As an instructive exercise, I'm reviewing Edward Durrell/Brown's MASQUE in its heavily censored British release version. Salvation label issued the American porn feature in Blighty, and only soft-core angles (no penetration shown) are used in this 70-minute cut.
Shot on film, the ambitious feature stars Asia Carrera as Samantha Cochran, telling the story of her life. She's introduced in drag, wearing a mustache. First sex scene has her in bed with Alex Sanders, followed by Sanders in drag, and the duo with their friends Michael J. Cox and Juli Ashton. Asia in drag has lesbian sex with Juli, and Sanders joins them for troilism.
Everybody's dressed up in costume for Juli's Halloween Party (more drag). Juli claims to have elaborate sexual fantasies, and video's best scene is set in a corporate boardroom with Stephanie Swift as exec in charge. Juli presents an ad campaign MAD MEN style, with tons of phallic symbolism. An orgy erupts in the boardroom with an all-star array of male talent involved in cameo sex roles (including Peter North, Jake Steed, Vince Vouyer and Bobby Vitale), with Asia spotlighted in the action.
Back at the party, various cast members (Cox, Jill Kelly, Tom Byron) each speak directly to the camera telling about themselves. Byron's story is about the kinkiest couple he ever met, cuing a flashback of Beth & Troy (unidentified players) having a latex b&d session. Feature ends back at the extended party with group sex.
Minus the explicit XXX footage and money shots, this holds up well for what it is. Main disappointment is absence of an interesting storyline in the final work of Edwin, whose earlier career produced many classics, including a brilliant lost suspense film THE VENUS TRAP, that currently exists only in re-jiggered/revised form as JACKPOT.
