Orifice Party

Eric Edwards stepped into the director's chair for ORIFICE PARTY, with good results despite a rough around the edges approach. He gets little credit, however, as the video is billed upfront as "a Damon Christian film" in honor of its producer.

Edwards maximizes the number of sex scenes and very nicely gives each player a lot of action, the opposite of many all-star, blink and you'll miss 'em porn exercises. There are only three women in the cast, and they get a workout.

One potential drawback is the top-billing of Christy Canyon, who I can attest from personal preferences was already a big draw back in 1985. She's fun to see as always, but her role is trivial, and almost nonexistent -cast as a sexual version of those Singing Telegram players, who shows up at the office as a birthday president for boss Robert Bullock (here billed oddly as "Bobby").

Sexual harassment is the subtext for this freewheeling farce, as not only Bullock, head of a shipping firm, but his prime employee Herschel Savage are not just sexist but constantly abusing the female help, in the form of two beautiful breast queens (of extremely different physical looks) Stevie Taylor and Jessica Wylde.

John Finegold's script (and this is a case where writer in porn means something) has many clever devices, starting with the business fronting for a porn distribution outfit (Savage has many funny moments talking of their product), and the chaos that results from the team trying way too hard to get a customer (Nick Random in a wonderful supporting performance/caricature) to sign on the dotted line for a big order contract.

The non-stop sex in many different combinations makes up for the lowly production budget, resulting in crummy sets - but who ever left a porno theater singing the praises of the production values? (I guess Radley Metzger/Henry Paris fans did, judging by the revisionist view of Porn History we hear today).

Savage also does a fun job in a dual role, also playing Random's partner who gets serviced when he visits the office in order to get his contract signature, too (and doubling the number of Savage money shots). I was especially pleased to see Wylde get a big, big role, humping everyone in sight, showing off her spectacular nipple cones and waist length hair, and being positively bubbly in comedy scenes. Taylor is quite effective as well, and Canyon equals Wylde in the bubbly department but is so infrequently on screen one wonders whether she was added to the mix as an afterthought since having just 2 actresses would be considered chintzy.

Inexperienced as director (this may have been his first such effort), though one of porn's acting icons, Edwards does have trouble balancing the varying moods and attitudes of the script, almost killing the feature at one point. Random, in a faultless bit of acting, turns dark in one scene and begins physically abusing Wylde. Though later his slapping her is totally fake, at first the tone changes to that of a dark "roughie" and it takes awhile for the movie to get back on its feet again. Later roughie content is tongue-in-cheek, as the gals tie up Bullock to a wall and gag him (to cool his heels for a whole weekend) as punishment, and force him to watch their lesbian tryst (not really punishment).