Arsenio Lupin, lo scassinatore di culi

Switching from 35mm film to shooting on video later in his career, Italian maestro Luca Damiano nevertheless delivers the goods with THE THIEF OF HEARTS. It is sexually stimulating and glamorously mounted, pun intended.

Presented in the original Italian version without subtitles for American audiences there is not much lost in non-translation, since it's all about the sex. Very loose adaptation of the classic RAFFLES style story of thief ARSENE LUPIN, this tale has Karim cast as an irresistible jewel thief, with plenty of Euro babes anxious to sample his wares.

Principal among them is Laura Angel, styled in absolutely ravishing fashion by Luca. Even when she's doing various dirty things she still looks like a billion lire (I guess a million euros now), and it is the attention to detail, right down to body makeup, hair styling and of course fabulous jewels as accoutrements, that sets this apart from so many slapdash videos. Beyond Angel, the rest of the femme cast is up to snuff too.

The old saw goes "they don't make 'em like this anymore" and it's true of ARSENIO LUPIN, even amongst just video porn production. In the decade since this was shot, Karim has been featured in hundreds of videos but they're nearly all generic ephemera, ranging from "Sex with Young Girls 7" to "Big Natural Tits 14" and "Aprentass 10". He's gotta make a living, but what a comedown.