Tonight on Playboy Radio: Taboo II and the Golden Age of Porn

Had a great time tonight (2011 Aug 25) on Playboy Radio‘s Night Calls talking with Nicki Hunter and Debi Diamond about Kirdy Stevens‘ 1982 classic, Taboo II.

The movie stars Kevin James and Dorothy LeMay (even though they inexplicably put Tammy/Bambi on the box cover, LeMay is so much hotter.  Memo to self, find better headshot for Dorothy…) as brother and sister who after some trepidation live out that old adage “if you can’t keep it in your pants, keep it in the family.”

The story (story!!) picks up a little bit after Taboo, where we follow Mike Ranger’s girlfriend (Dorothy LeMay) as she and her brother, Junior (Kevin James), run into Mike’s mother (Kay Parker) at her stationary stop.  Running into her son’s ex-girlfriend sends her to her friend Aunt Peg, who gives her a massage.  Junior, knowing a fine piece of tail when he sees one, follows her over and ends up banging Kay and Aunt Peg right there on the massage table.  During the romp, it comes out that Kay slept with her son, and this gets Junior to reconsider what a hottie he has in his sister, and he sets out to tap it.

There is lots of tease and build up in Junior’s seduction of his sister and it climaxes with his girl friend (Tammy) eating his sister out on the family room couch when Junior just slides himself in there and takes over.  From there, the taboo has been broken, and we find everyone in the family torn apart by the action.

We also follow the action of Junior’s parents played by Eric Edwards and Honey Wilder.  They’re in a largely sexless marriage, so it’s only a matter of time before Dad boffs Daughter and Mom rides Junior.

And this being the end of the swinging 70s, the movie could not be considered complete without a giant suburban orgy where we have most of the cast list (including a young up and cummer named Ron Jeremy!)

Perhaps the most striking thing about the movie is the notion of consequences.  No one is living happily ever after in either of these movies, which is quite a difference from the normal “fuck and live to fuck some more” vibe that is in most porno.

We also spoke of The Golden Age.  Back in the late 90s, we covered it like this in the Adult Movie FAQ:

The following comes from Peter van Aarle’s excellent web page (mirrored at http://www.rame.net/aarle/golden_age.html) regarding the “Golden Age” of porn films.

Ah, the good old days, when the words “shot on video” were unheard of, and they actually had budgets to shoot an adult movie <sigh>

When the plot of a porno movie wasn’t limited to “Gee, I don’t seem to have the money to pay for the pizza! Now what do we do?” and the talent actually were sent the script in advance to learn their lines.

Heck they even were known to have occasional rehearsals :-)

Oh well, no use crying over things that once were. With the present glut of cheap product (over 2500 pornos were released in the US in 1994!) a good movie is difficult to make. That is to say, you can still make a good movie if you invest time and money in it, but a 4 times higher budget is unfortunately no guarantee for a 4 times higher return.

In fact, the only people who can change things are we the consumers. If we make sure that cheap one-day-wonders don’t make their producers much money then (and only then) is the general quality likely to improve. After all, why should Joe Producer invest a lot of time and effort in making a good product when producing crap lets him rake in the bucks anyway…

So we have the choice: either scour the shelves for hours to try and find the few pearls among today’s dreck or go back to those classics of yesteryear. If you want to try your luck with todays product (which isn’t all bad, really), I would suggest reading some of the reviews posted to the alt.sex.movies newsgroup to help distinguish between the good and the bad. Many of these reviews are archived at several sites.

“Ok”, you say “but what if I want some of those classics? How do I know what to look for?”
Well fear no more, here for your browsing pleasure is a list of many of the best porno movies ever made. Many of them are from the so-called Golden Age which is generally considered to have been from about 1977 to 1982.

Which isn’t to say that there have not been some good movies made before or since that time, nor that there weren’t some awful ones produced during the period, it’s just that so many of the classics were made during that period…

So look at these lists of the true Classics, some very good movies, and some movies which may not stand up to our high standards today but which are nonetheless historically significant.

