52 Pick-Up (1986)

Director John Frankenheimer's sleazy neo-noir crime-thriller was produced by the notorious pair of Cannon Pictures honchos Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. 52 Pick-Up was the second attempt to adapt crime writer Elmore Leonard’s best-selling novel - the first attempt was the less faithful The Ambassador (1984) by director J. Lee Thompson that starred Rock Hudson and was set in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The film, set in mid-1986 in the Los Angeles area, contained copious amounts of violence, sex, and witty dialogue, and the Death Wish styled vigilante theme popular at the time. Its taglines were:

• "Greed, Extortion. Revenge"
• "His Wife... His Mistress... His Career... A Deadly Trap"

The film's main embattled hero was:

• Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider), a Korean War veteran and a successful and rich (yet amoral) LA businessman and construction manufacturer at Ranco Steel; currently living in the suburbs; although Harry had blue collar roots, he became rich when the US government bought his steel patent to use in manufacturing spaceships

Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider)

Harry's Wife Barbara Mitchell (Ann-Margret)

Cynthia ("Cin") (Kelly Preston)

There were two women in Harry's life:

• Barbara Mitchell (Ann-Margret), his attractive wife of 23 years who was running for a Councilwoman seat in LA County (in the 13th District), and a senior member of the "Clean Air" Commission
• Cynthia or "Cini" Frazier (Kelly Preston), a 22 year-old topless model/dancer, who was a part-time worker in an LA Skid Row "live nude models" salon; she was also going to secretarial school during nights; Harry was having a mid-life affair with Cini on the side

Harry's life was completely altered when he left work and drove to a secretly rented apartment (on Crenshaw Blvd.) to have an extra-marital affair with Cynthia. There, he was confronted by three masked gangsters inside the apartment:

• Alan Raimy (John Glover) - a cold-blooded blackmailer, and a maker of amateur porno films; he was a XXX-porn theater manager-owner (of Gold Coast Enterprises in San Francisco) on Western Ave., and also owned a 'LIVE NUDE MODEL' salon; a twice-convicted rapist; also a financial whiz with a business degree from Northwestern
• Leo Franks (Robert Trebor) - the manager of Raimy's 'LIVE NUDE MODEL' salon; a simpering, nervous and cowardly wimp
• Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III), a sociopathic black pimp with dreadlocks; with a past criminal record; a coke-addicted killer; often with stripper-model and part-time girlfriend Doreen (Vanity)

The blackmailers forced Harry to watch an incriminating videotape and then demanded hush money of $105,000 for a year. It showed Harry on summer vacation in August for five days at the Las Palmas Hotel in Palm Springs with Cynthia: ("Your wife thought you were in a convention in Miami! You rascal! Now, here you are shooting the broad. Nice little body. Mmm. Great tits. What do ya think?"). Raimy narrated most of the short amateur film, including describing how Cynthia was a "LIVE NUDE MODEL" - "She told you she was a model, right? What, did you think it was for Vogue?" He ended the first section of the videotape with:

"As the sun sets slowly in the west, we say goodbye to beautiful Palm Springs, Oasis of Intrigue and extracurricular games of Hide the Salami, and we return to real life."

Harry was also seen renting a cheap motel room for sex with Cynthia at the Chalet Lodge Motel in Los Angeles (Raimy: "You know, you start chasing that young pussy - you got to stay in shape. I bet she drains you dry"). The blackmailers, led by Raimy, demanded $105,000 for one year, and insisted on an initial payment of $10,000 in two days.

At work, Harry met with his attorney Jim O'Boyle (Lonny Chapman), and described his predicament, revealing that he was going to break off his affair that day: ("I must have thought I was falling in love. What an asshole!"). Harry resisted O'Boyle's strong recommendations to not pay the ransom and notify police, fearing that his personal scandal would ruin Barbara's run for City Council. When he asked: "Do I pay them and just forget it?", O'Boyle reminded him: "That wouldn't end it."

He took things into his own hands by first painfully confessing to his wife about his 3 1/2 month infidelity. [Note: If Harry was first with Cynthia in August of the previous year, and now it was mid-May 1986, he was lying about the affair's duration, or this was a film discontinuity.] She claimed that she had known about his indiscretions for about a month, and asked with tremendous hurt in her voice:

"Was the sex that good? Lots of kinky things? Is that it?...Our marriage has lasted for 23 years. That's longer than she's been alive...Did you play Daddy? Is that it?"

