About Last Night... (1986)

Director Edward Zwick's romantic comedy-drama was based on David Mamet's 1974 play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago." It starred two celebrated members of Hollywood's 'Brat Pack' at the time.

It told about the relationship between two Windy City twenty-somethings in a singles-crazed world, who met at Mother's bar in Chicago's Gold Coast:

• Debbie (up and coming star Demi Moore - pre-implants), a 24 year-old ad agency art director, sensual and with a deep voice
• Danny (Rob Lowe), grocery wholesaler

Two of Hollywood's 'Brat Pack' - Demi Moore and Rob Lowe

The two entered into a torrid relationship that began with a passionate one-night stand (and they also made love seated in a bathtub as the shower water drenched them from above), and then struggled to work out things realistically and to deal with commitment in their first year (including the inevitable breakup and reconciliation).

Both males often confided with their best friends, Danny with loud-mouthed boaster Bernie (James Belushi), and Debbie with embittered and shrewish Joan (Elizabeth Perkins).

Amazons in the Temple of God (1986, Fr.) (aka Les Amazones du Temple D'or, or Golden Temple Amazons)

Director Alain Payet's jungle adventure/action film from the Eurocine studio (famous for trashy cheap fare) was about an expedition in search of a secret golden temple. It was not to be confused with Amazons (1986, Argentina), a fantasy adventure film directed by Alejandro Sessa.

Jesus Franco (aka Jess Frank) was the source for both the original short story and screenplay.

[Note: This was a follow-up film to Franco's Diamonds of Kilimandjaro (1983, Sp.) (aka El tesoro de la diosa blanca, or Treasure of the White Goddess).]

Due to its subject matter, many scenes included topless 'native' all-white Amazonian women warriors. [Note: Strangely, the film was set in Africa, not in the Amazon, and all of the Amazonians were Nordic white women!] In fact, the film's opening sequence (shot in slow-motion) was of topless females in skimpy gold outfits riding by on horseback, carrying spears.

The film's tale of vengeance came about after the murder of both parents of young Liana (Analía Ivars as adult, credited as Joan Virly). Her father, a greedy and racist missionary named Mr. Simpson (Jean-René Gossart) had discovered a cache of gold hidden by the Amazons in their secret mountain kingdom cave and stolen some of the treasure from the Gold Temple. She learned about the tale of her parents' death from a diary read to her (Liana was illiterate) by a family friend, Father Johnstone (Olivier Mathot).

Although Simpson had been warned to depart by a topless warrior woman and leave behind the stolen gold, he refused. Then, the group of horseback-riding female Amazonians (the ones in the opening), led by a priest-king known as The Great Uruck (William Berger), returned with poison-tipped arrows.

Liana (Analia Ivars) in a Fur-Enhanced Tribal Costume

With a clownish witch doctor/shaman named Koukou (Stanley Kapoul) and her pet chimp Rocky, Liana joined an expedition to the Blue Mountains with archaeologist Harvey (Emilio Linder), his girlfriend/wife Bella (Alicia Príncipe), and their bearded jungle guide Bud (Antonio Mayans). During their trek, Bella went skinny-dipping and afterwards spotted a cave where gold treasure was located - and she was taken captive by the Amazonians. Soon after, the rest of the group was also captured and held in the same cell.

Eventually, the group came face-to-face with Rena (Eva León), introduced as the one-eyed captain (with a black eyepatch) of the Amazon honor guard - Uruck's cruel, sadistic mistress. An epic struggle, duel or catfight was set to occur between Rena and Liana in the film's conclusion, over who would take over Uruck's harem. The contest was to see who could draw "first blood."

Duel: Liana vs. Rena

After vanquishing Rena by scratching her face and drawing blood, Liana was led away by Uruck to his chamber. As he slept, she remembered the murder of her parents. She unleashed a long knife - shown next to a huge close-up of her right breast - she raised it and stabbed Uruck to death. However, Rena was close behind - she shot a poison-tipped arrow at Liana, and the jungle girl was bound up with the others.

Rena declared to them: "I am the master now - and we are going to have fun!" She decided to cruelly torture them, beginning by whipping Harvey and Bella, roped together back-to-back next to a bed of spikes. Meanwhile, Rocky rescued the others, but they were too late to save Harvey and Bella. They witnessed their deaths on the spikes. Koukou threw some powdery explosive at Rena and killed her.

In the undramatic ending, Liana released other enslaved mine workers and led everyone out of the temple cave. She threatened the remainder of Rena's honor guard of female warriors, warning them to leave by nightfall. And Koukou began bragging and shouting: "Koukou kill evil!"

In the final scene, Liana was riding an elephant with surviving bearded jungle guide Bud, telling him: "My parents died so long ago, I'm used to my freedom." He replied that he was interested in a relationship: "But whether lover, husband, or father, time will help....Whaddya say?" She responded with the film's last line: "I don't own this jungle."

Back to School (1986)

This was stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield's more popular follow-up comedy film, after Easy Money (1983).

Dangerfield headlined as Thornton Melon - a leering millionaire tycoon who improbably attended college with his son (in order to carouse and romance the ladies) - brought there by limousine.

Nudity was exhibited by Leslie Scarborough (aka Leslie Huntly) as a startled sorority Co-ed #1 in the shower. When her nudity was revealed behind the shower curtain, Thornton stated: "Take it easy, honey, I didn't see a thing," then opened the curtain a second time for another look ("You're perfect").

Betty Blue (1986, Fr.) (aka 37°2 Le Matin)

Director Jean-Jacques Beineix's erotic drama was a big commercial hit in France. Its title was the morning temperature 37.2 degrees (Celsius) (or 99 degrees Fahrenheit) of a pregnant woman. There was a longer running time (191 minutes) for the original Director's Cut release compared to the North American release length (121 minutes).

