Saturday

Mailbox

Scoop:

"I would like your opinion of a movie that drives me nuts: Exit to Eden, which is very frustrating to watch. If I didn't know better, I would swear it had a directorial change during the filming. It starts out as a very interesting mainstream look at S&M complete with the island paradise. Then the two moron cops show up and the movie changes direction from a S&M fantasy movie into a lame comedy. The thought of going from Dana Delany nude and provocative as the head mistress to seeing Rosie O'Donnell in a revealing corset is about as much of a U-turn as I can stomach. Even ignoring Rosie's lack of sex appeal, the movie just turns to shit once she and Ackroyd enter the picture."
 

Exit to Eden

I don't have anything to add to what you've said, at least in terms of a review. I think you've summed up the film's problem very precisely. But it might to interesting to ask, Why?"

It seems to be two separate movies compacted uncomfortably into one because that's just what it is. Exit to Eden was originally a woman's romance novel, an erotic fantasy, one of those things with Fabio on the cover, and was written by Anne Rice. Yes, the same Anne Rice who is most famous as the author of Interview with a Vampire, and is now devoting her talent to Jesus. I haven't read the book and it's unlikely that I ever will, but I understand that there is nothing in it about L.A. cops or diamond smuggling, and there's no comedy. All of that was added for the movie version.

I suppose Garry Marshall felt that the original story had to be a late-night cable film if kept in the foreground, but could get worked into a sexy mainstream film if moved to the background. Maybe he was right about that, but this script treatment just didn't work. The two stories required very different tones, and they more or less contradicted one another's virtues. As you pointed out in your letter, the viewer gets ready to sink into the erotic fantasy and then sees Ackroyd and Rosie and loses his erection. Maybe for weeks.

I know that Rice is known to be thrilled with the film adaptation of Interview With a Vampire. I'd love to hear her comments on this one.

I have to tell you, though, that I don't think the B&D story would be much of a commercial movie on its own. Garry Marshall was absolutely right that the romance between the mistress and the submissive, on its own, was nothing more than a story for adult cable, like an expanded episode of Red Shoe Diaries. He correctly identified that it needed fixing to make it a theatrical movie, but didn't know how to fix it. He might have been able to keep the cop story if he had filled it with dark thinly-veiled eroticism and sexy music, ala Miami Vice. Rosie and Ackroyd didn't belong at that resort, but Crockett and Tubbs would have fit right in. It didn't happen that way because Garry Marshall is most comfortable with comedy, so that's what he turned to.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Wrong answer.

In summary, my take on it is that the story had three elements: the thriller, the B&D romance, and the comedy. The romance alone, directed by Zalman King, could have made an excellent Cinemax film. The romance plus the thriller, directed by Michael Mann, could have made an excellent and sexy movie for limited release, ala Secretary. The romance plus the thriller plus the comedy, directed by Garry Marshall,  produced what the film is now. Garry was definitely the wrong director for this project. That I get. What I don't get is this: if he didn't want to make a late-night cable movie, why did he buy the rights to that kind of book in the first place?

Dana Delany (zipped film clip with Stephanie Niznik, who looks a lot like Milla)

 

 

various others

 

 


 

* Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

* White asterisk: expanded format.

* Blue asterisk: not mine.

No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Famous T&A

Famous T & A (1982) is a collection of celebrity nude scenes narrated by Sybil Danning. The DVD is supposedly remastered, but clearly from the VHS version of this film, which in turn was mostly created from VHS source material. All of that is to say that the image quality is lacking. The content, however, is amazing, and includes raw footage from Sweet Sugar and Terminal Island, and a very odd clip of stunt woman Laura Jane Leary riding a Harley bottomless through the Hollywood Hills. Some of this material is familiar, and is available in much better quality, such as Emanuelle Around the World (AKA The Degradation of Emanuelle), The Harrod Experiment, Slave of the Cannibal God, Ms. Don Juan and Fairy Tales. The rest is either only available on VHS, or not available at all.

For many reasons, Terminal Island is the most interesting title covered. There is a Canadian DVD version of this standard women-in-prison offering, but it has all of the nudity cut. I can speak from first-hand knowledge. The package admits that it was censored, but does not mention the nudity, only the language and violence. In fact, they cut all of the nudity, and then crudely blanked the audio to eliminate the offensive language. Couple that with a very poor, washed-out transfer full of dust, dirt, bad focus, and even some jitter, and you have one of the poorest DVD jobs I have ever seen. I don't understand the point of taking a WIP film, and removing the violence, language and nudity, but the point is that if you are eager to see this film, look for the VHS version.

