Playing like a real movie, in what Hollywood used to call the "woman's picture" genre, "Peaches and Cream" is built around Annette Haven, perhaps the archetypal star of Adult Cinema's "porno chic" era.
The story is a very familiar rags to riches saga, concisely depicting Haven's rise from an itinerant farm girl saddled with a drunken stepdad, to becoming a high-class San Francisco escort girl, hobnobbing with oil tycoons (Paul Thomas) and a sympathetic psychiatrist (Aaron Stuart). Left behind is her farm boy friend Jon Martin.
Movie seems both quaint and at times pretentious some four decades later, and its brief sex scenes (8 contained in a running time less than 80 mins.) no longer fit the profile of what a porn audience votes for in terms of content. Yet the movie has a timeless quality and seriousness meriting viewing, partly due to an orchestral score with haunting elements a la Rota's "The Godfather" and quality visuals courtesy of Orson Welles' cameraman Gary Graver, operating under his nom de porn "Robert McCallum" as director/cinematographer, shooting on film.
Of special note is the opening dissolve from glamorous Haven at a cocktail party staring at the camera to her earlier farm setting, first line of dialog being stepdad calling out "Sunny"; and then a dissolve back from her farm girl persona at the end of the country scenes, back to the party.
Shrink Aaron Stuart turns out to be one of her johns, and has a key line before she gives him a blow job: "Who's the therapist and who's the client?". Finale of Haven parting from her "manager" (= pimp) Jerry (a very subtle performance by Harry Freeman, an occasional NonSex performer in porn films who like Haven, Thomas and co-star Mike Horner should have been crossing over to mainstream cinema) on a seaside setting to find a new life is eloquently framed by the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, a terrific composition set up earlier in the movie.
