Debatably the most discreet of dirty movie directors, Bill Milling had good reason to keep a low profile. Like the decidedly more exhibitionist Shaun Costello, who brazenly performed on camera as well as behind, he kept up an active "real world" existence alongside his walk on the wild side. A respected professor of film and television at NYU, boasting degrees in English Literature, Philosophy and Cinema Studies, Milling forged a fecund career in TV production that would extend well into the '90s ! Currently, he's resting on his laurels as CEO of the American Movie Company, maintaining four fully equipped and well-frequented sound stages in Manhattan, whose website brags about Bill being the director of some 20 movies but stays conspicuously schtum about their exact nature. Were the world a more enlightened environment, Milling might have really wowed the masses for his prime achievement arguably lies in porn, contributing some two dozen carnal classics over a ten year period. To cover his tracks while supplementing his income, he hid behind a multitude of adult aliases, the most productive of which were "Philip T. Drexler Jr." and "Bill Eagle".
Tall, thin, bearded with large horn-rimmed spectacles typically too big for his gaunt visage, an unassuming man with a hint of milquetoast, as can be gleaned from the occasional cameo appearance in other people's projects like Romano Scavolini's cult horror NIGHTMARE. Cliché dictates respectable background to preclude pornographic pizazz, so it's heartening to realize that someone of Milling's social stature still harbored enough of a dirty mind to generate such fine filth as ORIENTAL BLUE, technically a "roughie" as it deals with white slave traders shipping kidnap victims to brothels worldwide though filtered through a sensibility diametrically opposed to the alleged demands of such penny dreadful tabloid trash. Although the material hardly seems to warrant as much, the movie shapes up as an intensely erotic ride from start to finish.
Kicking off with great nighttime footage of Manhattan's bustling Chinatown district, we're hurled straight into the action as evil Madame Blue (the single most memorable star turn bar none by seldom seen Peonies Jong) orders her obedient henchman Conrad (Alan Marlow) to drag unwitting Kim Pope into the back of her blinded Limo. Stifling the girl's anguished cries with an immediately administered dose of her home-brewed "Love Juice", Blue transforms her from struggling victim to willing accomplice in no time. Former sexploitation starlet Pope shines as she obsessively gobbles Marlow's member as well as Peonies's pudendum. Much of the movie's carnal content follows the established template of Madame Blue barging in uninvited to partake in the indoctrination already in progress of yet another sorry slut sloshed on Love Juice by one of her underlings.
Intrigue kicks in as the mysterious Max (carnal comedian Bobby Astyr resorting to his customary kvetching shtick), a representative for the NBA (standing for the National Bordello Association !), orders a handsome selection of hussies to be exported to whorehouses around the globe. A three-way with the Madame and her "best girl" Angel (C.J. Laing, who always suggested subservience well) seals the deal. The proudly perverted Stephen picks up a French girl for proposed rough treatment that hardly ventures beyond vanilla, excused by the mere presence of the luminous Terri Hall teamed with real life paramour and Stuttgart Ballet colleague Steven Lark. While few of Blue's grunt men would dream of refusing her amorous advances, one of them (Jamie Gillis as Brock) defiantly does and since he's the most prolific of procurers there's precious little she can do about it. Luring a freshly mugged lass from the sticks (Bree Anthony) back to his bachelor pad, Brock substitutes his seasoned shlong for that of partner in slime Antonio, played by the starlet's off-screen spouse Tony Richards. Careening towards an inexorable climax, Milling manages the estimable feat of piling up the pornographic encounters while simultaneously steering the storyline as Brock reluctantly hands Bree over to Blue in exchange for Antonio whom she now holds hostage. Making her move on the whiny wench, the Madame correctly figures this will draw the unwilling object of her affections to her lair, resulting in a double dose of death.
While subsequent Milling movies might strike a more successful balance between plot and porn, there's no denying the director's skill at making a "proper" picture that holds its own in the face of mainstream entertainment. The searing intensity of the flick's copious cavalcade of carnal encounters carries an unexpected electric charge from a man who was to get on Costello's bad side when their conflicting temperaments resoundingly clashed over Milling's stint as production manager, at the behest of worried co-creator Kenneth Schwartz (indeed a separate person instead of another Shaun alias as was wrongfully assumed for a long time), on the joint venture double whammy of Fiona ON FIRE and Dracula EXOTICA. Ironically, Costello was pressed into duty by "the Greeks", who ran the notorious Capri theater, to create a sequel to his soon to be nemesis's ORIENTAL BLUE in the Vanessa Del Rio showcase THAT LADY FROM RIO ! Bearing in mind Milling's professional pedigree, it should come as far less of a surprise that the film's consummately lit and photographed by Valentine Mu Rana who was to stand by his side through these early stages, doing a particularly fine job on his underrated TEMPTATIONS. As with most '70s porn, the soundtrack's a fascinating grab bag of library tracks and mainstream sources with several cuts from Lalo Schifrin's score for Bruce Lee's breakout blockbuster ENTER THE DRAGON as well as the unnerving use of some surprisingly well-known chart hits. Bree's initiation plays out to legendary chick combo The Chiffons warbling their indelible "Sweet Talking Guy" in the sweetest close harmony ever heard by mere mortal ears as Brock butters her up for Antonio's sudden intrusion and the score appropriately segues into Linda Ronstadt's cooingly chiding "You're No Good" !