We have breasts and buns from Barbara Leigh

and full frontal and rear of Phyllis Davis.

Note that, in the case of Phyllis Davis, the lower nudity is courtesy of raw footage never shown on screen or in a home video release.

Sweet Sugar is also a WIP offering, and also featuring Phyllis Davis, we have breasts and buns from her

 and also Pamela Collins.

Collins also shows some good stuff on her own:

It is hard to surmise what the plot is like, as nearly all the footage was shower scene material, both from the film, and raw footage.

Laura Jane Leary in ?? I am guessing on the spelling of her name, and have been unable to find her at IMDb, but here she is wearing a leather jacket, high heels and a smile as she rides her Harley through the Hollywood Hills. There are clear bush and buns shots.

 

Ornella Muti in Summer Affair. She shows breasts and buns cavorting with a man on a deserted island.

Ursula Andress in Slave of the Cannibal God. This is the scene where two native women tie her up and coat her in blood. We have breasts and a hint of bush.

Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin in Ms. Don Juan. Jane shows full frontal

and Brigitte shows breasts and buns.

 

Claudia Jennings shows breasts in The Other Woman.

Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) shows breasts in The Working Girls. This one is not available on DVD.

Jacqueline Bisset shows breasts in Secrets, also not available on Region 1 DVD.

Idy Tripoldi goes full frontal in a great scene from Auditions.

Edy Williams shows breasts in Dr. Minx.

Cara Burgess wears a tiny G-string in The Manhandlers.

Uschi Digard shows everything in Truck Stop Women. This appears to be a comedy, and is not available on DVD, unfortunately.

Joan Prather shows breasts in a very dark scene from Single Girls, also not available on DVD.

Angela Aames shows breasts as Little Bo Peep in the Mother Goose send-up, Fairy Tales. This one is available on DVD.

D.D. Winters shows a breast in Tanya's Island.

Laurie Walters shows breasts and buns ...

... and Victoria Thompson does full frontal and rear in The Harrad Experiment.

And Laura Gemser flashes in one of those Emmanuelle movies

 

Despite the image quality, I have to give this DVD very high marks. Given the production year, it did a reasonably comprehensive job of covering celebrity film nudity to date, and even presented some material not seen anywhere else.

This is a high C+.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Woman of Desire

A few days ago Scoopy told the story of sitting next to Bo Derek on a plane. I want to know if he was picturing her naked. Anyway here is some skin from Bo in Woman of Desire.

Scoop's note: to be honest, no. Once you meet her in person, you tend to feel protective toward her. She just has that kind of quality. Even after sitting next to her for all those hours, I didn't fantasize about her that evening. I'll tell you what, though, the very first time I looked over at her, I didn't notice either her beautiful face or her famous breasts. The most eye-catching thing about her is that she has absolutely no waist at all. She was about 40 years old when I met her, and still had a totally concave waist. I'll bet it was not much more than 20 inches.

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

The Ladies of Sci-fi/Fantasy

"Third Rock from the Sun"

I rarely see collages of this cute, buxom lady so here we go: pokies, really long legs and a bevy of cleavage.

 

Kristen Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

Vive la Vie

Richard (Didier Bourdon), the head of a large company, Maud (Alexandra Lamy), a haughty model cast adrift, and Rachid (Zinedine Soualem), a street mime and hospital clown, finally reveal their emotions and feelings after meeting Colombe (Armelle Deutsch), a seriously ill but radiant young woman, whose vibrant presence and gaiety overwhelmsthem.

I love Armelle Deutsch ever since I saw her in Le Carton. She looks great in this movie, even when she is supposed to be sick.

 

Alexandra Lamy

 

Armelle Deutsch

 

 

 

 

 

 


"Red Cap"

(A British sitcom)

 

Tamzin Outhwaite

 

 

Dominique Wagner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images

Lower frontal nudity from Milla Jovovich in .45
The public antics of Ashley, one of the Olsen twins

Videos

Today's collection-builder is Jennifer Tilly

The naughtiest new show on TV is Dirt. Here are some recent samples (episode seven), Some hot stuff with Carly Pope and Laura Allen, and a sex scene with Courteney Cox. Courteney appears to be topless for real, but the editing technique - all tease - is frustrating and annoying.

A great short clip of Virginia Hay in Farscape

If you like Pussy Galore (and who doesn't?), you'll enjoy this rare clip of her topless performance in Kampf und Rom. Pretty decent quality for an old movie not available on Region 1 DVD. Below you will see caps of her other two nude appearances

Honor Blackman in Age of Innocence
Honor Blackman in The Virgin and the Gypsy