Fred Olen Ray production is a remake, not quite scene for scene, of his own SINS OF DESIRE, filmed just a couple of years earlier and starring Tanya Roberts. In the new version, buxom Suzanne Slater investigates the mysterious murder of her sister, which the police are unable to solve. Ultimately, sex is a major tool in her detective work. Denouement is the same as in the original.
Telly Savalas plays his final role here as the cop on the case; it's no Kojak. Maria Ford, uncharacteristically, is not called upon to strip but I'm always happy to see her in any capacity. On the detection trail Slater meets a quack shrink, with whom her sister had connection, as well as his nympho wife. Dinner with the couple leads to the film's set piece. "Have you ever made love with another woman?" the doctor wonders. "Just at slumber parties, when I was younger," Slater confesses, "but lately I've been thinking about it." (I was thinking about it too, by that point. Great godamighty!) Slater thereon gets her breasts smeared with day-glo paint and she and the doctor's wife slither around on a bed in hooker underwear lapping one another's nipples for quite a while. Wow. Tanya Roberts' similar scene with Delia Shephard in the original was not nearly as salacious. (Original included a bit more full frontal but not so much lewd simulation.)
If you saw the original, it's basically the bare bodies that are different in the remake, mostly those of Slater and Erika Nann, as Mrs Shrink. (These are breasts better than the kind God makes.) There is a brief appearance by a Rottweiler, for admirers of this noble schwäbisch breed (Hi, Jack!). Tech credits are OK, performances tolerable for the genre, and there are no surprises pleasant or unpleasant.
Fred Olen Ray's directorial career has run a wide gamut, from crude horror (SCALPS) to better horror (THE TOMB), shoot-em-ups both silly and not so bad (BULLETPROOF, CYCLONE), post-apocalyptic action (WARLORDS), erotic thrillers (INNER SANCTUM, SINS OF DESIRE), wacky horror comedy (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS, BEVERLY HILLS VAMP), R-rated silicone shows (ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT CENTERFOLD), G-rated kid stuff (LITTLE MISS MAGIC), and even a fairly decent B-western (THE SHOOTER). This isn't counting some aliases I did not realize were his until I read his IMDB listing and learned I had seen even more Ray films than I thought I had.
Ray's overall achievement is fairly high, considering the budgets with which he usually works. Some of his films are bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that even a marginal video distrib might have second thoughts about releasing, and some are downright wonders of Poverty Row. His output has been quite eclectic, though I'm not aware of any ventures into hardcore porn, and he is probably the closest living equivalent to a B-pic legend such as Edward L Cahn, who tackled almost every genre of the 30s, 40s, and 50s and who occasionally hit an honest double, if never quite a four-bagger. Thumbs up, Fred! What do you have coming out this week?