The emotional French sex drama, nominated for Best Foreign Language film, was noted for its opening - an ardent, extended thrusting love-making scene set in a beachside shack - filmed with a two-minute slow-zoom toward a couple who were lying sideways on a bed beneath a portrait of the Mona Lisa:

• Betty (Beatrice Dalle), a free-spirited, sexually-aggressive, pouty-lipped and emotionally unstable manic-depressive
• Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a lonely drifter, novelist and menial laborer-repairman/painter (handyman)

The Film's Opening Sequence - A Slow-Zoom Toward Betty (Beatrice Dalle) and Zorg

The subtitles translated Zorg's ominous words: "I had known Betty for a week. We made love every night. The forecast was for storms." The next time he saw her, she climbed the steps to his elevated house, seen first by her feet, deposited her one suitcase and purse, and greeted him - wearing a braless summer dress:

Betty: "First time we've met in daylight."
Zorg: "You're much too early!"
Betty: "So what. How do I look? What do you think? Do I please you?"

Although he kissed her, he wasn't pleased to see her so unexpectedly. She called all men "bastards" and pushed him away. She was planning to move in with him:

No wonder a girl ends up splitting...Why don't you ever listen to me?...I expect more from a guy than sex. To think I spent a year in that dump wiping tables and dodging drunks just to get felt up one morning by the boss! I've got to start all over again now. I split. Anyway, I was fired. Can't even buy a train ticket.

He brought her things in from the door and put them on the bed, causing her to smile. He described her: "She was a flower with psychic antennae and a tinsel heart. Not many girls could dress as casually as she did."

In another scene she unabashedly coerced her lover to provide her with oral sex by pushing his head down to her genital area. Their love (after many sequences of uninhibited and explicit sexual activity - and full frontal nudity for both sexes, especially in the longer version) was eventually destroyed by their instability, possessiveness and literal amour fou - leading to the hospitalized, insane, self-wounded, and broken-down heroine's euthanasia by pillow smothering.

Blue Velvet (1986)

Director David Lynch's bizarre and nightmarish film of the dark-side of life Blue Velvet (1986) contained a few grotesque victim/voyeur/abuse sex scenes.

Hiding in her apartment's closet, clean-cut, innocent, small-town college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) voyeuristically watched nightclub singer Dorothy Valens (Isabella Rossellini) as she disrobed to a black bra, black panties, and red high-heeled shoes. She stripped naked in the rear bathroom, and then reached for her blue velvet robe from the closet. He heard a drawer open in the kitchen as she reached for a large knife, and then suddenly flung open the closet door where he was caught hiding. She threatened him at knife-point into intimidation and forced him to get on his knees. She cut his face with the knife blade, turned the tables on him, made him her voyeuristic prey, and forced him to undress in front of her, all the way down to his underwear and socks.

Jeffrey's First Confrontation with Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini)

She pulled down his underpants to his knees, then began touching, fondling, and kissing (and fellating?) him, and forced him to remain motionless. She asked: "Do you like that?" and then asked a question combining domination, pain, power, pleasure, and humiliation: "Don't touch me or I'll kill you? Do you like talk like that?" Responding with nervous ecstasy, arousal, but defenseless fear, he was led to the couch to lie down where she straddled him and kissed him. Three loud knocks at the door frightened Dorothy. Frantically fearing the man's arrival and with the knife gleaming above Jeffrey, she told him to head back into the closet.

Jeffrey watched in horror, hiding behind a wardrobe closet door, as Dorothy was terrorized by her visitor - evil, psychotic, blackmailing, perverse and depraved villainous kidnapper Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). The scene was disturbing, cruel, sadomasochistic, and kinky. Demanding and condescending to her, Frank quickly established an abusive master/victim relationship over Dorothy as she accommodated his depraved preferences. The 'dark' scene was intercut with a frightened Jeffrey surreptitiously viewing the shadowy, broken images between the slats of the distasteful ordeal from his hiding place in the closet:

Frank: Spread your legs. Wider. Show it to me. (She slowly opened her legs wider and adjusted her robe, while Frank stared at her crotch and drank his bourbon.) Don't you f--kin' look at me!

Traumatized, Jeffrey watched Dorothy being tormented as foul-mouthed Frank's sexual slave/whore. He repeatedly demanded that she look away from him - denying her the sight of his 'dark' nature. [In a symbolic sense, Dorothy was "Mommy" and Frank was "Daddy" or "Baby."] The abusive scene was heightened when the leather black-dressed Frank reached for a portable, plastic gas-inhaling mechanism and mask on his belt. While he placed the mask over his mouth and nose, he snorted and inhaled (helium or nitrous oxide?) gas to heighten his sexual excitement, exhibiting infantile-regressive, animalistic/reproductive, and compulsive-addictive behavior. He debased her as a prostitute, mother figure, and copulatory partner in the natural world:

Frank: Mommy. (He moved toward her, kneeling in front of her.) Mommy. Mommy. Mommy.
Dorothy: Mommy loves you.
Frank: Baby wants to f--k. Get ready to f--k. You f--ker's f--ker. You f--ker. (He slugged her in the face.) Don't you f--kin' look at me!

After another gasp of gas, Frank begged and whined menacingly: "Baby wants blue velvet." Dorothy stuffed part of her blue robe into his mouth to satisfy his obsession with textured fabrics. As he began to feel her breasts, he sucked, chewed, and bit the velvet cloth. Then he seized her and threw her down to the floor, spewing vulgar words. Frank removed a pair of scissors, menacingly snipping with them in mid-air above her face and body:

Don't f--kin' look at me. Don't f--kin' look at me. Don't you look at me. Daddy's coming. (He stuffed the end of her blue robe belt into her mouth and the other end into his own mouth.) Daddy's coming home. Don't you f--kin' look at me. Daddy's coming home...

