Sensual Encounters of Every Kind

Producer Harold Lime (THE ECSTASY GIRLS) and director "Ramsey Karson" a/k/a Richard Kanter (who made the sexploitation favorite THE RIBALD TALES OF ROBIN HOOD) followed up their brilliant DESIRES WITHIN YOUNG GIRLS with this disappointingly ordinary offering that'll be of interest mainly to longtime genre fans because of its Golden Age superstar cast.

The premise is that old adult movie stand-by : the object that awakens its owner's dormant sex drive, in this case a gold pendant crafted by pagan druids ! Following a brief solo stint by then current Penthouse Pet of the Month Mariwen Roberts, the trinket's first owner is spoiled party girl Dee Dee (the vastly underrated Lesllie Bovee who would partner as well as match huge John Holmes in that same year's ERUPTION) who doesn't quite remember how the jewel came into her possession except that it somehow wound up in her purse after a booze-soaked night on the town. Giving her lowly gardeners a hard time, the blue collar crowd exacts their own brand of revenge on the "rich bitch" in a rape scene of the "they may protest at first" variety. Bovee's bucking resistance is fairly credible as is her subsequent more than willing cooperation, so I suppose it's up to individual viewers whether they can stomach this sort of thing. For the record, the guys are Mike Ranger (Kay Parker's son in the original TABOO), under the radar stud John Galt (from the cult favorite TEENAGE CRUISERS) and early industry legend Ric Lutze (who partnered cute Rene Bond in Richard Aldrich's wickedly funny beach movie send-ups HIGH SCHOOL FANTASIES and BEACH BLANKET BANGO) as the lout who taunts Lesllie with the indelible line : "See what I mean, Jellybean ?"

Lonely French teacher Abigail (Georgina Spelvin bagged another award for portraying suppressed spinster passion as only she could) winds up with the gem next, which gets her into a slightly coercive if rather erotic threesome with Monique Cardin (a minor mid-'70s starlet whose main claim to fame came with the starring role in Charles Kaufman's idiosyncratic SECRET DREAMS OF MONA Q) and a youthful Jon Martin. Dear Abby bequeaths the necklace to her favorite nephew, philandering senator Turk Lyon (Randy West's cross-dressing partner in crime in Svetlana's tremendously enjoyable SEX BOAT) who's trying to squeeze in some afternoon delight with saucy secretary Laura, played with piquant insouciance by genre goddess Serena, for what amounts to the film's funniest segment with Lyon forced to hide in the bubble bath to avoid detection by his unexpectedly returning spouse.

The movie's most satisfying sex is up next however with gym coach John Leslie finding himself at the mercy of a redheaded double whammy courtesy of Dorothy Lemay and Lori Blue, gap-toothed Marium from Joanna Williams' LITTLE GIRLS BLUE movies. After having put the bench-press to good use, the three of them retreat to the steam room for a bizarre but undeniably arousing swim cap and goggles number, imaginatively photographed by one "Max Wellman", a surefire pseudo as this credit doesn't seem to appear on anything else. Sadly, it's all downhill from there with Richard Pacheco (Lenny to John Leslie's Jack in Sam Weston's TALK DIRTY TO ME and NOTHING TO HIDE), who found the gem at the gym, trying to talk Cris Cassidy (the blonde amazon who started out as "Suzette Holland" for the same Sam Weston in SEX WORLD and EXPECTATIONS) into going all the way in the backseat. He's the only one in the flick to strike out but the magic jewel grants him professional success instead. A couple of months later, he picks up Cassidy in a Rolls, providing apparently ample incentive for the material girl to drop her knickers. This so-so scene ends with Cris kicking the pendant out of the window where it's picked up by…a nun ! To be continued…

Lime, whose credits stretch back to '60s sexploitation (as "Ted Paramore"), provides his customary gloss and star line-up but inspiration proved sorely lacking, making this something of a low point in an otherwise distinguished career. Perhaps not coincidentally, he would sever all ties with director Kanter after this relative debacle, preferring the reliable company of master filmmaker "Robert McCallum" (a/k/a Gary Graver, another blast from the sexploitation past with underground classics like SANDRA : THE MAKING OF A WOMAN to his name) instead for a string of successes including AMANDA BY NIGHT, INDECENT EXPOSURE and SOCIETY AFFAIRS.