As a bonus short-subject monologue about her early days attests, "Morphine" is a drawn-from-life survey of the Lower Depths, working girl division. The uncensored antics of Kane's actresses here is not conventional entertainment but a honest glimpse of the skin trade's underbelly from a serious artist.
The vignettes cover both free spirits and stripper/hookers, not so much drug oriented as one would infer from the video's title but certainly sex-obsessed. Lesbian content is front and center but a motley male supporting cast also contributes a share of rough sex of the boy/girl variety.
With her iconic curly red hair Audrey Hollander dominates visually, cast here near the peak of her career. Kane herself prominently takes part in the action, while Smoking Mary Jane and Maya Hills have key roles. An interesting variety of performers take part, including Jada Fire and the BBW superstar April Flores.
Action is not based on storytelling but rather atmospheric stagings, including the opening hitchhiking vignette and incidents taking place at a sub-honky tonk club, which is based on Kane's real-life experiences working at a seedy dive named Sugar Shack.
The varied sexual and life-style activities depicted contrasts neatly with the old- fashioned approach to the subject matter, typified by Nick Millard's well-known (via DVD revival) 1970 soft-core classic "Roxanna". The moralistic point-of-view of exploitation filmmakers of old has been replaced by Kane's more interesting non- judgmental approach. She gives us a slice of life and as an artist is able to do a Rumpelstiltskin and transform the straw of mindless sex acts into gold, not the monetary kind but that of insight.
The vignettes cover both free spirits and stripper/hookers, not so much drug oriented as one would infer from the video's title but certainly sex-obsessed. Lesbian content is front and center but a motley male supporting cast also contributes a share of rough sex of the boy/girl variety.
With her iconic curly red hair Audrey Hollander dominates visually, cast here near the peak of her career. Kane herself prominently takes part in the action, while Smoking Mary Jane and Maya Hills have key roles. An interesting variety of performers take part, including Jada Fire and the BBW superstar April Flores.
Action is not based on storytelling but rather atmospheric stagings, including the opening hitchhiking vignette and incidents taking place at a sub-honky tonk club, which is based on Kane's real-life experiences working at a seedy dive named Sugar Shack.
The varied sexual and life-style activities depicted contrasts neatly with the old- fashioned approach to the subject matter, typified by Nick Millard's well-known (via DVD revival) 1970 soft-core classic "Roxanna". The moralistic point-of-view of exploitation filmmakers of old has been replaced by Kane's more interesting non- judgmental approach. She gives us a slice of life and as an artist is able to do a Rumpelstiltskin and transform the straw of mindless sex acts into gold, not the monetary kind but that of insight.