And then after forcefully touching her genitals, he mounted her and started humping her with his unbuckled pants still on. He moved frenziedly faster and faster until climaxing in a brief and brutal f--k. After getting off of her, he slugged her again in the face, hideously threatening her again: "Don't you f--kin' look at me." Standing astride her on the floor before he left, he warned: "Stay alive baby. Do it for Van Gogh." Then he marched out of the apartment, shutting the door behind him and leaving her crumpled on the floor.

Subsequently, a consoling Jeffrey took Dorothy into his arms. She opened her robe to reveal her left breast, tempting him. She added: "See my breast? You can feel it. My nipple. Still hard. You can touch it. You can feel it." Jeffrey responded, touching her. She asked: "Do you like the way I feel?" He whispered: "Yes." Then she requested: "Feel me. Hit me," but Jeffrey refused and told her to "stop it," even though she kept pleading: "Hit me!"

In a later scene, Jeffrey was lured back to her bedroom, as the sonic signature of the cavernous howling in the ear was heard. In close-up, their naked bodies made love on the blue-silky sheets of her bed. Again, she demanded to be hit. Jeffrey (while rescuing Dorothy!) was goaded into slapping her in the mouth. He overcame his resistance to abusing her after she begged him to please her - her moist red lips appeared, with sparkling white teeth. Again, he hit her - as the flames grew and the animalistic howling sound intensified during their violent, erotic love-making in the darkness. She told him: "I have your disease in me now."

One of the often criticized scenes of gratuitous nudity was the later scene in which a naked and battered Dorothy shockingly appeared on the Beaumont's front lawn. Film critic Roger Ebert Ebert criticized how she was misogynistically depicted in the film: "degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film."

Caravaggio (1986, UK)

Writer/director Derek Jarman's cinematic achievement was an artful, R-rated, flashbacked biopic, involving a love triangle between:

• Michelangelo Merisa da Caravaggio (Nigel Terry), a 17th century, church-funded, iconoclastic, homosexual Renaissance-Baroque artist-painter, with Vatican connections, who painted blasphemous works of art
• Ranuccio Thomasoni (Sean Bean), a streetfighter, hired to be hunky model and muse for Caravaggio; bi-sexual, with whom Caravaggio was lustfully obsessed
• Lena (Tilda Swinton in her debut film role), Ranuccio's androgynous lover

Lena also served as Caravaggio's Mary Magdalene model. Although the film had little explicit sexuality, the most striking scene involved Ranuccio kissing Caravaggio in order to claim his gold coin payments for having posed.

When Lena was found murdered by drowning, suspect Ranuccio was arrested. Carvaggio went to the Pope to get him exonerated and Ranuccio was released. Afterwards, he admitted to Caravaggio that he had murdered Lena to bring them together. Caravaggio angrily sliced Ranuccio's throat and killed him.

Castaway (1986, UK)

Director Nicolas Roeg's dramatic, and erotic adventure film (a Robinson Crusoe tale with a male and female) was along similar lines of his previous film Walkabout (1971, UK/Australia). The beautifully photographed film included stunning underwater photography and nature scenes. It was based upon the novel by Lucy Irvine of her real-life experience on an idyllic, remote desert island. There were basically two main characters in the film set in the early 1980s:

• Lucy Irvine (Amanda Donohoe in her first major film role), a resourceful, dissatisfied mid-20s Inland Revenue tax clerk and waitress, seeking an escape from city life
• Gerald Kingsland (Oliver Reed), a middle-aged, 50-ish, scruffy-bearded, divorced Londoner - a dissatisfied, chauvinistic writer with a beer belly

She answered his classified ad in Time Out magazine - for a woman who would join him for a year on a deserted, paradisical tropical island, located on Tuin Island (in the Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia) - the subject of his next book. He told her over a dinner interview that she was pretty much the right companion: "The most important thing is enough money, right sort of island, proper water supply, right sort of companion." She joked: "In that order?" He continued: "Give me a woman that can cook, sew, put up a tent, fish, like oysters, those could be useful. Think about it."

For her role as the uninhibited Lucy, Donohoe was required to be naked (or nearly nude) for about 22 minutes of screen time (after the first half hour). Once they were alone on the island, she immediately stripped down stark naked from her two-piece black bikini - causing Gerald to rush at her - although she held up a water bottle and asked: "Tea?" For much of the film, she withheld sex from Gerald.

Lucy with Gerald on the Remote Island

As they spent more time together, they squabbled as any dysfunctional married couple might in isolation - about different work habits and their survival against the elements, starvation, dehydration, sunburn and infections - and they engaged in acrimony and a continual power struggle. With his constant brooding, anger issues and their many disagreements, they ultimately separated after 13 months. When they finally parted, they realized their real love for each other.

In fact, Lucy was the first one to write a book of memoirs that was published in 1983, while Gerald remained on a different island to live with the natives.

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

Randa Haines' directorial debut film was about communication and opening up. It told about the slow developing romance between:

• Sarah Norman (Oscar-winning Marlee Matlin in a debut performance), bitter, hearing-impaired
• James Leeds (William Hurt), an unconventional deaf school teacher

He asserted to her: "You are the most mysterious, beautiful, angry person I have ever met." During a notable swimming pool scene, there was a graceful nude underwater swim and embrace between them. James literally 'fell' in love with her and into the pool - "I am falling into the pool with you!"

Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)

This cheesy, B-film, high-school horror sex-comedy by director Lloyd Kaufman was produced by Troma Entertainment - the studio responsible for such classics as The Toxic Avenger (1984) (the unofficial lead-in to this film), Zombie Island Massacre (1984), The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989), and many other forgettable films.

