VIRGIN NYMPH GRINDHOUSE TRIPLE FEATURE

More vintage smut from the Rainmac brigade at After Hours Cinema.

The theme here is explained by the blurb on the back of the box: "The words 'virgin' and 'nymph' could be seen many times plastered upon the marquee of innumerable 42nd Street grindhouses and storefront theaters. Promising illicit thrills of sexually charged cinematic transgression, the audience of these sinful celluloid oddities often left unsatisfied. After Hours Cinema is proud to present 3 'sleaze grinder' classics that perfectly exemplify, and deliver upon, this kind of XXX-citing enticement!".

And so, the show begins with a cautionary tale of prostitution and drugs entitled INNOCENT GIRL. This film stems from 1975 and stars Julie Hopkins in the eponymous role.

It begins in a New York hotel where black working girl Tania operates in a squalid bedroom. Her first client of the day is a regular: Mr Rowland. He likes her to wash his privates before nookie, and likes even more to return the favour.

Meanwhile, Tania's sharp-suited pimp Jackson meets naive young Kansas girl Becky (Hopkins) in a coffee shop. She's in town to meet a friend who's promised to help her find employment. But the friend doesn't show and so Jackson offers to keep her company. As they continue to talk, he's generous enough to offer her a place to stay and a job. Of course, she has no idea what this entails ...

When Becky's friend Bob finally shows up, he's furious to finding her talking to the local pimp. "See all those fucking cunts out there?" he screams, gesturing to the hookers on the street outside, "you know what they're doing?". Of course, this upsets our innocent heroine and Bob's idea of making it all better is taking her back to his pad and shagging her. For a virginal type, she certainly knows how to suck cock.

Later that evening, Becky decides to give Jackson a ring and take him up on his offer of finding her somewhere to stay. With Tania having done a runner and clients demanding a service, Jackson is more than happy to meet up with Becky ... and promises his clients "a new girl" to try out. After he tries her out for himself, that is.

Meanwhile, Bob is on Becky's trail ...

Cunnilingus, blowjobs, messy cumshots (complete with sound effects), mixed race shafting, sex involving swings, even a spot of heavy-breathing anal sex ... INNOCENT GIRL delivers all, in badly shot and spectacularly hairy style. In-between the rather nondescript pornography, the exterior shots of New York are authentically sleazy and the attempts at drama seem fair. One weird aspect is that virtually all of the cast appear to be off their tits on drugs.

Hopkins is the star, exhibiting a likeable charm that makes her recall the late, great Marilyn Chambers.

Next up is YOUNG NYMPHS from 1973. Directed by Charles Lamont under the pseudonym of Ralph Landy, this stars the affable Kim Pope and Cindy West.

"We live in an age of anxiety" starts the voiceover as a middle-aged man prepares warily for the imminent arrival of his lover. The male narrator goes on to laughably reason that the frustrations of modern life lead to "deviant sexual psychosis". It's all bunkum of course, spewed out in amazingly earnest fashion. His serious manner is equalled by a bespectacled professional who then addresses the screen to warn us that sexual fantasies are dangerous when they become realised.

Removing his gegs for added dramatic impact, the stuffy presenter then introduces us to two subject cases: Kitty (Pope) and Kathy (West). "Their problem?" he breathes, the "rare sexual phenomenon" of nymphomania. Cool.

Cut to redhead Kitty soaking in a bubble-bath. Her beau of the time enters the room and coaxes her into sex. It has to be said, he seems to be the more sex-mad of the two. The narrator explains that Kitty's nymphomania stems from her deep-rooted frigidity. I'm not sure how that works, but there you go.

Kathy's next, who we're told is also frigid, thanks to being brought up by a spinster Aunt who warned her off strange men. That doesn't stop us from witnessing her sitting on the toilet while sucking some hairy brute's dick. He looks like one of Harry Enfield's scousers, and provides the film with its first facial money shot.

The professional keeps popping up and narrating throughout this episodic affair, pointing out similarities between the two women and offering stuffy biological language in an attempt to add gravitas to bullshit dialogue such as "Female homosexuality is becoming an increasingly important problem".

It's certainly very amusing, unintentionally so. The sex scenes themselves appear as rather unimaginatively shot vignettes, taking in sex toys, lesbianism, bondage, masturbation, threesomes and more lesbianism.

There are no real conclusions here. But the female leads are hot and the sex looks suitably sticky.

Finally, we get 1972'S THE CANDY STORE.

Candy (Candy Samples) is a big-titted redhead with more than a passing resemblance to a young Elsie Tanner. She runs a brothel and the show opens with her introducing a new young blonde recruit to her other girls.

The new girl is incredibly timid-looking but, after a glass of bourbon and a brief speech on how great sex is by Candy, she relaxes somewhat and looks forward to "cocks in my mouth".

Enter Jack, a well-dressed regular who promptly disappears to an adjoining bedroom with the blonde. They get it on immediately and all is going well until Candy enters, joining in by showing blondie how to please the clients via the art of blowjobs and titwanking.

True to form, THE CANDY STORE unravels episodically, allowing time to showcase the talents of each girl along the way. Sparse decor, rudimentary lighting and camerawork, bubbly but inept acting, and amusingly bad fashions are all present and correct.

Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 transfers, each film has been "remastered from the original grindhouse film prints". So sayeth the DVD's back cover.

Colours are vivid, flesh-tones are natural and images remain stable throughout. As is the norm for these releases, the prints used aren't the cleanest: expect grain and print damage through each film. It all adds to that aura of scuzziness though.

English mono audio displays minor background hiss on occasion but is largely acceptable on all three offerings. As usual, some music samples have been replaced for copyright reasons with After Hours Cinema's stock music.

The region-free DVD opens with an animated main menu page. This allows viewers to either select the viewing of each film individually, or watch all three at once by going for the "Grind It! (Play All)" function. All other sub-menus on the disc are static.

There are no scene-selection menus but each film can be navigated through by way of remote chapters: GIRL (8 chapters); NYMPHS (11 chapters); CANDY (6 chapters).

The only extras are trailers for SLUTTY STEWARDESSES, HONEYMOON SUITE and GRINDHOUSE VIRGIN 2. Understandable really, seeing as though we're getting three films squeezed on to one disc.

While hardly indispensible examples of Golden Era porn, these films are enjoyable enough as throwaway oddities.

By Stuart Willis