Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott's space science-fiction horror film Alien (1979) was extremely suspenseful as it told about a menacing, unstoppable, carnivorous, stowaway, hermaphroditic Demon beast - an adult creature with both a phallic head and an open, dripping vaginal mouth.

Sexually-Charged Imagery
The Face-Hugger	Magazine Rape
The Demonic Beast	Female vs. Beast

It was rich with Freudian sexual metaphors and sexually-charged images and symbols of sexual violation and biological reproduction:

• a huge alien spacecraft with numerous vaginal orifices
• the face-hugger
• in the film's most startling scene, one of the male crew members Kane (John Hurt), who had been 'impregnated' by the insidious creature as a surrogate mother, 'gave birth' to the baby alien - the newborn alien burst from his chest
• the slimy penis-headed beast, with a dripping, open mouth
• the sequence of Lambert's (Veronica Cartwright) death - with the creature's phallic tail sliding up between her legs and her pseudo-orgasmic grunts and howls of pain over an intercom as she was killed (offscreen)
• the scene of Ash's stuffing of an adult magazine into heroine Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) mouth
• the ending sequence with Ripley's appearance in a braless, sleeveless undershirt and skimpy mini-panties as she confronted the threatening alien beast

Being There (1979)

The provocative black comedy Being There (1979) from director Hal Ashby, based upon Jerzy Kosinski's 1971 novella, was a wonderful, insightful tale that satirized politics, celebrity, media-obsession and television.

In a later protracted 'seduction' scene, the main character - reclusive, illiterate, passive and simple-minded gardener Chance (Peter Sellers), declared: "I like to watch." He was in the company of unsatisfied, love-starved Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), a dying financier's wife. She desperately tried to arouse the unresponsive Chauncey - he only responded, with a shocking but understandable line, that he "like(s) to watch" - and "it's very good, Eve" and then sat on the end of the bed (oblivious to her)

His most famous line about his joy of watching TV was misinterpreted or misunderstood by the amorous Eve as an invitation to voyeurism:

"You mean you'd like to watch me...do it?"

She viewed his statement as an invitation to sexually arouse and stimulate herself. She complied with his request by reclining on the floor. She laid on a full-sized bear-skin rug while grabbing the bedpost. Meanwhile, he was watching an exercise program on TV from the nearby bed and mimicking the exercises (he even performed a hand-stand), oblivious to her sexual pleasure as she masturbated herself nearby.

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-VIXENS (1979)

Independent film-maker and producer Russ Meyer's ("King Leer") last theatrical feature film was this vulgar and crude adult comedy (co-written with critic Roger Ebert - with pseudonym R. Hyde). It was a cartoonish parody of Beneath the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Its tagline was:

"Six Chicks in search of a Cluck!...and so hilariously funny!"

The lewd and unbelievable film was mostly a series of exaggerated soft-core vignettes. None of Meyer's films included penetrative sex - which was where the industry was heading at the time, although this film came close. The introduction of pornography on videocassettes had spelled the end of theatrical films of this type that could only be screened at porno theaters with much harder-core fare.

Lavonia/Lola Langusta (Kitten Natividad)

It starred a number of big-breasted females as was typical of all of Meyer's films, including main star Francesca "Kitten" Natividad (the director's wife) as Americana Small Town wife Lavonia. She had typical sexual problems with her anal-sex obsessed, redneck husband Lamar Shedd (Ken Kerr), a "rear window man." After unsuccessful in trying to seduce him for straight sex when he completely ignored her, she pursued others for sex, including teenaged Rhett (Steve Casey) while skinny-dipping in a lake. She also disguised herself as Lola Langusta with a wig and Mexican accent, and took up stripping at the local club - where Lamar happened to be drinking beer, but didn't recognize her. She drugged his drink, then raped him via normal vaginal sex in a squalid upstairs bedroom to try and cure him.

Another town member was busty blonde radio evangelist Miss Eufala Roop (Ann Marie) who enjoyed love-making in a coffin with the local funeral home owner Martin Bormann (Henry Rowland). Lavonia also had lesbian sex via a long double-ended dildo with doctor's nurse Flovilla Thatch (Sharon Hill), and Lamar was eventually saved from his affliction and preserved his marriage after a visit to healing Miss Roop for a drowning baptismal rape. There was also a short reprising cameo by Meyer favorite Uschi Digard as SuperSoul.

