James Avalon's crime thriller "Ulterior Motives" suffers from an overly convoluted screenplay and structure written by Whit Maverick, but delivers plenty of steamy footage over its lengthy 3-hours-plus running time. Incidentally, Maverick
It's divided into two feature-length parts: The Setup and The Betrayal, comprising six full XXX scenes. Once you strip away a confusing time structure (featuring lengthy flashbacks), it's a fairly basic tale. Femme fatale Evelyn Claire hires private eye Seth Gamble to protect her husband Robby Echo from his unscrupulous partner Nathan Bronson, with a great deal of money involved. In fact, she plops down a heavy stack of Franklins to get Seth's attention as his retainer, though he's reluctant to sign on.
Without spoiling the surprises (many of which I had to re-watch certain segments to figure out what was really going on), it's a case of who is working with who and even more importantly, who is double crossing who. Among the other suspects are "bad guy" Bronson's girlfriend Queenie Sateen, Evelyn's lesbian lover Lumi Ray, another femme fatale Scarlett Alexis and a mysterious bartender Lucky Fate. I confess that I guessed wrong as to who would get away with the stolen money and ultimately murder as well.
It's not as good as Avalon's previous film noir made for Wicked Pictures "Dark Is the Night", but is still worthwhile and will keep the viewer guessing.
