Want to know something special about HotMovies? We are the exclusive home of Command Cinema: the classic studio featuring the work of famed director Cecil Howard. Howard was an endless well of interesting, intriguing, and hot films during the Golden Age. Command Cinema does great justice to Howard’s classics. From the excellent cover art that emphasizes the original movie posters in all their 70s/80s glory, to the remastering of the original film, to the special features, Command titles are really something.
When the latest release from Command was given to us, Fantasex, we were instantly in love over here at the HotMovies team. And when we saw that a special commentary track was available featuring co-director Roberta Findlay, we wanted to give all our HotMovies members a chance to appreciate it. So we have a special version of Fantasex featuring the director’s commentary here. The movie is absolutely worth a double watch. First, watch it for the sexy times without the commentary. Then go back and watch the commentary track version for some great (and funny) insights into the Classic Age of porn.
In case you’re still on the fence, let me help to persuade you. I’ll be reviewing each of the sex scenes (although the movie is much more than that), and providing a little clarity on Roberta’s commentary as well.
Clip 1
The setup before we get to the sex is about as interesting as it gets in adult. We are started off with an Edgar Allan Poe quote and some creepy-sounding voiceover narration while watching a guy getting head under one dim lightbulb in a sea of black. It’s unsettling, but it really helps to set the tone. We go from this voiceover blowjob to reality… where Roger Caine, a beastly publisher of erotica with the name Crotchmeyer, is yelling at his nebbishy editor named Bernard. The editor, and leading man, is played incredibly by Jeffrey Hurst (who just happens to have that perfect 70s everyman porn look to him). We learn that Hurst’s character is a daydreamer who is totally spellbound by the erotica he’s tasked with looking over. We’re then “treated” to a rather gross-looking castration fantasy… where Jeffrey imagines himself as some sort of stage magician performing the magic trick of cutting off his boss’ dick.
We then cut to the front office of the publishing company, where we meet our female lead. She is played by former professional ballerina Terri Hall. She is bookish and timid… but also gets incredibly hot under the collar for all the smut she’s around professionally. Opposite her is a mean-spirited secretary Laverne, played by Jennifer Jordan… who we witness pulling from a bottle of Jack Daniels and playing with herself in the office while reading the erotica. She gets called into the publisher’s office, and Roger is all over her before the two of them can finish berating Jeffrey. He lingers to gawk as Roger begins to push her down onto his desk. The action directed by Howard and Findlay is shot very tight… and as with all classic titles, is made to be brief. It’s simultaneously an unnerving and hot scene, but suffers a little for lacking a pop shot.
Clip 2
The next scene starts off with a charming poker night scene. Bernard is in a game with a bunch of dudes (their relationship to him is never addressed). Cecil Howard and famed director Chuck Vincent are both great in their speaking roles at the table. And Roberta Findlay’s commentary informs us that the stuttering weirdo at the poker table was a crew member who was never really good at his job… so they just threw him into the movie. Apparently that same crew member fell down an elevator shaft and “was never the same” after. The things we learn from director commentary!
So Bernard is such a daydreamer that not even a game night with friends can keep him engaged. He zones out to the point of being chastised repeatedly. And we finally see what he is dreaming; he isn’t the dork editor of a publishing company anymore, but a suave Old West gambler with a dancing girl at his beck and call. When winning his imaginary poker game gets old, he opts to bring his woman upstairs for another kind of game. The sex scene takes place in a red bedroom with a brass bed covered in furs. There is a ton of romantic foreplay: kissing, rubbing, (and texture play with the fur), and a good amount of oral. It’s actually a pretty romantic scene, and the dancer girl (played by Juliet Graham) appears to be having a great time. The sex itself is brief, and is topped off by a no-hands pullout cumshot all over Juliet’s stomach.
Clip 3
The third scene introduces Bernard’s mother and living situation: surely a reason that he is always off daydreaming. The shrill mother character is beating down the door while Bernard is in the bathroom. He is dreaming again about the dancing girl… this time giving him a blowjob in the bathroom. She uses her feather boa, an ostrich feather, and her satin gloves to rile him up. This would be the recipe for a good oral scene, but there are two giant factors that eat into how hot this is. Cutting back to the mom rapping on the door and squawking stuff like, “If you play with yourself you’ll go blind!” and, “Shit or get off the pot!” is about as unsexy as it gets. The other problem is that Bernard is doing voiceover as if from an erotic novel again… but it’s unnerving. At one point he refers to his penis as a “piss hole” and so between that and mom, it’s just a bunch of unwelcome (for boners) comic relief.
The scene, after Bernard finishes his imaginary facial, features a non-sexual fantasy of him turning into a gangster with a stiletto knife who gets rid of his mom. Can’t hardly blame the guy.
Clip 4
Bernard is bicycling to work (because of course he bikes). He is off in another world and accidentally almost bumps into a gorgeous blonde (played by Melody Gerdon, who unfortunately only has a couple credits ever). She seems receptive to the near-crash, but Jeffrey Hurst’s Bernard gives another excellent gape-mouthed, vacant stare. And suddenly he’s a tough biker dude, and Melody is his biker mama. It is a legitimately funny fantasy… as his tough biker is still only riding a bicycle (with Melody riding on the handlebars) past Central Park. He has swapped out his tweed suit for a mesh tank top and an odd-looking helmet.
