I watched my VHS copy many times of this John Leslie film back in the '90s, and from both the standpoints of story and eroticism it ranks among his best. For once the explicit sex scenes, mandatory from a cash register point-of-view, don't crowd out the advancing plot, or ruin the carefully developed characterizations. I highly recommend fans of XXX's Golden Age to seek out this baby.
NOTE: I recently (2022) discovered the feature "The Last Resort" and while watching recalled Leslie's "The Tease". It turns out that these two movies must have been shot back to back, as the locations (even the same weather!) and major cast are identical. Leslie produced "The Last Resort", directed by Wesley Emerson, and watching them together is terrific fun, both released by major label of the time VCA.
Lauren Hall plays the title character, a beautiful woman who hires hapless Randy West to ghost-write a novel for her. Most of the film has West, standing in for the viewer at home, primly watching Hall and other characters make love -very artfully photographed to maximize both the voyeuristic content and also the mounting frustration his character feels. Director Leslie really nails the feeling of helplessness here, and in so doing shows his understanding of the whole (complicated) porn phenomenon where, alas, us poor schlubs addicted to watching these masturbatory vehicles are at once turned on and simultaneously subconsciously-humiliated by the need to watch rather than to do. I can't think of a more effective XXX film in capturing this whole process, while remaining arousing -avoiding the Brechtian turn-off effects mastered by Jean-Luc Godard (and if truth be told, copied my hundreds of pornographers, to whom Godard is an unacknowledged major influence, just the way Bergman more obviously has been).
Hall is so beautifully styled here, in terms of makeup, severely pulled back/moussed hairdo, etc., that it could be her best film, too. Stealing one scene is aptly named Selena Steele, very hot doing some stand-up sex in a corridor. There is also a memorable, slow-paced massage table scene by Hall that involves deep focus and is quite a tribute to Leslie's ability to balance technical excellence with the usual need to "deliver the goods".
I've always been a John Leslie fan and realize he has received quite a bit of recognition in the Adult field. Would that people someday will acknowledge the fact that film (and now video I guess) is a continuum, and rather than rushing to stupidly compartmentalize everything (I give a lot of recent blame here to Tarantino and his VIDEOSTORE education rather than a classical University period of scholarship, for encouraging a rack jobber's mentality to pigeonholing film, rather than keeping an open mind) they could instead give each INDIVIDUAL work its due. Not preventing thinking by use of jargon and mindlesss labeling: e.g., "the best nunsploitation movie", "the best slasher movie", "the best Restoration Comedy" (just threw that in to see if you're paying attention). In such a parallel world, John Leslie would receive his laurels, and The Tease would emerge as an all-time classic.
