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History of Sex in Cinema: 1983 |
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All the Right Moves (1983) Director Michael Chapman's PG-13 rated sports/romantic drama was an absorbing coming-of-age film. Both of its main 'teenaged' characters were up-and-coming stars who were just beginning their careers and in their early 20s. It told about two Western Pennsylvania high school teens facing a bleak future unless they could escape their dying, impoverished, stifling steel mill town of Ampipe during an early 1980s recession:
Their relationship included a revealing, realistic bedroom love-making scene in which they both displayed frontal nudity - in gigantic closeup - as the camera panned downwards. She tentatively removed her long underwear (and he helped to lower her silky slip to reveal her breasts), while he removed his T-shirt. They stood naked together and pressed against each other's chests. Then, she assisted in unzipping and lowering his pants as he removed her panties. After standing before each other for a few moments, she lowered herself onto the bed and he climbed on top of her. They kissed before making love. The majority of the film revolved around the struggle of Stef to be respected by headstrong coach Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson), and to receive a sports football scholarship for college - eventually fulfilled with Cal Poly Tech by the film's sappy and feel-good happy ending. |
     The Lengthy Undressing and Love-Making Sequence |
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Beyond the Limit (1983, UK) (aka The Honorary Consul) Director John Mackenzie's thriller, an adaptation of Graham Greene's best-selling novel, "The Honorary Consul," was set in the seedy provincial Argentinian town of Corrientes. It was basically a blackmail plot interwoven with a love-triangle between:
During most of the film, Dr. Plarr had a totally passionless affair with Clara, who spent most of her screen time pouting and half-naked in obligatory sex scenes, as the mistress of Plarr. By the film's end, he was forced to re-examine the relationship. |
    Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) |
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Breathless (1983) Director Jim McBride's inferior remake of the classic 1960 original New Wave film Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, was now set in 1980s Los Angeles. It featured sex star symbol Richard Gere, who was chosen following his success in American Gigolo (1980), opposite 20 year-old sexpot Valerie Kaprisky in her American film debut. The roles of the main two characters were reversed - this time it was an American fugitive romancing a French girl, rather than a French criminal dallying with an American girl. The two main characters in this modern adaptation were:
Obsessed by both Jerry Lee Lewis rock 'n' roll and Marvel's Silver Surfer comic books, the conceited and self-absorbed Jesse found himself on the run ("a desperado") from Las Vegas police after stealing a Porsche and inadvertently killing a policeman, before fleeing to Los Angeles. There, the fugitive "cop killer" took the alias name Jack Burns, picked the door lock of the apartment of Monica Poiccard, took a steamy shower by himself (with full frontal male nudity, unusual for the 80s), and met up with Monica at her school. Soon, their insatiable and uninhibited sex cravings were abundantly and frequently displayed in many places:
Later in the film, they kissed behind a giant movie screen in the California Theatre playing the black/white fugitive film noir Gun Crazy (1949) (during the projected film's line: "You're a knock-out, kid"), and living out words from the flick:
In the end, Monica contemplated that she would "roll the dice," let go of the responsibilities of her life and join the persistent Jesse on his way to Mexico. However, when she discovered she had been identified as "the girl in the pink dress" and had been taken as either a hostage or lover of fugitive Jesse, she finally decided to turn him into the police. She was anguished, realizing that her romantic fantasy of being with him was impossible:
She then confessed to appease him: "I don't love you" in order to get him to leave. Monica then watched as police surrounded him, and ran to him as he fatefully grabbed a gun on the ground and spun around -- the film ended in a freeze-frame. |
   Monica (Valerie Kaprisky)   Shower Scene - "Suspicious Minds"   After Sex in Bed   Kissing and Making Out Behind Movie Screen Showing Gun Crazy (1949) |
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Chained Heat (1983) Director Paul Nicolas' classic, trashy sex-ploitative 'women-in-prison' (or 'chicks-in-chains') WIP film was popular with drive-ins. Many of the released versions of the grindhouse film have since been heavily-censored, for violence and for some nudity. It followed the same stereotypes and predictability of Caged Heat (1974) and was part of a new wave of these types of films in the 80s - a combination of blaxploitation and sexploitation. Its tagline was:
It featured The Exorcist's (1973) child star Linda Blair who was nominated for a Razzie Award as Worst Actress of the year, while B-movie queen co-star Sybil Danning, nominated for Razzie's Worst Supporting Actress, won the award. Blair's next trashy exploitation film followed shortly thereafter - a vigilante revenge film titled Savage Streets (1984). Blair skipped out on the next two sequels of this film, but appeared in Red Heat (1985), a semi-Nazisploitation WIP film where she was again wrongfully imprisoned in East Germany for international espionage, subjected to another nude shower sequence, and co-starred with Emmanuelle's Eurosex star Sylvia Kristel as a sociopathic, sadistic lesbian inmate.
Two additional films followed, only tangentially connected:
The first of the series of WIP films opened with a prison escape attempt by blonde inmate Susie (Jonna Lee) who - after cringing in a fetal position and being cornered in her cell - pulled a gun (only a plastic toy) from under her mattress when she was about to be assaulted and raped again by brutal prison guard Stone (Robert Miano). She was blasted and killed by multiple shotguns from armed guards a few steps from her cell. Stern and tyrannical Captain Taylor (Stella Stevens) and her lead-Guard "Boots" (Kendall Kaldwell) looked down on the dead prisoner.
After the title credits, the story followed the transport of a new "prison virgin" - the innocent offender Carol Henderson (Linda Blair), an aspiring interior decorator, to a California prison after a sentencing of 18 months for vehicular manslaughter. She made friends with Val (Sharon Hughes), a more hardened criminal prostitute, in the bus transport. In the overcrowded, corruptly-run prison, Carol was doomed to face violence and sexual degradation. Meanwhile, the sleazy Warden Bacman (John Vernon) was cavorting with his mistress Debbie (Monique Gabrielle) in his private quarters and hot-tub jacuzzi, while taping her with his video-camera. She was his 'snitch' - informing him of the illicit activities of other inmates in exchange for a cocaine supply. Soon after, the lead tough girl inmate Ericka (Sybil Danning), the blonde leader of the prison's white females who was also involved in the corrupt cocaine trade within the prison with Captain Taylor, plotted to silence Debbie and kill her by garrotting her with a wire strung across a hallway. Ericka also became acquainted with new inmate Carol - and suggested that she had a romantic interest in her - by planting a kiss on her.
In the prison behind bars, racial/gang warfare was being conducted between white leader Ericka and black leader Duchess (Tamara Dobson, a blaxploitation superstar), who often engaged in catfights and the use of shivs and chains. Behind the scenes, there was also rivalry for the cocaine drug trade between Warden Bacman and another high-ranking prison official - Captain Taylor - who was in league with her partner and pimp lover Lester (Henry Silva). (Ericka also derived sexual favors as well as monetary rewards from Lester for her participation.) Lengthy nude showers, rape, lesbianism, and assaultive guards were requisites in this film sub-genre. Nudity was showcased in a long shower sequence, which first began with two lesbian inmates washing each other (and seen later making love in the dorm after lights out): Paula (Edy Williams of Russ Meyer fame) and Twinks (Marcia Karr).
Nearby, Carol was watching the sexual contact between Paula and Twinks as she showered in a corner stall with friend Val. When Val left, Carol was approached by another inmate named Grinder (Jennifer Ashley) who stroked her hair and asked: "How ya doin', sweet thing? What's the matter Snow White? I ain't gonna hurt you." Then she was replaced by busty white inmate Ericka who authoritatively took charge:
In addition, Taylor was bargaining with Lester to sell some of the more attractive inmates as profitable whores in a prostitution ring to the highest bidder (often politicians) in swank parties held in Beverly Hills. Early in the film, Carol and Val were both taken to a private party to be offered as sex partners, but Carol refused to participate and was viciously slapped by Lester and returned to the prison. When she went to the perverted, vile and corrupt Warden Bacman (John Vernon) to complain after seeing bloodied inmate Spider (Carol White) dead in a bathroom stall, he called her "my pretty little Lolita." He grabbed her hair when she tried to escape from his locked office, viciously slapped her, and menacingly approached, mumbling to himself: "I should be taping this goddamned thing." He ripped the front of her prisoner garb and her bra, and rape-assaulted her after knocking her unconscious.
