User reviews

A nice porn film with a fine story. The fuck scenes do not never last too long, but they are frequent. So in terms of sex, the viewer will be satisfied. Of course, it cannot be compared to a great psychological epic. Joanna Bell's acting skills are very good. It is a pity that she never continued her career.

I felt the need to add a review to this really cool flick since it has only one review here on IMDb which pretty much trashes it. Now, I will agree - if you are looking for a movie to get turned on by, you might want to look elsewhere (at the virtually endless supply of "normal" porn"). But if you have trashy cinematic taste, this one just might do the trick!

Sylvia is a dowdy, God-fearing spinster who lives alone, praying to the religious shrine in her living room. That is, until any man (or woman) enters her vicinity upon which she transforms into one of the various smut-spewing, sex-maniac multiple personalities inside her. Complete with cheesy transformation effects and even cheesier musical accompaniment.

Coming in straight-off-the-heels of Sally Field's schizophrenic drama "Sybil", Sylvia takes the premise, rips all the cloths off of it and swirls it with hysterical over-the-top shenanigans. If you enjoy these crazy porn-horror hybrids that could only have come from the wild and wooly 70's, I'm pretty certain you will enjoy SYLVIA!

Though recently revived with some fanfare by Seduction Cinema/After Hours on DVD, SYLVIA is a flop '70s hardcore porn film that reflects many of the pitfalls of the genre during its brief "porno chic" era.

Untalented filmmaker Peter Savage, wisely hiding behind a pseudonym, tried to make a real movie rather than a 90-minute sex loop, but his lack of prowess shows up early; in crude editing, and even violating the simple centerline rule of matching reverse shots (in an early car scene featuring Helen Madigan & Pamela Serpe).

Casting is 90% of the job most times, and here he failed miserably. In the demanding title role of Sylvia, a destitute man's LIZZIE or Eve from 3 FACES OF EVE, Joanna Bell is unattractive and varies from boring non-acting (as Sylvia) to over-the-top overacting (as Sylvia's several alternate personalities, fighting for dominion in her body). Her sole skill displayed is a mastery of the all-important (at the time) deep-throat technique, resembling that of all-time great C.J. Laing. But the frequent hardcore porn footage here is unerotic, just boring and poorly shot and edited.

Also miscast is Serpe, as Sylvia's cousin, who wanders around with a hangdog expression and is spared any hardcore penetration scenes. BUT she is forced to suffer the ignominy of a very violent rape scene, shot softcore but actually stronger than the non-violent sex scenes, as she's realistically beaten up. It takes place during an orgy sequence (group sex in the other room) that, like the rape, emphasizes interracial action. The director shows other fetishes, carefully pointed out in the unintentionally funny "historical" essay trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, that is issued with the DVD for presumably braindead viewers to consult.

Worst casting is Savage as Sylvia's shrink. His delivery of huge chunks of indigestible exposition and psychological mumbo-jumbo is putrid, and he takes the occasion to indulge himself in pure ego tripping (reminded me of Cornel Wilde in self-directed SHARK'S TREASURE) as he handily beats up two drug-addicted thugs (among them the miscast Sonny Landham).

Overlong pic perfunctorily delivers enough explicit sex goods to have gotten a playoff, but Savage does an obvious bait & switch in this epic's worst scene. Flashback features blonde Helen Devine as Sylvia's mom, aghast at young Sylvia (Bell looks exactly the same age here as in contemporary scenes, a cheap blunder) pleasuring herself in the bathtub, marking her for a round of punishment with various dildos Helen brings into the bathroom. As the audience wonders how kinky this will get, Sylvia conveniently knocks mom out, and coming to, Helen can't remember a thing, so nothing happens.

Overall, his biggest error was probably failing to shoot enough softcore coverage to be able to replace the typical hardcore "payoffs" with usable soft-X (or even R) material. The farrago is long enough to permit a soft version (a la the many Paul Thomas hard porn films shown over the years in bowdlerized versions on the Playboy Channel) had he done so, which could have played off as a typical '70s clunker at drive-ins.