Softcore porn fairy tales were quite popular in the 1970s, especially as drive-in fodder, and the craze also resulted in the minor classic hardcore ALICE IN WONDERLAND. This Serena vehicle (hilariously credited as Her Serene Highness the Princess Serena in an opening title card) tried to cash in, but it emerges as sloppy filler.
Perhaps that's because F.J. Lincoln was hired to direct it - he helmed over 300 porn features in his career, none of them very good. I'll be reviewing two offbeat ones I recently viewed that are far more interesting than this junker: MITZI'S HONOR and perhaps his magnum opus, FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
Film is narrated by the Fairy Godmother of this Cinderella knock-off, very poorly recited (in monotone) by China Leigh, who not surprisingly had an unimpressive acting career. It concerns Cindy (the serene Serena), who was sold into prostitution after her dad died on her 19th birthday. Her evil brothel madam (played by tall Natasha Raphael), mistreats Cindy as do her fellow whores, one of whom is Dorothy LeMay, wasted in an uninteresting role during an otherwise remarkably productive segment of her career.
As Cindy, Serena episodically goes through many sex variations, including masturbation, lesbian and anal en route to meeting her Prince Charles (guest star Paul Thomas in a walk/hump through). Handling of the glass high-heeled shoe (rather than slipper, Cindy being a prostitute after all) gimmick is very poorly done in a slipshod rush to provide a happy ending after the clock strikes midnight and the orgy ends. Throughout Serena is mistreated and acts submissively, adhering to her apparently lucrative porn image (at the time) involved in cranking out bondage/submission movies for a kinky segment of the adult audience.
Most unusual aspect of this lamentable film is its lovely mansion setting by the ocean and opting for a purely contemporary (1980) rather than period styling. Director Lincoln wastes these potentially effective production values and drives the film steadily in the direction of a wall-to-wall sex exercise.
