Far more true to the Hitchcock mode than a number of Brian De Palma ripoffs, Paul Thomas's "The Arrangement" holds up solidly two decades later as a riveting suspense film with a style and life of its own. His regular scripter "Tony G" does a fine job this time.
What Hitchcock did so well and surprisingly in "Psycho" is repeated here as the leading lady, Vivid superstar Kira Kener, is suddenly killed off early in the show, after getting two hot sex scenes completed. Tyce Bune is cast as the hard-boiled police detective trying to solve her murder, and he is also her lover in the movie's opening scene.
Since most narrative porn suffers from the barely compatible mix of explicit sex and regular story/character values, "The Arrangement" is a pleasant surprise in its maintaining interest throughout, right down to an unexpected and ambiguous ending. The viewer is kept guessing as to which characters are important and what they are truly up to, an essential element of a good mystery.
The two principal murder suspects are Randy Spears, playing his usual unsympathetic character, a pimp who seemingly oversees every woman in the cast, and Evan Stone, underplaying most effectively (for a change) as a loner of a Peeping Tom who works appropriately as a porn video editor.
With Kener and her huge breasts disappearing from the scene, the delightful April takes over center stage as Stone's neighbor, who he keeps an eye on, literally all the time. She turns out not surprisingly to be one of Spears' girls but supposedly also his girl friend, though it beggars credulity that she could actually believe he holds a special place for her in his hard heart.
Besides the fan-pleasing sex scenes starring Kener and April, PT includes a couple of strong threesomes: interracial sex featuring Kiwi and Jodie Moore servicing Stone, and Spears with Cheyne Collins ganging up on the unfamiliar but resourceful Cherie.
What Hitchcock did so well and surprisingly in "Psycho" is repeated here as the leading lady, Vivid superstar Kira Kener, is suddenly killed off early in the show, after getting two hot sex scenes completed. Tyce Bune is cast as the hard-boiled police detective trying to solve her murder, and he is also her lover in the movie's opening scene.
Since most narrative porn suffers from the barely compatible mix of explicit sex and regular story/character values, "The Arrangement" is a pleasant surprise in its maintaining interest throughout, right down to an unexpected and ambiguous ending. The viewer is kept guessing as to which characters are important and what they are truly up to, an essential element of a good mystery.
The two principal murder suspects are Randy Spears, playing his usual unsympathetic character, a pimp who seemingly oversees every woman in the cast, and Evan Stone, underplaying most effectively (for a change) as a loner of a Peeping Tom who works appropriately as a porn video editor.
With Kener and her huge breasts disappearing from the scene, the delightful April takes over center stage as Stone's neighbor, who he keeps an eye on, literally all the time. She turns out not surprisingly to be one of Spears' girls but supposedly also his girl friend, though it beggars credulity that she could actually believe he holds a special place for her in his hard heart.
Besides the fan-pleasing sex scenes starring Kener and April, PT includes a couple of strong threesomes: interracial sex featuring Kiwi and Jodie Moore servicing Stone, and Spears with Cheyne Collins ganging up on the unfamiliar but resourceful Cherie.