Sometime Sweet Susan (1975)
** (out of 4)
Even if you're not a fan of hardcore films you might remember this title as it was on the marquee of the theater where Travis took his date to in TAXI DRIVER. This was originally an XXX title but the version released on the "Skin in the 70s" collection is an R-rated cut that runs (according to the IMDb) about nine-minutes shorter than the hardcore version. With that said, what remains here would still easily get a NC-17 rating. The film has Harry Reems (DEEP THROAT) playing a doctor trying to break through to a patient named Susan (Shawn Harris) who at first won't talk but deep down is having sexual fantasies about him, her nurse and another flashback that is haunting her. It's really hard to review this film because this was meant to be a porno, no matter what else they tried to edit it into. This R-rated cut really doesn't work for several reasons including the fact that there are a few cases where the "action" goes to a freeze frame while the songs just keep on playing. This is really distracting but it also doesn't help that the film, in this form, is full of bad edits. This R-rated version just doesn't work as any sort of entertainment but I do want to see it uncut as its reputation is pretty strong. I was a little surprised to see how much story was actually here and many of the performances were better than you'd expect. Reems isn't too bad in his role even though I still didn't believe him as a doctor. The real reason to see the film is for Harris and I was shocked to see that this was her only movie credit. The movie probably wouldn't have ran so long if it weren't for all the slow motion scenes throughout and these did start to get annoying after a while. We also have a few songs written just for this movie and I'm not sure how many adult films could say this. So, in the end, this film really isn't all that bad but it's still rather hard to judge a cut version.
Sometimes Sweet Susan XXX version
*** (out of 4)
I had watched the R-rated version of this earlier in the year and I could tell that I was watching a decent movie yet it was nearly impossible to judge since it was missing all the hardcore scenes. I went back and viewed this hardcore version and it certainly improved the film so there's no doubt as to which version someone should watch. The story is pretty simple as a doctor (Harry Reems) tries to reach patient Susan (Shawn Harris) who refuses to talk about anything, although she is secretly having a sexual crush for the doc. This hardcore version, as I said, is certainly the version to watch for a couple reasons. The film is more drama than porno so I think a lot of people will watch this and be shocked at how few hardcore scenes there are. We get around four different scenes but none of them are overly graphic and I'm sure the "bump and grind" crowd might be disappointed. The film really does focus in on the drama of Susan and her reasons for keeping quiet and to herself. This hardcore version features the "real" reason as to why she's so quiet as most of this sequence towards the end of the film was cut out of the R-rated version. This here is the main reason to check the film out uncut. Another reason is that the hardcore scenes are quite erotic and certainly a lot better than the stuff we saw in more mainstream films like DEEP THROAT and DEVIL IN MISS JONES. Another problem with the R-rated cut is that a lot of footage was slowed down or just paused on so that they could edit out the hardcore sequences. The freezing effect really hurt the flow of the picture but thankfully all of that is gone here. On this second viewing I was even more impressed with Shawn Harris who certainly had a true acting talent and could do more than just the sex scenes. It's a shame this here was apparently her only movie.
