The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig
Release Year: 1973
Cast: Georgina Spelvin,Any Mathieu,Tina Russell,Helen Madigan,Darby Lloyd Rains
Genres: Retro, Classic, Vintage, All Sex
While these days he may be more involved with pot growing (and the subsequent arrests that tend to go along with that occupation) or forgery (and the subsequent arrests that also tend to go along with that occupation) than with movie making, before he got tossed in the clink Ray Hoersch wrote, produced and directed an adult feature film. Now, it was a long time ago - forty years, at the time of this writing, but he did it, and it's actually a pretty rad little seventy minute movie.
The plot revolves around a man named Barney (Paul Taylor), a man with a compulsive obsession which requires him to record all of his thoughts on the fly by way of the tape recorder he seems to have on him at all times. When we meet him, he explains by way of his internal narration, that he's been through three wives already and is now engaged to a forth - a woman named Alice (Georgina Spelvin). Barney makes some sort of living, we assume, as an artist specializing in three dimensional pieces of erotic art - they hang over his bed to the left and right of a sign that says 'I Fuck, Therefore I Am.' As Barney says, sex is everything. It seems odd then that he's already bored with Alice. She comes out of the bathroom one night dressed in leather and brandishing a whip and it's all he can do to feign a reaction. When she tells him she wants to be , not pretend but really , he begrudgingly agrees but doesn't really seem too into the idea.
And why should he? Sex comes easily to Barney from other sources. There's the schoolgirl who shows up to give him head (Helen Madigan) without asking anything in return and there's the foxy brunette named Susan Tina Rusell) who lets him come over and watch her play with herself. She doesn't want anything more than that, but doesn't mind if he takes matters into his own hands while he watches. And then there's his friend Eddie, who calls him up to hang out one night. When Barney makes a crack about Eddie's promiscuous past, his wife (Darby Lloyd Rains) responds by leaving for a brief moment and then coming back in lingerie. At this point she ties Eddie to the chair, crams her panties into his mouth and screws Barney right in front of her husband. Complicating matters is the presence of a French stripper named Christine (Any Mathieu credited as Amy Hunter). They talk when Barney shows up to watch her, completely by chance, at a dive bar where she performs. When he leaves his wallet there and she winds up with no place to stay, she returns the wallet to him, sans the cash, in hopes that he'll let her crash. He'll let her into his bed, of course, but no, he's not going to let her stay longer than it takes him to get off. As all of this is going on, there is still the lingering matter of Alice's request that he has to contend with. What's a man to do.
This one is pretty twisted and definitely not your average seventies adult feature. Barney's narration, which is as nihilistic as it is self-serving and chauvinistic, carries the film and links the sexual encounters that make up a good portion of the movie. At the same time, those scenes of copulation don't always appear to be legitimately played for the purposes of arousal. They're often quite quick and sometimes performed without any enthusiasm whatsoever, the most obvious example of that being a scene where Barney goes down on Alice while she talks. and talks. and talks. She's not in the least bit aroused or into what he's doing, but he goes at it dutifully because, well, he fucks and therefore he is.
The sense of humor that runs throughout the film is more effective than the sexuality of the picture. A scene in which Christine approaches Barney at the bar to get a bit of money out of him in exchange for some fun is handled well and shows interesting character traits in both parties, while the scene in which Barney visits Eddie only to get some surprise action from his wife is also pretty funny not just in content but in execution. A few odd angles are used here to accentuate the more unusual aspects of this situation. Also rather amusing is the scene in which Alice is eventually surprised by an intruder in the house. She reacts just as you'd think she would, chastising 'Barney' for being so predictable despite the obvious effort there to give her what she's explicitly told him she wants. The movie makes some interesting observations about the lengths that couples can and do go to in order to keep things interesting in the bedroom, though it does so with more than just a little bit of jaded satire.
The performances are strong across the board here, with Spelvin and Taylor really turning in great work. The supporting cast members are also strong, but for the most part our two leads do the bulk of the heavy lifting. Spelvin's character is a bit vapid and we don't necessarily understand why she's into Barney, but it never matters all that much. She's funny and charming in that way that Spelvin can be when given good material to work with. Taylor does a great job here, offering up the narration with just the right amount of distanced disdain for his subjects, and the dialogue is written well enough to provide sufficient comic relief. Though the sex scenes do go into some rougher territory here - , golden showers, and even some - this one plays more as a strange, comedic satire than as a straight up traditional sex film. However, that doesn't take away from its merits or its entertainment value. Definitely one of a kind!
Format: mkv (Matroska)
Duration: 1:10:17
Video: 720x480, AVC (H.264)
File size: 1.8 GB
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