Later, when she was found wet and recovering in the shower stall by her friend Val, she told her "It was so awful...Bacman raped me." To help Carol, Val's plan was to seduce the Warden to acquire the videotape of him raping Carol and expose him to the authorities. After snorting coke with the Warden, Val stated that she had performed in a porno film, causing him to brag about his directorial prowess:
She stripped and joined him in the jacuzzi to seduce him and produce a videotaped record of his corruption: ("OK, Mr. Fellini. You wanted a show, let's give 'em one"). However, her plan failed when Captain Taylor interrupted, drowned the corrupt and perverted Warden (with help from her brutal, busty and sadistic head prison-guard "Boots") in the water, and then killed Val by bludgeoning her with her billy club to guarantee her silence. Incensed by her friend's death, Carol attacked "Boots" and was temporarily placed in solitary confinement. The film concluded with a final bloody revolt after a stash of drugs and "Boots"' bloody baton that was used to kill Val were planted in Ericka's bed by Captain Taylor, to set her up and blame her for Val's murder, to make herself look good and to position herself to become the new Warden. Ericka was beaten unconscious by Taylor and then placed in solitary confinement, while Carol (in an alliance with the Duchess and others) concocted a plan to divert attention by creating a "riot." The ultimate objective was to reveal the corruption of the prison to authorities, including the suspicious State Corrections Board member Mrs. Kaufman (Nita Talbot), in order to oust Captain Taylor and improve prison conditions. The inmates attacked and distracted the guards while Carol retrieved the taped videotape of Bacman's drowning murder from his office. The Duchess and Ericka (freed from her cell) called a halt to their internal struggles and joined together ("We're on the same team") to combat the prison authorities. Once the tape was found by Carol (to be surrendered and revealed to authorities as the film ended), further vengeful murders and retributions occurred:
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 Transport of Val (Sharon Hughes) and Carol (Linda Blair) to Prison       Videotaping Debbie (Monique Gabrielle) in Warden Bacman's Jacuzzi  Debbie Garrotted with Wire for Being a 'Snitch'  After Processing, Carol and Val with Captain Taylor  Taylor's Lover, Pimp, and Drug Dealer Lester (Henry Silva)  Twinks (Marcia Karr) and Paula (Edy Williams): Two Lesbian Inmates  Ericka (Sybil Danning)  Duchess (Tamara Dobson)   Assaultive Rape by Guard Stone on Twinks   Spider (Carol White) Vengefully Murdered in Toilet Stall with Hook  Carol to Val: "It was so awful...Bacman raped me"     Val's (Sharon Hughes) Seductive Revenge on the Warden Before He Was Drowned  Val's Bludgeoning Murder by "Boots" |
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Deathstalker (1983, Arg./US) (aka El Cazador de la Muerte) This R-rated tacky, sexist sword-sorcery fantasy adventure (with multiple violent rapes and bare breasts) from producer Roger Corman was a ripped-off, cloned and nude version of Conan the Barbarian (1982) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was produced by two Argentinians, Hector Olivera and Alejandro Sessa, with a largely Argentinian crew, and directed by James Sbardellati. The film's tagline was:
The main attraction of this joint production between Argentina and the US was its female co-stars.
Deathstalker spawned three sequels in the late 1980s and early 1990s:
In the grindhouse film's opening misogynistic title sequence, medieval male swordsman-warrior Deathstalker (Rick Hill) rescued a rape victim from mutant barbarian warriors, but then was intent upon molesting her himself in the guise of helping her - she ran off.
Deathstalker was interrupted by deposed King Tulak (George Sorvic), who once ruled but whose kingdom had been taken from him (and from his daughter, gorgeous Princess Codille (Barbi Benton)) years earlier. The opposition to King Tulak came from his wicked, tattoo-faced evil sorcerer or court magician/wizard Munkar (Bernard Erhard). Deathstalker was commissioned by witchy Toralva (Lillian Ker) to engage in a quest to find three "Powers of Creation" - a trio of mystical objects found in three relics (a sword, a chalice, and an amulet). Along the way, he was joined by an Imp or Gremlin named Salmaron (Augusto Larreta). His ultimate objective, after acquiring the powerful Sword of Justice, was to obtain the other two objects (the Chalice of Magic and the Amulet of Life), and take back the kingdom now ruled by Munkar. On his journey, Deathstalker encountered another fellow sword-wielding, tournament warrior Oghris (Richard Brooker), and he also met defiant warrior (Lana Clarkson). When she revealed that she was a female, she dared Oghris and the other men:
Her costume and cape were memorable - an unbelievable, breast-baring, criss-crossing costume and G-string. Oghris quipped back: "And I’ve dealt with better women – with a different sword." During their first night together, while they were secretly spied upon by Salmaron, Kaira and Deathstalker had passionate sex beside the campfire. The group joined with warriors from throughout the land who had been invited to Munkar's castle to participate in a fight-to-the-death, two-day tournament. Munkar's true goal was to eliminate all of his competitors in his kingdom who might be strong enough to overthrow him. His intention was to have all threatening contenders fight to the death, and then have the last remaining survivor killed.
In the banquet room the night before the tournament, the warriors were gathered together to drink, carouse, and rape Munkar's harem slaves, including Princess Codille (Barbi Benton), a beautiful chained prisoner. She was brought in with a flimsy white see-through robe and chained up - offered as the amazing prize for winning the warriors' tournament. Kaira tried to free her as her garment was ripped open, revealing her breasts.
However, she wasn't all that she appeared to be. Munkar had transformed one of his henchman into the likeness of the beautiful Princess to assassinate Deathstalker. The henchman complained about the pain when he lost his penis during the spell: "It's - it's gone! Oh, my lord. Oh!...This is very uncomfortable," but was ordered by Munkar: "Then, finish quickly, my Princess. But you must do it when the sword is not in his hand." When rescued by Deathstalker and he was alone with Codille and attempted to have sex with her (literally a rape sequence), she physically resisted him and fought back. When he discovered her sex change, he was disgusted:
During a sword duel between Kaira (with one bared breast) against Deathstalker's assassin (after Codille's disguise spell wore off), she was cautioned by her opponent: "Careful. If you're hurt, you won't be as much fun later," but he was the one to lose the duel. However, she was also lethally wounded and died in Deathstalker's arms. As the film concluded, Deathstalker killed his last remaining opponent - an ogre and then refused and destroyed the three objects of magical power after acquiring the amulet. Salmaron led a harem rebellion to slay their guards, while Deathstalker rejected Munkar's power or throne, and instead offered Munkar to a crowd of slaves who ripped his body apart. |
 Deathstalker (Rick Hill)     Kaira (Lana Clarkson)  Deathstalker and Kaira  Munkar (Bernard Erhard)  Deathstalker Raping Princess Codille - Discovering She Wasn't Female: ("What the hell are you?")  Breast Baring, Sword-Fighting Kaira  Kaira's Death in Deathstalker's Arms |
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Diamonds of Kilimandjaro (1983, Sp.) (aka El tesoro de la diosa blanca, or The Treasure of the White Goddess) Prolific Spanish sleaze-meister and writer/director Jesús Franco's adventure-action tale was an sexploitational 'jungle adventure' (and Tarzan rip-off). It featured an incredibly-inaccurate film title - it didn't take place in Kilimandjaro and had nothing to do with diamonds (only rocks called "treasure" or "stones").
Its follow-up film was Amazons in the Temple of Gold (1986, Fr.) (see later write-up) - a cross between a female Tarzan film and director Just Jaeckin's The Perils of Gwendoline (1984).
This film with lots of wildlife stock footage, produced by Eurocine Studios in France - with inadequate dubbing and translations - opened with the crash of a small plane in the jungles of Africa. Surviving the fall from the sky, an older Scotsman godfather Dan (actor/composer Daniel White) emerged from the plane with his injured young stepdaughter in his arms. They were worshipped by kneeling native tribesmen, savage headhunters called the Mori, and henceforth years later still lived in the jungle. The natives worshipped the two whites as their tribal god ("big chief" or "godfather") and goddess. The male tribe was led by a wild-haired, bloodthirsty, topless female leader Noba (Aline Mess), often doing ritualistic war-dances, and thought to be terrorizing everyone. When the young girl matured and grew up to be 18, she wore a loin cloth and little else, and was seen perched in the fork of a tree eating fruit. The beautiful white jungle goddess was named Diana (played by gorgeous German actress Katja Bienert, who was reportedly underage at 16 at the time of some of the filming).
