Vinegar Syndrome, which has done a lousy job of releasing this minor '80s porn film on DVD, was apparently impressed with its "shot-on-film" aspect, that placed it in a minority back in 1986 when video had supplanted 35mm as an economical mode of production. Too bad they don't really care about content.
As a huge Krista Lane fan back in the day, I missed this one, and no problem there- it is among her lesser roles. She and BFF Erica Boyer portray housewives stuck with cheating husbands (ubiquitous Mike Horner and obscure actor Jake Scott, not the Gay Porn actor with that name), and to top it off, the hubbies constantly bad-mouth their wives' prowess in bed even though the viewer already knows they're two of the hottest ladies in the business. And subsequent footage proves this point.
Problem with the Suze Randall production written and directed by her hubby Victor Nye/Humphry Knipe (V Syndrome insists on giving Suze director credit on their highly misleading DVD packaging) is uninteresting situations, very poorly conceived and directed (that credit is definitely NOT worth fighting over) sex scenes, and a fake-misogyny leading to comeuppance by the femmes that is pure corn.
Opening scene of lawyer Horner serviced by prostitute Patti Petite is ho-hum start to finish, and the subsequent situation comedy involving the couples is stilted and unfunny. The boys hit on the concept of wife-swapping, with the added wrinkle of humping the other lady in her sleep so no one's the wiser. This absurd premise is bungled completely: Scott sneaks into Krista's bedroom and their sex together is shot as if using doubles, so badly framed as to reflect incompetence behind the camera. The Horner/Boyer coupling is omitted entirely, just mentioned by Mike - a very unsatisfying approach for the fans who are hungry for action.
A dumb gag subplot of Jake humping his pretty secretary Alex Greco is very poorly devised: she insists on a condom to avoid unwanted pregnancy - so there is no money shot. Then to avoid detection by the office cleaning lady (!) Jake puts the full, used condom in his jacket pocket (yuck!). Of course wife Boyer finds the condom immediately when he gets home, cuing her and Krista's desire for revenge on the philandering boys.
Film falls apart completely in its last half, a dated '80s excursion into orgy and hokeyness set at a private club for swingers, replete with music ripped off from "Flashdance" (just to set the time frame for time capsule purposes). Francois Papillon performs a lousy impression of a Chippendales dance for the crowd, while Taija Rae and Horner as a different character (not revealed till the end credits) play mimes in a sexual pantomime to kill time. Sloppy approach has Horner also in the audience reaction shots and a later sex scene seemingly having Rae double as the humpee to guest star Billy Dee's humper for interracial content.
Masks are big in swingers' movies: I've seen them in 3 or 4 features on that theme recently, but never as idiotically presented as here. The boys see both Erica and Krista (masked) humping in public at the club with Papillon and Jason Riley respectively, which turns them on so they pick up the girls for a liaison. Not only have they failed to recognize their wives at close range but they hump them and only find out in a final mask-removal, more preposterous in viewing than it even sounds on paper. And another crappy movie enters the dustbin of Film History.
V Syndrome touts this boldly as the first time the feature has been presented on video in its proper aspect ratio. I strongly contest that claim: the top and bottom of the frame as seen here are cropped, and one odd shot of Papillon's dance has the effect of a zoom out changing the aspect ratio from 1.66 to wide screen within the shot, from which I infer that the old ratio was correct. Just because a film is shot in 16mm or 35mm does not mean it is intended for full-frame (Super 16 and Super 35) exhibition, and V Syndrome's tendency to revisionism is likely the culprit here. I would bet the movie was intended to be shown masked, with a squarer look fitting the porno content, whether for potential theatrical showings in 1986 or just VHS (the squarish cathode ray tube TV look) of the time.
VS's DVD box proclaims other content, all of it untrue. There is no fashion show, no "masked ball" (merely a nightclub where audience wears masks), etc. This is a sub-par porn feature, hyped to a gullible audience (see the shill's review added to IMDb before mine) that should have been released as a random Alpha Blue Archives 3-fer dedicated to either Erica or Krista for the fan/collector - at least you'd have 2 more chances at entertainment to fall back on.
The 14-minute bonus interview with Mike Horner is fun to listen to, but completely unreliable. He begins by stating he doesn't remember making "Unveiled" - reason enough not to include it on the "Unveiled" DVD. But the no-nothing interviewer persists, and we hear pointless stories by Horner - I could have asked him a thousand questions about interesting topics and even challenged his hazy facts' recollection.
He compares his relative inexperience with sex to loops icon Connie Peterson's "10 years worth" of sexual prowess at age 20 -she sure started early Mike! He keeps name-dropping Billy Dee and making out-of-turn personal remarks about Taija and others, summing up with a highly unscientific survey whereby he proclaims 99% of porn actors and crew were brought up in either Catholic or Jewish households. He also claims drug-taking was far more prevalent among mainstream crew members ("from L.A.") than the porno people on the set, a totally self-serving assertion typical of the propaganda spewed in BTS & Bonus segments.
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