Caligula (1979, It./US)

This lavish Roman-Empire epic was the last major attempt of its era to include graphic sexual content in a mainstream film. It was written by Gore Vidal and co-financed by adult-oriented Penthouse magazine's producer Bob Guccione, though the script underwent several re-writes after the director and cast found Gore Vidal's interpretation unsatisfactory (Vidal later disowned it and removed his name). It advertised itself as "the most controversial film of the 20th century" - and was the most expensive pornographic film ever made.

The objectionable film was originally intended by Guccione to be high-art (although it turned out to be excessive cinematic sleaze), with major and notable stars (Malcolm McDowell as the infamous, crazed and corrupt heir to the Roman throne, John Gielgud as Senator Nerva, Peter O'Toole as Tiberius, and Helen Mirren as promiscuous courtesan Caesonia), but was described as a "moral holocaust" by Variety and reviewers considered it worthless fantasy trash.

Roman Senator Nerva (John Gielgud)	Caligula (Malcolm McDowell)
Caligula's Grand Uncle Tiberius (Peter O'Toole)	Caesonia (Helen Mirren)

Hollywood's recent attempts to sensationalize antiquity, which owe some debt to Caligula, have found their way into feature films (such as Gladiator (2000), Troy (2004), Alexander (2004), and 300 (2007), and cable TV shows (such as Rome (2005-2007), Game of Thrones (2011-2019), and Spartacus (2010-2013)).

This was Hollywood's first big-budget ($17.5 million that later ballooned to $22 million), bizarre blockbuster sexploitation epic of 'classy' hardcore sex and gory violence - and it became both a critical and commercial disaster after a very limited theatrical release (due to fear of prosecution for obscenity). Fearing an X rating, it was originally self-rated as MA (mature audiences only) and shown in a 156-minute version, but it was then severely edited for an R-rating down to about 102 minutes.

This depraved movie, condemned as worthless fantasy trash, arrived just before the new conservatism that took place during the Reagan administration and its subsequent Meese Commission Study of Pornography (finally published in mid-1986). The film's director Tinto Brass had only one major film in his resume, Salon Kitty (1976) about a German brothel used by the Nazis.

The film's plot followed the rise and fall of "Caligula" (Latin term meaning 'Little Boots') (Malcolm McDowell), the 24-year-old young heir to the throne of his grandfather - the syphilitic 77-year-old half-mad, depraved Emperor Tiberius (Peter O'Toole). Caligula was summoned to the island of Capri. He was accompanied by his sister Drusilla (Teresa Ann Savoy) with whom he was having an incestuous affair. Caligula was treated by Tiberius to a massive area where dozens of subjects were engaged in an orgy.

The sordid film included graphic and steamy sex scenes of sexual depravity, degradation and orgiastic excess during the large-scale orgy, including a phallic swing, masturbation, rape, torture, genital mutilation, views of deformed freaks, among other thngs.

Male Nudity	Phallic Swing	Orgy Scene
Perversions with Snake	Copulation	Deformities
Torture		Orgy Scene - Filmed on Three Levels

There were maneuverings behind the scenes to determine who would become the next emperor, due to Tiberius' ailing health. Caligula played a part in the drowning death of Tiberius' trusted Senator Nerva (John Gielgud), and also was complicit in the murder of Tiberius by the head of the Praetorian Guard Macro (Guido Mannan).

Once attaining the emperorship, the ruthless Caligula had Macro's wife Ennia (Adriana Asti) arrested for "insubordination" and exiled to Gaul, while rival Macro was subjected to a mock-trial (for Tiberius' murder) and decapitated during a gruesome public execution.

Caligula then went on a quest to find a wife, aided by Drusilla as they surveyed dozens of mostly-naked young females in a holding area - all priestesses of the goddess Isis. Disguised as a female, Caligula was intrigued by promiscuous divorcee Caesonia (Helen Mirren) and selected her as his mistress for rear-entry sex.

Later, he chose to 'deflower' virginal Livia (Mirella D'Angelo), even though she was engaged to his loyal soldier Proculus (Donato Placido). He forced Proculus to watch Livia's first painful and bloody sexual intercourse, and then forced his friend to also partake, while 'fisting' him in the anus. He eventually schemed to rid himself of his rival Proculus - Caligula disemboweled and castrated him in a gory torture-murder.