Tall, thin, bearded with large horn-rimmed spectacles typically too big for his gaunt visage, an unassuming man with a hint of milquetoast, as can be gleaned from the occasional cameo appearance in other people's projects like Romano Scavolini's cult horror NIGHTMARE. Cliché dictates respectable background to preclude pornographic pizazz, so it's heartening to realize that someone of Milling's social stature still harbored enough of a dirty mind to generate such fine filth as ORIENTAL BLUE, technically a "roughie" as it deals with white slave traders shipping kidnap victims to brothels worldwide though filtered through a sensibility diametrically opposed to the alleged demands of such penny dreadful tabloid trash. Although the material hardly seems to warrant as much, the movie shapes up as an intensely erotic ride from start to finish.
Kicking off with great nighttime footage of Manhattan's bustling Chinatown district, we're hurled straight into the action as evil Madame Blue (the single most memorable star turn bar none by seldom seen Peonies Jong) orders her obedient henchman Conrad (Alan Marlow) to drag unwitting Kim Pope into the back of her blinded Limo. Stifling the girl's anguished cries with an immediately administered dose of her home-brewed "Love Juice", Blue transforms her from struggling victim to willing accomplice in no time. Former sexploitation starlet Pope shines as she obsessively gobbles Marlow's member as well as Peonies's pudendum. Much of the movie's carnal content follows the established template of Madame Blue barging in uninvited to partake in the indoctrination already in progress of yet another sorry slut sloshed on Love Juice by one of her underlings.
Intrigue kicks in as the mysterious Max (carnal comedian Bobby Astyr resorting to his customary kvetching shtick), a representative for the NBA (standing for the National Bordello Association !), orders a handsome selection of hussies to be exported to whorehouses around the globe. A three-way with the Madame and her "best girl" Angel (C.J. Laing, who always suggested subservience well) seals the deal. The proudly perverted Stephen picks up a French girl for proposed rough treatment that hardly ventures beyond vanilla, excused by the mere presence of the luminous Terri Hall teamed with real life paramour and Stuttgart Ballet colleague Steven Lark. While few of Blue's grunt men would dream of refusing her amorous advances, one of them (Jamie Gillis as Brock) defiantly does and since he's the most prolific of procurers there's precious little she can do about it. Luring a freshly mugged lass from the sticks (Bree Anthony) back to his bachelor pad, Brock substitutes his seasoned shlong for that of partner in slime Antonio, played by the starlet's off-screen spouse Tony Richards. Careening towards an inexorable climax, Milling manages the estimable feat of piling up the pornographic encounters while simultaneously steering the storyline as Brock reluctantly hands Bree over to Blue in exchange for Antonio whom she now holds hostage. Making her move on the whiny wench, the Madame correctly figures this will draw the unwilling object of her affections to her lair, resulting in a double dose of death.
While subsequent Milling movies might strike a more successful balance between plot and porn, there's no denying the director's skill at making a "proper" picture that holds its own in the face of mainstream entertainment. The searing intensity of the flick's copious cavalcade of carnal encounters carries an unexpected electric charge from a man who was to get on Costello's bad side when their conflicting temperaments resoundingly clashed over Milling's stint as production manager, at the behest of worried co-creator Kenneth Schwartz (indeed a separate person instead of another Shaun alias as was wrongfully assumed for a long time), on the joint venture double whammy of Fiona ON FIRE and Dracula EXOTICA. Ironically, Costello was pressed into duty by "the Greeks", who ran the notorious Capri theater, to create a sequel to his soon to be nemesis's ORIENTAL BLUE in the Vanessa Del Rio showcase THAT LADY FROM RIO ! Bearing in mind Milling's professional pedigree, it should come as far less of a surprise that the film's consummately lit and photographed by Valentine Mu Rana who was to stand by his side through these early stages, doing a particularly fine job on his underrated TEMPTATIONS. As with most '70s porn, the soundtrack's a fascinating grab bag of library tracks and mainstream sources with several cuts from Lalo Schifrin's score for Bruce Lee's breakout blockbuster ENTER THE DRAGON as well as the unnerving use of some surprisingly well-known chart hits. Bree's initiation plays out to legendary chick combo The Chiffons warbling their indelible "Sweet Talking Guy" in the sweetest close harmony ever heard by mere mortal ears as Brock butters her up for Antonio's sudden intrusion and the score appropriately segues into Linda Ronstadt's cooingly chiding "You're No Good" !