby Digital Mono tracks. There's a pretty noticeable 'wub wub wub wub' that you can't miss during pretty much all of Mona. Some reverb too. The audio on this isn't good at all. Hotter Than Hell sounds okay, limited in rage but audible, while Harlot suffers, again, from being taken from an analogue source. The audio is a bit warbly. The audio on Ole! is okay, no real problems here.
Aside from static menus offering feature selection, an Alpha Blue Archives Retro Starlets promo spot.
Hotter Than Hell Plus The Lost Films Of Judy Angel - The Final Word:
Alpha Blue Archive's DVD release Hotter Than Hell Plus The Lost Films Of Judy Angel presents fans of porno past with a quartet of quirky, weird fuck films from the early seventies in various degrees of quality. The transfers won't make any friends, but all four movies here are worth seeing if you've got an interest in Judy Angel or just appreciate early seventies porno movies.