Caligula's Virginal Bride Choice Livia (Mirella D'Angelo)		Caligula 'Deflowering' Livia

While Caligula was making love to both Drusilla and Caesonia in a later threesome sequence, in a nearby bed chamber, two Isis priestess lesbians Messalina (Penthouse Pet Marjorie Thoreson (credited as Anneka Di Lorenzo)) and Agrippina (Penthouse Pet Lori Wagner) were engaged in explicit oral sex. [Note: The sequence was filmed at a different time and inserted for prurient interest.]

Part of Censored Hard-core Lesbian Scene

Caligula's fortunes and mental state began to take a turn toward paranoia and insanity as his behavior turned erratic and he acted tyranically without impunity against perceived rivals, the government, and even the gods. When Drusilla died of a fever (he reacted by dragging and carrying her nude body around the palace), and Caesonia bore him a daughter, he imagined the child was his son. He haphazardly executed Roman Senators, forced their wives and daughters into prostitution (in a large brothel-ship built in the palace - with an extended, second orgy sequence raunchier than the first one), senselessly declared war on Britain, and proclaimed that his horse Incitatus was a Senator.

In January of 41 AD, a plot to assassinate the deranged and hated Caligula were in the making by a group of conspirators. As he returned to his Imperial Palace, Senator Chaerea (Paolo Bonacelli), head of the Praetorian Guard, mortally wounded Caligula with a sword, stabbed Caesonia, and murdered their child. A dim-witted Claudius (Giancaro Badessi) was hailed as the new Emperor.

Hair (1979)

Hair was first presented as a controversial, cult musical play from 1968-1972 with memorable songs ("The Age of Aquarius" among others). It was then made into a major film studio event by Czech director Milos Forman - a bit outdated by the time it arrived in the late 1970s.

It featured rebellious anti-establishment and anti-war themes and the hippie lifestyle of the late 60s. The film's political viewpoint was clear from the following quote: "The draft is white people sending black people to make war on the yellow people to defend the land they stole from the red people!"

The film began with the departure of draftee Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage) on a bus from Oklahoma to NYC, where he encountered a tribal group of long-haired hippies in Central Park, led by free-spirited George Berger (Treat Williams in his first leading film role). During the few days before he was shipped off to Nevada, he and the hippies smoked hash, crashed a wealthy family's dinner party, and Claude met the unattainable love interest of his life - rich high society debutante Sheila Franklin (young Beverly D'Angelo). During an LSD trip, Claude imagined what it would be like to be married to Sheila. When he was deployed for training at boot camp in Nevada, Berger hijacked the car of Sheila's brother and drove the hippie group to the base, where he swapped identities with Claude to allow him time to see Sheila.

The film's minor plot twist was that during the afternoon's picnic, Berger was shipped off to Vietnam (in Claude's place) - and was killed in action. His gravestone revealed that Berger died in Vietnam on April 6, 1968 at the age of 22 1/2, as the group sang: "Let the Sunshine In." Massive protest riots erupted and groups of young people surrounded the White House.

Sexual frankness included skinny-dipping in Central Park at night, when Sheila (stripped down to her panties) jumped into the water after Claude. A prank was pulled on them while they swam - Berger stole their clothes. Unamused, Sheila was forced to run half-naked up a hillside and hail a passing cab to return home. Sheila also went topless in the front seat of a car when stealing an officer's uniform in order to help enter the Nevada army base.

Another indication of sexual freedom at the time was the song "Sodomy," full of sexual terms:

"Sodomy, Fellatio, Cunnilingus Pederasty, Father, why do these words sound so nasty? Masturbation can be fun, Join the holy orgy, Kama Sutra Everyone!"

Hanover Street (1979, UK)

Director Peter Hyams' WWII war-time romantic drama with a sweeping John Barry score featured a love triangle between:

• David Halloran (a young Harrison Ford), an American pilot
• Margaret Sellinger (Lesley-Anne Down), a pretty British nurse
• Paul (Christopher Plummer), an English secret agent/spy

The plot revolved around the question posed to David: should Margaret's husband Paul have his life saved or sacrificed during combat?

Hardcore (1979)

Writer/director Paul Schrader's film, similar to John Ford's western The Searchers (1956), told about the one-man crusade of conservative businessman and religious Michigan Calvinist Jake Van Dorn (George C. Scott), a single parent.