This low-budget effort, with the tagline: "Readin', Writin'...And Radiation!," was followed by two sequels, all classic drive-in pictures:

• Class of Nuke 'Em High Part II: Subhumanoid Meltdown (1991)
• Class of Nuke 'Em High Part 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid (1994)

The film's absurd high school antics (resulting in instances of blood, gore, and boobs) revolved around a nuclear utility power plant that polluted Tromaville High School (in New Jersey) nearby, causing adverse reactions on the students and faculty. There were many side-effects, one of which was contaminated marijuana grown around the power plant (called "Atomic High") and sold by the feared gang of Cretins (formerly the Honor Society), led by Spike (Robert Prichard). Various results after smoking included horniness, mutant pregnancies and growths, and super-human strength.

The main characters were clean-cut, innocent preppie couple Chrissy (Janelle Brady) and Warren (Gil Brenton), who were sexually stimulated by the weed. Chrissy became irresistibly horny and "hot" and the two virgins began making out in an upstairs room during a beach-themed party. She removed the straps on her blue bikini top and exposed her breasts to him, and he couldn't resist having sex with her.

Chrissy (Janelle Brady) and Warren (Gil Brenton)

Soon after, that night, he developed an "atomic erection" - in a dream. Speedily, Chrissy became pregnant and then during cheerleader practice, she coughed up her greenish, mutant, tadpole-like baby creature into the toilet. In the film's ending, the mutant offspring set off on a bloody rampage from its location (inside a barrel of radioactive goop) in the school basement.

Devil in the Flesh (1986, It./Fr.) (aka Diavolo in Corpo, or Diable Au Corps)

Rebellious and provocative Italian film director Marco Bellocchio made this controversial X-rated erotic film (also available in a toned-down R-rated version) with a heavy dose of politics. It was a very loose updating of Raymond Radiguet's 1923 romantic novel, set during World War I about the passionate affair of an adolescent boy with an older woman who was married to a French soldier at the front. The novel had already been filmed in 1947, with 25 year-old Gerard Philipe in the role of the teenager.

It was one of the first major films to feature an international, well-known mainstream actress (Dutch-born French actress Maruschka Detmers) performing an unsimulated oral sex act of fellatio on screen (almost 20 years before the same kind of scene in The Brown Bunny (2003)). In contrast to the bold sex occurring, the pleasured Andrea was relating the political story of Lenin's return to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1917.

The two major roles in this newest version of the story were:

• Andrea (Federico Pitzalis), an innocent younger, male high school senior student
• Giulia Dozza (Maruschka Detmers), unstable, possibly schizophrenic and giggling

While her leftist, Red-Brigade-type radical terrorist/fiancee Giacomo (Riccardo de Torrebruna), actually a turncoat, was imprisoned and on trial for sabotage and murder, Giulia was engaged in a passionate affair with Andrea.

Giulia Dozza (Maruschka Detmers)

They unsuccessfully attempted to keep the affair secret from the future mother-in-law. One of the film's many twists or subplots was the fact that Giulia's ex-psychologist was Andrea's father. Pressure mounted on their heated affair as the trial was coming to an end, and she would be forced to make a choice between the two males.

8 Million Ways to Die (1986)

Director Hal Ashby's last under-rated film was this R-rated edgy, unconventional and believable crime thriller, boasting a screenplay co-written by Oliver Stone (although he reportedly disowned the film for its many improvised lines). Budgeted at $18 million, it was a monumental flop - one of three film disasters that forced its independent production-distribution company Producers Sales Organization (PSO) into bankruptcy (the other two films were The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)).

After losing both his job as a LA narcotics cop and his family (wife and daughter) due to his ever-present drinking problem, Matt Scudder (Jeff Bridges) was struggling as a recovering alcoholic and attending AA meetings (now six months sober). At a luxurious mansion of black boxer turned pimp Willie 'Chance' Walker (Randy Brooks) (one of Scudder's ex-vice busts) where he was invited to a club party, he met thin, naive, and pretty prostitute Sunny (Baywatch star Alexandra Paul) who was aggressively sexual to him for unknown reasons, and debonair and sleazy crime boss/drug lord Angel Moldonado (Andy Garcia) with a love of sno-cones (playing a role similar to Pacino's Scarface).

Sunny enticed him away and invited herself to his apartment behind a bar, offering him both drugs and sex. After stripping naked in his bathroom and high on cocaine, she offered him her full-frontal nudity and the bold line:

"I wanna show you something. The street light makes my pussy hair glow in the dark. Cotton candy, the glow. I'll show you."

But he was intimidated by her and refused her typical come-ons, unsure of her motivations ("You're not only a whore, you're a dumb whore"). When she expressed fears of being harmed by her pimp "Chance" for wanting out of the hooker business and drug-dealing, she asked for Scudder's protection in fleeing to the airport the next day, but she was kidnapped and killed (shot in the back and thrown off a bridge), while Scudder was inexplicably left with $250,000 of drug money.

Scudder went on a harmful drinking binge, and after recovering temporarily vowed to seek revenge for her killer, befriending Sunny's blonde co-worker - another high-priced hooker named Sarah (Rosanna Arquette). When they also ended up at his apartment, she was so intoxicated that she threw up into his groin area, but the next day cleaned his kitchen and the two became romantically interested in each other - rivals against Angel. The tagline came into play: "He's already failed as a cop. If he fails again, it's her life."

