I've never seen a great narrative out of a Suze Randall film, but given she was one of the preeminent hardcore photographers of the '80s, that makes sense. In her best productions, Suze largely sticks to her strengths, delivering excellent visuals, stylish mise-en-scene and passionate lovemaking sure to sate the lust of any porn fan. STUD HUNTERS is one such example. Barely a story, it's still dynamite porn, and showcases Suze at the height of her abilities.
Throwaway narrative finds corpulent porn producer Harry Huge haranguing centerfold photographer Randy Fox (Misty Regan, credited here as Misty Mallory) to send him more boy-girl pics, since her previous output has been largely sapphic. Enlisting several of her past models to scrounge up male talent, Randy sets the template for the film, which follows the girls around LA as they perform some very in-depth talent scouting.
Not even bothering to wrap up its storyline with a concluding photo shoot, the film's major flaw is that it just peters out, ending by resolving a problem that was never established (Randy scoring some dynamite sex for herself). Along the way, however, Suze treats the viewer to a succession of scorching sex scenes. Only the first is a clunker, sadistically pairing Desiree Lane, perhaps the prettiest girl in the cast, with rotund Michael Morrison, who looks like he wandered in off the set of a misbegotten one-day wonder. I certainly felt for poor Desiree, playing a young starlet hoping to get her break by servicing an unattractive schlub, but in the end it was hard for me to determine whether this scene - in a film called STUD HUNTERS - constitutes a greater betrayal of the actress or audience.
Much better is a sapphic bout between Regan and one of her models, cross-cut with a hetero encounter featuring Pippi Anderson and Marc "Million Movies" Wallice. Both encounters generate great heat, and Randall photographs them lovingly, coaxing energetic, erotic performances out of her cast and shooting them with aplomb.
Even better - and perhaps the movie's highlight - is the subsequent encounter between Anderson and five (!) guys at a Venice gym, where Pippi takes on all cummers with absolute gusto. A truly torrid sequence, it highlights the fact that great porn needn't involve tremendously complicated story or characters, as long as it delivers on what the genre promises - great, panting sex with a cast of enthusiastic participants. That all subsequent bouts pale by comparison is inevitable, but Randall nevertheless manages to keep up the heat, making this a (very loosely) plot-based flick that's worth sticking out to the end. It may not set the world on fire, but STUD HUNTERS is a lovely diamond-in-the-rough for classic porn fans, courtesy of one of the genre's most unfairly overlooked talents.
