Deception

A deceptively simple rom-com, "Deception" is a porn movie that sneaks up on you. With Randy West giving a memorable, relaxed, in-control performance as a crude, bullshit artist who sexually dominates the rest of the cast, it's a classic example of how a relaxed movie can cast its spell and provide terrific escapism.

He opens the movie shooting the breeze with his parole officer, but before you know it he has stolen a wallet, being a habitual pickpocket. Ashamed of himself for backsliding so quickly, he's determined to return it to the owner.

Using an address included in the wallet, he shows up at a mansion belonging to Deidre Holland, who is expecting the wallet's owner, Kaiser Burke to arrive, and West pretends to be him. Kaiser is a top Madison Avenue ad man (sort of a Don Draper), due to concoct the campaign for a top line of lingerie for Deidre. His impersonation leads to plenty of beauties (including Deidre herself) showing their undergarments and having sex at the drop of a hat.

That includes Randy Spears, who is the real Kaiser Burke, and his sexy fiancee Teri Diver. Even more beautiful and alluring are K. C. Williams and Danielle Rogers as lingerie models, and in an amusing performance, Jon Dough as a fey designer who pretends to be gay until West challenges him to f*ck his employer Deidre, and he drops the stereotypical designer act and services her.

Pornographer Michael Craig and his screenwriter Mark Weiss usually bore me to death, but this time have conjured up a near-perfect VHS-era answer to those sleek 1930s Hollywood romantic comedies, of the Paramount house style associated with Lubistch and Mitchell Leisen. It's amazing to find such a gem, in the midst of hundreds of lousy porn videos in the same era, back when Video Stores handling porn rentals were at their peak.