She saved a jungle explorer named Payton (Albino Graziani) who was threatened with death by Noba and her tribe for taking a big chunk of rock from the jungle, but Diana decided to let him go unharmed with a warning:
Soon after, however, a rescue attempt was made by an "full-fledged" expedition commissioned and financed by Diana's ill and dying gray-haired mother Hermine (Lina Romay) to find her daughter. The rescue group was led by three individuals:
Two others relatives also accompanied the expedition - they did not want the heiress to return alive, since both were in line to inherit the family fortune:
Before the trip in his hotel room (just before leaving for the jungle), Fred was propositioned by Lita and they agreed that he would receive 15% of the inheritance, if he would help make sure Diana did not survive - and they began to have an open adulterous relationship. The careless and irresponsible expedition soon ran into trouble by firing senselessly at the native warriors. While skinny-dipping in a river (in a very poorly-edited sequence), Lita had to be saved twice by Fred who fired his gun at a crocodile. Diana watched as Lita was rescued and then made love in the bush with him. Shortly later, Noba led her tribesmen (with white-chalk skeletal faces) on the warpath, and she personally decapitated Payton with a machete. Diana challenged Noba: "You murdered needlessly...You had no right to kill him. You killed without judgment...Judgment is for the Council."
When Rofo became suspicious of the scheming going on by the others, he was offered a cut of the inheritance ($20,000) if he followed along. His main goal was to find Diana, bring no harm to her, and see if she wanted to return to civilization. The foursome fought off a spear attack by Noba and some savage tribesmen. Having "last minute scruples," Rofo decided to secretly run off from the group when he suspected the group wanted Diana dead. He hastily wrote a note and pinned it on a bush: "I'll have no truck with murder. I'm on my way back to Niveo." When he was caught by Fred abandoning the group, they fought together and Rofo beat Fred unconscious. After witnessing the fight, Diana and her followers carried Fred to her jungle hut, and helped him to recuperate with a large slice of watermelon. Rofo was lethally wounded by a Mori tribesman's poisoned arrow shot into his back, as Noba laughed at his misfortune. Meanwhile, Fred was surprised when Diana, who had watched him making love to Lita, innocently asked for him to instruct her in love-making: "I've never done it. I want you to show me how a man and a woman make love." He eagerly agreed and they began kissing.
Lita and Mathieu, who went calling out for Fred, were intercepted by Diana who took her relatives to see Dan, imploring: "They're both our family." Dan refused to see the two: "I don't give a damn," but was persuaded to see Mathieu with a bribe of a bottle of Scotch whiskey. Mathieu claimed he wasn't after the treasure, and only wanted to bring Dan back to his family: ("You belong back home with your family"). When he declined, Mathieu also asked to bring Diana back to civilization as well: "Let her come with us. She deserves an education." Dan adamantly rejected the idea and ordered him out. The two relatives met a similar bloody fate as Rofo when they were slaughtered by the tribal warriors that night as they slept. Although Fred had fallen in love with Diana, he was pursued and caught (by Noba and tribesmen) after stealing a bag of crystallized geodes from Dan's hut. Fred begged to be killed instead of tortured, but Diana saved and freed him from Noba: ("Leave white man to me") by cutting the ropes that tied him to a tree:
When given the choice between the treasure and Diana, Fred asked that she depart with him: "I want to go back with you. You're more precious to me than any stones. For the last time, will you come?" but she declined. Then, Diana's godfather shot Fred in the back as he walked away. Diana ran to her godfather and asked: "You killed him. Why did you kill him? He didn't take the treasure." He answered that they would have been killed by the natives if they hadn't punished him:
He reminded Diana that she almost forgot that she was the white goddess of the natives - her people: ("You're their goddess. We accepted it"), and that his murder of Fred was justified. Noba asserted herself to him and stated she was glad that the white man was dead: "It was right to kill. If not, I would have had to fight with our goddess..." She was worried about the further incursion of whites, including them as her tribe's appointed leaders. He reminded her that she was also in a position of power. The film concluded as Noba expressed an ominous hatred for whites:
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 Diana (Katja Bienert) Lounging in a Tree Eating Fruit  Leader of Mori Tribe: Noba (Aline Mess)   Diana with Noba  Diana With Her Scottish Stepfather/Godfather Dan in the Jungle   Uncle Mathieu's Sexy Wife Lita    Adulterous Lita (Ana Stern) with Fred Before Expedition  Noba - the Tribe's Leader  Fred and Lita in the Bush   Noba Laughing as Rofo Died From Poisoned Arrow  Diana Helping Fred to Recuperate   Diana with Her Uncle and Aunt  The Fate of Uncle Mathieu and Lita |
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Easy Money (1983) The film's tagline explained how he would acquire 'easy money':
The main character was:
Within a year, he had to shed all of his vices (philandering, drinking, foul-mouthed, unhealthy food, pot smoking, debauchery and lechery, visiting strip clubs, gambling, etc.) in order to inherit ten million dollars from his domineering mother-in-law's (Geraldine Fitzgerald) fortune. But he was self-deprecating and disgruntled and provided one of many punch-lines:
In one of the scenes in which he was tempted, he was greeted as he went to his back porch by his topless, well-endowed sunbathing neighbor Ginger Jones (Kimberly McArthur, Playboy Playmate January 1982). She waved and said hi, causing him to tremble and kick his garbage can down his steps - she giggled at his nervous clumsiness. He mumbled to himself: "She ain't worth ten million dollars," but had second thoughts when she stretched her arms back, as he mused: "Five million, maybe." |
Neighbor Ginger Jones (Kimberly McArthur) |
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First Name Carmen (1983, Fr.) (aka Prenom Carmen or Carmen) Director/actor Jean-Luc Godard's avante-garde, l'amour fou film (promoted as "a revolutionary fable of erotic destiny") was loosely based on Bizet's opera, and won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. Dutch-born actress Maruschka Detmers had her screen debut in the film as the title character Carmen X, a modern-day terrorist gang member. She appeared nude (or semi-nude) throughout much of the movie.
