For Love of Money

So many no-name porn films were cranked out in the '70s that it is inevitable for many to remain obscure regardless of quality, but FOR LOVE OF MONEY deserves consideration. It's currently available from VCX, ABA and Something Weird -I'm reviewing the latter version, reissued on Vol. 63 of the Dragon Art Theatre series.

The nominal storyline is pretty ho-hum: Allen Breck is a blackmailer who seduces women and then charges them for the negatives of the incriminating photos he takes of them "in the act" surreptitiously. One of his marks, the buxom Dorothy Austin goes to an unscrupulous private eye (played by Joey Silvera in an early-career role) to get them back.

So what's the big deal. Anonymous filmmaker "Ben Koran" has cast some terrifically beautiful women, including Jane Clayton as Dorothy, Maria Arnold as another of Breck's conquests and a particularly amazing unidentified actress as Silvera's secretary Kelly, and they are very enthusiastic in the XXX sex scenes, especially involving fellatio.

In porn films from this era the big "reveal" is usually of the "Does she or doesn't she?" variety, as pubic hair identifies all the bleached blondes. In this movie it's oddly the male lead, well-hung if nondescript "Fred Huber", who is shown in the opening scene to be a real blond.

Adding to maximum arousal potential is the movie's novel use of familiar classical themes to underscore the sex scenes. Dorothy's coupling with Breck slowly unfolds to the tune of Ravel's "Bolero" five years before Blake Edwards' memorably used it in "10"- I like to think he got the inspiration watching this movie (Not!).

The VCX version replaces "Bolero" with generic funk music, out of place and reducing a classic sequence to ordinary porn. No obvious reason why this substitution exists, especially since classical music remains for other scenes.

Koran directed a not very good companion film titled BLACKMAIL FOR DADDY which has almost the same plot, only in that one Huber is the victim rather than the perpetrator of the blackmail. Pharoah Amos has the same role (in the same darkroom) developing the incriminating photos in both movies, though he is named Raoul in MONEY and Milo in DADDY. Though IMDb lists DADDY as a year older than MONEY (estimated release dates), there is a lengthy scene taken from MONEY that is shown as a stag loop in DADDY.

FOR LOVE OF MONEY adds up to unpretentious but bullseye porn, highly recommended. Anyone who can identify Kelly -please submit her acting moniker to IMDb so that I can cross reference and find other movies featuring her amazing bod.