Biker Bernard takes his mama back to his garage to fuck her on top of a swastika flag. The Nazi ephemera is fairly accurate to the shock culture of the bikers of the day, but it is still a bit unsettling of an image—but luckily it’s easy to ignore thanks to Melody. Jeffrey, who keeps his helmet on for much of the scene, is aggressive with her… flipping her over from missionary into doggy… which then becomes reverse cowgirl. Melody is wearing a sexy black motorcycle scarf and belly chain, and her hot little body has perfect 70s tan lines (P.S., did you know you could search for tan lines in the clip search?). Bernard finishes by taking a large chain and using it to press Melody’s legs over her head while he pumps away… pulling out and shooting over her stomach to the sound of a revving motorcycle.
Clip 5
Do the mental math and it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Bernard is a very socially impotent person. He is constantly berated—by his boss, by his mom, by his friends, and even by his company’s secretary. The secretary is at it again: slugging Jack from the bottle and diddling herself… and when Bernard hangs around just a bit too long for her liking, she lets him have it with the insults. Bernard escapes to a very “vigorous” (in HotMovies parlance) fantasy, in which he plays a thug in a black knit cap, turtleneck, scar, and Swiss Army knife (which was probably intentionally funny, but also a cheap prop to use to help with the budget for the movie). Under Bernard’s fantasy intimidation, Jennifer Jordan’s character guzzles down Bernard’s cock. The movie focuses a great deal on oral pleasures, and so this is another blowjob-only scene. I’m not a fan of the vigorous premise, but for those of you with a thing for a little threat to go with your sex, this is probably a good BJ scene.
Clip 6
The next scene is a big departure from the majority of the previous scenes. It is Jane’s turn to fantasize– as she’s every bit the dreamer that Bernard is. And Bernard is the driving force behind Jane’s sexual dreams. The scene goes black-and-white, and both Bernard and Jane are dressed elegantly. Jane is playing the piano for Bernard… but is also going down on him at the same time! It is a really funny premise that continues throughout the scene. The pair of them end up doing it doggy while Jane continues to play. And it is this kind of zany silliness that keeps me coming back to classic movies for entertainment (well that and I just love me some 70s/80s fashion and bush).
The sex in the scene is a bit overshadowed by its funny premise to be all that sexy… but it’s still worth watching. It turns out it is Roberta Findlay playing the piano as a hand stand-in for the copulating Terri Hall. Roberta divulges in the commentary that she was trained as a pianist, and that it was her piano in her apartment that was being used. In fact, most of the filming was done in Roberta’s apartment to save money. Roberta also uses this thread of conversation to let us know that she can’t stand modern music. She’s a truly charming New York grump!
Clip 7
So the end of Clip 6 is a really interesting (from a filmmaking perspective) lead-in to the sex of Clip 7. Both Jane and Bernard are hassled by Crotchmeyer for being poor workers that spend too much of their time with their head in the clouds. They both beg for their job and agree to take on extra work. The whole sequence is done as V.O. accompanying a series of stark photographs of the players. I haven’t really ever seen something done like this in a movie before and I found it to be really interesting… but just a bit out of place in the movie. It’s like Howard and Findlay had gotten bored or something. But it’s also equally as possible that it was the improvised result of having had that scene written in after the shooting was finished, or having had the film stock from that scene get damaged or go missing. I’d like to see it done in another movie where I didn’t have to question whether or not it was being done to make up for some kind of goof. And I’m pretty disappointed this wasn’t addressed in the commentary.
This taskmaster sequence cuts to the next daydream, and it is unclear who is dreaming. Likely it is Bernard, as it features him in the powerful position of ringmaster in a circus that features Laverne and Crotchmeyer (as Crotchy the Clown) as performers. The setting is very surreal and heavy on pink and red lighting and bizarre camera angles. It’s fairly tough to see the action itself, but it is a foursome featuring all four principal characters. Circus scenes are fairly hard to come by… and it’s really interesting to see what Howard and Findlay were able to do with a circus set inside Findlay’s apartment.
Clip 8
The movie closes with a so-romantic-it’s-hokey sex scene dreamt up by Jane while she rides an elevator with Bernard. She envisions them as newly married and consummating on the honeymoon bed. She is dressed in lingerie and a bridal veil. Bernard is armed with a long-stem rose. It is the sort of thing that makes its way into actual Harlequin novels… but with body hair and fellatio. It’s a nice-enough scene, and a sweet way of closing things out. The movie then wraps up with the sort of ending you’d expect from a fully formed feature, even a sex flick.
All told it’s a good movie: equal parts interesting, funny, sexy, and disturbing. It’s worth a watch beginning to end, and at under 80 minutes that’s totally doable. And as I mentioned in the introduction, it is highly advisable to watch the commentary version afterwards. Roberta Findlay is as old New York industry as it gets. She repeatedly points out the “thrifty” methods of Cecil Howard like using friends’ places to shoot for free. She discusses Henri Pachard having a porcelain fetish. She talks about the differences between the New York porn scene and the California porn scene in the early days. And she dropped the revelation that she actually hated making sex pictures. She went on to have a career as a cult horror film director.
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