Perils of Paula

Diametrically opposed to the recent spate of money-grubbing, so-called "porn parodies" (mere ripoff of intellectual property from the mainstream), Gerard Damiano's riff on the classic "Perils of Pauline" is great X-rated fun. As a longtime fan I associate the auteur with powerful melodrama ("Devil in Miss Jones", "Memories within Miss Aggie", "Story of Joanna") but we can't forget his success with comedy in porn's greatest and most influential hit "Deep Throat".

Damiano was less successful with a similar but overwrought video in the same vein "Splendor in the Ass", but here finds the right balance between spoof and sincerity. The delightful Britt Morgan takes the title role, a poor lass trying to save her family farm from foreclosure by the dastardly villain who's actually named Dastardly, Mike Horner enjoying the opportunity to ham it up as a mustache-twirling baddie.

Sharon Kane is perfect as a bordello madam, who gives Paula a shot when the winsome young girl applies to work as a prostitute to raise funds to pay off the mortgage. Comically, Jesse Eastern with convincing makeup plays the old geezer of family patriarch who also wants to earn money working as a stud (!) at the brothel.

This is a load of fun, with just $47.85 needed (but a seemingly impossible sum to raise in this period piece setting) to pay off the debt, and plenty of brief XXX scenes to keep the target audience involved. Unlike "Splendor" Damiano maintains a light touch, making this one of the rare titles among the hundreds of Caballero DVD reissues of "classics" (generally advertised as "Shot on 35mm film" but mostly '80s and '90s shot-on-video features like this one) that is worth watching.