The Ages of Lulu (1990, Sp.) (aka Las Edades de Lulú)

Writer/director Bigas Luna's (known for his later film Jamon, Jamon (1992, Sp.)) explicit and erotic film caused great controversy and censorship. Censorship cuts were made to the film in various places to tone down its graphic nature. The most controversial scenes included:

• the opening title-credits view of a young and naked Lulu as a baby being baptized (with a lengthy and extreme close-up of her female genitals being sprinkled with powder)
• some of the explicitness in the many unorthodox sex scenes
• the concluding S&M bisexual orgy in a gay sex club

It was a tale of the sexual rites-of-passage odyssey of the title character - it consisted of her depraved journey from her naive teenaged high-school years onwards in the city of Madrid:

• Lulu (Francesca Neri), in the film's opening, an impressionable 15 year-old teen

In one of the film's earlier scenes - her first date, she surrendered herself to her brother's much older best friend Pablo (Oscar Ladoire), first in his parked car during a rainstorm when he kissed and touched her all over. Then he unzipped his pants and forced her to deliver fellatio in his lap - but she was disgusted by it and refused. However, she had second thoughts, wanted to please him and reluctantly continued. Her crying and copious tears caused her to quit a second time.

They entered his apartment, where she allowed him to shave her pubic region. After removing her panties, she sat in front of him open-legged in a chair with her white dress pulled up to her waist, as he lathered her crotch with shaving cream and then used a men's razor to scrape away her pubic hair. Then he led her to a couch where he proceeded to take away her virginity.

Opening Shaving Sequence with Young Lulu

Later, when she was still smitten with him, he gave her a gift-wrapped box of a phallic-shaped vibrating, battery-operated dildo, which she immediately put to use (with his assistance). And then after getting her excited, he forced her to submit to very painful anal sex, with the dildo still inside her vagina.

In the next scene, they were married and dancing at their reception. After the ceremony, they had more bouts of wild energetic sex together during their honeymoon.

Honeymoon Sex Between Lulu and Pablo

The couple's sexual cravings soon brought them to a darker underworld of sexual relationships and experience, including a threesome with a trans-gendered or trans-sexual prostitute named Ely (Maria Barranco). While Lulu was kissing Pablo, stripping off her top and about to offer him oral sex, Ely stripped nearby to distract and get the attention of Pablo, and engaged in self-pleasuring by removing his/her panties and playing with his/her flaccid penis (a prosthetic). Eventually, Ely gave up trying to join in with their love-making (Lulu was grinding away on Pablo's lap), and sat nearby and attempted to masturbate while grasping onto Pablo's hand. After finishing with Lulu, Pablo (and Lulu) comforted the very upset Ely.

The Threesome of Lulu, Pablo, and Ely

Lulu also shared a blindfolded sexual encounter (and threesome), not knowing that she had been set up to be touched and made love to by her own brother Marcelo (Fernando Guillén Cuervo), with the permission of Pablo. Marcelo was encouraged to touch and caress her naked breast, and then stimulate her through her panties before kissing her on the lips. Pablo took a pair of scissors to cut an opening in the front of her panties before Marcelo removed his trousers and underwear.

Then, Marcelo turned Lulu over and cut out an opening on the back of her panties before turning her over again onto her back. Marcelo massaged her vagina through the front opening and kissed her all over. With the help of Pablo, Lulu climbed atop Marcelo and engaged in missionary-position sexual intercourse with him, while Pablo simultaneously mounted her from behind.

Lulu's Blindfolded Incestual Threesome with Pablo and Her Brother Marcelo

In the next abruptly introduced scene, she had discovered that the other male was her brother, and she packed up and left Pablo, and took her daughter Ines with her.

Lulu eventually pursued/explored further kinky and increasingly dangerous sensual experiences after watching gay porno films. She lost control over her sexual addiction and appetite, and began to participate in group sex, gay sex, and degrading S&M in a secret gay club.

Lulu's Degradation in an S&M Gay Sex Club

Lulu was bound and gagged (and a sheer stocking was placed over her head). She was on the verge of being violently assaulted. At the same time in the gay club, another gay man was violently fisted by a male prostitute with a lubricated and latex-gloved hand. When Ely entered the club, he was strangled and his head was brutally and lethally bashed into a wall, resulting in his tragic murder. The police arrived, arrested the assailant and rescued Lulu, who was reunited and taken back by her estranged husband.

Bad Girls From Mars (1990)

Fred Olen Ray, who was famous for Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), directed this kitschy "film-within-a-film." It was a low-budget, soft-core, fairly tiresome film shot in only 5 days. It was actually a spoof of its own B-movie origins, with original sound-effects to warn the audience of upcoming "sexually-explicit" scenes (and function as "a signal to close your eyes"), and non-stop 'dirty jokes.'

Its tagline was:

• "And you thought Earth girls were easy..."

The sci-fi film that was being shot, titled "Bad Girls From Mars," opened with leading-lady starlet Terry (Jasae), a female alien named Tila in a spaceship, complaining during a topless scene to her male prisoner (leading man Richard "Dick" Trent (Jay Richardson)) from Earth. When he told her: "It won't work. I'll never be able to love you...You can't force yourself on me sexually" - she was miffed and asserted that she needed to test his love-making skills to see if he measured up - and if he didn't perform, he would die:

"There's no room on Mars for limp dicks."

"Bad Girls From Mars" Leading Star Terry (Jasae) in Opening Scene with Leading Man "Dick" Trent (Jay Richardson) and the Director

Then after the scene wrapped, she returned to her dressing room where she found a non-rhyming poem delivered to her:

"You're mean and cruel right from the start. And now you really have nowhere to hide."

She was strangled and murdered (by an unseen maniac) with a roll of celluloid film that dropped from the ceiling, curled around her neck, and pulled her upward and left her hanging. A search for a new leading lady immediately commenced. Costume-wardrobe girl Myra ("Scream Queen" Brinke Stevens), the girlfriend of narcissistic leading man "Dick" Trent, wanted the now vacated role but was spitefully denied by harried director TJ McMasters (Oliver Darrow).

Costume Girl Myra (Brinke Stevens)	Director TJ McMasters (Oliver Darrow)
Secretary Martine (Dana Bentley)	Emanuelle Fortes (Edy Williams)

By this time, four female stars had now been murdered on the set. The film's producer Mac Regan (Jeffrey Culver) encouraged the very reluctant TJ to bring on a new actress (a "mystery woman") from Europe to star in the picture:

• Miss Emanuelle Fortes (Russ Meyer bimbo Edy Williams), a busty, leggy and exotic blonde sex goddess/ author, stating that she had "great tits."

Once the breathy replacement actress arrived and was picked up by TJ at the airport, she insisted on changing her clothes in the open convertible on their way through Beverly Hills, and then again changed in the pool's dressing room. She found a warning note in the pocket of a robe: "When sweethearts get strangled, their faces turn blue, so I'd get out of town, if I were --- thinking of being in this movie."

In an Open Convertible	In a Dressing Room	Before Taking a Jacuzzi
Kidnapped in the Jacuzzi	Involved in a Robbery of a Convenience Store	In TJ's Office
Emanuelle's Constant Disrobing

In his office, McMasters was seen being seduced by his dark-haired secretary Martine (Dana Bentley) - a regular occurrence. Later in the evening, after it was assumed that Emanuelle had put in an appearance at a local Burlesque Strip Club, she arrived by taxi at Dick's home, but he wasn't there. While stripping down and dipping naked in a jacuzzi, Emanuelle was attacked from behind by a masked killer. She was kidnapped, although she escaped when the kidnapper left her by herself in a car and attacked the director TJ McMasters outside the studio and stole film canisters. The big-breasted bimbo ended up loosely draped in a robe in Donn's Liquors store during an inept robbery.

The next day, Emanuelle threatened walking off the set to TJ, the director, fearing for her life: "I want to live through the week," but then was turned into a "wild woman" by the smell of garbage on his clothes:

"You knew!...Only a handful of people knew...that the smell of garbage, it turns me into a wild woman! The first time I ever made love was inside a great big dumpster. I was 12 and the boy was 18. No one's been able to top him. Do you think you'd like to try?"

Once filming resumed, Martine found another death note in the office: "Everyone you know will die, unless we see things the same." After Myra was viewed off-screen cracking a whip during a 'rehearsed' scene, Emanuelle entered TJ's office, lowered the top of her red dress, and propositioned the director:

"You work way too long, too hard...I want to rehearse tomorrow's sex scenes with you...I'll show you how it goes."

It caused jealous secretary Martine in the outer office to challenge her to a fierce, half-naked cat-fight. The struggle ended when the secretary was grabbed from behind by the masked killer and her neck was broken, and Emanuelle was again kidnapped and taken to a warehouse where her hands were bound on crossed wood beams. TJ found another warning note pinned to his shirt: "Roses are red, melons are round. Don't try looking for Emanuelle 'cause she'll never be located."

In the film's conclusion, an unusual last-minute plot twist was soon revealed. She recognized the voice of the masked killer, and confirmed it when the killer dragged over two garbage receptacles. The black-garbed, masked serial killer was:

• Emanuelle's ex-boyfriend Victor Buntz from over a decade ago in the past: ("Things were a lot less complicated then"); they had made love in a garbage dumpster when he was a virgin
• in Sweden, Victor murdered Dr. Edward Wood, his gender reassignment surgeon after his face was altered during the surgery
• Victor had decided to become a female in order to try and break into soft-core films

The killer returned to the studio and committed the final murders. Emanuelle escaped from her bondage and followed the killer to the studio where she came across a warning note: "When things are rough, don't let it be said that like Martine, you lost your nerve." She opened a box with Martine's bloody head inside. Then, she discovered that producer Regan's neck had been slashed. She exclaimed: "Oh no, now I'll never get paid." His death note read: "Regan was an asshole, so I killed him with aplomb. And all the rest will die unless they find my explosive."

Emanuelle again faced the serial killer who attempted to strangle her - but she was able to unmask him/her, revealing that it was Myra, her ex-boyfriend who confessed to the murders - so she and Emanuelle could advance in the industry and become film stars:

"Nothing's been working out right for me lately... The only moment of real happiness I ever knew as Victor Buntz was that afternoon with you in the garbage. I just wasn't cut out to be a boy, you know. I was lousy at sports, beer made me nauseous, I hated shaving in the morning. So I went to this doctor in Sweden and changed my sex...I always wanted to be a movie star, you know, bright lights, flashy cars, glamour, the Enquirer. Now look at me....It started with Dr. Edward Wood. I was fantasizing about my pool and mansion in Beverly Hills, when suddenly I saw the doctor standing there with some before and after photos of me in his hand. And I realized he could destroy me. So I saved him the disgrace of becoming a blackmailer...I couldn't think of any other way, for all the good it's done me. I can't seem to find the right person to kill to get in the movies. Sometimes I feel like giving up, especially when I saw how well you were doing for yourself. But you couldn't crack the movies either, so I thought I'd give you a hand."

Myra explained that "in a round-about way," she was responsible for the killings that had given Emanuelle the opportunity to star in the soft-core film: ("Once you were in Hollywood, things would start happening for you"). She was also motivated by her jealous and possessive love for Richard. Myra's planned last act was to blow up the studio with a hand-grenade, but Emanuelle knocked her out, placed the grenade in her mouth, and pulled the pin - eliminating Myra in the ensuing explosion.

The film ended with Emanuelle performing as a topless alien unscripted in the scene that opened the film - she stripped, then rubbed, squeezed, and shook her bare breasts, while the director yelled: "Cut!" and commented (off-screen):

"Will this movie never end?"

Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990)

After Deathstalker (1983) and director Héctor Olivera's Barbarian Queen (1985), the demand continued for sword and sorcery, fantasy sexploitation tales. Director Joe Finley's R-rated direct-to-video release (his first - and last film), a fantasy costume adventure film featured mud-wrestling, cat-fights, buxom warrioresses wearing either leather or fur costumes (often topless) to expose lots of flesh, and power struggles for the throne involving a magic scepter (that bestowed immortality).

