Lusty Neighbors

Secret Key/After Hours resuscitated this porn film in one of its collections and it's a snoozer. Using a splicey print didn't help matters (running time is just 48 minutes as a result).

Theme is swinging couples, about as corny a porn premise as imaginable. Dick and Jim, with their wives, an uninhibited blonde (Phyllis Stengel) and a mousey brunette (Cheryl Powell) go the swapping route. The big surprise is that for the opening scenes at least this is shot in the manner of an (almost) real film, with closeups, editing and an attempt at composition, rather than the real-time camera keeps on running approach of a 1-day wonder.

Jazz drowns out the monotone dialog delivery, as they play a strip version of a board game, and this turns out to be padding, of the real-time variety.

Very little happens to divert the viewer, notably Phyllis yelling "hurt me" during her sex scene and a third couple arriving (featuring Mary, a busty blonde played by an unidentified actress).

Cheryl fantasizes a lesbian sex scene, featuring 1970's contribution to film history: full frontal nudity plus split beaver shots. Mary has a mini-orgy with three guys and the tone turns rough when Cheryl gets raped with a pool cue by Ron Dyer (playing Phyllis's husband). Cops arrive to end the mess.

I liked seeing Phyllis Stengel, who had a brief career in the twilight days of softcore. Gerard Broulard always give it the college try, as one of the most familiar faces from this period of porn history, while someone else will have to do the spadework and identify hard-working Mary, whose identity has thus far eluded the intrepid porn archaeologists posting on this website. Of course if she's a one-shot, it makes identification impossible.