When the film noirish story wound to its conclusion, 'Chance' was revealed to be laundering money through his chain of food markets, unaware that he was storing Angel's logs concealing cocaine in his warehouse. Angel, who had the tell-tale missing jewel from Sunny's necklace on his ring, was discovered to be Sunny's murderer. A shoot-out confrontation that was set up to have Angel swap Sarah for his stash of drug logs in a San Pedro warehouse (a precursor of the same scene in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992)) turned ugly - the drugs were burned and 'Chance' was killed, leaving Angel as the only surviving gang member. A second shoot-out at the mansion on an elevator trolly between Scudder and Angel ended with the crime lord's death. In the film's unusual happy ending, Scudder was again sober (now for five weeks) and happy to be in love with Sarah.

52 Pick-Up (1986)

Director John Frankenheimer's neo-noir crime-thriller involved "Greed, Extortion. Revenge" - its tagline. It was produced by the notorious pair of Cannon Pictures honchos Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. The plot was based on a best-selling novel by crime novelist Elmore Leonard, with copious amounts of violence and sleazy sex, and the Death Wish styled vigilante theme popular at the time. 52 Pick-Up was the second attempt to adapt Elmore Leonard’s novel - the first attempt was the less faithful The Ambassador (1984) by director J. Lee Thompson and starring Rock Hudson.

The hero of the film was Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider), a Korean War veteran and a successful and rich (yet amoral) LA businessman/manufacturer at Ranco Steel. Although of blue collar roots, he became rich when the US government bought his steel patent to use in manufacturing spaceships. His attractive wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) of 23 years was running for City Council. On the side, Harry was having a mid-life affair with 22 year-old topless model/dancer Cynthia or "Cini" (Kelly Preston), a part-time worker in a Skid Row "live nude models" cinema house.

Mitchell's life was completely altered when cold-blooded blackmailer Alan Raimy (John Glover), a maker of amateur porno films and porn theater owner (Gold Coast Enterprises), confronted Harry and demanded $105,000. He wanted the money in exchange for a videotape that chronicled Harry's various couplings with Cynthia. The sex tape was played for him in Cynthia's rented apartment (on Crenshaw Blvd.). It showed him on vacation for a few days at the Las Palmas Hotel in Palm Springs with Cynthia ("Your wife thought you were in a convention in Miami!"). He was also seen renting a room for sex with Cynthia at the Chalet Lodge Motel in Los Angeles.

Harry resisted, didn't go to the police or pay the ransom to the extortionists (he could only raise $52,000 anyway) - he sent them an envelope stuffed with paper and a note: "Bag Your Ass!" - and also painfully confessed to his wife about the 3 1/2 month infidelity (She asked: "Was the sex that good? Lots of kinky things? Is that it?...Our marriage has lasted for 23 years. That's longer than she's been alive...Did you play Daddy? Is that it?"). The blackmailers then upped the demands - asking for $105,000 per year.

The topless dancer/mistress Cynthia was videotaped being tied up (her arms were handcuffed behind her back, and her shirt was ripped off to render her topless) and then murdered behind a board placed on her chest - using Harry's stolen gun to frame him. Harry was forced to watch the videotape of the murder, shot by Raimy as the director with a running commentary. And later, Raimy also kidnapped Barbara, took her to the adult-oriented El Royale Motel, and shot her up with heroin before raping her (off-screen).

The Second Videotape - The Snuff Murder of Dancer Cynthia (Kelly Preston)

One of the trio of blackmailers was black pimp Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III), a coke-addicted killer who, in a severe torture scene, attempted to suffocate one of his prostitutes named Doreen (80s pop star Vanity) with a giant stuffed white teddy bear toy. He rightly suspected her of colluding with Mitchell. In an earlier long drawn-out scene, Doreen (a friend of Cynthia's) had been interrogated by Mitchell at the strip club (while he took Polaroids), as she slowly removed some of her lingerie down to a black thong. She knew he was snooping for information about Cini ("You're after somethin', aren't you, and it ain't my pussy, is it?") - and accepted $800 for answering questions.

Prostitute - "Live Nude Model" Doreen (Vanity)

Eventually in the twisting and turning ending, Harry identified and located all three blackmailers, and tricked them into turning against each other.

In the exciting and tense conclusion, Raimy was about to steal Mitchell's Jaguar XKE sports-car. After turning on the stereo, he was warned by Mitchell's recording: "Hi Alan. This is the first and last ten seconds of the rest of your life" - before the car blew up. Mitchell's words ended the film: "So long, sport!" He had successfully rescued Barbara and disposed of the bad guys.

Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer (1986) (released in 1990)

Director John McNaughton's highly-controversial, low-budget, notorious 82 minute film was a realistic, disturbing "fictional dramatization" - and his directorial debut film. It was shot in 4 weeks on a budget of about $100,000, and was based on the confessions of famed, pathological, 'real-life' convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas (played by Michael Rooker in his feature film debut), who ended up on death row in Texas and eventually died in prison in 2001.

Henry's background partially accounted for his murderous streak - his abusive mother (who Henry claimed he had stabbed to death on his 14th birthday) was a "whore" who forced young Henry to wear a dress and watch her having sex with her many customers in their house.

It was so controversial that it was given an X-rating, and had very limited release in the US. Due to a ratings controversy with the MPAA, its release was held up for a few years. Its release was delayed until 1993 in the UK and even then, two minutes of the film's violent content was spliced out. An uncut version of the movie was eventually allowed for video release in 2003.

The grisly horror-slasher film's detached and amoral documentary style and tone of filming enhanced each brutal, gory and violent killing (over a dozen in the film) in the random crime spree by psychotic murderer Henry, often viewed as a series of grotesque tableaux still shots. Death poses of many of the murder victims (killed off-screen) in Henry's trail of carnage in Illinois in the five opening still images were sometimes accompanied by the sounds of their screams or death struggle:

Henry was later joined by a partner-in-crime - his own paroled, dim-witted room-mate-prison buddy Otis (Tom Towles), whom he had taught how to commit serial murders. Otis first witnessed Henry's cold-blooded dirty-work when they picked up two Chicago prostitutes (Mary Demas and Kristin Finger) and he murdered them in their car by snapping their necks, and then dragged their bodies into a dark alleyway (Henry later rationalized about his killings: "It's always the same and it's always different... It's either you or them, one way or the other.")

