The Girls of Ball Street

A lousy and forgotten 1988 feature made by John Stagliano (who signed it "Johnny Stallion" out of shame?) is of interest only because five years later a vignette featuring Viviana (and T. T. Boy) was added for reissue. Sadly, Viviana can't save a stinker.

The movie shot on video is "hosted" by Nikki Cherry, who is terrible at reciting her narration on camera (but okay in her sex scenes), supposedly as an expose of "suburban depravity". It's dumb material also written by "Johnny Stallion", sort of a mindless XXX tribute to the clever '60s soft porn specialty of since revered Joe Sarno.

I won't waste time or space about the underlying movie, which is incompetent, but focus solely on Viviana's additional scene. It's basically just an eleven-minute porn loop: glamorous and overdressed Viviana is in her gym, with T. T. Boy fixing a piece of exercise equipment. Then she disrobes and he worships her perfect body in full XXX fashion. Sound recording is poor, and it's not clear whether Buttman directed this added scene or not.

I bought this VHS feature in 1991 at a time when I was completely taken with Viviana, whose brief career lasted only a year or so. But she was the hottest actress in porn then, and I've never been bowled over by a XXX performer as much before or after, with the exception of Sarah Young, who also hit the limelight in the early 1990s. They have similar physiques and earthy beauty, so it's not surprising both became my all-time favorites. In the VHS era it was fairly common to create new releases by adding a new scene to an already released feature several years later, and several "Viviana" movies were made this way. She is a legendary performer in my book, but other than a handful of fine videos (such as "Hot on Her Trail", "Spanish Rose" and "Hard to Thrill"), she was underappreciated by pornographers at the time, merely a lure to get fans (like me) to shell out. One look at her on the VHS box cover, and you had to partake.