Alex De Renzy pioneered all sorts of pornography, good and bad, and I count PLEASURE MASTERS among the goodies. Like the best directors (in any area of cinema), he makes it look easy.
This feature film is structured in two parts which are unrelated -making it closer to Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY than his more often-cited THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Half-hour opener is deceptively simple, as we watch Joey Silvera and Valerie Franklin in the bathroom making love, as a very traditionally dressed Japanese servant (Kikko as Kyoto) putters around the room, tidying up.
Giggling free spirits, the duo makes love in the bathroom and then in a sauna room, leading to a money shot. There is no characterization or back story -just behavioral direction, with Kikko looking vaguely sinister and Franklin jealous and hissable. There is no explicit racism, but a definite impression of master/servant relations, underscored by Franklin's jealousy (analogous to the master/slave milieu of an ante bellum MANDINGO opus).
Franklin masturbates on the bidet as Kikko sensually towels Silvera off after his shower, his big cock prominently featured in the frame. Plenty of suspense is generated with three people depicted in such close quarters.
Gradually Silvera begins to make love to Kikko, who reveals large, natural breasts under her kimono. Spare use of music (or none at all) adds to the suspense, leading to Joey's second money shot.
Franklin gains center stage by pretending to be a horny little girl with pigtails, masturbating (explicitly) with a lollipop in her vagina. As Kikko gives Joey a sensual hand job, Valerie grabs him away to ride him and troilism ensues as the women gang up on lucky Silvera (well, not really lucky, just Frisco's most active porn star).
Lesbian sex is included and the trio eventually is tired out, with no third money shot materializing. Punch line to this vignette is very effective, proving a talented pornographer is at work. Kikko is quite a find, also delectable in a threesome opposite Linda Wong and John Leslie in FEMMES DE SADE yet typically underused by the porn industry despite her obvious attributes.
Second segment is a period piece set in 1890 San Francisco. A coach is nearly lost in the fog, finally unloading at a brothel named Crystal Lil's. Our heroes are just looking for an inn to stay the night, but there are no turn-downs when a bevy of beautiful whores, including such greats as Desiree West and Justina Lynn, are presented to them by exotic looking blonde madam Lil (Enjil von Bergdorfe).
Fans will know that Enjil is rarely without her better half, the androgynous porn icon Vernon von Bergdorfe who brings an aura of kinkiness with him at no extra cost. Here the duo dance around in a strange ballet before getting down to XXX action. A young hero named Andrew (unidentified porn thesp) has the good fortune to hump Desiree and Justina together, while big-dicked Tyler Reynolds is paired off with always-recognizable (and always hugely-frizzy-haired) Toni Scott.
Adding to the atmosphere is an on-screen bordello piano player, who whips up what Louis Malle was striving to accomplish in PRETTY BABY a couple of years later. An anachronism is his playing "Falling in Love Again" the Friedrich Hollander classic immortalized by Dietrich in THE BLUE ANGEL; Hollander wasn't born until 1896, six years after the film is set.
The orgy action is highly erotic, but night must fall, and our heroes are given the bum's rush by Vernon when the fog lifts.
SPOILER ALERT:
As with all good tales of the macabre, there's a fantasy ending: when Andrew returns from the coach to fetch something he's left behind, he can't find the brothel. A passing cop informs him "Crystal Lil's burnt down to the ground years ago" -they've been making love to ghosts.
This is well-cast and nicely shot. In total, De Renzy has shown how to make decent films on a limited budget -satisfying but not looking as cheap or shoddy as the 1-day wonders.
This feature film is structured in two parts which are unrelated -making it closer to Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY than his more often-cited THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Half-hour opener is deceptively simple, as we watch Joey Silvera and Valerie Franklin in the bathroom making love, as a very traditionally dressed Japanese servant (Kikko as Kyoto) putters around the room, tidying up.
Giggling free spirits, the duo makes love in the bathroom and then in a sauna room, leading to a money shot. There is no characterization or back story -just behavioral direction, with Kikko looking vaguely sinister and Franklin jealous and hissable. There is no explicit racism, but a definite impression of master/servant relations, underscored by Franklin's jealousy (analogous to the master/slave milieu of an ante bellum MANDINGO opus).
Franklin masturbates on the bidet as Kikko sensually towels Silvera off after his shower, his big cock prominently featured in the frame. Plenty of suspense is generated with three people depicted in such close quarters.
Gradually Silvera begins to make love to Kikko, who reveals large, natural breasts under her kimono. Spare use of music (or none at all) adds to the suspense, leading to Joey's second money shot.
Franklin gains center stage by pretending to be a horny little girl with pigtails, masturbating (explicitly) with a lollipop in her vagina. As Kikko gives Joey a sensual hand job, Valerie grabs him away to ride him and troilism ensues as the women gang up on lucky Silvera (well, not really lucky, just Frisco's most active porn star).
Lesbian sex is included and the trio eventually is tired out, with no third money shot materializing. Punch line to this vignette is very effective, proving a talented pornographer is at work. Kikko is quite a find, also delectable in a threesome opposite Linda Wong and John Leslie in FEMMES DE SADE yet typically underused by the porn industry despite her obvious attributes.
Second segment is a period piece set in 1890 San Francisco. A coach is nearly lost in the fog, finally unloading at a brothel named Crystal Lil's. Our heroes are just looking for an inn to stay the night, but there are no turn-downs when a bevy of beautiful whores, including such greats as Desiree West and Justina Lynn, are presented to them by exotic looking blonde madam Lil (Enjil von Bergdorfe).
Fans will know that Enjil is rarely without her better half, the androgynous porn icon Vernon von Bergdorfe who brings an aura of kinkiness with him at no extra cost. Here the duo dance around in a strange ballet before getting down to XXX action. A young hero named Andrew (unidentified porn thesp) has the good fortune to hump Desiree and Justina together, while big-dicked Tyler Reynolds is paired off with always-recognizable (and always hugely-frizzy-haired) Toni Scott.
Adding to the atmosphere is an on-screen bordello piano player, who whips up what Louis Malle was striving to accomplish in PRETTY BABY a couple of years later. An anachronism is his playing "Falling in Love Again" the Friedrich Hollander classic immortalized by Dietrich in THE BLUE ANGEL; Hollander wasn't born until 1896, six years after the film is set.
The orgy action is highly erotic, but night must fall, and our heroes are given the bum's rush by Vernon when the fog lifts.
SPOILER ALERT:
As with all good tales of the macabre, there's a fantasy ending: when Andrew returns from the coach to fetch something he's left behind, he can't find the brothel. A passing cop informs him "Crystal Lil's burnt down to the ground years ago" -they've been making love to ghosts.
This is well-cast and nicely shot. In total, De Renzy has shown how to make decent films on a limited budget -satisfying but not looking as cheap or shoddy as the 1-day wonders.