The sleazy activities of Raimy were seen in the next sequence - at a party that he was hosting, he was live-filming (with a monitor) two naked girls emerging from a hot-tub, who complained to him: "Enough is enough, we're leaving." One of the busty blonde attendees (real-life porn star Amber Lynn) teasingly flashed her boobs for Raimy's video-camera: "You wanna see my tinkies? You wanna see my tits?...Say please."

Raimy's Sleazy Party with Porn Stars
Two Females Videotaped and Broadcast on Live TV	Party Goer (porn star Amber Lynn) Being Filmed by Raimy

Leo, one of the blackmailers, was also in attendance at the party and was impressed by the "big time porno star" - and added "She won best actress last year at these awards, like the Academy Awards for f--k films." Looking depressed, Cynthia was speaking to one of her friends/co-workers Doreen (80s pop star Vanity), the part-time boyfriend of Bobby Shy. She was upset that her affair was over with a married man, and now she was responsible for paying the rent ("I'm really tired of my life"). Plans were made that evening in Raimy's demented mind to do away with Cynthia.

At an LA Dodgers night ball-game, Harry passed an envelope stuffed with paper and a note to a peanuts vendor, who delivered the envelope to Bobby Shy for compensation. When the three blackmailers opened the envelope after leaving the stadium, the note read: "Bag Your Ass!" - Harry had stubbornly refused to pay the ransom to the blackmailing extortionists.

Another frightening and creepy incident followed. In their home, Barbara was confronted and intimidated by Raimy who had entered without permission. He posed as an insurance salesman for his company, Silver Lining Accounting Service (with the improbable motto: "We satisfy or we eat it") - a business that provided personalized monthly accounting services. She threatened to call the police on him: ("You walk into my home and you refuse to leave"). She didn't realize that Raimy had been upstairs and had stolen one of Harry's sportcoats, shirts, ties, and his P9 Automatic with a box of shells.

Harry was forcibly kidnapped by Bobby Shy and directed to drive in his Jaguar to a deserted factory, where he was forced to watch a "snuff" videotape of Cynthia's murder, shot by Raimy as the director with a running commentary. As the "second feature" started, starring Cynthia, Raimy interjected:

Uh, this is where the credits would be. Slick Entertainment Incorporated presents: 'Tit in the Wringer, or How Harry Mitchell Agreed to Pay A Hundred and Five Thou a Year and Found Happiness.'

The blackmailer upped the demands - now asking for $105,000 per year. The topless dancer/mistress Cynthia was videotaped being tied up with a rope (her arms were handcuffed behind her back, and her shirt was ripped off to render her topless). Raimy creepily spoke: "Some people, you gotta tie down to convince 'em they can act....This is to keep your interest, or whatever, up. It's a little skin." Then as Raimy proudly bragged about the lighting and announced he used two cameras for the shoot, she was brutally and senselessly murdered (with five bullet shots) behind a wooden board placed on her chest - using Harry's stolen gun (rigged with a rope tied to the trigger to avoid fingerprints) to frame him. The crazed Raimy praised Cini's performance: "You know, the thing that makes Cini a star is that she not only lives her part, she dies it, too." Raimy's blackmail demands were then repeated: "You pay us 105 grand a year for the rest of your life, and no more f--kin' around! That's 10 grand day after tomorrow, 10 grand next week. 30 Gs in good faith. You got it? That'll give you time to get the rest together."

The Second Videotape - The Snuff Murder of Stripper-Dancer Cynthia (Kelly Preston)

After Harry was released, he had just a few days to clear his name from the "airtight case" against him. Harry sought plans to avenge Cynthia's murder. He visited Raimy's 'Live Nude Model' salon to speak to her friend Doreen. He rented a Polaroid camera to take pictures of her ($25 for half an hour, $10 for the camera, and $5 for the film), plus showed off (but didn't deliver) the first $10,000 payment to Leo. At first, Doreen thought he was a regular customer: "So tell me, are you a tit man? Or, do you want the whole show?"

