Personal Services

Take a simple, direct premise, devoid of pretentiousness, and you have the makings of a minor classic porn film PERSONAL SERVICES. Kudos to filmmakers who, for once, did not overreach but just delivered the goods in entertaining fashion.

It resembles on the surface many a 1-day wonder: simple sets, real-time photography, briefer than an hour running time. But vive la difference!

Porn vet Keith Erickson, sporting mutton-chop sideburns and quite flabby several years after his porn heyday, plays a guy who spots an intriguing sex ad in the Personals section of the newspaper, which he thinks will get him laid.

He's right, but The Queen of Sex (Cyndee Summers in one of her best roles ever) challenges him to a contest: whoever cries "Aunt!" (Women's Lib adaptation of the traditional cry uncle) first has to pay up. It's priced at $5 a minute for a sexual endurance marathon, and of course Erickson loses, having to cough up $375 (he adds a $25 tip).

Telegraphed from the outset, The Queen's gimmick is that she has a twin sister (played very briefly by Kay White, who front-on does not resemble Cyndee at all, even sporting different colored pubic hair (!)), sharing the load, unbeknownst to the hapless customer.

Erickson meets John Holmes in a bar, latter playing a chatty sailor who instantly befriends him. After Holmes gets a superior blow job from the scantily clad waitress (Daphne Bliss, who deserved more assignments but remains at present unidentified by IMDb spotters), Erickson invites him to partake of the Queen of Sex's challenge.

Holmes is more than a match for Summers, though she effectively deep throats him in his less tumescent moments. The guys finally figure out the girls' scam, and make off with $1,400 (in addition to the hours of sexual bliss).

Film is far from perfect, and obviously ephemeral in nature, but I really enjoyed it -both funny and sexually arousing. Summers handles all but a few seconds of the Queen sex scenes, with White just hired really for shots where they have to be present together plus the final reel revelation. Had effects been possible in the low porn budget, a simple doubling on screen of Summers with herself would have played better.

Oddest touch for me was Erickson cheating Summers at the finale -he does a quickie calculation of what he & Holmes are owed and it came (by my reckoning) to just over $1000 but he tells her it is $1400. Since much of the dialog was improvised (rather well in fact), I'm wondering if this was just a slip by Erickson or intended by the anonymous filmmaker "Michael Minghia" to see if nitpickers like me in the audience were actually paying attention!