His obsessed objective was to find his misguided daughter Kristen (Ilah Davis), who had run away from Grand Rapids, Michigan (while attending a youth convention with her Calvinist church) to Bellflower, California to join the world of the underground porn film industry. The pornographic film-making industry was shown, for instance, in the filming of a porn scene in a cheap motel room, between a male and two females (porn actress Niki (Season Hubley) wearing a wig, and Serena (real-life porn star Serena)).

It included the scene of the screening of an ultra-low budget, 8mm X-rated scratchy peep-show porno stag film, titled Slave of Love, of Jake's daughter found by sleazy Los Angeles private investigator Andy Mast (Peter Boyle) (with Jake's anguished screaming "TURN IT OFF!") as he watched the sex unfold ("Oh my God! That's my daughter!").

In other scenes, Van Dorn was led to visit the "Les Girls" strip club in Los Angeles that featured a titillating, topless re-enactment of the Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker lightsaber battle on the main stage. The busty topless clerk (Linda Morell) told him that it was $5 for two minutes in one of the private booths, the price of one token. She had a coin-change maker strapped to her waist and conveniently provided change.

Van Dorn spoke by a red booth phone to sweet-natured stripper/prostitute and porn actress Niki (Season Hubley), as he posed as a porn-film producer. She boldly placed both legs up on the window glass to display herself to him. She became a surrogate daughter to him as they allied together to try and find Van Dorn's daughter.

The World of Strip Clubs: Private Phone Booth Stripper Niki (Season Hubley)

After a brief time in San Diego, the ending's reunion between father and daughter occurred in San Francisco. It was a predictable, but heart-breaking and revealing encounter, when the desperate Jake finally caught up with Kristen. She was rumored to be under the tutelage and control of S&M pornographer Ratan (Marc Alaimo) whose specialty was 'snuff' movies, and Jake became worried about Kristen's fate. He pressured Niki to reveal information that might lead to Ratan's location: "Listen to me, young lady. My daughter's been missing for five months. And I've gone through a lot to try to find out what's happened to her. Now today, I saw Ratan kill a girl, and I'm not gonna let this Tod slip through my hands. Now where is he?" When Niki wouldn't answer and instead responded that she feared being deserted by him: "But then you'll forget about me" - he viciously slapped her to get her to talk. Then, he reassuringly kissed her forehead: "I won't forget you."

After beating up Ratan's porn-industry 'player' Tod (Gary Graham) at a bondage house, Van Dorn (again allied with PI investigator Mast) traced Kristen to a SF nightclub where she was in the audience watching a live sex show with Ratan. During a struggle, Van Dorn was slashed in the left arm by Ratan, but as Ratan fled, he was shot and killed by investigator Mast on the street - and collapsed dead in front of another porn theater.

Afterwards, Van Dorn confronted his rebellious daughter and let her decide whether to come home or not (although he begged her to return), but she at first rejected him in anger for not loving her - and asserted that she freely entered porn of her own free will:

Kristen: "Don't hurt me."
Jake: "I know it's been terrible for you, but it's over now. You can come home now. It doesn't matter what they made you do."
Kristen: "They didn't make me do anything. I wanted to leave."
Jake: "Well, that's not true, baby. You didn't leave. They took you away. I love you."
Kristen: "Don't touch me, you c--ksucker. You never gave a f--k about me before. You didn't, so don't touch me now. I didn't fit into your god-damned world. I wasn't pretty or good enough for you. You never approved of any of my friends. You drove 'em all away. I'm with people who love me now. You robbed my life."

Saddened and crying, the emotionally-challenged Van Dorn asserted: "I do love you. I just never knew how to show you. It's very difficult for me - nobody able to talk. I'll try. It's just my damnable pride." When she pleaded for her father to "just get away," he promised to leave her alone ("Do you really want me to go?"). However, she relented and changed her mind ("No"), and he responded: "Then you take me home" as he reached out his hand to her, and covered her shoulders with his coat.

In the final scene on the street, Niki walked up to Van Dorn and then wordlessly walked away from him and refused to speak to him (she had not forgotten that he had slapped her earlier) - she was resigned to her life on the streets because it was all she knew, and she realized that Van Dorn would no longer be interested in her. Mast told Jake to return home: "You don't belong here," and he quietly obeyed - he joined his daughter in the back of a police car as the film concluded (to the sound of Susan Raye singing Buck Owens' song: "Precious Memories").