During a long drawn-out interrogation scene, while he took photos, she stripped off some of her lingerie down to a black thong, and coyly answered his questions. She proposed that they leave and go to her apartment (in the same building where he used to meet Cynthia), for $100 (including "tea, a smoke, maybe a chance for seconds"). Once there, she said she knew that he was snooping for information about Cini: ("You're after somethin', aren't you, and it ain't my pussy, is it?") - and accepted $800 (8 $100 dollar bills) for discreetly answering questions about Leo and his pals - the suspected blackmailers.

Meanwhile, he confronted the chief blackmailer Raimy working in his upstairs porno theater office (and projection room), with slaps to his face: ("Something about your face makes me want to slap the s--t out of it"). Harry promised that he would deliver the first $10,000 installment (to buy some time) that evening at the Ranco Steel plant at 12:45. During their meeting, Harry proved through his accounting books that he could only raise $52,000 a year due to taxes, and would pay that amount in a few days - to keep his compatriots in the dark, Raimy kept news of the revised deal to himself.

In a severe torture scene, Bobby Shy threatened to suffocate Doreen with a giant stuffed white teddy bear toy - he rightly suspected her of colluding with Harry and divulging names, but believed her when she said she didn't betray him. Eventually in the twisting and turning ending, Harry was able to identify all three blackmailers, and trick them into becoming suspicious and turning against each other. Raimy and Bobby decided to split the $52K between themselves and eliminate Leo. Meanwhile, Harry convinced Leo to testify on his behalf to the cops, and betray his fellow kidnappers who were allegedly plotting against him. Things turned violent and unpredictable:

• Harry learned from Leo that Cynthia's body and the videotapes had been dumped in the river and couldn't be used as evidence
• Raimy kidnapped Barbara (while she was swimming in her pool) and held her as a hostage; [Note: This was the third break-in into the Mitchell's home!] - he forced her into the trunk of his car, took her to the adult-oriented El Royale Motel, and shot her up with "scag" (a slang term for heroin) before raping her (off-screen)
• Bobby Shy killed Leo (by shooting him in the back and neck) in the front office of the "Live Nude Models" salon, because he was planning to leave town
• in his warehouse, Raimy murdered both Bobby Shy and Doreen when she dropped him off at 7 pm just before the scheduled rendezvous with Harry; he first shot Bobby point-blank in the heart, and then shot Doreen through the windshield of her car as she attempted to flee

In the exciting and tense conclusion set at 8 pm at the Old Terminal Island Railroad Bridge in Long Beach, Harry was set to deliver the remainder of the $52,000 cash payment to Raimy and turn over his restored 1965 Jaguar XKE sports-car, in exchange for Barbara unharmed. During the trade, Raimy ordered Barbara and Harry off the bridge while taunting them: "Beat it! You got a fine bitch there! There's a lot of mileage on her, but, she still cooks!" His original plan was to kill both of them, but Harry informed him that his financial ledger had Raimy’s fingerprints all over it and his lawyer would turn it over to the authorities if he didn't report back within an hour.

As Raimy was about to drive off with the booby-trapped getaway vehicle, he turned on the ignition and the stereo radio, and received a warning by Harry's recording - before the car's doors locked automatically, the end of "Stars and Stripes Forever" played, and explosives blew up the car:

"Hi Alan. This is the first and last ten seconds of the rest of your life."

Harry's words ended the film: "So long, Sport!" - using the nickname Raimy had often called him. He had successfully rescued Barbara and smartly disposed of all of the bad guys.

Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer (1986) (released in 1990)

Director John McNaughton's highly-controversial, low-budget, notorious 82 minute film was a realistic, disturbing "fictional dramatization" - and his directorial debut film. It was shot in 4 weeks on a budget of about $100,000. It was so controversial that it was given an X-rating, and had very limited release in the US. Due to a ratings controversy with the MPAA, its release was held up for a few years. Its release was delayed until 1993 in the UK and even then, two minutes of the film's violent content was spliced out. An uncut version of the movie was eventually allowed for video release in 2003.