Barbarian Queen (1985) (aka Queens of the Naked Steel)

Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990)

The cheap B-movie shamelessly attempted to capitalize on the popularity of the Star Wars franchise with the subtitle: "The Empress Strikes Back."

The film's tagline was:

• She's Wild. She's Sexy. She's the Barbarian Queen.

B-movie actress Lana Clarkson reprised her title role in this sequel-in-name-only as a statuesque, blonde, sword-wielding 'Barbarian Queen' warrior woman - now not named Amethea, but Princess-Queen Athalia.

In the opening scenes set in the king's castle, Princess Athalia was being prepped to be married, but due to news that her benevolent monarch-father was now missing (or slain during battle), power-hungry Ankaris (Alejandro Bracho), Athalia's evil uncle, had summoned her. He had obviously usurped the throne, and was planning on ruling with his ambitious and bratty teenaged sorceress-daughter Tamis (14-year-old Mexican child actress Cecilia Tijerina), and his evil and sadistic henchman Hofrax (Roger Cudney).

Ankaris (Alejandro Bracho)	Tamis (Cecilia Tijerina)
Hofrax (Roger Cudney)	Aurion (Greg Wrangler)

When Princess Athalia briefly took control of a magic scepter (required for the king's coronation) located in a cellar vault, she recited part of a magical incantation (leaving off the last and most secret part of the chant):

Trust your power to the daughter of such who held it in another time. Trust in me what no man can touch without the blessing of woman-kind....

Tamis took the scepter from Athalia and passed it over to the treacherous Ankaris. The Princess (or "Barbarian Queen") stubbornly retained the Secret of the scepter and its power of immortality: ("You can rule by force, but the true power will never be yours!"). She refused to completely use the scepter's power, fearing that if her father was still alive, he might be affected and die. She restored the scepter to its original position over a pedestal.

Sentenced to be executed by hanging the next morning for refusing to divulge the scepter's secret, Athalia resisted death, escaped and fled. Meanwhile, the manipulative Tamis had romantic intentions toward Athalia's handsome childhood suitor and friend Aurion (Greg Wrangler), to become her future husband (and king).

Princess Athalia gathered local support from peasants and other rebellious female warriors, including Zarla (Rebecca Wood) who saved her life during her flight. Away from the castle, she was challenged to a mud-wrestling fight with the very-combative red-headed leader Erigena (Orietta Aguilar) of the forest camp, and after victory, Athalia became their new leader and spokesperson.

Meanwhile, some of Ankaris' men in pursuit of Athalia kidnapped innocent travelers in the area and attempted rape on an unfortunate female - crudely threatening her as she was assaulted: "Come on, don't make this unpleasant. Come on, take it like a man." Athalia was joined by many others, including mute forest hunter Ethbeck (Monica Steuer), whose vocal chords had been cut earlier by Hofrax, to fight off the opposing forces.

When Hofrax and Aurion with a band of soldiers returned to the forest to capture Athalia, they were taken prisoner. Athalia taunted the woman-hating, misogynistic Hofrax tied to a stake:

"Why are you so afraid of women?...Everyone has something that can destroy them. One night with me would be the end of you."

Afterwards, she freed Aurion and made love to him in a forest field, but then forced him to ride back to Ankaris - joining the humiliated Hofrax on horseback.

When recaptured by Ankaris after the forest dwellers made an attempt to infiltrate the castle disguised as light-blue cloaked nuns, Athalia suffered through the film's lengthy torture sequence when bound on an upright rack to be stretched for torture. It was reminiscent of a similar scene in the original 1985 film. Standing in front of her, he reached out to Athalia's breasts and stripped her topless. After he pulled off her top, he admired her large breasts with disdain:

"What an awesomely disgusting sight!"

As he tightened the rack and she winced, Hofrax noted that she was made to be completely submissive to him: "It's not pain that breaks them. It's fear. Knowing that they are absolutely helpless. You are helpless, aren't you? I can do anything I please to you. And there's nothing you can do." While observing the torture, Tamis gloated: "I'm going to like this part when I am queen." Athalia disagreed: "You'll never be queen!" Tamis threatened: "You'd better tell about the scepter now. Make her tell!"

Hofrax moved the rack into a horizontal position, to suspend Athalia above (with her breasts hanging down) over a bed of spikes. The two threatened Athalia if she didn't divulge the secret of the scepter.

During their break for a meal, Athalia was able to easily free herself and escape. She retreated to the cellar where the scepter was located - but was soon seized by Hofrax, who informed her of her father's death (in battle). Athalia was again apprehended and stretched topless on the torture rack, but still refused to speak the magical spell necessary to activate the scepter's power. Hofrax threatened that if she didn't comply - her death wouldn't stop him:

"If you are afraid to use the scepter to save yourself, you're certainly never going to give the secret to us. And so Ankaris has relented. He's given me permission to kill you. Ah, I intend to do it very slowly. The secret of the scepter will have to remain a secret."

Athalia was released by Aurion from the torture rack, rescued by the female warrioresses, and brought back to the forest to heal from a poisonous spider bite inflicted upon her by Tamis. Meanwhile, Tamis was transformed into an adult witch by invoking the power of her mother's magic amulet: ("Trust your power to the daughter of such who held it in another time...."). Vengeful for Aurion's betrayal (and his love of Athalia), Tamis wished either for Aurion to return to her, or to be dead.

Revived but determined to avenge her father's death, Athalia (still ailing from the spider bite) vowed to fight on with the power of the scepter:

"In a few days, I'll be dead. Whoever holds the scepter cannot be killed by human hands. And it was human hands that loosed the spider that is poisoning me. The scepter is my only chance. I'm going to live. We're all going to live in freedom! And for that, I'll face Hofrax and 10,000 swords. We march at dawn."

Nonetheless, she decided to lead a revolt against the corrupt regime, with the ultimate objective of retaking the throne.

As everyone prepared for battle, Tamis (as a witch) followed Athalia to the forest, infiltrated into the camp, and eavesdropped on Athalia (delirious from the spider bite) and heard her repeat the magical incantation: ("Help me now, accept your gain, and by its power, forever reign"). Rather than act upon the spell immediately, the sorceress Tamis was somehow recognized by Aurion and captured, and forced to dress as one of the rebels to accompany the group for their return to assault and invade the poorly-defended castle.

In the film's conclusion, partially set inside the scepter room, Ankaris accidentally killed his own daughter Tamis by stabbing her in the abdomen with his sword (he mistook her for a rebel and asked: "Who are you to call me father?") - and then in total grief, committed suicide. Hofrax was confronted by Athalia and killed in the outer corridor. The scepter's power was now with Athalia as she delivered a final speech to her victorious forces:

"It has always been magic that has kept our rulers in power, instead of the grace of those they rule. But that is the real magic. When the people believe in someone enough to trust their lives to them, that is the only magic that will rule this kingdom from this day on!"

The film ended with the downfall of the corrupt kingdom, and the establishment of a democratic and peaceful rule over the Barbarian Queen's people. Athalia kissed Aurion in gratitude for his loyal affection and love.

Frankenhooker (1990)

Longtime B-horror director Frank Henenlotter's blood-and-breasts spoof was one of the most notorious, silliest, and over-the-top horror/comedies ever made, and a spoof of the Frankenstein legend found in the classic horror film Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Its taglines, among many, were:

• A Terrifying Tale Of Sluts And Bolts
• Wanna Date?

Its main characters in the film's opening were:

• Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz), a self-described "bio-electrical technician," a mad scientist/engineer working for an electrical company in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, who was obsessed with anatomy; he was a three-time, medical-school wanna-be and drop-out
• Elizabeth Shelley (August 1986 Penthouse Pet of the Month Patty Mullen), Jeffrey's 21 year-old pudgy blonde girlfriend and bride-to-be, a compulsive eater trying to lose weight

Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz)

Elizabeth Shelley (Patty Mullen)

During a family BBQ in the pre-title credits opening sequence of the film, Elizabeth was accidentally killed by Jeffrey's invention - a runaway, "beserk" remote-controlled lawnmower, intended as a birthday present for his future father-in-law Mr. Shelley (J.J. Clark). Disturbed and grief-stricken, and admitting that he was "anti-social" and "dangerously amoral" and could not distinguish right from wrong, he decided to reconstruct her body.

He had stolen her head (the only part that could be salvaged), with plans to reconstruct her body. As he ate dinner during a mock date with Elizabeth's decapitated head, he announced:

I can make you into anything you want. I can make you the centerfold goddess of the century. I just need the live parts.

Meanwhile, he had refrigerated her head (and other various body parts) in a bubbling, purple preservative bath in a freezer, to use in a few days for his construction of a "perfect woman" - her head would be stitched onto the body parts of other voluptuous streetwalkers. The crazed Jeffrey spoke to her:

I just wanna make life. I mean, you know. I just wanna bring you back Elizabeth, you know. I mean in order for you to- to live, I mean, somebody's gotta take your place, you know? I mean somebody has to die for you to live.

Jeffrey drove off to locate hookers and acquire their body "parts" for his creation. One hooker named Honey (December 1982 Playboy Playmate, Charlotte Kemp) propositioned him in his car in a red-light district when he asked: "I'm looking for a lot of good parts." She pulled down her blouse and dangled her breasts in front of him, bragging:

Honey. In case you ain't noticed, I not only got all the right parts, I've got 'em all in the right places.

When he flashed a wad of money at her, she pulled up her top, jumped into his car, and excitedly exclaimed: "Now you're talking."

The spoof was mostly noted for its "Exploding Prostitutes" sequence. Jeffrey (now nicknamed "Jersey Boy") had thought of a way to acquire a large number of bare-breasted prostitutes. His plan was to lure them to a hotel room with promises of a party that would serve them lethal "super-crack" cocaine. In Huevos Grande Bar & Grill, a stripper bar, Jeffrey was forced to negotiate with Honey's sadistic, muscle-bound pimp and crack dealer Zorro (Joseph Gonzalez) in the back rest-room, to get his permission to release lots of well-paid prostitutes to provide entertainment for the next evening's party.

After inserting a power drill into his own brain's skull to ease his insanity (a procedure to perforate the skull known as trepans), Jeffrey rationalized to himself that his plan to supply them with deadly crack-cocaine would be their own fateful choice:

I'm merely gonna place a lethal form of crack in their presence. They don't have to take it. Nobody has a gun to their head. If they don't wanna do it, they can just say no.

In the film's most memorable sequence set in a room in the decrepit Sultry Arms Hotel - Jeffrey (dressed as a doctor) was introduced to the hookers, and took measurements of their various body parts and conducted medical exams to select and mark the best of the best. When they discovered Jeffrey's bag of super-crack cocaine, they went into a frenzy and began smoking the chunks of 'rock or ice' - causing them to explode and detonate.

"Exploding Prostitutes" Sequence in Hotel Room
Honey (Charlotte Kemp)	Various Hookers Lined Up	(l to r): Sugar (Vicki Darnell) and Snow (Gittan Goding)
Angel (Jennifer Delora)	(l to r): Snow, Chartreuse (Heather Hunter), Sugar	Chartreuse
Amber (Kimberly Taylor)	(l to r): Sugar and Snow	(l to r) Amber and Anise (Susan Napoli)
"Exploding Prostitute" Angel
"Exploding Prostitute" Snow

The sole survivor, Jeffrey apologized and then promised to take all of their severed limbs and parts (in large black plastic garbage bags) back to his laboratory to sew them together and re-animate them with electricity (from a storm's lightning):

"I'm gonna put everybody back together. I promise you! But first I gotta put Elizabeth back together because that's - that's the whole point of this."

The reconstructed purple-bikinied female monster, his resultant "Bride of Frankenstein", with purple patchworked, mismatched parts including purplish areola on her breasts, was dubbed 'Frankenhooker' since she only wanted to turn tricks on Times Square streets. She knocked Jeffrey out, stumbled out of his makeshift laboratory, and went on the prowl for johns.