Film elements in the confused story line with parallel plots first told about Carmen's membership in a terrorist gang with her new young lover Joseph Bonnaffe (Jacques Bonnaffé), whose plan was to rob a bank where he worked as an inept bank guard. He would be arrested and tried for the crime - but acquitted. Other plotlines included film-making (a documentary about luxury hotels) by burnt-out film-maker Jeannot (Godard himself) (Carmen's uncle) who was living in a sanitarium, a kidnapping scheme with cover provided by the fake documentary film being directed by Jeannot, and numerous views of a string quartet rehearsing Beethoven. In one early scene, Carmen peed into a men's wall urinal, while holding her lover Joseph's hand. In a semi love-hate relationship with Joseph in her Uncle's empty apartment, she bluntly told him: "I feel like showing people what a woman can do with a man...What she does to him." (She grabbed his crotch.) She then thought back to when she was a young teenaged girl - and had been abused by her Uncle in an incestuous relationship. When Joseph roughly tore off her top, she cautioned him: "Easy. That's the way it is." He wondered: "Why do women exist?" Shortly later, she warned: "If I love you, that's the end of you." She then asked a prophetic question: "What's it called? ...Something about the innocents and the guilty." During their heavy discussion, she was bottomless and he was touching her intimately (in a full-frontal closeup shot). Ultimately, she asked herself: "I often wonder what I'm doing with you." In the film's most controversial scene, when she was showering (after flirting with the handsome room attendant), the angered and jealous Joseph jumped naked into the stall with her and in a frenzied manner masturbated onto her (seen in the mirror's reflection). She fell to the tile floor, and judged him: "You disgust me" - and he agreed ("Me too"). Shortly later, she told him: "I never get over things. Over anything. Why do men exist?" Then came the predictable doom ending - the kidnapping in the dining room of the luxury hotel where the gang were staying. Both Jeannot's film crew and the string quartet were in attendance as part of the set-up. Joseph vowed to face-off with Carmen: "I'll kill her first. Then, I'll kill myself." During a shoot-out in the dining room in the botched plan, a number of people were shot and killed. As Carmen and Joseph pointed guns at each other at point-blank range, it was unclear who would shoot first. A gunshot signaled that Carmen was shot, as she slumped in Joseph's arms. But then after Joseph was seized and dragged away by the police, she had enough strength to utter the film's final words to the room attendant:
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   Carmen X (Maruschka Detmers)    The Shower Scene: Carmen with Joseph |
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The First Turn-On!! (1983)
The up-and-coming Troma Entertainment group (soon destined to release its horror film hit The Toxic Avenger (1984)) was co-founded by Lloyd Kaufman, who co-directed three of the 4-part series of teen "sex comedies" with Troma co-founder Michael Herz. This film The First Turn-On!! (1983) was the last (and best) of a series of four gross-out or nude-filled sex comedies:
In the story (similar to Meatballs (1979) except for the rampant nudity), four campers became trapped in a cave with their nature counselor, and to pass the time recounted their first sexual experiences. [Note: The film featured the screen debut of Vincent D'Onofrio as an insane camper named Lobotomy.] Its taglines were:
The story opened, under the credits, during the last day of summer camp at Camp Big-Tee-Pee ("Survivors Welcome Back"), where the campers disliked nature and acted like disgruntled misfits. The narrator's voice-over bragged about how the physical exercises of the camp enabled "young bodies to grow" - one girl confessed: "My chest grew a quarter of an inch since last week." A group of campers were being led through the woods, as a middle-aged female counselor talked about spotting wildlife: ("This region abounds with many of the furry animals, such as raccoon and beaver, watch your step! The brush is thick here. It's hard to see where you're going"). - in the bushes on a blanket, a couple was discovered making love: "Dick" (Steve Chambers) and "Jane" (Donna Barnes). The main plot was about a group of wayward campers (three guys and one girl smoking a joint) and a camp counselor who became trapped in a cave after a minor quake and avalanche:
To pass the time, they told fabricated and outrageous stories of their sexual conquests and exploits (seen in flashbacked vignettes) when they first lost their virginity, although Miss Farmer at first objected:
When they thought they were approaching death and asphyxiating, all confessed that they were still virgins, and their subsequent orgy and tumultuous orgasms ("The earth is moving!") caused another unlikely yet life-saving landslide, allowing them to be freed (to the tune of Thus Spake Zarathustra and the statement: "What a f--kin' day!"). [See other entries: "Raunchy Teen-Sex Comedies of the 1980s."] |
   "Dick" and "Jane" (Steve Chambers and Donna Barnes) - Discovered Making Love in the Woods   Dreamgirl (Sheila Kennedy, former Penthouse Pet of the Year, 1981) The End of the Film: An Orgy That Freed Everyone    
The Orgy in the Cave (Involving Various Couplings, including Mitch with Michelle, Annie with Danny, etc.) |
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Flashdance (1983) Adrian Lyne's MTV-style, feel-good hit with rock music by Giorgio Moroder and other hit tunes (Irene Cara's "Flashdance - What a Feeling" and Michael Sembello's "Maniac") showcased an independent-minded 18 year-old woman who had dreams of being a legitimate dancer. The musical film popularized ripped off-the-shoulder baggy sweatshirts, aerobic dancing, street break dancing, and other fashion trends (ankle warmers, etc.) of the era. It also had some raunchy dialogue, such as: "Did you know that the smallest penis ever measured was 1.1 inches?" A sub-plot about a rescue of the heroine's friend Jeanie Szabo (Sunny Johnson) from a real nude strip club named Zanzibar, after the dancer had sold out on her own dreams, provided the film's brief and only glimpses of nudity. The opening scene was an erotic one - of Pittsburgh welder and gorgeous erotic dancer Alexandra "Alex" Owens (Jennifer Beals in her first lead role, although quite a few of her scenes were performed by body double/ professional dancer Marine Jahan) in a wet skimpy red outfit in a quasi-strip club named Mawby's Bar. One of the most iconic images of all 80s films was of "Alex" on-stage, performing supine on a chair as water splashed down on her. In one of the sleeper hit's well-publicized scenes, she removed her black bra from under her torn gray sweatshirt. Later, there was a suggestive scene of Alex tantalizing older boyfriend (and steel mill boss) Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri) during a lobster dinner - while she was dressed in a black tux. She slowly nibbled and sucked soft pieces of seafood while making suggestive comments, and later on removed the tuxedo jacket, leaving the front piece of only a white shirt and cuffs without sleeves:
Nick's ex-wife Kate (Belinda Bauer) showed up to introduce herself, and made insinuating comments about Alex's work as a welder and stripper. Alex removed her tuxedo coat, and candidly described her provocative first date with Nick: "I f--ked his brains out." |
    "Alex" (Jennifer Beals)    Jeanie (Sunny Johnson) At the Zanzibar |
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The Hunger (1983, UK) Director Tony Scott's feature-length directorial debut film was this visually-stylish, decadent and R-rated erotic horror film. Included in the film was its controversial, lengthy soft-focus lesbian-vampires sex scene in the sunlight of a late afternoon between two females with mutual attraction to each other. Since its release, the film has become a goth cult film. It should be stated that the term "vampire" was never explicitly used in the film. Its tagline was a clever play on words:
Its most notable characters formed a love triangle threesome:
Miriam and John posed as a wealthy couple interested in tutoring students in classical music who lived in an elegant NYC townhouse from which they prowled the streets for victims. In the film's opening set briefly in a NY discotheque nightclub (the rock band Bauhaus was performing the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead"), the predatory couple met another young man and woman (John Stephen Hill and Ann Magnuson) interested in sex and their passions were enflamed. The couple returned with the Blaylocks to their home for drinks, exhibitionism, and swapping of partners where their throats were slashed by Ankh pendants with hidden daggers.
Afterwards, the couple cleaned up the blood in their bathroom, and disposed of the black body bags in the flames of their building's basement furnace. Meanwhile, Dr. Sarah Roberts noticed the bloody remains of an experimental caged male monkey in her clinic's laboratory - the subject of her study on rapid aging in primates. The monkey had painfully and rapidly aged and degenerated, became manic, and lustfully fed upon its beloved mate Betty before expiring. [Note: This was a veiled but prophetic foreshadowing of the film's conclusion.] Miriam became concerned when John also began to rapidly age, decay and deteriorate, and she sought out Dr. Roberts for a cure. Eventually, John's body had withered and weakened so much that he was ready to expire, and desperate for blood, he had just cut the throat and murdered teenaged violinist Alice Cavender (Beth Ehlers), one of Miriam's students. Miriam took John's body up to the attic (where earlier 'deceased' lovers had also been encased and trapped in coffins to suffer an eternal "living death") and placed him into a casket. During a visit with Miriam in her townhouse, the doctor became Miriam's new healthy blood candidate/recruit - her latest lesbian courtship victim. She was offered a drink of sherry, while Miriam played The Flower Duet, "a love song...sung by two women" on the piano (she claimed it was Lakmé by Léo Delibes). Sarah suspiciously asked:
When Sarah spilled a blood-red droplet of sherry on her white T-shirt (worn without a bra), she first daubed at it, and then was prompted to remove her top. Miriam gave her some soft Sapphic touches before a slow kiss and many other love-bites. In the very next scene, Sarah had removed all of her clothes except black panties, and was on a bed, where Miriam continued to kiss her and suck on her bare nipple.
