Oddly unsung, LIBERTY is one of the better early porn feature films. Anonymous filmmaker "James Wilson" has something to say and I enjoyed his rough-around-the-edges little gem.
Title refers to sailor Archie's 3-day weekend pass, leaving the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for some local r&r. It's also carries (effectively) a double meaning, established in the later reels.
He heads for The American Girl strip bar, where attractive Olive Walcott is dancing bottomless. Frizzy-haired barkeep Sandy Dempsey takes a liking to nerdy-looking, bespectacled Archie, and invites him to pick her up after work for a night on the town. But good old Candy Samples, with a decent red wig on, saunters over and juts out at Archie in a cantilevered yellow sweater/dress, proving irresistible to the youngster.
She takes him home, changes into a red number, and does a private striptease for Archie. The older woman gives a beautiful blow job demo on his large cock and humps him for a total of two money shots. On the basis of this scene alone, it's surprising that star "Tom Stone" as Archie proved to be a 1-shot porn performer.
Candy throws him out après-sex, claiming an important producer is scheduled to visit her, to cast her as an actress in a film. Back on the street he's picked up by Dempsey, who takes him to her pad for some more lovemaking. Unfortunately LIBERTY exhibits rather poor sound recording, with extraneous background noise (especially traffic) drowning out much of the dialog, so the reason for Sandy to get angry at him and break down in tears at the end of this scene is cryptic.
A beautiful, barefoot hippie girl (Roshell Rush) is handing out anti-war leaflets on the sidewalk when she befriends the sailor, and takes him back to her commune. They hump on a bed framed by a huge American flag (and peace symbol), with terrific, natural acting by Rush. Sharing a joint after sex, she tells him of her love of freedom and plans to head to Canada. Archie agrees to tag along, but in the back of her van ultimately decides to head back to do his duty. Declaring "you really have made a difference", he trudges back to the Naval Base at fade-out, accompanied by a mournful keyboard score.
Within the necessary explicit-sex-footage porn format (and employing two of the iconic XXX femme stars of the day), LIBERTY is nonetheless a real film. With a little more professionalism, it would rank as a minor classic of its era.