She was a sexually-ravenous nymphomaniac and undead (but deadly) "hooker" who propositioned various potential males with typical pick-up lines such as:

• "Wanna date?"
• "Need some company, lonely?"
• "Got any money?"
• "Looking for some action?"
• "Party, party! Wanna party?"

Intimate sexual relations with her turned out to be literally shocking - any male client that she kissed short-circuited and exploded. When Zorro confronted Elizabeth in the Huevos Grande Bar & Grill and asked who she was, he violently struck her and her head was separated and decapitated from her body. Jeffrey rescued her, took her home, and successfully repaired and revived her, but Zorro pursued after him and decapitated Jeffrey in his laboratory with a machete. There was an additional disgusting revenge scene upon Zorro by the spare reanimated female body parts that had merged into grotesque forms.

Grotesque Merged Spare Female Body Parts Attacking Zorro

The film featured a famous, sickly-twisted surprise ending when Elizabeth revived Jeffrey after telling him: "I have an idea." She grafted his head onto the body of a large breasted hooker's body in order to be rejuvenated. (Jeffrey's estrogen-based procedure could only work on female bodies.)

As a transformed male-headed 'Frankenhooker' awoke on an uprighted table, Jeffrey was astounded, and lamented and moaned to Elizabeth about his new body!

Jeffrey: Holy s--t! That's not my hand. What are these boobs? Elizabeth, what did you do to me?
Elizabeth: I can explain. Obviously, since your serum only works on female body parts, I couldn't reuse your old body, or even Zorro's. So naturally, I had to make some changes. (She uncovered a mirror for a full view of his nude body)
Jeffrey: No! Where's my johnson? What did you do to me, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Granted, what I did may have been a bit unorthodox, but hey, you look great, and you're alive, and you're back with me and I love you. I love you, Jeffrey, and we're together again. All of us, together again. Together again!

Ghost (1990)

Director Jerry Zucker's old-fashioned, supernatural romantic fantasy was one of the most popular films of its decade and year. It was the # 1 hit of 1990 (beating out Pretty Woman (1990)), grossing $217.6 million (domestic) and $505.7 million (worldwide), on a budget of just $22 million. From its five nominations including Best Picture, Best Original Music Score, and Best Film Editing, it won two Oscars (Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Whoopi Goldberg as a paranormal con-artist named Oda Mae Brown)).

Its tagline was:

• Before Sam was murdered he told Molly he'd love and protect her forever.

The two main characters in a loving relationship and living together in a recently-renovated NYC apartment were:

• Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), an investment banker
• Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), a talented sculptor/artisan (potter)

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze)

Molly Jensen (Demi Moore)

The romantic drama was most noted for their non-nude, sexually-seductive (symbolic of mutual masturbation) sequence beginning at about the 11 minute mark in the film. The loving couple co-created molding clay on a hypnotically-spinning pottery wheel between their shared, wet hands. They were accompanied by a 45 rpm record loaded into a jukebox that played the Righteous Brothers' 1965 hit "Unchained Melody."

The two sensuously molded, formed and sculpted a phallic-shaped clay object positioned between her legs when she couldn't sleep at 2 am. Her shirtless lover Sam kissed Molly as he was seated behind her. He assisted her in reshaping a collapsed piece of pottery (her failed "masterpiece") by putting his hands together with hers, as she instructed: "Put your hands here. Now get them wet. Let the clay slide between your fingers." He wrapped his arms around her from behind, as they both morphed the grayish, oozing clay from one phallic shape to another.

[Note: This scene was later spoofed in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991).]

The sequence continued with their extended love-making and kissing ("hunger for your love") in their darkened apartment, as she embraced him and they twirled around locked together.

Shortly later in the film was a scene of senseless violence when Sam was mortally wounded (gunned down) and died in his beloved Molly's arms in an alleyway after a serious and unexpected incident with an armed criminal named Willy Lopez (Rick Aviles). In a miraculous sequence, Sam came back as a spirit to warn Molly about a threat to her endangered life.

While she was seated at her pottery wheel, she spoke to herself about how she was still reeling from his death:

"...I broke into tears. It's like I think about you every minute. It's like I can still feel you."

The recently-murdered ghost-spirit Sam was crouched next to her, and tried to reveal himself behind the grieving Molly as she sculpted clay. He reassured her: "I'm here, Mol." When she sensed his presence, she asked: "Sam?"

The Grifters (1990)

Director Stephen Frears' R-rated adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel of the same name was a seedy and tense film noir about three 'grifter' con-artists and their worlds of treachery and double-cross.

• Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a 25 year-old, two-bit small-time hustler/con
• Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston), an experienced horse-gambler and Roy's estranged mother
• Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), a high-stakes sexual swindler and corporate scam artist scheister, Roy's 35 year-old girlfriend

Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston)

Myra Langtry (Annette Bening)

Roy Dillon (John Cusack)

The two females were engaged in a deadly power-struggle love-triangle for the male's attention. The film's tagline emphasized their grifting:

• Seduction. Betrayal. Murder. Who's Conning Who?
  

Myra was introduced entering Stromberg's Jewelers shop where she conned the gullible jeweler (Stephen Tobolowsky) into believing that she wasn't hocking fake diamonds. In a second scene, Myra demonstrated her wily ways by lounging naked on her bed to lure Joe (Gailard Sartain), her landlord, to forgive her for late payment of her rent by having sex with her. She proposed a choice:

"Only one choice to a customer, the lady or the loot. What's it gonna be?"

Then, as Joe laid on top of her, she exclaimed: "I was remembering at lunch, on the menu, it said, 'Today's special - Broiled hothouse tomato under generous slice of ripe cheese!'"

The sexy and deceitful Myra became a romantic interest for Roy - she enticed and seduced him within a naked doorway to become his affectionate floozy girlfriend. She opened her door, standing there stark naked, ran by him in the dark hallway shouting: "Gangway," and then hid behind a curtain as she apologized:

"I hope you don't mind, sir. I just washed my clothes and I couldn't do a thing with them."

He chased after her and tossed her onto a bed.

In the film's conclusion, vengeful Myra was shot to death by Lilly, and then Myra's face-blasted and disfigured corpse was made to look like Lilly's. Roy was called upon, as next-of-kin, to identify his mother at the Phoenix morgue - he concealed the fact that he noticed Lilly's right hand did not have its tell-tale cigar burn mark.

Then, Lilly was confronted by Roy as she appeared to be stealing his money in his place. She argued that she was on the run and needed his money, and claimed she might make a break to get out of the con games and grifting (although she'd never had a legitimate job in her life) - she desperately begged and begged for his money, to tide her over:

"I need this money! I can't run without money! And if I can't run, I'm dead!...I want that money, Roy, I need it. Now, what do I have to do to get it? You mean you won't give it to me, Roy? Will you or won't you? What can I do to get it? Is there nothing I can do?"

When she came close and seductively kissed him, he asked: "Lilly, Jesus, what are you doing?", she replied: "Nothing at all, nothing at all," but then in a bizarre twist, she swung a suitcase full of cash at her son's head as he was drinking water from a glass. The glass smashed and cut an artery in his neck - and he profusely bled to death on the floor in front of her!

The Conclusion: Roy With His Deadly Mother Lilly

Red-dressed Lilly gathered up the strewn cash, descended in an elevator, and drove away.

Henry & June (1990)

Director Philip Kaufman's frank and bold treatment of sex was based on the unedited diaries of poetry and memories by author Anais Nin - published post-humously in 1986. Its tagline was:

• A True Adventure More Erotic Than Any Fantasy

It was the first major studio feature film to be released with the new and revised NC-17 rating by the MPAA (due to an explicit yet simulated scene of lesbian oral sex) - a rating designed to distinguish erotic-and-serious adult films from pure hard-core X-rated pornography. The new rating remained a stigma. Thereafter, many directors/studios afraid of NC-17 released their films as unrated or reluctantly cut and re-edited them to receive R ratings.

It had the second highest box-office gross of all-time at $11.6 million, about half of the #1 NC-17 film of all time, Showgirls (1995) at $20.3 million.

The sexually-provocative biodrama with themes of voyeurism, partner-swapping, three-way sex, and both hetero- and homo-sexuality told about a love triangle between three individuals in early 1930s Bohemian Paris:

• Anais Nin (Maria de Medeiros, a Portuguese actress), a petite, fragile yet sexually-liberated and free-spirited writer, unsatisfyingly married to banker husband Hugo Parker Guiler (Richard E. Grant) who called her by his pet name "Pussywillow"; the couple had relocated to Paris
• Henry Miller (Fred Ward), an ex-patriate American writer and 'Tropic of Cancer' author, living a Bohemian lifestyle
• June (19 year old Uma Thurman), Henry's alluring and enigmatic bi-sexual wife (his second), an ex-taxi dancer who was often absent (searching for employment as an actress in New York); she functioned as the muse and object of the affections of both Henry and Anais

The controversial film included these scenes:

• during the opening credits, there was a postcard view of the famous erotic woodcut (The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife) from Japanese artist Hokusai, depicting oral sex between two octopi and a young, naked Ama pearl diver; Anais claimed that with the entire collection of erotic items in a box she found in a closet, and wrote: "I became familiar with the endless varieties of the erotic experience"
• Anais' many passionate and eager couplings with Henry during their affair together, including her first time with him furtively behind a curtain in a club during a syncopated dance (he told her: "I love you, I need you" and she told him that she also loved him)
• up against a wall in a tunnel as Henry began to perform oral sex on Anais, they professed their love for each other:
  Anais: "I feel so pure. So strong. So new, Henry. You and I together, not any man or woman together."
  Henry: "Anais, I'm gonna demand everything of ya. Even the impossible. Because you encourage it. Maybe I should get down on my knees and worship ya. Oh, I'm gonna undress ya. Vulgarize ya a bit. Lift up your dress."
  Anais: "No, Henry, not here."
  Henry: "Don't look around. You little aristocrat. Don't care. I wanna fuck ya, teach ya things, humiliate you a little. Wrap your leg around me. I'm gonna make you come with me"
• Anais slow-dancing (and deep lesbian kissing) with June in an underground lesbian club
• love-making between Anais and her husband Hugo, when her voice-over accompanied them while he was sleeping: "Perhaps I am a demon to be able to pass from Henry's arms into Hugo's. Hugo lies next to me as I write this. I love Hugo. And I feel innocent"
• some segments of le Bal des Beaux Arts (the Art Students' Ball) sequence, including Anais' 'rape' by costumed husband Hugo
• an "exhibition" of lesbian love-making in a private show conducted in a mirrored brothel room, viewed by Anais and Hugo, between Henry's blonde whore (Brigitte Lahaie) and another Frail Prostitute (Maïté Maillé) - when Anais advised the aggressive blonde: "Stop pretending to be a man."
• Anais' love-making scene with her lover/cousin Eduardo (Jean-Philippe Écoffey) in the midst of her other affair

Selected Scenes in the First NC-17 Rated Film - Henry & June
Anais with Husband Hugo	Anais' Love-Making with Henry	Anais' 'Rape' by Husband Hugo in le Bal des Beaux Arts
Frail Prostitute (Maïté Maillé)
	Private Lesbian Club "Exhibition" Between Henry's Whore and Frail Prostitute

In another scene, Anais described an hallucinatory "nightmare" dream-fantasy of sex with June (and with Henry's blonde whore) in an upper loft, experiencing 'abnormal pleasures' ("I begged her to undress. I asked her to let me see between her legs. As she lay over me, I felt a penis touching me..."). Anais also had a climactic love-making scene with Henry after he had finished his novel 'Tropic of Cancer' while Hugo was downstairs.

[Note: "Tropic of Cancer" was published in 1934, and banned in all English-speaking countries for 27 years.]

In the concluding scene, Anais and June got together for love-making (while Henry was asleep in another room of the house) after which an accusatory June confronted Anais about her sexual awakening, and her manipulative and self-serving affair with Henry, her husband:

Anais: I love you.
June: Love? You just want experience. You're a writer. You make love to whatever you need. You're just like Henry.
Anais: No, I'm just like you.
June: I can see exactly what you're doing. You're so slippery, so slippery. You bitch. Liar, trickster. You bought his love.
Anais: June, shut up!
June: You both robbed me blind. You stole everything. And what do I care? I got plenty more to give.
Anais: Shut up.
June: To someone new. Some truly great writer. Henry said you just took us in because you were bored.
Anais: That's a lie. A lie.