During their sexual encounter, Sarah didn't realize that Miriam had bitten into the bend in her arm, causing a blood exchange. Miriam took on and transformed her new lover (into a vampire with immortal life) by mingling with her blood, and Sarah now had a bruised arm, was infused with "inhuman blood," and began to feel sick. Through tests, Sarah knew that she was infected, and contronted Miriam in her townhome: "What have you done to me? There's some alien strain consuming my blood...What is it, and why have you done it?" Miriam reassured her:
After a struggle that propelled Sarah to the floor, Miriam showed off her own arm bruise and explained that their blood was mixed together: ("I made a simpIe incision. I drew your bIood, and then you took mine"). She then made a momentous admission: "You belong to me. We belong to each other." As Sarah stormed out, Miriam explained the film's title: "You'll be back. When the Hunger hurts so much you've Iost reason, then you'II have to feed, and then you'II need me to show you how." To fulfill her promise of feeding Sarah's 'hunger,' Miriam provided her with a bloody male prostitute (with a slashed throat), but Sarah did not partake. She was nauseous, sweating profusely, and in a fetal position. As the film was concluding, Sarah's advanced vampiric state and ravenous need for blood caused her to murder (with her Ankh pendant) and drink the blood (mostly off-screen) of her own boyfriend Dr. Tom Haver (Cliff De Young) (who had come looking for her) in the townhouse's second floor bedroom. Miriam congratulated Sarah on her first kill: "It's not nearIy as difficuIt as you imagined, is it?", and foretold what would now happen to her:
Then, guilt-ridden over the killing, Sarah suicidally slit her own throat with Miriam's Ankh pendant during a forced bloody kiss with Miriam. The influx of Sarah's blood into Miriam's mouth was transformative and Miriam also rapidly aged and lost her own eternal life.
After Miriam carried Sarah's deceased body up to the attic, all of her dessicated lovers in their coffins were awakened as she cried out to them: "I love you all." Feeling betrayed by her, the cadavers rose up and surrounded her. She fell to her death down to the ground floor from the top of the stairwell when she crashed through the bannister. As she 'died' and began to age, the spell ended and all of their mummified bodies withered away, fell apart and crumbled into dust. In the final moments of the film, the townhouse was suddenly deserted and up for sale. As explained by the real estate agent Arthur Jelinek (Shane Rimmer) handling the transaction:
There was a surprising reversal of roles - Sarah had become a vampire queen with several lovers in a luxury hi-rise in London, while Miriam suffered the fate of all of her previous lovers - she was imprisoned and suffering 'eternal death' in a coffin. |
 Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve)  Bloody Implements of Death - Ankh Pendants  Body Bags Incinerated     Aging John Blaylock Placed in Casket by Miriam    Beginning of Seduction Scene: Miriam With Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon)  Sarah's Bruised Arm After Miriam's Bite  Sarah to Miriam: "What have you done to me?"  Sarah Sickened by Miriam's Blood Transfusion  Sarah Kissed and Cared For By Miriam  Miriam's Murder of Male Prostitute to Feed Sarah  Sarah After Murdering Her Own Boyfriend Tom Haver   In Attic, Miriam Was Assaulted by All Her Mummified Former Lovers  Miriam's Aging - Breaking the Spell  Sarah - The New Vampire Queen in London |
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The Key (1983, It.) (aka La Chiave) Italian erotic director Tinto Brass' soft-core film was based on Junichiro Tanizaki's 1956 Japanese novel Kagi. The film included full-frontal nudity and erotic love-making scenes, featuring many shots of derrieres - one of Brass' favorite subjects. The lushly photographed, stylistically-sleazy tale was banned by the Catholic Church for its torrid tale set in pre-WWII Venice, about a couple who wished to revive their withering sex lives after 20 years of marriage:
One technique to incite them was to write and read fantasies recorded in separate diaries. He also took naughty pictures of her while she slept. Nino discovered that Teresa was secretly attracted to their naive daughter Lisa's (Barbara Cupisti) fiancee, Laszlo Apony (Franco Branciaroli). He schemed to push his wife slowly into infidelity, conducting an affair with their future son-in-law. Nino's daughter Lisa was no match for her lusty, undraped mother-in-law.
His goal was a great success and the changes in her were evident - he had been able to sexually liberate her with pleasure and reignite her (and his) libido - but it resulted ultimately in his stroke (while wearing his garter belt and stockings) from over-indulgence. |
 Teresa (Stefania Sandrelli) |
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The Lonely Lady (1983) Following her role in Butterfly (1982), Pia Zadora also starred in director Peter Sasdy's trashy The Lonely Lady (1983). It was the winner of six Razzie Awards (from eleven nominations), including Worst Picture and Worst Director. Zadora won another "Worst Actress" Razzie Award - her multiple Razzie Awards gave her the additional recognition years later as "Worst New Star of the Decade" of the 80s. It was an adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel by Ellen Shepard, about "the story of a woman's struggle for fame in Hollywood." The trailer told about the main character - "determined to take nothing less than everything Hollywood has to offer," and suffered tremendous abuse from men as she aspired to be successful in Hollywood:
In the opening scene set in her high school, Jerilee was honored for her accomplishments with an award-trophy presented by film director Mr. Guy Jackson (Anthony Holland) to "The Year's Most Promising English Major" for Creative Writing. During Jerilee's acceptance speech (that was cut short), she stated why her stories were so successful:
Jerilee attended a celebratory school-sanctioned BBQ, where teenaged, misogynistic bad boy Joe Heron (Ray Liotta in his feature film debut) joked that her high-school creative writing trophy looked like a penis. Jerilee accepted a last-minute invitation to visit the Beverly Hills home of Walter Thornton, Jr. (Kerry Shale), and accepted - knowing that he was the son of prominent, Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Walter Thornton (Lloyd Bochner). On the drive, Joe made out with his date Marion/Mary (Glory Annen) in the back seat, and then grabbed Jerilee's left breast through her clothing. Joe noted: "Valley girls are anxious to please," as he pushed Mary's face down toward his lap to perform fellatio. At the Thornton home, Joe was swimming in the pool with a topless Mary, when he impulsively decided to sexually assault Jerilee - he grabbed her from behind, threw her in the pool, chased after her and threatened: "I'll teach you to be more friendly now!" He ripped open her top to expose her breasts, slapped her across the face, and yelled: "I'm gonna show you something special. I'm gonna give you something special! Come here!" As he reached for the phallic-shaped garden hose and violated her with it (off-screen), Jerilee's screams alerted Walter Jr.'s' father who happened to arrive home and came to her rescue. She was badly bruised and shaken from the incident. Soon after, Jerilee met the older Walter when he returned her trophy left behind at his house. Enamoured with him and with their shared passion for writing, she decided to marry him, although her widowed mother Veronica Randall (Bibi Besch) disapproved ("He is too old for you!"). After wedding him, he was often impotent in bed.
Jerilee found herself faced with his male-dominated, sexist colleagues that had negative attitudes toward female writers such as herself. At a film opening, one of Thornton's friends George Fox (Olivier Pierre) (who was married and often cheated on his wife) expressed his sexist attitudes toward Jerilee - and hinted she should capitalize on her beauty rather than her brains: "Women can't write dialogue...Hey, honey, with a figure like yours, you don't have to think." She proved him wrong by publishing her first best-selling book. During another instance in bed, Walter continued to have erection difficulties. Jerilee mounted him and tried to coax him: "Gently, gently." Jerilee asked: "Walter, how do you start a screenplay?" He answered unseriously: "Page one, scene one, and you take it from there." She pulled his chest hair to shock him and claimed: "I'm serious! Do you think I can do it, Walter?" However, over time, she suffered a failed marriage to her older, incompatible husband who often downplayed or deliberately avoided giving her respect and credit for her talent and success as a writer, and her aspirations to be a screenwriter. At a restaurant, he also became jealous of her interest in sleazy Kicks nightclub owner Vincent Dacosta (Joseph Cali), an avowed LA hustler and aspiring movie producer. She had enough as his trophy wife when on the lawn of their mansion, Thornton angrily taunted and scorned her while cruelly referring to the earlier garden hose rape-attempt incident and also his inability to perform. He sarcastically asked if she enjoyed making him jealous, or preferred rape:
After leaving Walter and moving out into her own rental apartment, she experienced a series of more degrading, and exploitative sexual encounters as she attempted to make a mark in Hollywood with her screenplays. At a party, she again met up with handsome rising actor George Ballantine (Jared Martin) who admitted he was promiscuous: ("You only live once, Jerilee. Not a whole lot happens after that, kid"). During a torrid affair with her although he was married (to Margaret (Mary D'Antin)), they had sex in her bed, and then he joined her during a shower. She lowered herself to provide him with oral sex. He provided her with sexual pleasure unlike with her impotent ex-husband Walter (Jerilee: "I'm happy for the first time in a long time").
