I never saw THE BLACK BUNCH at a drive-in during my '70s ozoner romps, so finally catching up with it via SWV's DVD-R reissue should have made me thankful. But its low quality even taxed my tolerance.
Put simply, this feature film goes through the motions of presenting titillating content so lamely that it left my sensibilities parched, like waking up with such a dry mouth one cries out for some water.
Only pleasant surprise was the casting of one of my favorite vintage porn stars Norman Fields in the leading role. He escaped detection (in the IMDb credit roster) until I spotted him and submitted the info: the reason is that the balding guy is wearing a horrible wig that makes him very difficult to recognize, especially since this is a softcore porn film.
He plays Pepe Russo, sort of a great white hunter, helping our other hero played by "William Victory" (how's that for a phony moniker) hunt for an industrialist's missing son in Darkest Africa. It's all shot in Darkest California, with four busty, constantly topless (and frequently bottomless) leading ladies as the title Bunch pretending to be African natives.
They've survived a massacre at their village by nasty mercenaries. Also on hand are a couple of Black boys from the States, injected into the trek so that some traditional blaxploitation jive talk can spew forth.
The whole purpose of the exercise is to stage tedious and repetitive sex scenes, including lots of mixed-combo action, that might have been more entertaining had this been XXX. Alas, filmmaker Henning Schellerup, a hack for hire whose idiotic credits speak for themselves, opted for a softie. Ironically, I have seen two other softies by H.S., both including plenty of XXX insert footage to liven them up (THE BLACK ALLEY CATS and DR. CARSTAIR'S 1869 LOVE-ROOT ELIXIR), but even that tactic would likely fail to make BUNCH watchable.
The four titular leading ladies (I couldn't resist, how can you blame me?) are extremely untalented. One of them dances around a couple of times, inadvertently revealing her day job at some bottomless joint in Compton. Fields is hammy and fun to watch as usual, but his fellow cast members are embarrassing. Michael Pataki briefly and literally phones in his role, delivering exposition over the telephone. Jack King, the 400-pound character actor in countless porn films, has a bit role sitting around in a bar -you can't miss him.
