Whilst watching this originally Italian adult movie in an English-dubbed version, it suddenly occurred to me what the most awkward job in the world must be! Surely, it's being the voice actor/actress assigned with providing all sorts of sex-noises (moaning, dirty talk, pleasure sounds, ...) from behind a microphone in a studio! Can you imagine saying stuff like "Oh yes, yes, feel my Roman sword deep inside you" with a straight face?
Anyway, I could state - without lying, even - that I'm fascinated by the copious amounts of smut & trash movies Joe D'Amato directed in his career, but let's be a little more honest and straightforward here. This "Messalina" is simply an appealing porno flick starring the contemporarily most beautiful and successful adult actress in a glorious role. Nothing more, nothing less. Kelly Trump, luckily for her she's not related to the former US-president, was the European adult industry's goddess throughout the nineties, and D'Amato was clever enough to let this film entirely and solely revolve around her. There are a couple of other ravishing actresses in the cast, like Olivia Del Rio and Ursula Moore, but they obviously remain in the shadows of Mrs. Trump who does an impressively large amount of physical labor here.
What I do love most about adult movies from the 1990s is that they at least always tried to feature a minimal plot and a half-decent setting. "Messalina - the Virgin Empress" is a fantastically inaccurate title, by the way. She remains a virgin for a barely a minute into her first scene. "Messalina - the Insatiable Empress" is what I would have called it. The story revolves around one of the wives of Claudius, who became the Roman Emperor after Caligula was murdered. Messalina always dreamed of being the empress, but since her husband is so busy reigning over Rome, she quickly gets bored and allows for half of the empire to take advantage of her luscious body. Oddly enough, I never read this important little historical footnote in any books, or don't recall being taught this in history class.
It's funny how the decor is obviously just a house where a lot of cheap-looking props, mainly statues, have been dragged in to make it look like an ancient Roman mansion. The typical costumes seemingly come from a quality party shop, though. And, like another reviewer correctly stated, it's always a relief to see how in "older" adult movies the performers were natural beautiful and sexy; - without their bodies being enhanced with silicones and Botox, or entirely covered with tattoos. Oh Lord, I'm getting old.