Revered and greatly missed adult reviewer Imperator had this to say about the epochs of porn:

A note on the Ages according to Me. Note that like all historical divisions these are approximate :-). –

  • The Golden Age is 1976-1984. I have slightly extended it from the traditional 1977-1982 to include “Misty B.” and the many excellent movies of 1984. The Golden Age ends with the retirement of Annie and the rise of Ginger (not that it was Ginger’s fault of course :-)). The fringe period is great fun, since it includes the first Angel & Ginger flicks and Bridgette Monet.
  • The Silver Age (my real sentimental favourite) should strictly be 1984-1986, i.e. up to the retirement of Ginger and Traci, but 1987-1989 had many nice movies with essentially the same stars as 1984-1986, so I’ll include 1988.
  • The period 1988-1995 can be divided and named in many ways. A friend calls it the Cheapskate Age or the Crap Age, but it is innaccurate since it ignores Leslie & Stagliano.
  • The term “Silicone Age” only applies to post 1992 IMHO.
  • The term Neon or Pretentious Age for 1989-1992 does include most of Blake, but it really disregards the rest of the crap… I mean the material :-).  So, my opinion is that the traditional apellation of “Iron Age” is the best and safest.
It looks like the Playboy Radio segment is going to be a standing gig on Thursday nights around 8:30 Eastern / 5:30 Pacific. See you next week.

Time to Vote: Twistys Treat of the Year

It’s that time of year again — Twistys is doing their annual Treat of the Year vote-a-thon. I’ve always been a huge fan of their photography, and we spotlight a lot of their work via the headshots that appear along side the performer filmographies.  The first round of voting is over, and they’ve narrowed the field down to six models, of which five have done hardcore movie work, so I thought I’d spotlight them to help you (a) decide how to vote and (b) watch their movies. :-)

(It’s best if you’re a fan of g/g or solo, as this batch of Treats are all no-boys-allowed.)

Chronologically speaking:

May 2010: Adrienne Manning

Nebraska native Adrienne Manning has had a long career as a web model, coming on the scene around 2006 or so, appearing on Melissa Midwest’s site and then branching off on her own. She’s only made the leap to  movies recently, and three movies we list  have focused on solo and g/g scenes…

July 2010: Bree Daniels

Bree Daniels is another newcomer with an awesome rack and a host of g/g or solo movies under her belt.

 

August 2010: Prinzzess Felicity Jade

Prinzzess gets a new name over at Twistys– Felicity Jade — to go with her other monikers: Princess Sabara and Prinzzess Sahara.  Prinzzess has long been a staple over at Girlfriends Films and Twistys was smart to jump on the bandwagon. We’ve got 69 films of hers listed (we can’t make this stuff up) and she’s smoking in damned near every one.

  

October 2010: Chrissy Marie

Chrissy Marie is the only model in this years Treat-Off that doesn’t have any IAFD credits.  This is a shame, because she’s got a bod built for sin…

  

November 2010: Emily Addison

Emily Addison‘s film work is mostly as a blonde, but at Twistys, she’s something darker – all raven haired and sultry. Like so many others on the list, Emily focuses on g/g scenes, having shot a bulk of her work for Anastasia Pierce…

  

December 2010: Sabrina Maree

Rounding out the  slate of nominees for Twistys Treat of the Year is Sabrina Maree, a g/g performer who has shot for most the big studios around – Adam & Eve, Zero Tolerance, etc – but only has a single title from each studio out right now, so she’s got seven titles to her credit, thus far…

  

So, head on over to Twistys and vote.

Fine print: you need to be a member of Twistys in order to vote, but they’ve got a special where you can sign up for as little as a buck (2 day trial) or take the annual pass for $95.40.  If you don’t like auto-renewals, they also offer a $65 for 6 months non-recurring plan.

Website Review: wicked.com

Roger T. Pipe sends along this review of wicked.com…

(please let us know if this kind of thing is something you’d like to see more of…)

Anyone familiar with adult movies in the past two decades knows exactly what to expect from anything with the Wicked name on it. They are one of the leading producers of high end adult entertainment featuring some of the most beautiful stars and the most passionate sex scenes. www.Wicked.com delivers the same quality that fans expect from their movies. The site offers weekly updates and a huge collection of scenes as well as full movies for your viewing pleasure.

Currently housing over 3,750 scenes and 1,650 different stars, it is a massive collection of high end erotica with something for everyone. All of your favorite Wicked girls are here. From the current crop including Stormy Daniels, Kaylani Lei and jessica drake to classic Wicked contract stars like Stephanie Swift, Devinn Lane, Jenna Jameson and my personal favorite, Serenity.

In addition to the contract starlets, www.Wicked.com boasts a huge collection of scenes from other top stars past and present. You can pretty much pick a girl and find a collection of scenes. From Asa Akira, Andy San Dimas, Aurora Snow, Kristina Rose and Tori Black to Asia Carrera, Amber Lynn, Alicia Rio, Kaitlyn Ashley and Taylor St. Clair and all kinds of girls in between, this site is a fantastic collection of the hottest porn stars of the last twenty years. In addition to the star power, big budget movies and hot scenes available, www.Wicked.com also offers exclusive behind the scenes looks at their movies and the stars. Unique BTS clips and red carpet reels are part of the fun. Featuring unparalleled star power, excellent video quality and a huge collection of Wicked scenes and movies, membership to www.Wicked.com is like having your own personal Wicked Pictures library.

