Marking superstar Stephanie Swift's final feature, ALONE WITH THE ENEMY packs more of a wallop than the usual Sweet Sinner "realistic sex" effort, likely because it includes a measure of unexpected (and effective) violence and a sense of danger generally missing from the label's hermetic dramas and romances. Though the sex scenes are about twice as long as would be ideal for pacing (a given with all Sweet Sinner product), it is recommended for anyone interested in checking out the label's distinctive house style.
A year later Sweet Sinner briefly spun off a separate label Sweet Sinema devoted to pastiches of famous movies, only filled with XXX content. They obviously co-exist with the torrent of Parody Porn features that have been cranked out since the '80s and have swelled to flood stage levels in recent times, but are distinctly different in content. ENEMY is a forerunner of the Sinema approach, namely a riff on the Julia Roberts hit SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY of two decades before.
Opener sets the stage for suspense, as Swift is caught packing her suitcase and on the phone with a pal, ready to leave her physically abusive man Mr. Pete when he arrives home and starts slapping her around. Swift's admired acting prowess pays off as she makes the ensuing scene convincing, deflecting his routine violence and temper with seduction, and a half hour of Sweet Sinner humping with both parties literally sweating up a storm is the result.
After Pete's money shot on her belly, Stephanie distracts him and suddenly conks him out with a vase to the skull, vividly staged by director Nica Noelle, and just as realistic (without gimmickry) as the sex that preceded it.
Swift arrives at her pal Satine Phoenix's country house, shared by Sweet Sinner's unsung regular deLUXE, a truly big mama who was not even listed in IMDb's database (she never participates in any sex footage, and per porno protocol doesn't get much credit as a performer as a result) until I started researching SS titles recently.
Rather than proselytizing about lesbianism (most of Nica's career output is devoted to directing girl/girl action for various porn labels), Noelle presents the deLUXE (Satine calls her Luxe as a nickname) and Phoenix hookup as a given. In fact, second sex vignette is a flashback of a one-night stand Satine had with hunky handyman Alan Stafford, as she relates some back-story to Swift.
Phoenix and deLUXE have a beautiful horse named Red Ruby that Stafford takes care of - it was a favorite of his late wife Samantha's. Fleeting flashbacks show the couple at romantic sites near the country home, and ever since she was killed by an intruder Stafford is unable to cope, rooming with the two lesbians in an environment he associates with happy times when Samantha was alive. She is played in a non-sex role by Samantha Ryan, who costarred memorably opposite Stafford in another SS release THE SOLDIER, shot several months after ENEMY.
Meanwhile Pete, sporting a nasty bruise on his forehead, is in bed enjoying mixed combo action with buxom beauty Nyomi Banxxx. In between sexual positions she convinces him that the phone company will be helpful in finding on the lam Swift, who depleted Pete's bank account before high-tailing it out of there.
Final vignette has Swift comforting Alan with some hot lovemaking, and the showdown with Pete leading to a happy ending in which a subtext involving bondage-style rope definitely went over my head (I have yet to sample the bondage genre of which Ryan is a veteran performer).