After becoming pregnant by Ballantine, he took no responsibility for her and she was forced to get an abortion. She then became closer to Vincent Dacosta who promised to help produce her screenplay with his business financier/partner Nick Rossi (Cyrus Elias) from NY, although it might take six months to a year. He sweetly buttered her up: "They can't believe a dumb blonde could write a movie," and offered her a job as a club hostess in the meantime. When he turned domineering toward her and jealous of her association with Guy Jackson: ("When you write for anyone, you write for me, not for Jackson or anyone else. Me!"), she told him off: "If I write for anyone, Vinny, I write for me!" But then, she ended up apologizing and forgiving him, and spent a decadent night of wild love-making with him (including champagne, lying naked on a pool table, and having sex in a hot-tub). Things went from bad to worse when she was pimped by Dacosta to go to an LA hotel room with another business partner - obese Italian producer Gino Paoluzzi (Gianni Rizzo) and his Italian lesbian starlet Carla Maria Peroni (Carla Romanelli). When Jerilee was propositioned by Carla: ("Your script is beautiful, everything is beautiful. I know it will be very good"), who then kissed her and stripped off her dress while Gino watched, she was disgusted about being used - but didn't resist. Upon her return to cocaine-addicted Dacosta in his club office, Jerilee found him snorting coke and betraying her with two naked female assistants, Annette (Daphna Kastner) and blonde Carol (Cindy Leadbetter). Her unread script was thrown in her face amidst mocking laughter. Following the debilitating attack, she reacted by showering fully dressed. She also madly typed on the keys of her typewriter while surrounded by the swirling faces of those who had wronged her while crying out: "Damn you!" She suffered a nervous breakdown, with paranoia, delusions, and acute depression, described as drug-induced by a doctor ("Tranquilizers, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol") after she was institutionalized and kept for a few days at the Lakeview Terrace Sanitarium. Her ineffectual mother admitted: "She's always been difficult." While recovering, Jerilee was encouraged by her supportive friend Guy Jackson to not give up and continue typing and working as the best therapy. Jerilee was proud of her new, semi-autobiographical script ("This is me. It's my story. It's my child. It's a part of me"). Guy proposed that she show her script titled The Hold Outs to wealthy and influential film producer Tom Castel (Mickey Knox), while Guy would direct the film. The script contained a scathing expose of all her experiences in Hollywood. She also reluctantly agreed to having George Ballantine star in her movie, when Guy persuasively argued:
But again, Jerilee was manipulatively taken advantage of at Castel's home and forced to become friendly with Castel's bisexual wife Joanne (Kendal Kaldwell) in an outdoor hot-tub. Finally by film's end, the year's awards ceremony was held, and Jerilee arrived by herself, walking down the red carpet as someone in the crowd snidely remarked: "She can't be anybody if she doesn't have an escort." Many of Jerilee's former colleagues were in the audience: Ballantine, Thornton, and Castel. During the award presentation for Best Original Screenplay announced by the MC (Edward Mannix), Jerilee received the trophy-statue award for her screenplay for The Hold Outs. During her acceptance speech (a book-end to the film's opening), she thanked her collaborators (director Guy Jackson, producer Tom Castel and his wife Joanne, and leading man George Ballantine), but then brutally denounced the price she had to pay on her rise to fame:
After admitting she hadn't learned the meaning of self-respect to her ex-husband Walter Thornton, she refused the award, left the statue on the podium and stiffly stomped off by herself and departed from the auditorium and into outer darkness, amidst boos from the audience as the film ended. A commentator noted: "The movie industry witnessed a bizarre version of the truth behind the scenes..." The film's title song played on the soundtrack: "Lonely Lady" sung by Ellis Hall Jr. |
 Joe Heron (Ray Liotta) Making Out with Date Marion/Mary (Glory Annen)    Jerilee's Rape Assault by Joe Heron  Jerilee: "Gently, gently."  In Bed with Impotent Husband Walter Thornton, Sr.   Decadent Love-Making With Vincent Dacosta (Joseph Cali)   Jerilee Kissed and Propositioned by Lesbian Starlet Carla (Carla Romanelli)  Betrayed by Vincent in His Club Office With Two Naked Females  Jerilee Showering Fully Clothed   Nervous Breakdown - Reflected in Typewriter Keys  Jerilee Recovering in Sanitarium  Jerilee with Film Producer Tom Castel (Mickey Knox)  Jerilee with Joanne Castel (Kendal Kaldwell)  Awards Ceremony: Jerilee Accepting Award  Departing From the Auditorium By Herself - Without the Statue |
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(National Lampoon's) Vacation (1983) (aka Vacation)
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 Mix-up at the Car Dealership   The Family Sing-Alongs with Clark Leading  East St. Louis Pimp to Clark: "F--k yo Mama!"   Psycho Shower Parody  Vixen Passing in a Red 1983 Ferrari  Clark Dancing With His Urine-Soaked Sandwich  Clark with Motorcycle Cop After an Accident With Dog Dinky  Clark Sharing Beer with Son Rusty  Clark's Rant: "This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun"    Clark With the Flirtatious Blonde (Christie Brinkley) - Skinny-Dipping at the Motel  Ellen Deciding to Go Skinny-Dipping Herself |
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One Deadly Summer (1983, Fr.) (aka L'Été Meurtrier) This French erotic thriller and dark family drama from director Jean Becker told about a traumatized and unstable seductress, who was often naked in the film - both voluptuous and with evil intent by using sex as a weapon. The noirish melodrama was nominated for the Golden Palm award. The main "deadly" fearless and tragic femme female was:
She had moved to a small S. French village in the mid-1970s with her crippled father Gabriel Devigne (Michel Galabru) and her German mother Paula (Maria Machado). The tartish and free-spirited Elaine-Elle soon became the center of attention with her low-cut blouses and skimpy attire. Seen with ambiguous flashbacks in part and with multiple narrators and points of view, her motive was to avenge the 20 year-old brutal rape of her mother by Italian immigrants including infatuated local auto mechanic Pin-Pon's (Alain Souchon) now-deceased father and two other men. She wished to unlock the secrets hidden in his family’s dusty player piano stored in a barn. As it was revealed, the instrument was delivered by the men who raped her mother and led to her conception. Elle feigned pregnancy in order to trap Pin-Pon into marriage and settle the score. |
   Elle (Isabelle Adjani) |
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Private School (1983) (aka Private School...for Girls) The second in a series of Private... films by producer R. Ben Efraim, a voyeuristic sex farce (with a pop-tune soundtrack for numerous montages) that featured lots of teens, many of whom became future stars (Matthew Modine, Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, etc.), and Emmanuelle's Sylvia Kristel as sex education teacher Ms. Regina Copoletta. The weak storyline was about all-girls private school student Christine Ramsey (Phoebe Cates) at Cherryvale Academy For Women whose boyfriend Jim Green (Matthew Modine) attended a nearby boys academy - Freemount Academy for Men. There was a romantic rivalry that developed between two competitive females who often appeared in states of undress - Christine and:
The most memorable scene in the film was a slow-motion, topless horseback ride by Jordan in order to attract attention from Jim, to the tune of "How Do I Let You Know" (sung by Phoebe Cates!). The elderly headmistress Miss Dutchbok (Fran Ryan) snidely but humorously made an eye-catching remark: "That's the finest example of bareback riding I've ever seen."