Anais broke off her relationship with both Henry & June and returned to her husband Hugo, although she had been changed forever. As she drove away with him, she lamented (in voice-over) her lost loves, although Henry and Anais remained "life-long friends and supporters":

That morning I wept. I wept because I loved the streets that took me away from Henry and would lead me back to him. I wept because the process by which I had become a woman was painful. I wept because from now on, I would weep less. I wept because I had lost my pain and I was not yet accustomed to its absence.

The Hot Spot (1990)

Actor Dennis Hopper directed this contemporary, sexy film noir (based on Charles Williams' 1952 tawdry and pulpy novel "Hell Hath No Fury"). Its taglines emphasized blackmail, adultery, murder and double-cross:

• Film Noir Like You've Never Seen
• Safe Is Never Sex. It's Dangerous

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a financially-failing film. On a budget of $13 million, it only grossed $1.3 million.

The nihilistic neo-noirish, erotic thriller was set in the steamy and hot-house atmosphere of the sun-baked town of Taylor, TX, and involved a love-triangle amongst a trio of shady characters:

• Harry Madox (Don Johnson), a 36 year-old scheming drifter, a slick loner and womanizer who suddenly arrived in town; he took a job at Harshaw Motors as a smooth-talking, used car dealer salesman, by showing his skill in closing a deal; he admitted: "My life's just been a succession of jams over floozies of one kind or another"
• Dolly Harshaw (Virginia Madsen in a sizzling, vampish performance as a Lana Turner-like femme fatale seductress), the hot-blooded, bored, trampy, predatory and opportunistic, sinful blonde wife of the used car-lot owner George Harshaw (Jerry Hardin), driving a pink Cadillac open convertible
• Gloria Harper (future Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly), a troubled, but sweet, wholesome and soft-spoken 19 year-old brunette Texas car dealership office secretary-bookkeeper

Harry Madox (Don Johnson)

Dolly Harshaw (Virginia Madsen)

Gloria Harper (Jennifer Connelly)

The film opened with Harry's arrival in town, and his stay at the Landmark Inn when he happened to notice that the Landers State Bank was completely unguarded when a fire broke out nearby in a hamburger shack. (All the bank employees were volunteer firemen.) He began an affair with his new boss' sultry wife Dolly, after helping her and her drawling statement: "There are only two things to do around here. You got a TV?" When Harry replied: "Nope,' she added: "Well, now you're down to one. Lotsa luck!"

Dolly Seducing Harry

She pursued him for sex - in her own bedroom when her husband was away for the weekend, and in the back seat of a parked car on display in the lot where he provided her with oral sex. She quipped afterwards: "That was more fun than eatin' cotton candy barefoot."

Shortly later, Harry created circumstances (by setting a fire in one of the town's buildings on a hot afternoon) that provided him with the opportunity to rob the bank. Later, he buried the cash in the ground in a wooded area. While engaged in an on-going highly-sexualized affair with Dolly, he also began a relationship with Gloria, beginning with a swimming-birthday date.

Due to his on-going affair with Dolly, she was able to provide an alibi for his exact whereabouts at the time of the bank heist, but then blackmailed him into further involvement in an affair. She used her leverage to pressure him to keep seeing her, including skinny-dipping at the sawmill: "Wasn't that lucky I saw you there the other day at the fire? Just supposin' I had missed ya." She jealously teased him: "You thought you could leave me for that Sunday-School kid. Thought you could leave me for her." She emphasized: "I always get what I want, Harry." And then hinted that her weak-hearted husband could possibly die - if she had her way: "Anything at all too excitin' will just kill him."

One of the side plots told about Gloria's troubled orphaned past with one of the menacing hillbilly townsfolk - an unscrupulous, deadbeat, seedy backwoodsman named Frank Sutton (William Sadler). According to her account, the girl that she had grown up with was her sister, and due to Sutton, she had committed suicide over the threatened revelation of a lesbian affair --

"Sutton drove her to it. He did it. She was my sister, Harry...She'd been havin' an affair with a woman who was a teacher of ours. They'd been meeting in Houston. Somehow Sutton found out. He seems to know what people's weaknesses are. And he was blackmailin' her."

In addition, Sutton had taken incriminating sexual pictures of Gloria with her sister Irene Davey (Debra Cole) when they went skinny-dipping together, seen in flashback. He threatened to also spread rumors of other sexual improprieties if he wasn't paid to keep quiet: "And what had we been doin' in that bedroom we shared when we were girls?" After Irene's suicide, Sutton continued to blackmail and extort Gloria. She had been embezzling money from work ($500 each time) to pay Frank off, to prevent him from publicizing nude photos of her with Irene. However, now she was ready to quit the pay-offs and admit her guilt to Harshaw.

As the film concluded, other plot twists, developments, and turns came to the forefront:

• In love with Gloria, Harry roughed up Frank for blackmailing Gloria over the nude photos
• After Harry refused to run away with Dolly, she became very spiteful: ("If you think you're gonna ditch me for that saccharin little candy-ass, you've got another thing comin'"); she deliberately intended to cause her husband George's death - she confessed to being "a bad wife" and for her affair with Harry: ("All these things I'm doin' to you, I've done to your boy, Harry Madox, down at the sawmill, over and over again"); she engaged in vigorous sex with him ("l'm f--kin' you to death, George"), sending him with a lethal heart-attack to the hospital (off-screen)
• To avoid suspicion and further efforts by Frank to continue blackmailing Gloria - and questioning Harry's own whereabouts during the bank robbery (although Frank wasn't even there), Harry planted the bank heist money on Frank to frame him; and then during a second physical struggle with Frank inside his shack, he caught Frank having sex with Dolly!; she was identified by her shoes, although Frank delivered a misleading line: ("She ain't half bad for a girl that goes both ways, you know?"); Harry killed Frank and made his death appear to be a suicide; he turned Frank in to the authorities, and was eligible for the $25,000 reward for solving the bank crime

Harry's Murder of Frank

Harry's Marital Proposal to Gloria

Harry Threatening to Choke Dolly

• Harry's intention was to immediately whisk Gloria off to the Caribbean to be married: ("Just you and me and a wedding ring"); however, Dolly (now a widow) phoned with news of her husband's death: "You might say he died in the saddle"; she pressured Harry to be with her - with a letter (to be opened upon her death) that would incriminate Harry for both the robbery and Frank's death, and would condemn Gloria's theft of blackmail money to pay off Sutton
• Dolly revealed that she had been in cahoots with Frank (he hadn't witnessed the second fire at all), and was the one having sex with him in the shack; Dolly had also revealed how Harry had betrayed Gloria (he turned her in for theft, and had engaged in a secret affair with Dolly); therefore, Gloria decided to break up with him by refusing a ride back to the dealership
• Although tempted to choke Dolly to death when he now realized that she had informed Frank about Harry's involvement in the theft and bank fire, Harry ended up with her as they drove away from town - conversing in voice over:

Harry: "In this life, you gotta take what you want."
Dolly: "I always get what I want, Harry."
Harry: "Yes, indeed. I've found my level. And I'm livin' it."

Jours Tranquilles à Clichy (1990, Fr.)

French director Claude Chabrol's sexually-explicit, erotic drama was a tale of free love, hedonism, and the Bohemian lifestyle. It became notorious for charges of obscenity when it was seized by US authorities and viewed as pornography. The 120-minute version of the film was considered the most explicit.

It was the second film adaptation of controversial Bohemian author Henry Miller's biographical novel of the same name. The story had been told earlier in director Jens Jørgen Thorsen's black and white Quiet Days in Clichy (1970, Denmark), with a Country Joe McDonald soundtrack.

The colorful 1990 French effort told about two males who indulged in a variety of decadent sexual escapades in the 1930s in Paris' bordellos, brothels and fancy restaurants:

• Henry Miller - AKA Joey (Andrew McCarthy), an American expatriate who was struggling to establish himself as a serious writer
• Alfred Perlès - AKA Karl (Nigel Havers), Polish, Joey's best friend

In intercut sequences throughout the non-linear film, including the opening scene, Joey was depicted during his final hours as an aging, wrinkle-skinned and dying man accompanied by:

• an Adolescent (Giuditta Del Vecchio), a fully naked, illusionary, perfectly beautiful young teen, 60 years his junior

While sitting at his desk with his books in front of him, he talked about fearing the coming of death, represented by a nightmarish group of black-shaped figures that arrived in a car and were approaching closer and closer to him: "Please, make them go away." He claimed he wasn't sick, but still "as strong as a bull" - and that he wouldn't write anymore. The camera panned down the adolescent's nubile figure, as he asserted (while coughing):

"Stand up. I want to look at you. You are perfection, but you have no right, no right to refuse me. Little apple blossoms like you are a dime a dozen in Paris. A dime a dozen. And they never kept me waiting for a f--k. I was a master, a sensei, an expert in the matter, for ages. I was an obscene type. You know."

The scene then returned to an earlier time, when both male protagonists frequented brothels, and engaged in sex with prostitutes in back bedrooms or in bathtubs.

One of the Brothel Females Yvonne (Eva Grimaldi) - in Brothel Bath Scene

Both became platonically involved with - and simultaneously married:

• Colette Ducarouge (Stéphanie Cotta), a young, possibly orphaned, underaged, 13 or 14 year-old teenaged temptress, who appeared one day in the brothel; her grandmother who was taking care of her recently died

Meanwhile, Joey's true love, however, was:

• Nys (Barbara De Rossi), a red-haired beauty from the brothel, with whom he shared a steamy sex and shower sequence; after having stand-up sex with her in the shower, he told her: "I was told there were fabulous things to be found if you looked in a little girls' panties"; she accused him: "You are a stupid American, carried away with words"

Joey with Nys (Barbara De Rossi)

In Joey's next segment as a dying man with the Adolescent, he expressed: "I'm afraid of sleeping...This is the hour of Scorpio, the month of the jackal, and the army of despair." She replied: "You're a boor. I wish I could leave." He complimented himself: "Even in rejection, the old goat's full of spunk. In my next reincarnation, I'll be your age, and I'll meet you in Clichy. I'm a Capricorn. Time's on my side." He was pining for her as she answered him (with her totally-naked mirror reflection), but she repeatedly refused to have sex with him: "The subject is closed, Joey."

"The subject is closed, Joey."	"Look, I'm not afraid."	"Your body's an empty shell"
The Adolescent Showing Joey Her Bloody Palm

Later, in their next segment, the Adolescent asked the older Joey (as she was shaving her right underarm with a razor): "Are you afraid?" He responded: "Will you do it?" and she answered: "Only if you ask me to." He told her: "Why should I?", to which she replied: "At your age, it will make you free." He was downbeat: "Freedom is a hard master. If you feel afraid, you're damned." She showed him her bloody palm after cutting it with the shaving razor, emphasizing that she wasn't fearful: ("Look, I'm not afraid"). She wondered why he was so insatiable and single-minded about having sex with her ("You think they still make love, that they're like you, that they can't stop"). He thought to himself:

"Then why do you refuse me? Am I too old? Really, I'm only 60 years older than you. (He reached out to touch her, but she disappeared) I'd get better from any Tenth Avenue whore. Your body's an empty shell. For the first time in my life, I'm in love with something that makes me sick."

In one of his final flashbacked scenes as a young man, Joey espoused his philosophy about how life was mostly human misery: "Everything that we see around us is s--t. Nothing but f--king s--t." In a movie theatre, a brunette named Edith (Anna Galiena) sat next to him and revealed the contents of her purse, including a hand-gun. Then, she bluntly stated: "I carry this to cope with bullshitters like you." However, in a restaurant, she began to proposition the crude "Yankee" American, while debasing him and calling herself a "terminating angel":

"Men are idiots. They don't know the difference between prose and poetry. I'll let you touch it for free. You're a real pig, aren't you? Come on, confess....Joey the writer, you like it real dirty. I'll tell you, it's 200 francs, 100 for the poetry, and 100 for the sex, no more, no less..."

