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A collection of '70s porn
gets a release from After Hours Cinema.
First
up: Diary
of a Nymph. Susan
Westcott stars as Tracy, a bored suburban housewife
looking to expand her sexual horizons...
Next: Diary
of a Bed. Three different time frames provide
three different opportunities for some good old
fashioned screwing as a mattress and a bedframe
(!) swap stories about the action they've seen
over the years...
Lastly: Diary
of a Schizo.
Über-hot Rene Bond plays a (you guessed it)
bored suburban housewife — this time, suffering
from schizophrenia — who has a hard time distinguishing
between her erotic fantasies and reality...
A highly variable collection
of smut, the three titles have little in common
beyond their fairly generic setups (though Bed
deserves some credit for the quirkiness of its
basic premise) but they all have their moments
of interest. Diary of a
Nymph progresses from some routine copulation
into some similarly routine female masturbation,
though the baroque color schemes give it an alienated
quality that's rather striking. The second major
sexual set-piece, however, gets some juice from
the unbridled kinkiness of star Susan Westcott
— her partner in the scene seems to have some
trouble getting it up, but whether whether sucking
on his toes or licking him in a, er... special
place Westcott really throws herself into the
action and seems to be enjoying herself. The subsequent
lesbian tryst and final threesome that develops
into a foursome pale in comparison to the smutty
content of this early highlight, however, and
the dialogue filler is easily dispensable.
Less
successful is Diary of a
Bed — true,
the concept is a novel one... it's also too goofy
for its own good. Much of the sexual action is
of the routine variety —
the first set-piece, nominally set during the
Civil War, gets some heat from the participation
of buxom blonde Nina Fouse, but it never really
catches fire; more successful is the extended
Prohibitian-era sequence, in which a "brainy"
young man is frustrated by his girl's unwillingness
to give him head... only to hit the proverbial
jackpot when a French maid and an anonymous flapper
volunteer to relieve him. The final sequence,
set in the present day, is negligible. Much of
the cast is comprised of no-name performers, and
with much of the cast going without any kind of
onscreen credit it's difficult to give credit
where credit is due... Suffice it to say, the
cast is willing but the material is weak.
Diary
of a Schizo
is a marked improvement. Set to an extremely bizarre,
atonal music score, it depicts a housewife's mental
and spiritual meltdown as her sexual fantasies
go out of control. The tone is preachy and completely
undermined by the intrusion of a white lab-coated
shrink offering pontifications into the camera,
but Rene Bond's sensual presence makes up for
it. Whether masturbating, sucking off her prudish
hubby (what's up with that strange growth on his
johnson?), dreaming of participating in orgies
or having indiscriminate sex with a variety of
strange men, Bond lights up every scene in which
she participates. The starlet's implants are betrayed
by a few indiscreet camera angles, but the average
viewer isn't likely to care — she clearly enjoys
her work, and it's hard to not enjoy watching
her in return. The direction, credited to one
"L. Wilson", at times evokes the bizarre
tone of Jess Franco's hardcore sex efforts — some
of the scenes are deliberately done in an unerotic
manner, forcing the viewer to confront the more
grotesque details of the act; for example, the
final scene set in a seedy, cockroach infested
hotel room is anything but romantic in its presentation.
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After Hours Cinema's release of Diary of a
Nymph Collection is another solid addition
to any vintage porn lover's library. The two disc
set presents fullframe transfers of all three
titles. The films show their age and budget, but
only Diary of a Bed
seems to have aged really poorly —
the image is scratchy and beat up throughout,
and the dialogue is muffled and buried amid background
hiss and distortion. Imperfections are evident
throughout all three titles, though they no doubt
look as good as the elements will permit. An occasional
"AHC" bug appears at the bottom of the frame.
Extras include an in-depth booklet by "The After
Hours Collector" and an abundance of trailers
for other After Hours vintage porn releases. One
small caveat worth noting: the back of the slip
case indicates that the first disc pairs Nymph
with Schizo, but
in fact the first disc pairs Nymph
with Bed; Schizo
is presented on the second disc, together with
the trailer collection. Disc 1 features a video
introduction to the fims by porn scholar 42nd
Street Pete. 7/19/08
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