Joanna's Dreams

This is a rather strange Couples Romance porn feature that has several virtues but raises some questions yet to be resolved. All you porn researchers out there in video land should look into it.

It unfolds oddly, beginning with a scene of Gail Sterling helping young (she looks underage, a plus in casting) Tiffany Blake as Joanna practice her Shakespeare line readings for an audition. Blake projects no emotion, and Gail gives her advice, then seduces the youngster, with a terrific romantic musical score (exceptional throughout the movie, and turning to funky sounds where appropriate).

After this romantic lesbian scene, the feature takes an unusual turn as Gail suggests Tiff go see a shrink, who can hypnotize her for regression therapy (think Bridey Murphy) to let her break through and be able to emote emotionally.

Psychiatrist is goofily cast as Joey Silvera, equivalent to a mainstream movie in which a Crispin Glover or Chris Walken shows up as a shrink. He talks to her about projecting her voice (to reach the back rows) for stage performances, and hypnotizes her with goofy repeat-after-me phrases that put her to sleep.

Egging her on to recall traumatic and sexual memories, not from past lives but from her adolescence, we see a series of sex vignettes as flashbacks involving Tiff, starting with her masturbating while listening through paper-thin walls to her parents (John Leslie and Nikki Knights) humping in their adjacent bedroom, unwanted (at first) sex with her first boyfriend Shone Taylor and interracial sex with interior decorator Billy Dee.

I kept waiting for Silvera to hump her, but instead he invites her to a party given by her lesbian friend Jane (Sterling, from the movie's opening scene). It turns out to be an 8-person orgy, with plenty of partner-switching and highlighted by Joey having anal sex with an underrated performer, Carol Titian. Somewhere along the line the plot elements of Joanna as a would-be actress and hypnotism have gotten lost.

The picture was likely shot back-to-back with an earlier release titled "Lost Innocence" which has a nearly identical cast, only with Shanna McCullough added. And "Innocence" also ends with an 8-person orgy featuring Shanna in place of Nikki Knights. Different sources list different directors, a German VHS release crediting Stuart Canterbury for making "Joanna's Dreams".