With both Joey and Karl in their place, she opened her top and asked: "Want to see the 8th Wonder of the World?" She stripped down in their bathroom, and then became crazed, shooting wildly at them with her handgun until she was subdued, paid 100 francs, and ushered out.

Edith Wildly Firing Her Handgun Until Subdued

As death approached the elderly Joey, he worried about his demise as the Adolescent kneeled next to him on his deathbed:

"There used to be a river here. When it rained, everything bloomed. The water lilies would bloom. Ah, you're not even listening to me. You're trying to dry me up for lack of affection - and it works. Even the desert goes to dust if nobody comes to look at it. There they are. In Paris, the Cézannes and Monets, incredible blue waterlilies. Ah, you've never been to Paris. If you had, you couldn't help falling in love with me. I rattle on and on like Buddha, but the truth is, I'm just an old jerk from Brooklyn that fell in love too late. Oh, crime and punishment."

When she asked what he really wanted, he responded: "A fatal dose of the clap." That's how he told her that he wanted to die, but: "Before I pull the plug, I'd like to stop off in Clichy, just for a moment."

In another female encounter before he expired with the Adolescent, the young Joey was approached by a topless woman (uncredited) at the brothel who asked: "What do you wanna do now, hmm, you old sex pot?" As she dangled her breasts over him, he nuzzled between them and happily replied: "Suck up the last drop."

Joey's Request: "Suck up the last drop."

Longtime Companion (1990)

Screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René's independent, R-rated ensemble film (their debut feature film) told about the impact of AIDS (regarded first as a mysterious "cancer", or "Gay-Related-Immune-Disorder," technically known as Kaposi's Sarcoma) on seven gay New Yorkers. The film's title referred to how newspaper obituaries would commonly refer to a deceased gay man's lover.

The landmark film was the first major feature film to deal explicitly with AIDS that was also was put into wide release and received considerable media attention. Two earlier limited release films that also dealt with AIDS were director Arthur Bressan's Buddies (1985) and director Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances (1986).

The film was structured as a set of nine dated episodes beginning with July 3, 1981 (when the NY Times printed its first story about a "RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS"), and ending on July 19, 1989.

The main characters in the film included seven male homosexuals (and one female), without typical stereotypes associated with gays, who were at first unaware of the impending epidemic:

• David (Bruce Davison, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), an independently-wealthy man, and his gay partner, a soap opera scriptwriter named Sean (Mark Lamos) who summered in a beach house on Fire Island
• Howard (Patrick Cassidy), a daytime TV soap-opera actor (typecast when chosen to portray a gay character on Sean's scripted show Other People), and his yuppie boyfriend Paul (John Dossett), a NYC business executive
• Alan/Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey), a lawyer who represented Howard, who became partnered up with Willy (Campbell Scott), a quiet gym instructor and personal trainer originally from the Midwest
• John (Dermot Mulroney), one of Willy's best friends
• Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker), an antiques dealer, next-door neighbor to Paul, also a lifelong friend with Fuzzy

The film followed the demise of many of the characters - (in order): John, Sean, David, Paul, and Howard. It featured the poignant performance of homosexual David and his 'let it go' monologue speech to his seriously-deteriorating AIDS patient partner Sean in a hospital bed.

John	Sean	David to Sean: "Let go"
Deaths of Characters

In the heartbreaking ending, a Fire Island Beach fantasy almost a decade later (on July 19, 1989), three surviving loved ones, Willy, Alan/Fuzzy, and Lisa reunited with all of the AIDS dead friends for a few moments.

They strolled on an empty Fire Island beach when the threesome wistfully mused about their situation, while bluegrass singer Zane Campbell's haunting Post-Mortem Bar was heard in the background:

Willy: "It seems inconceivable, doesn't it... there was ever a time before all this, when we didn't wake up every day wondering: 'Who's sick now?' 'Who else is gone?'"
Fuzzy: "Do you ever wonder, if they ever do find a cure, people would go back to sleepin' around?"
Willy: "Oh, who cares, you know?"
Fuzzy: "It's just a question."
Willy: "I know, I know. But, I'm sorry, I just think that whether people do or don't sleep around or what they do, it's just not the point. I'm sick of hearing people pontificate about it."
Lisa: "Except us."
Willy: "Except us. Exactly. I just wanna be there if they ever do find a cure."
Fuzzy: "Can you imagine what it'd be like?"
Lisa: "Like the end of World War II."

In the fantasy sequence, all of a sudden, a long string of beachgoers ran onto the beach and up to the threesome, hugging and embracing each other. The dead lost to AIDS had reverted back to their healthy selves for a few moments and were greeted by the threesome -- before cutting back to the three alone on the beach.

Willy repeated: "I just wanna be there" - the film's last line.

Miami Blues (1990)

Director George Armitage's quirky black comedy-drama (and action crime-thriller) was based on the 1984 novel Miami Blues by writer Charles Willeford. It was the author's first book about hard-boiled detective Hoke Moseley.

The film's tagline was:

• Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop.

The film was set in the Miami area, and opened with the introduction of the film's main character:

• Frederick J. Frenger, Jr. (Alec Baldwin), aka "Junior," a handsome, charismatic ex-con psychopath and small-time criminal; a perpetual liar and amoral killer

Junior was on a flight that was arriving in Miami, Florida, where by his actions, it was obvious that he was on a nefarious crime spree (after release from prison), involving forgery (of the signature on the stolen CA driver's license of 'Herman Gotlieb'), theft of baggage from unsuspecting travelers, and an ultimately-lethal attack upon an annoying Hare Krishna Krishna Ravindra devotee (Edward Saxon).

[Note: Later in the film, it was revealed that Herman Gotlieb was DOA at the SFO Hospital after being mugged.]

At a nearby airport hotel, he ordered a prostitute from the pimp-bellhop Pablo (José Pérez), and the hooker soon arrived in Junior's room:

• Susie Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), aka "Pepper," a sweet, 23 year-old short-haired, southern-accented but dense and vulnerable room-service hooker; she was also a student enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, with dreams of acquiring middle-class stability by owning a Burger World franchise

During the sexual encounter between "Junior" and "Pepper" in the hotel room, he attempted to sell her a stolen red dress (from a stolen suitcase) for $50 dollars (or swap for a "suck"). When she thought she was about to be dismissed for asking too many personal questions, he requested that she stay and they made love.

Junior and Susie/Pepper (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in Miami Hotel Room

Afterwards, Junior went on a rampage of theft and brutality, but still kept in touch with the vulnerable "Pepper" who naively trusted him in their strange love-hate relationship. She met him at a fancy restaurant (featuring an outdoor aquatic ballet) with a gift of a pink T-shirt reading: "S--T Happens When You Party Naked!" They retreated to her condo as an engaged couple, playing both 'house' and 'marriage.' She didn't realize his real line-of-work when he told her: "I got investments. I take people's money and put it to work." She was unable or deliberately didn't want to know or acknowledge his true nature and criminal activities.

While she took a bath and was composing a haiku poem, he robbed a neighbor's apartment of valuable coins, frozen pork chops and a "big gun." He thought to himself a possible related haiku poem for Pepper: "Breaking entering. The dark and lonely places. Finding a big gun."

Junior and Susie As an Engaged Couple

Meanwhile, the death of the Hare Krishna devotee at the airport was being investigated by:

• Sgt. Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), a grizzled, battered, rumpled and slobbish, middle-aged homicide detective, with dentures

That same evening, Sgt. Moseley's sleuthing led him to "Herman Gotlieb" - Junior's stolen alias, living in "Pepper's" place. While she offered to cook up a home-made dinner of pork chops and Polar beers for them, the Sgt. almost immediately marked Junior as his prime suspect ("airport hoodlum"), and identified him as an ex-con. He even politely requested that Junior come by the police station and stand-in a line-up.

After meeting Sgt. Moseley, the next morning, Junior (with Pepper) broke into the detective's rented apartment at the Primrose Hotel, assaulted him, stole his identity (his gun, handcuffs, police badge, and dentures!), and left him $100 in $20 dollar bills.

At the same time, Junior promised Susie that he would be reforming himself and would "stay out of crime".

I used to be in prison....I used to rob people who robbed people....Except I didn't give the money to the poor people....I got investments now.

Following the assault, though, he immediately went on a crime spree - by flashing the Sgt's badge to get his way or demand bribes, breaking up robberies or drug deals in progress, and keeping the money or merchandise for himself. He admitted: "My problem is that I can have everything and anything that I want, but I don't know what I want."

On the other hand, Susie had idealistic dreams of slowly working her way up the achievement ladder to the "American Dream" with a Burger World franchise: "You save your money and you buy a nice little house with a white picket fence. And you live happily ever after." He brainwashed her into following his contrary advice: "You can forget about Burger World, honey. I'm gonna take care of you, and you're gonna take care of me. That's our purpose....I'm gonna take such good care of you."

He had just rented a furnished bungalow for them in Coral Gables, to live in to continue their fabricated 'marriage' ("Take care of the house, shop, fix dinner. Take care of the babies"). He had convinced her that he wanted a regular 9-5 job with " a clean house, and a hot meal and a loving wife just like you," but added: "I don't want to have any babies. This world's a s--t-hole."

Junior continued to be dishonest with Susie and to wreak havoc - he assaulted a back-room bookie operation and killed the main Bookie (Gary Howard Klar), and foiled a Coral Gables convenience store heist by assaulting the armed robber (Patrick Cherry) with a glass jar of spaghetti sauce. The robber fled after ramming his pickup truck into the front of the store, resulting in Junior receiving a seriously-injured eyebrow that required stitches. As he left the store, Junior asked quizzically: "Where's the whipping cream?" After being sewn up, Junior confessed to Susie:

This straight life that we've been living has been giving me this misplaced sense of security! I thought for one minute there I was some kind of f--kin' solid citizen or something.

Moseley recovered from his own brutal attack, and ultimately was able to trace Susie/Pepper to a Coral Gables supermarket, where he told her that Junior was a murderous ex-con with a stolen identity (Moseley's) who was about to be arrested. She lied, telling him she had kicked Junior out: "He's gone for good."

Then, during a pawn shop confrontation and robbery (when Junior posing as Sgt. Moseley tried to access the value of the absconded coin collection), Junior shot the backroom armed guard Pedro (Joe Hess) twice in the back and also wounded the savvy female clerk in the shoulder, but had three of his fingers chopped off with a machete. As Junior departed the store, he emptied the cash register and stole a diamond ring for Susie. She realized that he had lied to her about "no more illegal stuff," and she took off without him, while Moseley (who had been stalking them) opened fire as Junior fled.

In the film's conclusion, Sgt. Moseley pursued Junior driving a stolen car to his Coral Gables home where he was lethally shot twice as he reached for his gun. Junior's last words were: "Susie's gonna get you, Sarge." After Junior expired, Moseley found his stolen dentures and restored them to his mouth.

Susie arrived and was not vengeful - she rationalized to Moseley why she had stayed so long with Junior:

I had to give him the benefit of the doubt, because he had some good qualities. He always ate everything I ever cooked for him. And he never hit me. There were lots of good things about Junior.

Junior's Death: "Susie's gonna get you, Sarge." Susie: "There were lots of good things about Junior"

Moseley's dutiful Cuban assistant Ellita Sanchez (Nora Dunn) was uncertain whether Susie (who was assured that she wouldn't be charged) was completely oblivious to Junior's evil and criminal acts or not:

Is she really Princess Not-So-Bright, or is she just pretending?

Pretty Woman (1990)

Director Gary Marshall's very popular romance film, popular treacle actually, was Hollywood's morally-corrupt and sanitized version of what a Hollywood Boulevard hooker and prostitution would look like - with a fairy-tale Cinderella character and a My Fair Lady ending.

The sentimental fantasy story, about the changing relationship over a week between a hooker and a wealthy corporate raider, was an improbable Pygmalion story about how a Hollywood hooker was transformed by a business tycoon into a stylish modern princess.