SITE BREAKDOWN

Home

Navigating www.Wicked.com is fairly simple thanks to a solid design. There is a toolbar across the top of the page and a good deal of new material right on the main page at all time. Just below the toolbar is a large photo of “Girl of the Week” (Gracie Glam right now) and a list of upcoming additions to the site.

Working down the main page we get “Scenes”, “Movies” and “Girls” in sortable thumbnail format. The twelve most recent are featured, but you can also change it up to view the twelve most viewed or most popular scenes, movies or girls. They are then viewable in pages of fifteen with thumbnails, add date, title or star name, views and rating. All of these also feature direct links to the individual update pages.

The main page is easy to use, but if you prefer the toolbar, it is really well laid out.

Scenes

Shown 15 per page, scenes may be viewed by most recent, most viewed or most liked order. As of today (7/27/11) there are 2,983 scenes onWicked.com. They go back a long way and feature more porn stars than any of us would care to count. Individual scene pages feature a huge screen shots that is also one-click screaming of that entire scene. There is basic information provided including star name, add date and the title of the movie the scene was pulled from. (With an easy link to view to entire movie.) There are links to photo galleries as well and the option to download the scenes. Video streams at 240, 480 or 720p. They download at HD720, DVD or iPod quality. Photos are available in gallery or zip format.

Movies

Full movies are displayed 20 per page with a box cover shot, add date, views and rating displayed. www.Wicked.com features really new Wicked titles. As of today (7/27/11) the most recent titles are “Teacher’s Pet”, “Cougars Take it Black” and “Eternal” which are brand new titles to DVD. No real lag time here. There are currently 518 full movies available to view any time you want. Movie update pages feature a large screen shot that serves as a one-lick streaming option. Movies may be watched as a whole or split into scenes. Video streams at 240, 480 or 720p. They download at HD720, DVD or iPod quality. Photos are available in gallery or zip format.

This is pretty much the Wicked collection all at your fingertips. (Though I noticed that the movie I wrote for them, Guilty Pleasures, is not included.) All of their lines are represented here as well. There are titles from the couples-oriented Wicked Passions line. Comedies like “Boobwatch” and “Rocki Whore Picture Show” are easy to find. Their award winners like “Speed”, “3 Days in June” and “2040? are also available. If you prefer older titles, there are tons of those. The Jenna Jameson and Serenity era are well represented with some classic movies “Lost Angels”, “Conquest”, “Indigo Delta” and “Hell on Heels.” They even go back further than this with some Shyla LaVaeaux and Teri Weigel movies. If you are a fan of Wicked movies, this collection is impossible to beat.

Girls

Every girl features on www.Wicked.com has her own page. This makes it much easier to find material form the women you are looking for. Girls are shown 15 at a time with large pictures, number of scenes and ratings displayed. By default the girls are listed by most active. (jessica drake with 170 scenes) but you can also sort by most liked (also Ms. Drake with Kirsten Price in second place). Exclusive girls get their own sort and you can always sort through by first letter in an alphabetical sort. With over sixteen hundred model pages a text search would be really helpful.

Model pages feature a nice picture and many feature a text bio. Some of them are quite extensive and interesting while others are sketches. Every scene and movie featuring the actress is displayed in an easy to use system. Users can “like” a girl to improve her rating and leave comments on her board as well.

Bonus Videos

In addition to all of the hardcore action on Wicked.com there are loads of special video features to enjoy. BTS reels make a large portion of this material. Take a look behind the scenes at the making of some of Wicked’s biggest features. Red Carpet and Event videos are also featured. You can take a look at the Wicked Girls as they strut their stuff at movie premiers and award shows.

There are also bonus feeds here. They are lower quality video streams covering every niche you can imagine. There are almost fifty thousand scenes available. You can search around here and find plenty of good stuff. It isn’t quite Wicked quality, but it’s free and offers something different.

COST

There are two membership options for Wicked.com plus a 2 Day Trial:

(If you take the trial membership, read the fine print — memberships that begin as trials renew at $39.00 per month, not the lesser monthly rate…)

OVERALL: 98 of 100.

Models: 20 of 20 (Best Girls in the Biz Present & Past)
Quality of Content : 18 of 20 (Technically solid, sexually hot)
Quantity of Content: 20 of 20 (Weekly Updates, Huge Catalog)
Ease of Use: 17 of 20 (Easy to use, Great Viewing Options)
Niche Appeal: 20 of 20 (Everything Wicked Fans Want )
BONUS: +3 Bonus Feeds