Henry also repeatedly stabbed a smart-alec TV salesman/fence (Ray Atherton) with a soldering iron and smashed a cheap $50 B/W TV over his head, after which Otis plugged in the set to end his life by electrocution.

Especially gruesome and disturbing was the beating, torture, sexual assault, and videotaped killing of a helpless family of three (a couple and their son) (Lisa Temple, Brian Graham, and Sean Ores) in their suburban home - and then afterwards, the viewing (and re-viewing) by the two killers (sitting on their sofa) of the grainy, unfocused, and poorly-photographed account of the crime shot on videotape.

The film ended with Henry discovering Otis strangling and raping his sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) - Henry's 'girlfriend.' He murdered Otis (Becky had just stabbed him in the eye with the sharp end of a hairbrush) and cut off his head in the bathtub, and then the body parts were dumped in the river.

Henry fled with her, and the two spent the night in a motel. The next morning, Henry left the motel by himself (had he killed Becky in the room and dismembered her body?) and deposited Becky's heavy blood-stained suitcase in a roadside ditch (was Becky inside?)

Howard the Duck (1986)

In the clever opening credits sequence of this George Lucas executive-produced film, a parallel "duck-version" of Earth (Duckworld) was briefly viewed. The duckworld included copies of Playduck Magazine (with 'my hair-brushed beauty' - a female duck in the centerfold). A topless female duck with feather-covered boobs in her bathtub was also quickly seen as Howard T. Duck was expelled in his armchair to Earth. Once there, an unusual relationship developed between:

• Howard T. Duck, white-feathered
• Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), a struggling Cleveland, Ohio punk rock musician

When Beverly happened to look into Howard's wallet (with more duck-versions of things like credit cards, dollar bills, etc.) while he was sleeping, she found a miniaturized duck-sized condom. There was also a strange sexual come-on seduction scene between Beverly and Howard when the furry duckie joined her in her bed:

Beverly: "I just can't seem to find the right man."
Howard: "Maybe it's not a man you should be lookin' for."
Beverly: "Aw, do you think I might find happiness in the animal kingdom, duckie?"
Howard: "Like they say, doll, love's strange. We could always give it a try. Hmm."
Beverly: "OK, let's go for it, Mr. Macho." (She removed an item of clothing.)
Howard: "Whaddya mean, OK? It was a joke. Listen, I'm pretty tired."
Beverly: "It's just that you're so incredibly soft and cuddly." (She started unbuttoning the front of his pajamas, as he became increasingly nervous.)
Howard: "Bev, let's be realistic. I mean, my apartment is zillions of miles from here. You're freaking taller than I am."
Bev: "I just can't resist your intense animal magnetism."
Howard: (The crest of feathers on Howard's head rose up.) "Whoops! Anyway, where will it all lead? Marriage, kids, a house in the suburbs?"
Beverly: "Let's just face it. It's fate." (She started to remove her top.)
Howard: "No, it's not. I've got a headache."
Beverly: "And I've got the aspirin."
Howard: "Be gentle." (He covered his head with the blanket to hide.)
Beverly: "Just one goodnight kiss, sweet duckie. (She removed the blanket.) Come on, Howard, I was just kidding. Goodnight."

Then, in silhouette after turning out the light, she placed a few short kisses on his extended duck bill. When caught in the act, the two were startled as intruder Carter (Miles Chapin) witnessed them and exclaimed:

"My god, this relationship defies all the laws of nature."

Manon of the Spring (1986, Fr/It.) (aka Manon des Sources)

This was the PG-rated part two of director Claude Berri's version of the Jean de Florette tale, a French historical drama based upon filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance. The first film was Jean de Florette (1986). The sequel would have been rated PG-13 in the mid to late 90s, and possibly R-rated in more conservative times.

In one of the film's most powerful, innocently erotic scenes, lithe blonde shepherdess Manon Cadoret (Emmanuelle Beart), deceased hunchback Jean de Florette's (Gerard Depardieu) young daughter, playfully danced or frolicked fully nude in a spring or grotto while playing her dead father's harmonica.

Meanwhile, smitten and vile Ugolin Soubeyran (Daniel Auteuil) lustfully spied upon her by crawling on rocks above her to get a glimpse of her body, after she bathed nude and then cavorted around. Later, Ugolin suicidally hanged himself from a tree because of his unrequited love for her, after she rejected his request for marriage.

The Name of the Rose (1986, Fr/W. Germ/It.)

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's murder mystery-thriller set in the early 14th century was adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, about the solving of a deadly incident in the medieval Benedictine abbey involving a hidden library with priceless, forbidden books of knowledge. The film was told as a flashback, narrated by the elderly character of Adso, with the tagline describing the plot:

Who, in the name of God, is getting away with murder?

It was noted for an explicit seduction scene in a barn between:

• Adso of Melk (a young Christian Slater), the naive young assistant of intellectual Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery)
• Girl (Chilean co-star Valentina Vargas), an unnamed mute (or feral) local peasant

She had snuck into the abbey to exchange sex for food. She encouraged him to nuzzle his face between her bare breasts, and then goaded him further to experience sweaty, down-on-the-ground sex. She had him get on top of her, helped him remove his garments, and showed him how to proceed. In the film's closing narration, Adso remembered the girl fondly:

"And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love in my life, yet (pause) I never knew, nor ever learned, her name."

Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) (aka 9 1/2 Weeks)

Director Adrian Lyne's (and writer Zalman King's) sensual, soft-porn melodrama was about sexual experimentation - a blockbuster hit only after being released to video, and a precursor to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy of films (from 2015-2018); in its original form before severe editing, it was five hours in length. Two inferior successors to the original film appeared in 1997 and 1998: Another 9 1/2 Weeks (aka Love in Paris) (1997), and The First 9 1/2 Weeks (1998).

The main characters were enigmatic, aloof and handsome Wall Street executive arbitrageur John Gray (Mickey Rourke) and divorced, naive, and vulnerable 30-ish NYC art gallery (SoHo's Spring Street) assistant Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger who had just recently posed for Playboy), who first met at an outdoor street fair. Soon after, he impressed and surprised her by buying an expensive $300 scarf as a gift.

The story was about their bizarre romance that included endlessly creative, obsessive, sado-masochistic and experimental ways that the two erotic but kinky adventurers-lovers in New York City aroused themselves during foreplay (often in his luxury apartment), including submissive sexual power games initiated by John.

Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger)	With John Gray (Mickey Rourke)

After an ultimatum request that she accept being blindfolded, he caressed Elizabeth's half-naked body with melting ice cubes, and asked the thematic question: "Does this excite you?" He also presented Elizabeth with an expensive gold watch in a red box - and instructed her to hopefully use it for self-stimulation: "Elizabeth, each day at 12 o'clock, would you look at that watch and think of me touching you?"

Elizabeth became aroused while watching art slides in her office. She touched herself all over and then masturbated. As the slide projector automatically clicked through the pictures with increasing intensity, she extended her legs outward onto a wall.

Masturbation While Watching Slide Show

The most talked-about segment of the film was the long sequence of John's sensual sex games with food in front of a refrigerator, while spoon-feeding her many items (with her eyes closed), to the tune of the Newbeats' "Bread and Butter." [Note: The scene was parodied in Hot Shots! (1991) between Charlie Sheen and Valeria Golina but with vegetables and olives.]

Montage of Sensual Food-Sex Games
One Olive	Spoonfuls from Bowl of Maraschino Cherries	One Cherry Tomato
A Pint of Strawberries	One Glass of Champagne	Two Spoonfuls of Vick's Cough Syrup
Forkful of Cold Spiral Pasta	A Spoonful of Cherry Jello	Four Jalapeno Peppers
One Glass of Milk	Spray From A Shaken Bottle of Sparkling Water	Dripped Gobs of Honey

Liz was caught snooping through his apartment's closet, clothes, and his personal items (where she discovered a picture of him with another woman, April Tover). Afterwards, John sexually assaulted and punished Liz, by spanking her, overpowering her and forcing her onto a dining room table to have sex ("pretend" rape?) with him. She eventually pleasurably succumbed to him and remained for the night.

Snooping in John's Closet	Sexual Assault (Rape?) As Punishment

The two had steamy and wild sex on his apartment's roof-top behind a giant clock-face - to the tune of Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love." Next was a sequence of gender-switched, cross-dressing Elizabeth (wearing a mustache, tuxedo and top hat) smoking a cigar and meeting John in a hotel lobby. Then, after a violent skirmish in an alleyway against two homophobic guys who accused them of being gay (Elizabeth stabbed one of the thugs in the butt with a knife), they had steamy sex on a brick stairway as rain poured down on them. He ripped her tight leotard in two and then fondled her bare breasts.

Elizabeth also performed a slow sensual striptease for John's satisfaction on the outer roof balcony (to the tune of Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On"). Another scene of dominance was introduced by John's question:

"Elizabeth, we're gonna play a little game. I'm a man with a very big problem. Because, you see, I can't get excited. I can't get excited unless I see you get on your hands and your knees and crawl across the floor. And I'm willing to pay a lot to see you do that. Would you do that for me?"

Although she thought his request was "stupid," he repeatedly commanded her to "Get on all fours and crawl...Elizabeth, I don't want to negotiate with you. Now crawl...Pick up the money." As she reluctantly crawled across the floor and picked up bills, he brandished a horse-whip in front of her.

Degradation and Sado-Masochistic Whipping

The most controversial scene was set in a dingy hotel room where John had hired a black hooker (Cintia Cruz) to fondle, caress and sexually arouse the black-blindfolded Elizabeth - and then in Elizabeth's presence, he also began touching the semi-naked prostitute to make her jealous during the threesome. Incensed by John's insensitivity, Elizabeth violently slapped the two of them and fled from the hotel.

In the film's ending, the desperately-unhappy Elizabeth challenged John after one final night at his apartment. He vowed that although he had been with lots of women, she was different:

"I want you to know somethin'. I want you to know that there's been lots of other girls. There's been lots of women. But I never felt anything like this before. You know, when I just hold you in my arms, it's just the way you feel. Somethin' I didn't count on. I never counted on loving you so much."

She questioned his mysterious lack of commitment after 9 1/2 weeks by asserting: "You knew it would be over when one of us said stop. But you wouldn't say it. I almost waited too long." In the film's final moments, she walked out on him. After she shut his door and was out of hearing range, he whispered that he loved her and expected her to return within 50 seconds:

"Elizabeth. Elizabeth. I love you. Would you please come back by the time I count to fifty? One..."

She kept walking - with tears in her eyes.

Reform School Girls (1986)

Director Tom DeSimone's exploitative, soft-core and low-budget women-in-prison (WIP) film, reportedly a satire of the sub-genre, featured the tagline: "Some Get Tough. Some Go Insane. Some Will Die..." The trashy film had some classic lines of dialogue, such as:

• "You're just a s--t-stain on the panties of life"
• "The last thing this dorm needs is another pussy"
• "Keep your fingers above the sheets. We only change 'em once a week!"