One of the guys' pranks was to cut up the cheerleaders' uniforms so that when they performed on the field, their boobs popped out. The prank backfired when the wrong uniform was altered. Another was to peep on the girls - Jim and one of his piggish friends named Bubba Beauregard (Michael Zorek) snuck into the girls' school, where they peered through the window. They also dressed in drag on their way to the shower room (an obligatory scene in many of these teen comedies), where they also viewed many of the Schoolgirls, including:
The film concluded with rows of graduating seniors at Cherryvale, after the commencement speech, 'mooning' the audience as Christine's roommate Betsy Newhouse (Kathleen Wilhoite) led the chant:
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 Christine (Phoebe Cates) and Boyfriend Jim (Matthew Modine)      Jordan Leigh-Jenson (Betsy Russell)  Prank Gone Wrong: Coach Whelan's (Julie Payne) Sabotaged Cheerleader Uniform  Bare-Ass Senior Class Graduation |
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Risky Business (1983) Writer/director Paul Brickman's effective and well-received teen sex comedy equated the rewards of sexuality and successful capitalistic enterprise. It opened with a fantasy-dream sequence (narrated in voice-over) in which affluent college-bound, high-school senior Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise), living in a Chicago suburb, saw a strange young girl (Francine Locke credited as "Shower Girl") soaping up in a steamy shower in his neighbor's house (and non-chalantly requesting: "I want you to wash my back") while he was three hours late to his college board SAT exam. He thought to himself:
In the film's most famous exhibitionist-karaoke scene early in the film, Joel made a floor-sliding entrance into his living room where he danced in his tight white cotton underwear and long-sleeved pink-striped shirt and lip-synched to the tune of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll" with an air-guitar. To experience a good time while his parents were away, Joel decided to contact a call-girl referral ("It's what you want...It's what every white boy off the lake wants"). But first, during one masturbatory session gone awry (when he imagined himself making love on the kitchen table with a babysitter), the house was surrounded by police and his parents ("Get off the baby-sitter. Don't throw your life away like this") - it was evidence of his extreme worry about his future. To prove his manhood, he phoned hooker Lana (Rebecca DeMornay), gave her a fake name (Ralph), and his address for contact. His first hot encounter with heart-of-gold prostitute Lana came later that evening after she rang his doorbell and let herself in. She entered his living room, and enticingly asked: "Are you ready for me, Ralph?" He helped remove her dress from the bottom up and revealed she was naked underneath, and as they kissed, the wind blew the patio doors open (a fantasy masturbatory dream sequence gone awry) and they made love on the stairs and on a rocking chair, to the tune of electronic music provided by Tangerine Dream - for a fee of $300 that she wished to collect the next morning.
In another much later scene, Joel and Lana riskily and daringly became exhibitionists during a deserted, late-night, elevated CTA subway ride. Joel explained in voice-over: "She wanted to make love on a real train. Who was I to say no?" They began kissing - to the tune of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." After all the other passengers vacated, they found themselves in an empty car where they could be more intimate and passionate, as the pounding rhythms of Tangerine Dream took over. He touched her thighs through her dress and slipped off her panties, while she unbuckled his pants. They made love while seated, as the train slipped quietly through the night. The film was also noted for Miles' (Curtis Armstrong) repeated advice to Joel:
Joel was involved with an extracurricular group at school called Future Enterprisers, so it would look good on his record for college (Princeton preferably, according to his father's wishes). Joel proved his business prowess by film's end. He had accepted Lana's idea to raise money (for her services, and to pay for repairs for his father's damaged Porsche) by transforming his parent's house into a brothel and making him a successful entrepreneur. He succeeded by both coming-of-age and by setting up the profitable brothel in his parent's home:
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  Shower Girl Dream (Francine Locke)  "Old Time Rock & Roll"    Ralph (Tom Cruise) With Hooker Lana (Rebecca DeMornay) on Elevated Subway |
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Screwballs (1983, Can.) This Canadian film from director Rafal Zielinski was another low-brow teen comedy and a Porky's (1982) rip-off story, with the tagline: "The nuts who always score." The film's inferior sequel was Screwballs II: Loose Screws (1985). It told about five male students at T & A (Taft & Adams) High School who were detained for sexual perversions. An early prank was a compulsory breast exam scene with a coed (Jennifer Inch), when the examiner Rick (Peter Keleghan) with a stethoscope proposed a "closer look" by removal of her bra ("these are very experienced hands").
The five students who were punished made a pact during detention for revenge against the female student responsible - to see the unclothed breasts of the last virgin in their class ("the last hold-out at T&A High") -- icy chaste blonde and reigning home-coming queen Purity Busch (Linda Speciale) by the time of the dance. Their efforts seemed unnecessary, however, since the horny and mischievous Purity was observed in her bedroom hugging a large blue stuffed teddy bear to herself while fantasizing about sex. Various attempts included:
By the end credits, Purity was thankfully disrobed (via a powerful magnet machine that pulled her dress from her body) onstage in a patriotic setting, wearing a Statue of Liberty headpiece as she sang the national anthem
There was plenty of other nudity in the film from the guys' "friendly" coeds:
One memorable, oft-quoted sequence was an exercise scene in which the teen girls exercised their pectorals during outdoor gym class, while chanting:
During hip-thrusting exercises, they also cried out: "Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am," although Purity considered it "lewd, obscene, and nasty," while another was visibly turned on.
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 Diving Board Trick (Astrid Hildebrandt and Kim Cayer)  Rhonda Rockett (Terrea Foster)   Miss Anna Tomical (Raven de la Croix) |
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Star 80 (1983) Writer/director Bob Fosse's despairing pseudo-documentary final film was a realistic and unsettling biography (told with flashbacks and a portrayal of Hugh Hefner by Cliff Robertson) of Miss August 1979 centerfold and Playboy's Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten. The title role was played by look-alike Mariel Hemingway enhanced with breast implants just before filming.
During the opening credits, there were shots of Hemingway portraying the nude playmate in various semi-naked poses, as she was heard in voice-over:
Then she appeared in various other poses as the story was told, some snapped with a polaroid by her lunatic, exploitatively controlling, and jealous hustler-promoter-manager husband Paul Snider (Eric Roberts). He actually set up a "bizarre shrine" of all of her photos (and many of them showed them together) (as an interviewee confessed: "Frankly, I thought it was a little like a soap opera"), and Dorothy eventually demanded a divorce from him: "I want more freedom...Things change. I'm not the same girl I was in Vancouver." She had become estranged from Snider and was dating director Aram Nicholas (Roger Rees) (a fictionalized version of Peter Bogdanovich who directed her in They All Laughed (1981)). It was a tragic account of the aspiring, beautiful, naive and sexy actress who brutally lost her life (on August 14, 1980) at age 20 in a double murder-suicide committed by the drunken Snider. |
    Dorothy Stratten (Mariel Hemingway)     The Grisly and Tragic Double Murder-Suicide |
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A Summer in St. Tropez (1983, Fr.) (aka Un été à Saint-Tropez) Writer/director David Hamilton's lyrical, soft-core hour-long film contained no dialogue, although there was added music on the soundtrack. Other similar films by Hamilton included:
British photographer Hamilton had established a reputation for making erotic films featuring scantily-clad young teenaged women exhibiting innocent and romantic fun. He engendered considerable controversy and was often accused of child pornography for his work.
In this hazily-photographed, slow-paced film without a plot that was set during a carefree and idyllic two days of summer at a remote St. Tropez country house, eight sensual and playful pubescent girls unself-consciously slept and awoke, groomed, showered and bathed naked, ate meals, rode on horseback and on bicycles, did laundry, practiced ballet, ran nude in slow-motion along the coast, engaged in pillow-fights, picked flowers, went on a picnic together and played a game of hide-and-seek, and took a wagon ride. There were only a few brief moments of sensual touching (of each other's breasts) or kissing between the girls. One of the girls, Joan, appeared to be having a serious romance with young male garden worker Renaud, and there was one scene of their kissing each other atop straw as he gently touched her naked body and breast - and then in the next scene they were married in a church ceremony (with the other girls serving as bridesmaids). The couple sailed off together from the shore as the film ended. All of the girls were identified in the closing credits with a still shot from the film: Joan, Catherine, Esther, Monika, Ellen, Anne, Helene, and Cyrille. |
 
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Trading Places (1983) Director John Landis' popular lampooning 'screwball comedy' concerned the long-standing debate (or "eternal question") of hereditary-biological nature vs. environment-nurture. A wager was made between two owners of a Philadelphia commodities brokerage known as Duke & Duke:
They decided to determine if a down-and-out and under-privileged street huster could become successful under the right circumstances, and if a privileged man could become destitute when set up and framed as a thief, drug dealer, and profligate, locked out of his townhome, and left with frozen bank accounts and repossessed credit cards. Shortly later, Randolph chuckled as he described their devious "guinea pig" test:
Its taglines were:
The social satire with mature content told about a reversal of roles, and "trading places" between two unequals, as part of a $1 bet and "scientific experiment." The two victims of their wager were:
Once the switch was made around Christmastime, Winthorpe lost everything he had, and misfortune, abandonment, and ostracization met him everywhere. Winthorpe (who had been fired from his job) was destitute due to the immediate loss of his previous identity and assets. His wedding appeared to be called off, and he was about to be charged with embezzlement and drug dealing. He was released from jail onto the street with Penelope, where 24 year-old hooker Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) - who had been paid to ruin him - pretended that she needed a fix from him and would pay him back with sex. Penelope reacted by immediately disowning him: "You lying, filthy, disgusting creep." Even Winthorpe's loyal and devoted butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott) pretended not to recognize him at the door of his townhouse. Winthorpe asked himself why he was being framed: "Why is someone deliberately trying to ruin my life?" Meanwhile, Billy Ray had already taken over Winthorpe's prestigious job at the firm, and was living in Winthorpe's home and hosting a Xmas party. Hooker # 2 (Barra Kahn) was waiting for him in his bedroom: ("I've been waitin' for ya, Billy Ray"), and two other hookers stripped topless during dancing in the living room, to the tune of "Do Ya Wanna Funk With Me" (by Sylvester). Exasperated, Billy Ray kicked everyone out, calling the party "a damn zoo." Shortly later, Ophelia - who was really a sympathetic lady-of-the-night (with a heart of gold), befriended the un-street-smart downcast loser and unsuspecting victim Louis, and allowed him to stay at her cheap and clean "dump" of an apartment. She vowed she was drug-free and didn't have a pimp, and as a non-negotiable "business proposition," she said that she would be charging him five figures in cash to help him get back on his feet.