Its taglines were:

• She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart.
• Who knew it was so much fun to be a hooker?

The fantasy romance was between a hooker and her wealthy john:

• Vivian Ward (Oscar-nominated Julia Roberts in her breakthrough role), a beautiful independent hooker
• Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a super-rich businessman, a Wall Street corporate raider

In the film's opening, Hollywood street-hooker Vivian Ward was chatting with her roommate/co-worker Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo). Although Kit suggested they should consider getting a pimp, Vivian affirmed that they should work independently of a pimp who would only "run our lives and take our money." Kit agreed: "We say who, we say when, we say how much."

Vivian's first encounter on the street with wealthy client Edward Lewis occurred when he was cruising Hollywood Boulevard in a borrowed silver Lotus Esprit sports car and found himself lost in the red-light district. She came up to his window and made a proposition: "Hey, sugar, you lookin' for a date?"

Vivian to Edward: "You lookin' for a date?"

She helped him navigate the car with directions to the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where they separated, but then he relocated her at a bus stop and brought her to his penthouse suite for the night, where he ordered champagne and strawberries. During their initial negotiations together as a client-customer date, she was uncertain whether he wanted her to only service him quickly, or to spend the night (an enterprise that would be more costly). She told him:

"I appreciate this whole seduction thing you've got going on here, but let me give you a tip: I'm a sure thing."

She asked if he needed to reconsider: "Are you sure you want me to stay for the entire night? I mean, I could just pop you good and be on my way."

During their first night together, after watching an episode of I Love Lucy, Vivian crawled up to him on the sofa, stripped down to her underwear and learned forward over Edward and asked:

Vivian: "What do you want?"
Edward: "What do you do?"
Vivian: "Everything. But I don't kiss on the mouth."
Edward: "Neither do l." (She then kissed him down the length of his body (off-screen))

The next morning before leaving, as she took a sudsy bath (while listening and loudly singing along to Prince's song "Kiss": "I want to be your fantasy, Well, maybe you could be mine"), he negotiated for her to spend the remainder of the week (6 days until Sunday) with him:

"Vivian, I have a business proposition for ya...I'd like you to spend the week with me....Yes, I'd like to hire you as an employee."

They agreed on a no-strings attached, full-service escort fee of $3,000: ("Would you consider spending the week with me? I will pay you to be at my beck and call...I want a professional. I don't need any romantic hassles this week"). She exclaimed once the price was agreed upon: "HOLY S--T!" and dunked herself under the suds. When she emerged with bubbles all over her face, she assented: "YES!" She would also be given extra money to buy clothes.

While seated on their suite's balcony ledge after an awkward dinner with some of his business associates, Vivian described to Edward how she had an emotionless personality with her johns - except with him: "Kit's always saying to me, 'Don't get emotional when you turn tricks.' That's why no kissing. It's too personal. It's like what you're saying: You stay numb, you don't get involved. When I'm with a guy, I'm like a robot. I just do it. I mean, except with you." He responded:

"Oh, of course, not with me. You and I are such similar creatures, Vivian. We both screw people for money."

After earlier being thrown out of a boutique on Rodeo Drive ("You're obviously in the wrong place!"), Vivian returned the next day with Edward - who escorted her into a shop (after ordering her to spit out her gum) and boasted to the manager Mr. Hollister (Larry Miller): "We're gonna need a few more people helping us out, I'll tell you why. We're gonna be spending an obscene amount of money in here. So we're gonna need a lot more help sucking up to us, 'cause that's what we really like."

Later that evening when Edward returned to their penthouse suite, Vivian greeted him naked at the dining table, and soon after they took a bath together.

Bathing Together

Then, while visiting a polo game match, Vivian gave an energetic, hand-waving cheer. Afterwards in their hotel suite, they engaged in a vicious argument after Edward had to reveal their secret to his colleague Philip Stuckey (Jason Alexander) that she was a hooker from Hollywood Boulevard. She became enraged:

Edward: "I hate to point out the obvious, but you are, in fact, a hooker! And you are my employee!"
Vivian: "You don't own me. I decide, okay? I say who, I say when, l--I say who....I'm sorry I ever met you. I'm sorry I ever got into your stupid car!...I've never had anyone make me feel as cheap as you did today."
Edward: "Somehow, I find that very hard to believe. Where are you going?"
Vivian: "I want my money. I want to get out of here."

She stormed out, although they were soon reconciled in the hallway when he apologized: "I'm sorry. I wasn't prepared to answer questions about us. It was stupid and cruel. I didn't mean it. I don't want you to go. Will you stay the week?" She agreed, and then later during bedtime conversation, he complimented her: "I think you are a very bright, very special woman."

Afterwards, a Vicious Argument Between Them: "You don't own me!"

Edward's Apology in Hallway of Hotel: "I'm sorry"

Edward to Vivian: "You are a very bright, very special woman"

Edward surprised Vivian for a dressed-up date to see La Traviata at the San Francisco Opera (traveling via private jet) (reminiscent of Eliza Doolittle's 'coming-out' scene in My Fair Lady (1964)), when Vivian wore an unforgettable red gown and a necklace on loan worth $250,000. She was visibly surprised when he opened the jewelry box and it snapped shut on her fingers. She was very moved by the opera's tale of a prostitute falling in love with a rich man ("It was so good, I almost peed in my pants").

Surprise Jet Trip to SF Opera

On returning to their hotel, he vowed to work the next day, but then phoned in the next morning to his office to take the day off - to spend it with Vivian. After a full day, he fell asleep while she was getting ready for bed. She gently kissed him on the lips before they made love as partners rather than as a client and hooker.

Toward the end of their week together, they engaged in a serious discussion when Edward was planning to return to NY the next day, now that his business was "almost over." He proposed putting her up in a NYC apartment, with a car and a shopping expense account - to get her "off the streets." He then asked: "Vivian, what is it you want? What do you see happening between us?" She was resistant and slightly insulted because it was not the white-knight "fairy tale" rescue that she dreamed of as a little girl:

"I don't know. When I was a little girl... I would pretend I was a princess trapped in a tower by a wicked queen. And then suddenly this knight on a white horse with these colors flying would come charging up and draw his sword. And I would wave. And he would climb up the tower and rescue me. But never in all the time that I had this dream did the knight say to me, 'Come on, baby, I'll put you up in a great condo.'"

He was called away for a momentous business deal, but had time to tell Vivian: "This is all I'm capable of right now. It's a very big step for me.... I've never treated you like a prostitute." She shot back: "You just did." She had a quick meeting with her friend Kit, who realized that Vivian had fallen in love with her client: "You fall in love with him, and you kiss him on the mouth. Did I not teach you anything?" Vivian denied her accusation: "Look, I'm not stupid, OK? I'm -- I'm not in love with him. I like him."

When Edward returned, Vivian made it very clear to Edward that she had to leave him unless she could acquire the fairy tale:

"Look, you made me a really nice offer. And a few months ago, no problem. But now everything is different, and you've changed that. And you can't change back. I want more.... I want the fairy tale."

He claimed he was good at "impossible relationships." She was obviously ready to leave, but he implored her to stay one more night: "Stay the night with me. And not because I'm paying you, but because you want to," but she refused, adding: "I can't." After he said goodbye, she complimented him: "I think you have a lot of special gifts" before she departed and proceeded with plans to move on to San Francisco.

Vivian's ultimate rescue by her gallant Prince Charming came in the film's conclusion when Edward changed his mind about returning to New York, and pulled up outside Hollywood prostitute Vivian's shared apartment (with Kit) in a white limousine with the horn-honking and opera music blaring. From the open sunroof, he held out his arms to her with a closed black umbrella in one hand and a bouquet of red roses in the other. He called out: "Princess Vivian, come down!" and then commented: "It had to be the top floor, right?"

Edward climbed up her outside fire-escape ladder with the bouquet of flowers clenched between his teeth while she climbed down partway on the ladder to meet him. He held out his arms with the roses and professed his love (with a kiss), by asking about the ending of her childhood fantasy of a knight's rescue: (Edward: "So what happened after he climbed up the tower and rescued her?" Vivian: "She rescues him right back.")

"Princess" Vivian's Rescue by Her White Knight on Fire Escape

The film ended with the camera pulling back, overhearing the words of a Happy Man (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) crossing the street:

"Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here. This is Hollywood! The land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't. But keep on dreamin'. This is Hollywood! Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'."

Sorority House Massacre II (1990)

There wasn't much to this low-budget 'slasher' picture (budgeted at $150,000) directed by Roger Corman regular Jim Wynorski, other than lots of T&A and some violent bloodletting. It was the first sequel in the so-called "Massacre" Trilogy of Sorority House films (1986, 1990, 1990). However, it was a sequel in name only to the original film from 1986.

Sorority House Massacre (1986)

Sorority House Massacre II (1990)

Hard to Die (1990) (aka Sorority House Massacre III)

Its tagline was salaciously appropriate:

• "It's Cleavage vs. Cleavers and the result is Delta Delta Deadly!"

The story was simple - five busty, cleavage-baring, attractive females moved into an old dilapidated house (two stories with an attic) for a sorority gathering place, located at 6934 Langdon. Before the massacres began, Janey bragged to the others about her inexpensive acquisition of the house: "I never really told you guys why we got the place so cheap." It was the scene of the Hockstatter bloody slumber party massacre five years earlier that eliminated an entire family: ("This is the old Hockstatter place...How do you think we got the place so cheap?"). The abandoned house had been on the market for five years.

Janey (Dana Bentley) - dark haired	Suzanne (Michelle Verran, or Barbii) - red haired, with boyfriend	Kimberly (Stacia Zhivago)
Jessica ("Scream Queen" Melissa Moore) - tall, blonde, with boyfriend Eddie (Mike Elliott)	Linda (Gail/Robyn Harris) - brunette, with an accent

The girls moved in to spend the night (with a lightning and thunder storm approaching), without phone or electrical service (and therefore no hot water). During a cold dinner of snacks, sandwiches and beer by candlelight, Janey assured the others: "What's there to be scared of?" - she opened the blinds on the patio door and experienced the film's first jump-scare - their creepy, pock-mark faced, overweight, frizzy-haired, southern-drawling neighbor, Orville Ketchum (Peter Spellos) was staring back at her - illuminated by lightning.

Orville entered and told them all about the massacre that had previously taken place in the house: ("I ain't Hockstatter, but I found 'em. I found 'em all....It was a stormy evenin', just like this. Come around midnight, old Hockstatter just snapped. He did his whole family..."). [Note: The flashbacks to the previous murders were to a different film altogether - The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), which it more naturally followed.] Orville ended his tale of the murderous drill-and-knife wielding Hockstatter (Michael Villella) with: " And it all happened right here, right here where we're standing. They found the bodies splattered all over the place" - Suzanne reacted with dumb surprise: "Oh, my God, that must have been totally gross." He reached deep into his crotch area - causing multiple gasps from the girls, and pulled out the key to the locked basement ("It's where Hockstatter kept his tools"). He departed through the patio door: "If you be needin' anything, I'll be watchin'." Orville returned home to watch a poorly-broadcast slasher film while snacking on pieces of raw meat. He browsed through old County Herald newspapers he had kept of the Hockstatter mass murder butchering.

Many of the girls showered (in cold water) and changed into bed-clothes, to exhibit toplessness before their demises. Then, in their sheer night-gowns, the group foolishly consulted a Ouija board found in the basement to contact the deceased murderer Hockstatter. When Jessica suggested: "Everyone put one finger on the diviner," Suzanne quipped: "No one puts a finger in my diviner."

Kimberly (Stacia Zhivago)
Jessica (Melissa Moore)
Suzanne (Michelle Verran, or Barbii)
Janey (Dana Bentley)
Linda (Gail/Robyn Harris)

Their divining session ended abruptly when the Ouija board's planchette inexplicably flew off of the board and into the fireplace and erupted in flames. It was believed that the house was haunted by a psychotic serial killer.