The shocking film was based on the confessions of famed, pathological, 'real-life' convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas (played by Michael Rooker in his feature film debut), who ended up on death row in Texas and eventually died in prison in 2001. Henry's background partially accounted for his murderous streak - his abusive mother (who Henry claimed he had stabbed to death on his 14th birthday) was a "whore" who forced young Henry to wear a dress and watch her having sex with her many customers in their house.

The film's tagline referred to the soft-spoken loner who cooly mass-murdered many victims during an intense, random killing spree:

• He's not Freddy. He's not Jason. He's real.

The grisly horror-slasher film's detached and amoral documentary style and tone of filming enhanced each brutal, gory and violent killing (over a dozen in the film) in the random crime spree by psychotic murderer Henry, often viewed as a series of grotesque tableaux still shots. Death poses of many of the murder victims (killed off-screen) in Henry's trail of carnage in Illinois in the five opening still images were sometimes accompanied by the sounds of their screams or death struggle:

Henry was later joined by a partner-in-crime:

• Otis (Tom Towles) - his own paroled, dim-witted room-mate-prison buddy whom he had taught how to commit serial murders

Otis first witnessed Henry's cold-blooded dirty-work when they picked up two Chicago prostitutes (Mary Demas and Kristin Finger) and he murdered them in their car by snapping their necks, and then dragged their bodies into a dark alleyway. (Henry later rationalized about his killings: "It's always the same and it's always different... It's either you or them, one way or the other.")

Henry also repeatedly stabbed a smart-alec TV salesman/fence (Ray Atherton) with a soldering iron and smashed a cheap $50 B/W TV over his head, after which Otis plugged in the set to end his life by electrocution.

Smashed TV Set Into Head of Salesman

Especially gruesome and disturbing was the beating, torture, sexual assault, and videotaped killing of a helpless family of three (a couple and their son) (Lisa Temple, Brian Graham, and Sean Ores) in their suburban home - and then afterwards, the viewing (and re-viewing) by the two killers (sitting on their sofa) of the grainy, unfocused, and poorly-photographed account of the crime shot on videotape.

The film ended with Henry discovering Otis strangling and raping his sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) - Henry's 'girlfriend' (who shared with Henry many broken aspects of her childhood upbringing). Henry murdered Otis after finding that Becky had just stabbed him in the eye with the sharp end of a hairbrush, and then cut off his head in the bathtub. Otis' body parts were dumped in the river.

Henry fled with her, and the two spent the night in a motel. The next morning, Henry left the motel by himself (had he killed Becky in the room and dismembered her body?) and deposited Becky's heavy blood-stained suitcase in a roadside ditch (was Becky inside?)

Howard the Duck (1986)

This George Lucas executive-produced sci-fi comedy, directed by Willard Huyck, was about a 27 year-old humanoid duck (based upon the Marvel Comics' character). Overall, the film was both a commercial and critical disaster - one of the worst films ever made. At the box-office, it was also a major failure with a budget of $37 million, with $16.3 million (domestic) and $38 million (worldwide).

Its main taglines were:

• More adventure than humanly possible.
• Trapped in a world he never made.

In the clever opening credits sequence, a parallel "duck-version" of Earth (Duckworld) was briefly viewed. The duckworld included copies of Playduck Magazine (with 'my hair-brushed beauty' - a female duck in the centerfold). A topless female duck with feather-covered boobs in her bathtub was also quickly seen. The white-feathered Howard T. Duck was expelled in his armchair to Earth and landed in Cleveland. The interstellar duck Howard saved the life of:

• Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), a musician in a struggling punk rock band known as Cherry Bomb

Howard declared: "That's it, no more Mr. Nice Duck", and fought off mean street thugs with strange martial arts: "Let the female creature go! Every duck's got his limit, and you scum have pushed me over the line...No one laughs at a master of quack-fu." Afterwards, Howard had a "brewski" at Beverly's apartment, and admitted that he was having an identity crisis:

"What I don't know is what the hell I'm doing here! It's like a bad trip. I mean, talk about an identity crisis."

Then when he fell asleep, Beverly peeked into his wallet (with more duck-versions of everything) where she found his ID, photos, credit cards (MallardCard and Bloomingducks), cash bills with a duck President, and a miniaturized duck-sized condom!

