APHRODISIAC! THE SEXUAL SECRET OF MARIJUANA

"This is marijuana ..."

An excitable male narration introduces us firstly to the plant itself, growing in a field, and then to a cocktail party of several drunken adults. Alcohol, the voiceover informs us, is traditionally known as an effective way of relaxing people's inhibitions.

Then we cut to a marijuana party: this is an altogether more relaxed, less giggly do. "Euphoria seems to be everywhere" claims the narrator, pointing out how the pot-smokers enjoy the heightening of their senses through smoking the weed together - and, of course, the drug also rids them of their inhibitions. This enables them to get off with one another, but without the threat of acquiring brewer's droop.

Then we're off into an illustrative vignette in which a newly acquainted couple attempt to get it on in the back of a car. He's trollied but the attractive blonde is merely stoned - which means she's fully capable of performing, and well up for a spot of fellatio. Alas, their shagging doesn't get very far, due to his inability to get an erection.

The breakneck pace and episodic style continues as we next meet a female fiction writer who tells of how she first tried pot at a sophisticated evening party with a smarmy actor called Robert. When he touches her while she's under the influence of the wacky baccy, she reckons she feels like her whole body has been transformed into "a huge cunt". Jeepers. A sensual spot of lovemaking ensues, set to the type of music that usually accompanies National Geographic archive footage.

As the writer and her actor beau reach their crescendo, she delivers possibly the best line in the entire film: "I'm sold. Marijuana is the greatest sexual stimulant since the 12 inch penis ... and a hell of a lot easier to find".

And this is all before the opening titles sequence!

The narrator then tells us this film is a "documentary dramatisation" based on interviews with hundreds of people all over America, between the ages of 18 and 50. A few sample interviews with the average man-on-the-street-types are interspersed throughout the film as if to validate this claim, and archive footage accompanies the narrator's earnest run-through of the history of marijuana in a bid to lend the film some gravitas.

But, once you sift through the black-and-white footage of gangsters shooting things to pieces and diagrams of all things staid and medical, the film soon settles down into revealing its true motivation: the exploration of pot as an aphrodisiac.

Which, of course, entails several more reasonably well-shot and amusingly acted sex vignettes. Look out for a young John Holmes in one of the later scenes, portraying an office executive who gives his young secretary a good seeing-to.

The best episode for me though has to be the one that detailed the newlyweds whose honeymoon was being ruined by her fear of sex. Until she discovers marijuana cookies on their second honeymoon. Her transformation into a cock-sucking nymph is as comedic as it is oddly erotic.

Dennis Van Zak's direction keeps events going at full-pelt, never allowing for flab or unnecessarily long takes. It's a welcome style that makes for an engaging film with a tongue-in-cheek tone. It doesn't afford the viewer the chance to question what they're being told, or the risibility of the situations being presented.

The sex is hairy in the grand 1970s tradition, and rather attentive by the genre's standards. Although penetration, erections, fellatio etc all feature, it seems an injustice to call the nature of these scenes 'pornographic'.

Continuing the nice little sideline to Don May Jr's awesome Synapse DVD range, this latest title for offshoot label Impulse Pictures is a curious beast indeed.

It purports to be a documentary detailing the benefits of smoking weed. What it in actual fact is, is a 1971 film from opportunist director Van Zak, aiming to cash in on the then-burgeoning porno scene with its own variation on "sex education" flicks that had already proven successful with the likes of SEXUAL FREEDOM IN DENMARK and LOVE VARIATIONS.

APHRODISIAC! is presented in its original full-frame aspect ratio in a new transfer that restores all previously truncated material. It's a worn-looking offering, with lines, grain and print damage galore. Still, look beyond those and you'll find the usual bright clarity and accurate flesh tones that Don May Jr's transfers are renowned for. Any flaws are inherent in the original print sourced and, given the scarcity and age of this film, are to be expected.

If you like your vintage smut then you've no doubt bought your fair share of After Hours Cinema releases. In which case, you'll not only know what type of presentation to expect, but also that it simply adds to the squalid grindhouse quality of the feature being proffered.

English mono audio is fair throughout, presenting no noteworthy issues.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

There are no extra features.

A truly bizarre obscurity, APHRODISIAC! is a very enjoyable, quaintly dated and undoubtedly factually dubious relic that nevertheless effortlessly entertains throughout its brisk 76-minute running time.

Review by Stuart Willis