I loved Sam Catah's porn film ONCE UPON A BODY, and I WANT YOU! even outdoes it in sex content. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold together as well as a film.
That balancing act between audience-arousal footage and traditional narrative is always problematic, especially nowadays in the gonzo sex era when the scales have been tipped to read All-Sex.
Catah signifies this predilection by opening with a mixed combo sex scene in progress, with a busty black woman (who later is revealed to be a dancer) humping white guy Newman, as a hard rock organ/guitar score plays evocatively. Later on Catah uses eerie atonal jazz to good effect.
Linda Boyce and her partner Barbara (Maria Lease, the familiar missile-breasted porn actress who starred in Joe Sarno's ALL THE SINS OF SODOM, played a rape victim in THE KISS OFF and co-starred opposite Boyce in the Findlays' MNASIDIKA) run a call girl racket, in which they blackmail their clients with incriminating footage shot on the sly by their gay assistant Bruce (porn vet Larry Hunter). Helping them in the operation, by steering johns their way, is a comical swami, whose wavering high-pitched voice is a period spoof of then-iconic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Film unfolds as a series of sex vignettes showing the prostitutes at work. There is one ultra-busty plumper, satisfying a guy named Fletch, while one creep wants a virgin, who he abuses (off-camera) by raping her with a vibrator.
The gals are even blackmailing the swami (with an unseen film of him with a 13-year-old girl) and Bruce (footage of him with another man). After an orgy scene rounds up most of the cast, the climax and false ending deal with Newman's attempted revenge and Bruce's similar blow-back.
Quite a bit of full frontal nudity marks this as strong stuff for 1969 audiences, and the simulated sex is well-photographed by Harry August (a name that conjures up classic cinematography, e.g., by Joe August).
Highlight is a lengthy lesbian sex scene of Boyce and Lease, amplified skilfully by use of a mirror backdrop.
Most of the film is shot MOS, but there are also dialog scenes dominated by Boyce (strongly into her bad-girl role) as well as very poorly dubbed footage.
Overall it adds up to way more than the minimum-daily-requirement of soft porn for Adult Cinema bookings, but not up to the ONCE UPON A BODY dramatic standard.
That balancing act between audience-arousal footage and traditional narrative is always problematic, especially nowadays in the gonzo sex era when the scales have been tipped to read All-Sex.
Catah signifies this predilection by opening with a mixed combo sex scene in progress, with a busty black woman (who later is revealed to be a dancer) humping white guy Newman, as a hard rock organ/guitar score plays evocatively. Later on Catah uses eerie atonal jazz to good effect.
Linda Boyce and her partner Barbara (Maria Lease, the familiar missile-breasted porn actress who starred in Joe Sarno's ALL THE SINS OF SODOM, played a rape victim in THE KISS OFF and co-starred opposite Boyce in the Findlays' MNASIDIKA) run a call girl racket, in which they blackmail their clients with incriminating footage shot on the sly by their gay assistant Bruce (porn vet Larry Hunter). Helping them in the operation, by steering johns their way, is a comical swami, whose wavering high-pitched voice is a period spoof of then-iconic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Film unfolds as a series of sex vignettes showing the prostitutes at work. There is one ultra-busty plumper, satisfying a guy named Fletch, while one creep wants a virgin, who he abuses (off-camera) by raping her with a vibrator.
The gals are even blackmailing the swami (with an unseen film of him with a 13-year-old girl) and Bruce (footage of him with another man). After an orgy scene rounds up most of the cast, the climax and false ending deal with Newman's attempted revenge and Bruce's similar blow-back.
Quite a bit of full frontal nudity marks this as strong stuff for 1969 audiences, and the simulated sex is well-photographed by Harry August (a name that conjures up classic cinematography, e.g., by Joe August).
Highlight is a lengthy lesbian sex scene of Boyce and Lease, amplified skilfully by use of a mirror backdrop.
Most of the film is shot MOS, but there are also dialog scenes dominated by Boyce (strongly into her bad-girl role) as well as very poorly dubbed footage.
Overall it adds up to way more than the minimum-daily-requirement of soft porn for Adult Cinema bookings, but not up to the ONCE UPON A BODY dramatic standard.