After a late-night robbery in which she was aiding her boyfriend by being the getaway driver, Jennifer Williams (Linda Carol) was sentenced to a 3 year reform school (or prison) term at Pridemore Juvenile Home, but eligible for parole in 14 months. Sybil Danning played the black-jacketed Warden Sutter of the school, a dictatorial, Bible-thumping character who strutted around the prison with a riding crop and leather boots - and uncharacteristically for Danning, was never naked in the film.

When first-time offender Jennifer and a new group of inmates arrived, the guard announced to the showering females as she slapped on a latex glove: "You've gonna be inspected inside and out, so get it clean." One of them whispered back, "Happy hunting, pig." The five girls huddling together were sprayed with a big canister of delousing DDT, as the guard announced a major cavity check: "Shake out your hair. Turn around. Bend over, spread 'em wide."

Showers for New Inmates Introduced to Prison
Sprayed with DDT

There was another requisite shower room sequence, accentuated by the soaping up of two Shower Girls in particular (Michelle Bauer and Leslie Bremmer). Hard-bodied Charlie Chambliss (36 year-old Wendy O. Williams, ex-Plasmatics punk rock band member in the 80s), tried to intimidate the new girls. She branded her dyke gang members with a round tattoo on their butts, and warned others: "You butt-hole bitches better wash your 'things' real good. 'Cause we don't want none of your crotch-rot in our dorm."

Later, Jennifer was seduced in a van outside the prison by a male prison worker (who then turned her in), and then she was punished by being forced to strip and sprayed with a high-intensity water hose held by the despicable overweight sadistic matron Edna (Pat Ast) - in perverse cahoots with the warden and Charlie.

Jennifer Williams (Linda Carol)

The film concluded with a major prison riot led by the rebellious Jenny, in which the girls revolted against the tyrannical staff. Both Charlie and Edna died in the fiery conflagration, and Jenny was soon after released..

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Writer/director Spike Lee's R-rated, Rashomon-like comedy/drama, a low-budget independent film, was his first feature-length film - a black and white feminist comedy - with abundant female sexuality and nudity.

The breakout film, a "seriously sexy comedy," was revolutionary when it first screened at the Cannes Film Festival for its portrayal of a black woman as sexually-liberated, self-assured and free-thinking, who was juggling three sex partners:

• Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks)
• Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), a self-obsessed model
• Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), a bicycle messenger

Sexually-Liberated African-American Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) with Greer

It starred Tracy Camilla Johns (in her debut film) as successful African-American Nola Darling, a good-looking, independent-minded Brooklyn graphic artist who was engaged in a love triangle. The most memorable sexual encounter was early in the film when she had sex by candlelight with one of her beaux.

She simultaneously handled three disparate male lovers, who each wanted her commitment despite her resistance to belonging to one man ("I'm not a one-man woman. Bottom line"). One of her suitors eventually demanded: "Whose pussy is this?"

Something Wild (1986)

Jonathan Demme's offbeat, black comedy told about a developing relationship between two very opposite individuals. It starred fearless actress Melanie Griffith, appearing again after her eye-opening role as porn actress Holly Body in Body Double (1984). The film was a screwball road odyssey about two mismatched individuals who were also attracted to each other:

• Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels), staid and married, yuppie, NYC tax consultant and bond trader
• Audrey Hankel (Melanie Griffith), free-spirited, kooky, black-wigged, nicknamed Lulu - after sexy actress Louise Brooks' femme fatale character in Pandora's Box (1929)

She took off with Charles to New Jersey, where she engaged in kinky sex with him during the early part of their road trip - handcuffing him to a motel bed and making love to him (and calling his office), before they attended her high school reunion together. She claimed her name was Audrey when she introduced Charles to her mother.

Sorority House Massacre (1986)

Writer/director Carol Frank's R-rated slasher film (her only directorial effort) was a tedious horror film - capitalizing on the slasher-film craze of the time period. It was followed by a sequel titled Sorority House Massacre II (1990). It was not to be confused with another series of similar films - The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and its sequels in 1987 and 1990, although Carol Frank was assistant to the director on The Slumber Party Massacre. It was also unrelated to Slumber Party "57" (1976).

This horror-thriller told of a disturbed, amnesia-suffering young woman named Beth (Angela O'Neil) with a short haircut who arrived at an LA sorority house after the death of her aunt. She was experiencing nightmares and hallucinations of psychopathic killer Robert Henkel (John C. Russell) stalking her.

[Note: The sorority girls and their boyfriends watched Slumber Party Massacre on TV during part of the film.]

There were only three girls, plus Beth, left in the house over the weekend. During the film's sole scene of nudity in an MTV-style musical montage, the trio of Tracy (Nicole Rio), Linda (Wendy Martel), and Sara (Pamela Ross) - with Beth watching - took advantage of rich sorority girl Cindy's absence and raided her closet - trying on various outfits.

Musical Montage During "Dress-Up" Scene
(l to r) Tracy (Nicole Rio), Linda (Wendy Martel)		Sara (Pamela Ross)

The predictable twist in the film was that Beth was the killer's younger sister. He had murdered the rest of their family years ago and was bent on revenge against her as well. He had escaped from an asylum and was targeting the LA sorority house - the same house that his murdered family had lived in.

Tracy and her boyfriend Craig (Joe Nassi) were making out in a teepee on the lawn of the sorority house - and when the killer struck, she ended up with a knife stuck between her bare breasts, while he fled into the house naked.

The film ended with Beth waking up with a scream from her hospital bed - with another vision (?) of her brother (with a bloody face) calling out her name.