The Temptation of Eve

The talented team of Teri Diver and Tom Elliot made many quality Adult movies during the VHS era, including my personal favorites "Moondance", "Persona" and "The Glass Cage", but remain relatively unsung to this day, though Elliot using the pseudonym Ren Savant achieved a famous hit with "The 8th Day" for Adam & Eve a decade after Teri's death. "The (Last) Temptation of Eve" is a minor, but entertaining feature I'm adding to IMDb, 26 years after it was released.

Sid Deuce stars in the title role as a beauty accused of murdering her philandering husband (Jay Ashley), and we see him being shot at the end of the movie's first sex scene, where he is humping statuesque superstar (of the era) Julie Rage.

Shanna McCullough is Sid's lawyer and the clever (minimalist) script by Diver sets up an interesting situation where Shanna's husband Wilde Oscar (acting here without his wife and usual co-star Nici Sterling in the cast) ends up being the district attorney opposing her in court when Sid's murder trial unfolds. Resolution of the murder mystery is well-done and surprising.

The actual trial is concisely depicted in very brief black & white segments (with dialog suppressed) in order to focus on what us fans want to see: XXX action. The pair of directors keep the show interesting without dwelling overmuch on exposition. They probably went to film school, as occasionally dabbling in the Nouvelle Vague technique (quite distracting here) of having a handheld camera swing suddenly back and forth between two faces during a conversation scene, rather than cutting between reverse shots.

Though merely a trifle, this feature is an example of the entertaining output by this team, ripe for discovery decades after their heyday.