H.O.T.S. (1979)

This R-rated, raunchy and witless campus comedy was typical of the late 70s and 80s (that played on late-night cable TV) - it followed on the successful heels of Animal House (1978) and other soft-core "cheerleader" films of the time.

It boasted a screenplay scripted by two women (Cheri Caffaro and Joan Buchanan). The setting was Faireville University (aka F.U.), and conflict between two groups of sorority girls: the blue bloods at Pi ("Perfectly Ideal Girls") sorority, and the sorority rejects (H.O.T.S.):

• Honey Shane (Playboy Playmate Susan Kiger)
• O'Hara (Playboy Playmate Lisa London)
• Terri Lynn (Playboy Playmate Pamela Jean Bryant)
• Sam (Kimberly Cameron/Carson)

Shenanigans included a swimming pool party with a kissing booth (and Danny Bonaduce singing), topless parachuting by Boom Boom Bangs (Angela Aames), interrupted topless sunbathing with banana cream pies, a housekeeping robot, a slinky seal, Sugar Bear (the rival school's mascot), a jock-strap raid, a lecherous dean (Ken Olfson), and a wet T-shirt contest (and cat fight) at a disco party.

The climactic sequence was an all-girl topless-strip football game in which the H.O.T.S. females wore red and white-striped bikinis and the opposing team green bikinis. Every time a team scored a touchdown, the opposing team had to remove clothing. There were two memorable topless football huddles of the attractive players, taken from the ground's point of view.

All-Girls Topless Football

The Lady in Red (1979)

Actress Pamela Sue Martin, better known for her role as cute, good-girl 'Nancy Drew' in TV's Nancy Drew Mysteries in the late 70s, and in ABC's TV long-running soap Dynasty in the early 1980s, starred in this low-budget gangster (fictionalized) biopic produced by Roger Corman, with a script written by future director John Sayles (his first major screenplay).

It was another Bonnie and Clyde knock-off, coming after Corman's own Bloody Mama (1970), Big Bad Mama (1974) with Angie Dickinson, Martin Scorsese's similar Boxcar Bertha (1972) with Barbara Hershey, and John Milius' Dillinger (1973) from AIP.

Shedding her former image in this coming-of-age tale of a female in jeopardy - laced with social commentary, Martin's breakout lead role in a feature film was as Polly Franklin - the daughter of a strictly-religious farmer in the 1930s. Abused and tyrannized as a poor farm girl, she left and ended up in Chicago. There, she was ill-paid and exploited in a sewing sweat-shop working for sleazy manager Patek (Dick Miller).

She was arrested as a dancer after propositioning a cop in a dance-hall and was subjected to a brief stint in a woman's prison (and subjected to a strip-search and line-up by a tyrannical, white-coated warden). In the scene, the naked female inmates were threatened by Alice (Nancy Parsons), who spoke menacingly while adjusting latex gloves on her hands:

"Ladies, my name is Alice. And from now on, you are to address me as 'Yes, ma'am, and No, ma'am'. And if you think you can get around me, or if you think you can hide anything from me, even up your kiesters, well then you'd better think twice. From now on, I rate top-billing in all your nightmares. Now bend over and spread 'em wide."

To escape incarceration, she became a professional hooker in a bordello run by immigrant madam Anna Sage (Louise Fletcher). Eventually, she became the inaccurately-dubbed 'lady in red' - girlfriend to notorious Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Robert Conrad).

"10" (1979)

Writer/director Blake Edwards' sex comedy's title helped to popularize the objectification and rating of women on a perfection scale from 1-10.

It told about how mid-life crisis suffering song writer George Webber (Dudley Moore), with a long suffering stage actress girlfriend Samantha Taylor (Julie Andrews), followed a fantasy girl of his dreams to Acapulco, where he voyeuristically saw the nubile newlywed Jenny Miles/Hanley honeymooning (Bo Derek in her screen debut and in the role that made her a sex symbol).

This was the film's indelible and iconic image of her corn-rowed, beaded hair (which set off a national frenzy) and skimpy bathing suit while sunning herself and then running along the beach in slow-motion.

Iconic Images of a "10" Beauty - Jenny (Bo Derek)

After saving her husband David from the water, he was rewarded by her. She greeted him at the door in only a towel, slick and wet from a recent shower. He was seduced in a darkly-lit scene - memorably played to the sounds of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero." She wanted to have him undress quickly, so that the record wouldn't have to be restarted.