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Peekarama: Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers / The Mislayed Genie (Vinegar Syndrome) DVD Review
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 24th, 2020.
Director: Alan Colberg/Eric Jeffrey Haims
Cast: Rene Bond, Ric Lutz, Cyndee Summers, John Barnum, Tobar Mayo
Year: 1973
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Peekarama: Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers / The Mislayed Genie - Movie Review:
Vinegar Syndrome's Peekarama line is back, this time with two Rene Bond films from 1973.
Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers:
Alan Colberg's Frankie And Johnnie Were Lovers, a sixty minute softcore picture from 1973. This opens with singing star Frankie Lee (Rene Bond) and her boyfriend Johnnie Ellis (Ric Lutz) in bed. He's fed up with her coming home whenever she wants because she's a big star. The truth is, he's jealous because he doesn't really know what to do with his life. He gets in his car and takes off, obviously upset, and heads to his job where he works as a computer programmer of some sort. And then, surprise, Frankie shows up at his job where his talking computer (???) hits on her. It seems Frankie's recording session got called off and she wants to hang out and have some fun. They fool around in the computer lab and then she tells him 'Oh Johnnie, you're such a poo.'
Then we see Johnnie in bed with a woman named Alice (Cyndee Summers), who just so happens to be Frankie's best friend. Her husband Ray (John Barnum) comes home, catches him and beats the shit out of him. Alice tells Ray she wants a divorce and kicks him out. Then she and Johnnie go for a drive where he tells Alice he's only seeing Frankie for the money that he needs to get thirty grand for a patent he wants to apply for. As Johnnie does what he can to keep the two relationships separate, he winds up getting into one mess after the next, though before it's all over and done with at least he gets to sleep with Frankie and Alice at the same time!
Somewhat famous for being the movie where we get to see Rene Bond sing live on stage, Frankie And Johnnie Were Lovers is a pretty fun piece of drive-in nonsense. The story is surprisingly engaging and the acting is okay, if never life changing But still… we get to see Rene sing with a giant pink feather boa wrapped around her head, which is strange enough to make it worth the price of admission on its own! And on top of that, we get a smart ass talking computer that appreciates Rene's boobs! You need more? Rene does a strip tease and she and Ric screw in an early seventies IBM computer lab, there's some sweet cars, a weird jam session inside someone's living room featuring a guy that looks like David Crosby, a hospital room handjob and one of the best car crashes in dirty movies history.
This one was previously released as the second feature on Something Weird Video's The Teaser DVD (which is long out of print) and on the Alpha Blue Archives release of I'm No Virgin And The Lost Films Of Rene Bond. Both of those versions were softcore and fullframe, whereas this release from Vinegar Syndrome, framed at 1.85.1 widescreen, is the full-strength seventy-six-minute uncut hardcore version released on home video for the first time.
The Mislayed Genie:
The second feature begins when a horny young man named David Bates jerks off in the bathtub and somehow summons a jive talking genie (Tobar Mayo) who confirms his name and address and then, when David goes quiet, zaps his dong! The genie wants to know where the lamp that he just rubbed has been put - but David obviously wasn't rubbing a lamp. The genie is surprised that he came out of David's wang, but adjusts pretty quickly and decides to get down to business and proclaim that his is now his master, Master Bates as a matter of fact!
The genie, noticing David is horny, offers to summon him a woman to lose his virginity with and before you know it, they're zapped off to a palace and David is getting it on with Bethsheba and Delilah and the genie with Fatima. After that they call it a night and the genie goes back inside David's wang but comes down with a sneezing fit. The next day at school, David has a conversation with a pretty young woman about Victor Mature, which leads to a hike and then a screw session. After that, there's a weird subplot about some gangsters wherein David and two of his pals get tied up. He needs his friend to get his fly down so he can get the genie out to save the day. Thankfully for them, the gangster's horny moll sets her eyes on David and comes to the rescue. As the 'story' moves on, David winds up in a Polaroid session with some friends.
The next day, back at school, the sex-ed teacher (Rene Bond), shows the class a film of her camping trip in Canada. This starts with her prancing about with a guy in a Mountie costume but once David summons the genie, we find out what she really got up to on that trip as they got at it on the screen and everyone in the class gets horned out and fools around. After that, David gets his shot with the teacher solo. One the way home, David picks up a hitchhiker not realizing he's a promiscuous gay dude who, of course, rubs his wang and summons the genie. The genie says that 'in my day it was socially acceptable to have boys instead of girls' and then the three of them wind up in a fancy bedroom at the palace. David leaves and the genie and the hitchhiker get naked as the genie shoots lightning bolts at him and then fucks him! There is, however, the matter of the genie's time running out and, well, David still lives at home with his parents and they can't help but notice that fancy new car he's been driving - and David still wants to finalize things with that girl he's sweet on.
This one is softcore, but barely. There's a lot of sex here and much of it is quite graphic, stopping just short of showing everything. The story is really just an excuse to string together those sex scenes, but the sense of humor here, while not even close to politically correct, is pretty effective. Mayo is pretty hysterical as the genie, sarcastic but obedient because he has to be. Bond is quite alluring here in her scene, playing the teacher well and looking good. The pacing is pretty solid and the jokes come quickly, hitting more often than they miss.
There isn't a load of style here but the production values are better than you might expect. The palace set is quite nice looking and there are some cool Middle Eastern style costumes on display in the palace sex scene. None of the other performers in the film were recognizable but most of them are quite attractive, which is always a nice plus. This is quite a bit of fun.
Peekarama: Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers / The Mislayed Genie - DVD Review:
Vinegar Syndrome presents both films in 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen, with the first feature taken from a 2k scan of archival 35mm elements and the second from a 2k scan of 16mm elements. Both films show mild to moderate print damage at times but nothing so serious as to distract from the features. Colors are handled very nicely in both films and there's good black levels too. Detail is about as good as can be expected for standard definition presentations of less than perfect elements but overall, yeah, these look quite nice.
Both films get the English language Dolby Digital Mono treatment. There's some noticeable hiss in the first film, but it cleans up after the first couple of minutes. Both films exhibit some minor sibilance, but it's never really distracting. Levels are balanced well enough and dialogue is easy to understand. There are no subtitles offered.
Extras are limited to a still gallery for Frankie & Johnny, menus and chapter selection.
Peekarama: Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers / The Mislayed Genie - The Final Word:
The Peekarama DVD release of Frankie & Johnny Were Lovers / The Mislayed Genie presents the uncut version of the film on home video for the first time and gives the second its English language home video debut, making this quite the coup for fans of seventies smut, particularly those with an affection for Rene Bond. Recommended!
