A "loop" was a 10 to 20 minute reel of porno footage, spliced end to end and placed into a large circular contraption so it could be run indefinitely as well as automatically in peepshow booths without the need for time-robbing reel changes, rewinding or any disturbing human intervention at all while patrons were salivating over the flickering images projected onto the door of the cubicle. As for content, loops were basically identical to the "stag movies" or "smokers" shown in brothels and fraternity houses where the projector beam frequently had to cut through thick clouds of cigarette smoke, hence the term.
Several theatrical adult films of the '70s and '80s qualify as "loop-carriers", combining a series of self-contained sexy stories (sometimes initially shot for the 8mm market, prior to the feature, and presented with a music track instead of direct sound) with a minimal linking device like a narrator waxing lyrically over past sexual experiences. Chris Warfield a/k/a "Billy Thornberg" recycled many of his old loops for "features" such as BLACK SILK STOCKINGS or BEYOND FULFILMENT. Grandmaster Alex De Renzy provided a more sophisticated version of the form with the likes of WILD THINGS 1 & 2 and BALLBUSTERS. A "vignette" film adds a bit more plot to the same basic concept by having the stories thematically linked. Certain characters will appear in more than one scene, giving the impression of narrative continuity.
Howard Ziehm, a director of photography who had collaborated with Wunderkind Bill Osco on early groundbreaking work like MONA (THE VIRGIN NYMPH) and FLESH GORDON, turned filmmaker and soon became known throughout the adult industry as the uncrowned king of the loop-carrier, bringing heat, humor and solid production values to the table. Silly titles like SEXTEEN, HOT COOKIES or NAUGHTY NETWORK barely conveyed the quality of these movies but fans in the know flocked to see them in droves anyway. SWEET CAKES proved perhaps the most lavish of the lot, but HONEYPIE remains the best.
Forgotten starlet Arlana Blue (also in Beau Buchanan's HAPPY DAYS) takes center stage in the framing footage as Lois, a hapless journalist at tabloid rag Metro, run by legendary Screw editor Al Goldstein, a man so shamelessly obnoxious he'll offend whatever minority group at the slightest incitement. Though I'm referring to the character he's playing, this description fits the man playing him or at least his public persona just as well. Faced with a deadline, Lois and her sidekick Nick (the late Bobby Astyr) try to come up with an idea for the latest issue, settling on sexy readers' letters that set up the four extremely effective episodes that make up the film.
Jennifer Welles made the leap from soft core simulation in Joe Sarno flicks (CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG American HOUSEWIFE) to hardcore stimulation with this movie, so you're watching history being made here. Ziehm added a stroke of genius by pairing this newcomer to explicit erotica with a performer even less experienced than she was, the aptly named Sammy Teen (breathless narration would have him be "no older than 14" but he definitely looks of legal age), as the new kid in the building seduced with a master's hand by the mature minx in one of the finest older woman/younger man encounters ever. Another new addition to the f*ck film fold at the time was the soon to be sensational Serena ("presented" in the credits as a "Oui calendar girl" and it may indeed have been her first screen appearance) as a ballet student making beautiful music with teacher Sharon Thorpe (lonely Lisa from Sam Weston's SEX WORLD) with the aid of a bottle of baby oil and a rather fearsome looking dildo. That's it for entrées ! The meat of the movie consists of the following two sequences that might provide even seasoned dirty movie watchers a thing or two they haven't seen before. Terri Hall (Tanya the ballerina from Radley Metzger's THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN) does the lonely housewife routine by coming on to horny workmen Ashley Moore, who played Veronica Hart's husband in Roberta Findlay's THE PLAYGIRL, and Rocky Millhouse (Arlo Schiffin's LITTLE ORPHAN SAMMY in the flesh !) in a very complete catalog of sexual variations - including the rarely attempted "double penetration" that finds two male members lodged within a single female orifice - that has been described by late genre critic and filmmaker Jim Holliday as almost a movie of its own. In my not altogether humble opinion, this is even topped by the next scene, one of the few serious S&M sessions in non-specialized adult fare with Mary Stuart, the unforgettable heroine from Shaun Costello's THE PASSIONS OF CAROL, put through her paces by Bree Anthony (quite a change from the submissive she played in Armand Weston's THE TAKING OF Christina) and Mel White, a professional "Master" Ziehm wisely cast for the part. Mere words cannot convey the searing intensity of this encounter culminating with an extremely aroused Mary seemingly on the verge of passing out as she's being pummeled with whips, chains, nipple clamps and the like.
Ziehm ironically reserves the loop-style visual approach (i.e. brightly lit and studded with extreme close-ups) for the frantically farcical connecting footage, the actual loops having been shot in soft, hazy shades reminiscent of crossover "classy" skin flick EMMANUELLE which was raking 'em in worldwide at the time. An adult film that truly offers something for everyone, HONEYPIE continues to arouse and amaze in equal measures after three decades and deserves to be enshrined as the Magnum Opus of a too frequently casually dismissed filmmaker.