The five females were one-by-one eliminated (in order of their deaths, usually variations on stabbings (off-screen) - with lots of blood splatter:

In the midst of the ongoing murders, police officer Lieut. Mike Block (Jürgen Baum) and his partner Sergeant Phyllis Shawlee (Toni Naples/Karen Chorak) visited a strip club - an excuse to display lots of female flesh on display, while questioning stripper : Candy (Bridget Carney) - the only survivor of the original Hockstatter murders, while the club's blonde star attraction Satana McVixen (Shannon Wilsey, or Savannah) performed. Lt. Block was suspicious that Orville may have been involved in the home's past murderous history.

Club Stripper Candy (Bridget Carney)

After the first two murders, the surviving threesome discovered the corpses of Janey and Suzanne strung up by their hands from the basement's ceiling (with blood dripping down). They fled outside into the rain, but retreated back inside after they glimpsed Orville across the street. Armed with knives, they prepared to defend themselves as a group from Orville's intrusion, but then found a trail of wet footprints inside the attic (where they also located instruments of torture). After separating, and while hiding in a bathroom from Orville, Kimberly was killed by the unseen murderer.

At the same time, Linda was being stalked and then confronted in the attic by Orville, and was able to both stab him three times in the abdomen and choke him around the neck with a chain. In the blood-drenched bathroom where Kimberly had been killed, Linda was partially strangled by a resurrected Kimberly who rose up from bloody water in the bathtub. As Linda turned around, a miraculously-revived Orville again grabbed her. She was able to knock him out and partially drown his head in a toilet before she retreated downstairs and answered the ringing phone - a woman's voice claimed to be Hockstatter's wife and was asking to speak to Clive.

Kimberly Rising Up From Bloody Bathtub - to Strangle Linda

Linda Attempting to Drown Orville in Toilet Bowl

Jessica - The Possessed Hooked-Killer to Linda: "You're next"

In the film's revelatory conclusion, Linda was lured to the basement by the seductive voice of Jessica. It appeared that Jessica was committing the hook-murders (while possessed by Clive Hockstatter). The film's twist was that the possessed spirit of the dead murderer was able to transmigrate from body to body.

Jessica warned Linda in a deep man's voice: "You're the only one left" - and then threatened: "And you're next!" During a chase to the main floor and a fight between them, Jessica threatened Linda: "Jessica's gone forever, and now it's your turn. What a shame that I'm not in a man's body right now. We could have a little fun." Suddenly, Orville reappeared - still alive. In quick succession:

• Orville removed the knife from his abdomen and stabbed Jessica in the stomach, but she retaliated and knocked him out with a hook-jab to his neck
• Linda stabbed Jessica in the neck, and was sprayed with blood in the face from her jugular vein

When the mover arrived at 5:30 am the next morning to drop off furniture, he found a scene of bodies and a bloody massacre, and reported to the authorities. It was five years after the original bloodbath. On the scene soon after, Lieutenant Mike Block asked himself: "Geez, not again." His assistant cop asked: "Wasn't this the old Hockstatter place?" Suddenly, rustling in a pile of trash and papers brought forth Linda (now possessed by Hockstatter) with a knife, who gleefully laughed, and in a man's voice answered:

"It still is."

With the death of Jessica, the spirit of the dead murderer had passed into Linda, the sole survivor. The wounded Orville opened his eyes, rose from the floor, grabbed the Lieutenant's gun, and shot Linda multiple times. The two assistant police officers retaliated and shot-gunned Orville to death with many blasts, although he was miraculously still alive and an ambulance was summoned! ("Get an ambulance, this man is still alive").

After "THE END?" and pictured credits for the main stars, a newscaster announced that suspected mass murderer Orville was being released from the prison ward of the county general hospital (fully recovered), for lack of evidence to prosecute him for killing the five teenaged girls.

The film left the viewer with the question - had the spirit of Hockstatter returned or was it just the creepy Orville Ketchum?

Les 1001 Nuits (1990, Fr/It/Swiss) (aka Sheherazade or 1001 Nights)

Co-writer/director Philippe de Broca's obscure and low-budget Arabian nights fantasy was a retelling and weird adaptation of the original tale One Thousand and One Nights. The comedy-fantasy film in French (without translation or subtitles) - a co-effort of France and Italy and filmed mostly in France, but also in Malta, Morocco and Tunisia, was released in 1990 and received very little attention or box-office success, except for the fact years later when it was remembered that it featured the film debut of 20 year-old Catherine Zeta-Jones (with a few glimpses of nudity).

Its taglines were:

• Scheherazade's story will be told once again.
• A breathless Arabian adventure you will never forget.

In the traditional tale, a caliph or King (Thierry Lhermitte) in Bagdad, aka Sasanian king Shahryār, insisted on virginal brides each night - necessitating that they be killed after one night of pleasure. His latest rebellious and conniving courtesan was Sheherazade (Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones), who was able to postpone her fate by telling fanciful stories that would never end - for 1001 nights. One of her episodic stories was about Sinbad the Sailor who was famous for making seven journeys into different lands with monsters and other magical creatures and treasures.

Sheherazade also was helped by an astrologist or Grand Vizir (Roger Carel), and consulted with a genie, known as Jimmy Genious (Gerard Jugnot), imprisoned in a magical lamp. He was exiled by Allah to London in the present year (1990), watched her through his TV, and when released from bondage by Sheherazade, he provided her with fantastical 20th century inventions and escape vehicles (a motorcycle, an airplane) to get away from the demanding King.

Sheherazade
Falling Naked From the Sky - With a Parachute

In a non-sexual performance, she appeared as semi-naked Sheherazade, falling from the sky and having her clothes blown off while she rubbed a genie lamp to deploy a parachute. She landed in the lap of a startled turbaned Sinbad (Vittorio Gassman), emerged from the ocean in a seashell bikini, and performed a seductive strip-tease dance down to a skimpy thong bikini.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990, Sp.) (aka ¡Átame!)

Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's Technicolored, dark, offbeat comedic and unconventional love story (a captor-captive tale) was about how monogamy can be a metaphor for power games and chained-up bondage. Its tagline was:

• A love story...with strings attached!

It was accused of misogyny and depicting the victimization of women via abduction, similar in part to William Wyler's film The Collector (1965) and The Night Porter (1974, It.). It was the last film to receive the MPAA's X-rating due to its depiction of forced bondage and rape - however, it was re-rated and released as an NC-17 film.

The brightly-colored and stylized film told of a strange (actually deranged) romantic courtship and bonding (actually a Beauty and the Beast tale, and amour fou coupling) in Madrid between:

• Ricky (Antonio Banderas), a dull-witted, 23 year-old, obsessively love-sick mental patient/handyman
• Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril), ex-porn star and recovering junkie addict

Ricky (Antonio Banderas)

Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril)

Recently released from psychiatric treatment in a mental hospital (where he had become the lover of the hospital's middle-aged female administrator (Lola Cardona)), the fixated Ricky made an unusual attempt to win the affection of his favorite actress Marina. He stalked her as she was acting on the set of crippled, lecherous director Maximo Espejo's (Francesco Rabal) last movie, a horror film (a "film within a film") titled The Midnight Phantom. Her co-star was a hideously mutilated, masked muscleman who had fallen in love with her, and her sister Lola (Loles Leon) served as the production manager for Espejo's film.

At about the 24 minute mark, the film was noted most for its controversial and infamous masturbatory bath scene. Marina was reclined back in her bathtub, as she allowed a vibrating toy diver to swim straight into her crotch. She then caught the toy frogman and moved it up to her bare chest, where it continued to flutter its legs.

Marina's (Victoria Abril) Infamous Bathtub Scene with Toy Scuba Diver

Shortly later, Ricky snatched, kidnapped, gagged and tied up Marina at the door of her apartment - making an unusual attempt to win her affection. He asserted to her that he was determined to have her love him: "I had to kidnap you so you'd get to know me. I'm sure you'll get to love me as I love you."

She gradually loosened her resistance to being his captive, especially after Ricky was robbed and severely beaten up by black market drug dealers, led by a female on a Vespa scooter (Rossy De Palma), that he had swindled earlier as he attempted to procure strong painkillers for her aching tooth (after he had initially head-butted her).

Ricky - Severely Beaten Up and Cared For by Marina

As she made love to the freshly-wounded and in-pain Ricky, he asserted he could continue: "The only thing the bastards didn't touch was my cock." During their sweaty and realistic sexual intercourse (seen from various angles, including a kaleidoscopic top view), she suddenly remembered her previous one-night stand with him:

"You said we'd screwed before, and I said I didn't remember. Well, now I remember, perfectly."

When he planned a visit to his native village with her, and was leaving to steal a car for their trip, he asked if she should be bound up during his absence - referencing the film's title:

Ricky: "Will you run away if I don't tie you up?"
Marina: "I don't know. You'd better tie me up. Tie me up."

Marina was discovered tied up and then rescued by her sister Lola, who was astounded about Marina's close and loving association for her captor - the film's concluding and stunning reversal:

"How can you love a kidnapper who ties you up? You think that's normal? It must be the shock. You can't be that kinky!"

In the ambiguous ending (a subtle variation on the conclusion of The Graduate (1967)) in Ricky's hometown, the three drove off together as a 'family.' Marina was at the wheel and on the verge of tears (not sure of their tenuous future), while Ricky and Lola happily sang along to a cassette tape playing the pop song: "Resistiré," or "I Will Resist" - until Lola stopped for a second and glanced at Marina, and asked: "What is it, silly? We get along just fine! Come on, honey" - as they drove off into the sunset.

[Note: There were also an unusual pair of scenes of Marina and her sister Lola urinating on a toilet.]

Wild at Heart (1990)

Writer/director David Lynch's R-rated neo-noirish road film was the winner of the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. Lynch's screenplay for his lovers-on-the-run cult arthouse romance film was based on the 1990 novel by Barry Gifford, part one of a series of Sailor and Lula stories, entitled Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula. It was basically a vengeful and violent pursuit film filled with double-crossing characters - a psychopathic, vindictive homicidal mother (to avoid complicity in her own crimes) had hired various sleazy assassins to pursue after two fugitives - her passionate 'wild at heart' daughter accompanied by her ex-convict paroled lover. Imagery and dialogue often made references to "The Wizard of Oz."

The violent, sex-drenched film, Lynch's follow-up to Blue Velvet (1986), was originally threatened with an X-rating, until Lynch toned it down. Some of the most explicit erotic scenes were not included in the final cut, including an orgasm with Lula describing it as being ripped open by an animal, and another in which she proposed oral sex on Sailor's face ("Take a bite out of Lula").

• during the opening title credits, a simple wooden stick match ignited and became a blast furnace of blazing heat, emphasizing one of the film's themes - pyromania. It told about two sex-crazed, star-crossed lovers who went on the run westward from North Carolina:
  • Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage), a 23 year-old, an Elvis-loving bad-boy, who claimed his snakeskin jacket was "a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom"
  • Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern), a sex-loving, blonde, horny, 20 year-old southern girl, Sailor's girlfriend, nicknamed "Peanut"; she described to Sailor how she had been sexually abused and raped at age 13 by her father Clydes business partner "Uncle Pooch" (Marvin Kaplan) - and had an abortion
• Note: According to Lula's deranged and domineering mother Marietta Fortune (Best Supporting Actress-nominated Diane Ladd, Laura Dern's real mother), Lula's father Clyde had allegedly died in a self-immolating suicide, although in reality, he was murdered by her mother's hired gangster-friend Marcello Santos (J. E. Freeman). Her cackling mother was complicit and witnessed the killing. Lula's mother Marietta was compared to the Wicked Witch by Lula, and Sailor called her a "piece of white trash." Marietta feared that since Sailor had been a "driver" for Santos, he would know "too much" - that Clyde's death was homicide and that she was responsible.

Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage)

Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern)

Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd)

The film opened in Cape Fear in southeastern NC, where Sailor and Lula were at a dance hall. Sailor was confronted in the dance hall's restroom by switchblade-wielding, African-American hired killer Bob Ray Lemon (Gregg Dandridge), who had been paid by Lula's crazed, monstrous, vindictive and obsessed mother Marietta Fortune to attack him and wrongly accuse him of propositioning Marietta: ("Crazy f--kin' bad boy, tryin' to f--k your girl's Mama!"). Sailor immediately fought back against the false accusation and viciously killed Bob Ray in public view, and subsequently was charged with manslaughter.

[Note: The truth (revealed later) was that Marietta had drunkenly attempted to seduce Sailor in the men's restroom in the dance hall: ("Sailor boy! How'd you like to f--k Lula's Mama?...Lula's Mama would like to f--k you"), but he rejected her. Humiliated, Marietta became fixated with jealousy over Sailor's interest in Lula and took revenge. She threatened Sailor: "I'm gonna cut your balls off and feed 'em to ya." She immediately hired Bob Ray Lemon to keep Sailor away from her daughter.

After Bob Ray's death, Marietta warned and reprimanded Lula that she must never see Sailor again: "And you know you aren't, and I mean are not gonna see him ever. End of story."]

Sailor served almost two years of a prison term in the Pee Dee Correctional Institution. When he was released from prison, Lula disobediently and happily picked up Sailor in her black 1965 Ford Thunderbird convertible. They drove to a room at the Cape Fear Hotel to make passionate love. Sailor proposed breaking his parole and heading westward with Lulu to California to escape Lula's domineering mother.

Back for a night of dancing on the Cape Fear dance floor, Sailor fought off a suitor who inappropriately approached Lula, and then serenaded her with Elvis' "Love Me." (Lyrics: "Treat me like a fool Treat me mean and cruel But love me Wring my faithful heart Tear it all apart But love me (won't you love me?)..."). Later during further hot love-making in their hotel room, he vowed that he would only sing his favorite Elvis love song: "Love Me Tender" to his future wife.

The next morning, she told him she had visions of the Wicked Witch of the East flying in. He responded: "The way your head works is God's own private mystery." As they smoked cigarettes in bed, Lula told him: "You remind me of my Daddy, you know. Mama told me he liked skinny women with breasts that stood up and said 'Hello'."

Lula's persistent mother Marietta hired two others to hunt down and retrieve Lula and get rid of Sailor:

PI Johnnie Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton), Marietta's Part-Time Boyfriend

Evil Gangster-Assassin Marcello Santos (J. E. Freeman)

• Johnnie Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton), a level-headed but weary-looking private detective, Marietta's part-time boyfriend
• Marcello Santos (J. E. Freeman), a cold, menacing, and evil criminal gangster/assassin, another of Marietta's boyfriends; he had helped Marietta get rid of her husband Clyde by setting him on fire (a fact known by Sailor); Santos' secondary goal was to also eliminate Farragut

A Plot to Murder PI Johnnie Farragut
Santos' Decadent Crime Mob Boss "Mr. Reindeer" (W. Morgan Sheppard)	Mr. Reindeer's Accomplice: Voodoo Woman Juana (Grace Zabriskie)

During their early search for the fugitives, Santos contacted his mysterious, decadent crime mob boss "Mr. Reindeer" (W. Morgan Sheppard); he was pictured on the toilet with a topless dancer and then with two topless handmaidens or valets.

Mr. Reindeer Ordering Hits on Farragut and Sailor
		Mr. Reindeer's Resident Valets (Mia M. Ruiz and Valli Leigh)
"Mr. Reindeer" In a Toilet With a Prostitute-Dancer (Lisa Ann Cabasa)

"Mr. Reindeer" then communicated (via a symbolic reference to two 'silver dollars' or two hits) to an unseen voodoo woman, his accomplice - handicapped Juana (Grace Zabriskie) who walked with a cane, and two other killers: Reggie (Calvin Lockhart) and Dropshadow (David Patrick Kelly). Their job was to eliminate two individuals: (1) Farragut (to prevent him from learning more about their dubious and illicit criminal activities), and (2) Sailor. Marietta became worried that Farragut was endangered.

After Sailor and Lula entered New Orleans and had sex in their hotel room, she complimented him on his love-making skills, with a Wizard of Oz reference:

Sometimes, Sail', when we're makin' love, you just about take me right over that rainbow. You are so aware of what goes on with me, I mean, you pay attention. And I swear, baby, you got the sweetest cock. It's like it's talkin' to me when you're inside. Like it's got this little voice all its own. You get right on me.

In the back of a night-club bar known as Robbie's in New Orleans during their fugitive flight, Sailor recalled and described to Lula (in order to excite her) an especially memorable sexual encounter he once had as a 'bad boy' with Irma (Charlie Spradling) when he was visiting his cousin, Junior Train, in Savannah:

"When she got almost to the top step, I stuck my hand between her legs from behind...Man, I had a boner with a capital O. Anyway, I found her lyin' in her room filled with assault weapons and 'Spankhouse' magazines, so I slid my hand between her legs again and she closed her thighs on it....Well, her face was half-pushed into the pillow, and I remember she looked back over her shoulder at me and said, 'I won't suck you. Don't ask me to suck you.'...Anyway, dig this. She turns over, peels off them orange pants, spreads her legs real wide and says to me: 'Take a bite of Peach'."

In response, Lula urged him: "Jesus, honey! You more than sort of got what you come for. Uh, oh. Baby, you'd better run me back to the hotel. You got me hotter than Georgia asphalt." Sailor replied: "Say no more, but go easy on me, sweetheart. Tomorrow we got a lot of drivin' to do." After another bout of feverish love-making, Lula speculated: "Wouldn't it be fabulous if we someway stayed in love for the rest of our lives?...It'd make the future so simple and nice."

Meanwhile, "Mr. Reindeer" complied and carried through with Santos' request to eliminate PI Farragut, causing Marietta to go crazy with fear for hiring him - she painted her entire face with red lipstick, and called Farragut to announce her arrival in New Orleans the next evening. However, it had already been arranged with Mr. Reindeer's henchmen Reggie, Dropshadow and Juana to capture and kill Farragut in New Orleans. He was assaulted in his hotel room, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered (a gunshot to the back of the head) by the group led by Juana.

During their continuing car journey westward, somewhere in rural Texas (on a metaphoric "Yellow Brick Road"), Sailor and Lula came upon an ominous car accident - and a dying and bloody car wreck victim Julie Day (Sherilyn Fenn) who was confused and complained about "sticky stuff in my hair" (unaware that she had blood in her hair), and that she couldn't find a bobby pin, her wallet or her purse before she collapsed and died in front of them.

Perdita Durango (Isabella Rossellini), Juana's Daughter

Perdita's Hitman-Boyfriend Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe)

In Big Tuna, TX, Sailor spoke to an old associate - bleached-blonde Perdita Durango (Isabella Rossellini), Juana's daughter - who confirmed to Sailor that Marietta and Santos had together conspired to immolate Lula's father, and that they believed Sailor knew of their crime. Perdita was the Mexican mistress of psychotic, hot-headed ex-Marine and no-good weirdo hitman Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe) (with rotten teeth).

After their repeated bouts of sex together, Lula revealed her pregnancy and morning sickness to Sailor on a note. He promised he wouldn't let things get any worse. In a tense sequence while Sailor was away, Bobby approached Lula in her motel room, and deduced that she was pregnant (he viewed 'morning sickness' throwup on the floor); he sexually threatened and assaulted Lula after crudely taunting her:

Ya know, I sure do like a girl with nice tits like yours who talks tough and looks like she can f--k like a bunny. Do you f--k like that, huh? Do ya f--k it like a bunny? Cause if ya do, baby, I'll f--k ya good. Like a big ol' jackrabbit bunny, jump all around that hole. Bobby Peru don't come up for air.

He caused her to be extremely traumatized by their encounter (when he asked "Am I scarin' ya? Is your p---y wet? Is it wet?"), and then demanded that she say: "F--k me!" But then after groping her down her entire body and her weak whispering of the two words, he humiliated and pushed her away: ("Someday honey I will — but I gotta get goin'"). As he left, Lula clicked her red-slippered heels together multiple times (another Oz reference) and burst into tears.

Afterwards without Lula's knowledge, Bobby urged Sailor to join him to rob a feedstore in Lobo, TX, by convincing Sailor that he needed "easy money" now that Lula was pregnant: "Really could set you and that little lady up good." Sailor agreed: "That kinda money will get us a long way down that Yellow Brick Road." Sailor was unaware that it was part of Bobby's plan (in concert with "Mr. Reindeer") to make sure that he didn't survive the robbery due to a "bad accident" (by providing him with a gun loaded with blanks).

Lula became suspicious that Sailor was speaking to "black angel" Peru: "This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top. I wish you'd sing me 'Love Me Tender'. Oh, I wish I was somewhere over that rainbow."

During the aborted heist with Perdita serving as the getaway driver, after Bobby Peru had shot and seriously wounded the two feedstore employees, he raced outside and was shot multiple times by an alert police officer. As he fell to his knees, the wounded Bobby Peru experienced a startling suicidal death when he blew off his own head with his sawed-off shotgun.

Unharmed, Sailor surrendered and was arrested by police, and knew he had let down Lula. He was sentenced to serve a prison term (of almost six years). Marietta arrived at the police station with Santos to fly Lula back home to North Carolina. Lula wrote Sailor a note about keeping their baby ("our child") that would be named Pace, if it was either a boy or a girl; in the meantime, she had relocated to Los Angeles.

In the final scene set almost six years later, Sailor was about to be released from prison after serving his time, and was due at the LA train depot at 6 pm; on the phone with Lula, the angry and crazed Marietta was adamant that Lula not associate with Sailor anymore: "Girl, what if I told you not to go?", but Lula threateningly said that it wouldn't make any difference: "Mama, if you get in the way of me and Sailor's happiness, I'll f--kin' pull your arms out by the roots!" and she slammed the phone; in Lula's living room, she toppled a photograph of her mother when she splashed it with her drinking glass - and it began to sizzle and melt (a reference to Dorothy's elimination of the Wicked Witch of the West with water).

Upon His Release From Jail 6 Years Later
Sailor Awaiting Lula's Arrival at LA Train Station	Sailor Was Greeted by Lula and Son Pace

Sailor was greeted by Lula at the train depot in Los Angeles, now with their infant child named "Pace" (Glenn Walker Harris Jr.). After driving off a short distance with them, Sailor decided that it was a "mistake" to get together again with her and raise a family: ("He ain't never known me, Lula, so there's not much for him to forget. And not seeing each other for six years makes it next best to simple for us, too. It's what makes sense, is all"). He referenced "The Cisco Kid" and "Pancho" in his decision to leave her, as he told Pace:

Oye, amigo. If ever somethin' don't feel right to you, remember what Pancho said to the Cisco Kid: 'Let's went, before we're dancin' at the end of a rope, without music.'

His parting words to Lula were: "You've been doin' fine without me, Peanut. There's no need to make life tougher than it has to be." After kissing Lula, he left them and walked away back to the train depot on foot, where he was surrounded, assaulted and knocked out by nine gang members after he derided them as faggots: ("What do you faggots want?").

While unconscious, he received an hallucinatory visitation from the Good Witch (Sheryl Lee): "Sailor Ripley. Lula loves you," but Sailor felt he wasn't good enough for Lula: "But I'm a robber and a manslaughterer. And I haven't had any parental guidance," but was assured that even though he was 'wild at heart,' Lula had forgiven him. She advised: "Don't be afraid, Sailor....If you are truly wild at heart, you'll fight for your dreams." She urged him to remain with Lula: "Don't turn away from love, Sailor. Don't turn away from love." She threw him a kiss.

Sailor Knocked Unconscious by Gang

Sailor's Hallucinatory Visitation by the Good Witch (Sheryl Lee)

Sailor Serenading Lula with "Love Me Tender"

He apologized to his dumbfounded gang attackers for calling them homosexuals: "You've taught me a valuable lesson in life."

The film ended with an ironic, cliched happy ending, when Sailor had a change of heart, ran back to Lula driving away in her convertible but stuck in traffic, and told her: "I just met the Good Witch." He reunited with her - singing "Love Me Tender" as he had earlier promised.