After removing her top in a mirror, she turned, covered her breasts, and advised him:
However, soon after, when Louis was sick (confirmed by first taking his temperature of 103 degrees F.), she stripped down to a thong and got in bed with him. As she massaged his head to make him feel better, she stated: "I'm just protecting my investment. That's all." Soon after, Louis read in The Financial Journal that Billy Ray Valentine had been appointed to Duke & Duke in his place. The film ended with Billy Ray's and Winthorpe's vengeance toward their oppressors after Billy Ray overheard the Dukes in the men's room plotting to return Valentine to the ghetto, with additional plans to not restore Winthorpe to his previous position. Mortimer used an offensive racial slur to state his intentions:
Through a false report about the prospects of frozen concentrated OJ, the two (with Ophelia's and Coleman's help) misled the Dukes into making an unwise investment strategy that bankrupted them. The two had also made their own $1 bet, won by Billy Ray, that they could enrich themselves at the Dukes' expense: (Billy Ray: "I made Louis a bet here. See, Louis bet me that we couldn't both get rich and put y'all in the poor house at the same time. He didn't think we could do it. I won"). |
 Elderly Brothers Randolph Duke and Mortimer Duke  Winthorpe's Fiancee Penelope (Kristin Holby)  Billy Ray Living in Winthorpe's Home - with His Butler Coleman  Hooker # 2 (Barra Kahn) in His Bedroom: "I've been waitin' for ya, Billy Ray"   Two Other Hookers at Billy Ray's Xmas Party    Topless Ophelia Joining Sick Louis in Bed  Switch Acknowledged in the Newspaper  Billy Ray's and Winthorpe's Successful Ploy Against the Dukes  The Dismayed and Bankrupted Dukes |
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Videodrome (1983) Director David Cronenberg's dark "body horror" (or bio-horror) film involved kinky sexuality, extreme S&M and orgiastic mutilation, and reality-manipulating TV. It had a memorable phrase: "Long live the new flesh" and contained many symbolic images of sexuality. The film's title was the name of a pirated film on a VCR cassette from the Pittsburgh underground - a depraved torture/snuff film. The story was about :
The station aired soft-core pornography and violent content, and Max desired to acquire and broadcast the pirated VCR cassette of "Videodrome." Renn didn't know that he was being used by the villainous political forces behind Videodrome - the Spectacular Optical Corporation (and Videodrome's producer), headed by Chief of Special Programs Barry Convex (Leslie Carlson). Renn was deceived into watching (and becoming hooked on) Videodrome because Spectacular Optical (with the motto "Keeping An Eye on the World") wanted to seize and take over his Channel 83 TV station to broadcast its signal to the masses ("It can be a giant hallucination machine, and much much more!"). A mind-controlled Renn began to become infected due to his own TV watching (that seduced and controlled him), leading to his brain mutating and developing tumors, and he was experiencing many disturbing, mind-altering sights. Exposure to the Videodrome film caused carcinogenic tumors that triggered hallucinations in Max. Sexual imagery included a vaginal-like slit or womb-wound orifice that opened in his abdomen (into which he could insert videocassette tapes, or his entire hand holding a gun) as he became an organic video-recorder. He could be both "raped" and "programmed" by the villains forcefully inserting videotapes inside his body to "play" him. In the film's most notable scene, Max watched a videocassette of Videodrome's origins on his TV set (including the strangulation of Videodrome technology cult leader and pioneer Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley) when he learned of Spectacular Optical's malicious intentions), revealing the black-hooded executioner as Nicki - his future 'girlfriend'. She beckoned Max:
In the film's most stupendous, surrealistic scene, her seductive red lips enlarged on his TV screen (the set itself undulated, pulsated, formed engorged veins, and moaned as if sexually-aroused). He submissively fell to his knees and pushed his own lips into the enlarged and bulging hallucinogenic TV screen image to kiss them -- a symbolic metaphor for oral sex (cunnilingus), as he was sucked into the glass monitor's image. He also engaged in a torrid, S&M romance with self-help radio personality Nicki Brand (rock star Deborah Harry or Blondie) - their first encounter in Max's apartment revealed her interest in sadism and voyeurism when she encouraged him to play the cassette "Videodrome." During this early encounter after she proposed: "Wanna try a few things?":
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 O'Blivion's Executioner Nicki (Deborah Harry)  Giant Lips Beckoning Renn  Renn's Abdominal Slit   Kinky Sex: Earlobe Piercing  
S & M: Cigarette Branding |
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Womens Prison Massacre (1983, It./Fr.) (aka Blade Violent, Emanuelle in Prison (UK) or Emanuelle Fuga Dall'Inferno (It.), or Emmanuelle Escapes From Hell)) This trashy Italian women-in-prison (WIP), in the "women behind bars" sub-genre, was a grindhouse sexploitation film from Italian director Bruno Mattei. Although the film was alternatively titled with Emmanuelle sub-titles and featured Laura Gemser, the film was actually unrelated to the series of "Black Emanuelle" films (although some claimed it was the last of the series). There were a number of similar WIP films that were generated in the late 60s to 90s, such as these:
Laura Gemser starred as investigative journalist Emanuelle who was framed (on drug charges) and imprisoned in a rough and violent institution after exposing a corrupt government politician-official. Unlike many of her other films, she remained clothed throughout the film. The WIP film opened with a play being staged by three female prisoners, one of whom was Emanuelle. During the performance, blonde, bitchy jailyard bully Albina (Ursula Flores), who was always favored by the Warden Colleen (Lorraine de Selle), objected and staged a food fight. It was the first of a number of conflicts between Emanuelle and Albina, including:
Typical of these films was a requisite soft-core lesbian sex and women's shower scene with two naked females:
The two lesbians were ratted out by Albina (who accused her fellow inmates: "These two pigs were kissing in front of everyone...they acted like dogs in heat and need to be cooled down and given a lesson in modesty"). The two offenders were roughly reprimanded - cooled down and half-drowned by having their heads repeatedly dunked in cold sink water. In the film's roughest and most infamous scene, Laura took razor-cutting revenge. She stuck a sharp razor blade into a cork and then painfully inserted it into her crotch. During the next seductive rape scene, she enticed escaped male convict Helmut 'Blade' von Bauer (Pierangelo Pozzato), one of four psychopathic death row convicts who had taken over the prison (when temporarily imprisoned there), to have intercourse with her, when she was savagely choked to death. |
 Emanuelle (Laura Gemser)  Vicious Knife Fight Between Emanuelle and Albina (Ursula Flores) (Stabbed in Leg)    Laura (Maria Romano) and Irene (Antonella Giacomini)  
Infamous Razor Blade-in-Crotch Castration Scene with Laura (Maria Romano) |
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