On paper "Pleasure Plantation" sounds like it would be a trashy good time. The story centers on the Hunt family of the Goldenrod plantation. Jonah Hunt runs the plantation, but he's in poor health. Sister Rachel wants control of Goldenrod and schemes to get Jonah out of the picture. Jason Hunt's too busy rolling in bed with the maid, Prissy, to care what Rachel's up to, and sister Lee (played by Kim Pope), who isn't quite right in the head, is too busy playing with the horses and fending off the leering advances of the plantation's sleazy straw boss, Cogswell. Yet while "Pleasure Plantation" has a lot more story than your usual sexploitation movie, it isn't all that interesting. Now, my expectations weren't that high. I counted on bad acting (check), ridiculous dialog (check), cheap sets (check, though they're fairly effective) and gratuitous sex and violence (check). However, while it has all the right ingredients, it doesn't have enough of them. The script lacks the over-the-top outrageousness and tastelessness of, say, "Mandingo" or the Italian-made "Passion Plantation," and the production values, while poor, aren't bad enough to provide the same unintentional chuckles found in an Ed Wood, Jr. movie. So that leaves sex and violence to save the day, but they don't. Though released in 1970, the sex scenes look like they were done for an early 1960s nudie movie, with women seldom exposing more than their breasts (only Pope and Sheila Britt, as Prissy, bare all) and men keeping their pants securely fastened for the act. The violence is a little less tepid than the sex scenes, but fails to invigorate this plodding sex drama. Directed by Jerry Denby, "Pleasure Plantation" doesn't even rate in the "so bad, it's good" realm of cinema. No, it's not even that entertaining.
