I saw most of Party Line waaaaay back in the early 90s when it was first running on late night cable. I didn’t remember much except that Leif Garret wore a wedding dress (!) and people spoke on the phone to each other. Not much to go on, but since I’ve been walking down this lane of fragmented Cinemax memories, I decided to pick up a copy and give it a go.
Wow.
I mean wow in a good way. Like, I totally have a new appreciation for psychosexual thrillers from the 80s and 90s. It was strange time folks, people still tried to include a story in the midst of its tawdriness, and for the most part, a lot of these films weren’t as bad as some people would have you believe. Party Line is about a supposedly incestuous rich brother and sister who bide their time by hitting the club circuit and slaughtering whomever they can pick-up. The sister, Angelica (the awesome Greta Blackburn) lures horny men into her clutches with offers of real wild sex, then her brother Seth (Leif Garrett) shows up and slits their throat. He dons a red wig and takes no prisoners.
Continue reading ‘Not So Basic Instincts: Party Line (1988)’
Paula Barbieri. Wow. What a flashback. This pretty lady only made a few films, mostly erotic thrillers, and Night Eyes 4 was her last appearance. Don’t quote me or anything, but I’m pretty sure she used a body double in the sex scenes. She is also an underwhelming actress, so I wonder why anyone would hire her for this genre.
Oh wait, she was dating OJ Simpson circa the infamous murder of his ex-wife and an unsuspecting waiter who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I won’t go into details here because if you aren’t aware of the case, then you must have been living under a rock. I do remember Paula getting some coverage after the event based solely on her notorious taste in lovers. I read she split from Simpson the day of the murders, which you know probably pissed him off. She did end up reuniting and staying with OJ through the trial and they broke up shortly after his acquittal. I’m just glad she got out of there, otherwise who would have starred in Night Eyes 4? It just wouldn’t have been the same.
By 1998 erotic thrillers were lucrative in the same way slashers were lucrative in the 80s. Only a few saw any kind of theatrical release, but as video stores tried to meet the supply and demand craze, lots of interesting movies popped up. It’s one of my favorite eras, and one of the most underappreciated, in the history of film. Sure it was a lot of boobs, some bullets and whatever other sensational things the filmmaker could think of, meaning it wasn’t exactly AFI material, but it was damn entertaining, and what more can you ask for on a Saturday night?
In retrospect, Tease is just that. A big ol’ Tease. Playing more like a Lifetime murder mystery than a sexy erotic thriller, there’s just enough T&A to push it more into late night Cinemax than early evening Lifetime. But when all is said and done, this movie just wants to take you to the brink, making you believe something is going to happen, only to pull back, kiss you on the cheek and say goodnight.
After veering briefly into Gregory Dark-land, I got to go back home again and see another in the always enjoyable Night Eyes series. Now I’m up to part three and like the two before it, I’m finding there’s a lot to be said about Andrew Stevens take on sleaze. Um, I mean erotica!
Porn filmmaker Gregory Dark went semi-legit in the early 90s at the beginning of the erotic thriller craze. Even for the genre, his “softcore” work was pretty hardcore back then. Now it all seems a bit quaint – but just a bit. He could give Seduction Cinema a run for its money any day! Unlike Andrew Stevens, Dark (often working under the name Gregory Hippolyte as he did here) concentrated less on story and more on nudity. I’m sure most won’t find fault him for that way of thinking, but his films ended up a lot less entertaining for me. I know, I’m weird.
I know, I know. We’ve all been waiting for it… an erotic thriller about child molestation. Now what could be hotter than that? Strangely, Play Nice is just such a film in the subgenre dealing with that very unsavory topic… and somehow manages to make it entertaining.
Shannon Tweed was already a Playboy Playmate of the Year (1982) and had racked up an impressive list of acting credits as long as your arm when erotic thrillers came knocking on her door in the early 90s. And it was these films, including the sequel to the salacious flick Night Eyes that really put her on the map. She had already appeared in a handful of these types of movies before Night Eyes II, but there was just something so good about the pairing of her and Andrew Stevens. There was also something to the fact that she was a beautiful woman who did nudity and could actually act. Shannon definitely brought up the bar in any production she graced, making her a bit of a Claudia Jennings to the world of the erotic thriller.
Ah, Tanya Roberts. She burned up the screen in the 80s on Charlie’s Angel’s and as a Bond Girl in A View to a Kill. I won’t even get into Beastmaster… That’s just too much!
Although no one would consider this early 80s thriller a classic, The Seduction does have some interesting and glossy qualities to it. Andrew Stevens’ character is fairly well drawn for a popcorn thriller and eerily close to the kind of obsessive fan famous folks have had to accustom themselves to. In fact, The Seduction’s voyeuristic theme still holds a candle about the warped ability to turn one’s fantasies into a dangerous reality.
What can I say? Sure I think Robert Forster is the hottest thing since low-fat cheese and yeah he just happens to be in the last two erotic thrillers I reviewed but that has nothing to do with why I chose The Banker as my next film. It just so happens that he made a few of these movies back in the day and I just tend to own them because like I said, he’s hot.
If loving Body Chemistry III is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
Gregg Smith, where are you?
Gregg was the writer/producer/editor/director of Cover Story, an early 90s erotic thriller that spun a convoluted yet entertaining tale of a reporter and his obsession with a dead girl. It’s bit like the old Dana Andrew’s movie Laura, only with boobies. Also, there’s rap-music galore (Ram Luv, I adore you!), gay gangsters, Tuesday Knight (Nightmare on Elm Street 4) in the WORST wig in the history of wigs (Take that Loni Anderson!) and Robert Forster as the guy who couldn’t generate an emotion if you ate his kid in front of him (and yes, he’s STILL gorgeous!).