There was also a strange sexual come-on seduction scene between Beverly and Howard in her apartment after Howard complimented her figure: ("I have developed a greater appreciation for the female version of the human anatomy"). The furry duckie joined her in bed to watch David Letterman on television:

Beverly: "I just can't seem to find the right man."
Howard (suggestively): "Maybe it's not a man you should be lookin' for."
Beverly (wondering): "Aw, do you think I might find happiness in the animal kingdom, duckie?"
Howard (proposing): "Like they say, doll, love's strange. We could always give it a try. Hmm."
Beverly: "OK, let's go for it, Mr. Macho." (She removed an item of clothing.)
Howard: "Whaddya mean, OK? It was a joke. Listen, I'm pretty tired."
Beverly: "It's just that you're so incredibly soft and cuddly." (She started unbuttoning the front of his pajamas, as he became increasingly nervous.)
Howard: "Bev, let's be realistic. I mean, my apartment is zillions of miles from here. You're freaking taller than I am."
Bev: "I just can't resist your intense animal magnetism."
Howard: (The crest of feathers on Howard's head rose up as he worried) "Whoops! Anyway, where will it all lead? Marriage, kids, a house in the suburbs?"
Beverly: "Let's just face it. It's fate." (She started to remove her blouse top.)
Howard: "No, it's not. I've got a headache."
Beverly: "And I've got the aspirin."
Howard: "Be gentle." (He covered his head with the blanket to hide. He shied away from intimacy - but they shared a few short kisses.)
Beverly: "Just one goodnight kiss, sweet duckie. (She removed the blanket.) Come on, Howard, I was just kidding. Goodnight."

Then, in silhouette after turning out the light, she placed a few short kisses on his extended duck bill. When caught in the act, the two were startled as intruder Carter (Miles Chapin) witnessed them and exclaimed:

"My god, this relationship defies all the laws of nature."

Manon of the Spring (1986, Fr/It.) (aka Manon des Sources)

There were two parts to director Claude Berri's version of the Jean de Florette tale, a French historical drama based upon filmmaker/novelist Marcel Pagnol's 1952 rural romance:

• Jean de Florette (1986)
• Manon of the Spring (1986, Fr./It.)

Part two of the tale, a sequel set 10 years later, was about pretty blonde shepherdess Manon Cadoret (Emmanuelle Beart). She was the offspring daughter of parents living in the Provencal of France:

• Jean de Florette (Gerard Depardieu) a hunchbacked, physically-deformed man
• Aimée Cadoret (Élisabeth Depardieu), Jean's pretty wife

In this second part of the story, Manon was determined to take revenge upon the two men indirectly responsible for the death of her father in the first film. Two co-conspirators were involved in the death of Manon's father, Jean de Florette, when he died from an explosive charge while searching for water on his newly-inherited property, after his well spring had been deliberately plugged up. The two schemers then bought the land from Aimée, Jean de Florette's widow, for a very cheap price - and both profited from Jean's death. They were:

• Ugolin Soubeyran (Daniel Auteuil), ugly, half-witted, in the carnation business; nephew to his uncle Cesar Soubeyran
• Cesar Soubeyran (Yves Montand), a cruel, wealthy landowner, Ugolin's uncle

In one of the film's most powerful, innocently erotic scenes, lithe blonde shepherdess Manon Cadoret (Emmanuelle Beart), deceased hunchback Jean de Florette's young daughter, playfully danced or frolicked fully nude in a spring or grotto while playing her dead father's harmonica.

Meanwhile, smitten and vile Ugolin Soubeyran lustfully spied upon her by crawling on rocks above her to get a glimpse of her body, after she bathed nude and then cavorted around. Later, Ugolin suicidally hanged himself from a tree because of his unrequited love for her, after she rejected his request for marriage.

The Name of the Rose (1986, Fr/W. Germ/It.)

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's R-rated gothic, murder mystery-thriller was adapted and somewhat modified from medievalist Umberto Eco's 1980 best-selling novel (his first), about the solving of many strange deaths in a secluded, medieval 14th century Benedictine abbey involving a hidden library with priceless, forbidden books of knowledge. The film's tagline described the plot:

• "Who, in the name of God, is getting away with murder?"

It had a budget of $17 million, but performed very poorly domestically (at $7.2 million), although its European take was much higher (worldwide revenue of $77.2 million). A TV series was developed comprised of 8 episodes that originally aired in Italy in March of 2019.

There were two main characters (one of whom as an elderly man narrated the plot as a flashbacked story), in the tale set in the year 1327 in Northern Italy, during a conference of delegates convened by a council of the Franciscan's Order and led by a Benedictine Abbot (Michael Lonsdale):

• William von Baskerville (Sean Connery) - an intellectual, non-conformist Franciscan friar or monk (with Sherlock Holmes qualities, who at one point deduced: "It's elementary") - he was called upon to investigate a series of mysterious murders at the conference's isolated monastery (or abbey)
• Adso of Melk (a young Christian Slater), a naive young Benedictine novice-assistant and protege of William of Baskerville; Adso was the film's narrator

Adso opened the film with a voice-over flashback: "...May God grant me the wisdom and grace to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place in a remote abbey in the dark north of Italy. An abbey whose name, it seems even now, pious and prudent to omit."

Throughout the film, there was a progression of strange and unusual deaths, that William was interested in solving: "Let us try to solve this tantalizing conundrum." Upon his arrival at the abbey, William was told about the first death of:

• Adelmo of Otranto (Lars Bodin-Jorgensen), a young manuscript Illustrator (died by SUICIDE, when wracked with guilt, he threw himself from a tower); it was discovered that he had traded sexual favors with the Assistant Librarian to get access to a 'forbidden book'; then, just before his own death, he gave his friend Venantius directions on a coded parchment that provided him access to the locked library door (and the book)

A major clue that was consistently found among the various victims was blackened fingers and a blackened tongue, after each one had read a book written in Greek that was hidden in the abbey's library. The other monks who died (in order) included the following:

• Venantius (Urs Althaus), a Greek Translator * (found head-first in a wine vat of pig's blood after being dragged there following his death by Brother Berengar who was avoiding casting suspicion upon himself)
• Brother Berengar (Michael Habeck), a "moon-faced" Assistant Librarian * (died while taking a bath in a wooden tub) - he had provided homosexual favors to Adelmo
• Severinus, the Herbalist (Elya Baskin) (MURDERED by Brother Malachia when struck in the head in the dispensary)
• Brother Malachia (Volker Prechtel), the Librarian * - (fell dead after reading the book)
• Jorge de Burgos (Feodor Chaliapin Jr.) * (died after consuming the pages of the book, and perished in the flaming library)

Victims (Who Had Read the "Book That Kills")
2nd Victim: Venantius - Greek Translator	3rd Victim: Brother Berengar - the Assistant Librarian
Severinus, the Dispensary's Herbalist (Elya Baskin) - Discovered Murdered	4th Victim: Brother Malachia (Volker Prechtel) - the Librarian

Meanwhile at the conference, there was discussion about the belief that the Church should divest itself of wealth (as Jesus had lived a life of poverty). Benedictines, Franciscans and Papal delegates debated about whether the clergy should take vows of poverty.

The monks were convinced that the deaths were a sign of the coming Apocalypse. During a search for clues to the second murder, there was an explicit seduction scene in a barn when Adso was hiding and encountered a teenaged girl also in hiding:

• The Girl or Das Mädchen (Valentina Vargas, a Chilean actress), an unnamed mute (or semi-feral) local peasant, who often traded her "carnal favors" for food

She had snuck inside the abbey's perimeter - and Adso asked himself (in voice-over years later) about her: "Who was she? Who was this creature that rose like the dawn, was bewitching as the moon, radiant as the sun, terrible as an army poised for battle?" She took Adso's hand and encouraged him to touch her and then to nuzzle his face between her bare breasts. She goaded him further to experience sweaty, down-on-the-ground sex. First atop him, she had him get on top of her, helped him remove his garments, and showed him how to proceed with intercourse. Shortly later, William surmised that Adso had lost his virginity to the peasant Girl - and was now 'in lust' or "in love" with her and wanted to save her from her poverty. William wisely warned: "Woman takes possession of a man's precious soul."

A Papal investigator named Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham) who had been involved in the Inquisition, was summoned to take charge of the investigations at the abbey. Bernardo quickly and cruelly proved that he was only interested in sentencing people to be burned at the stake for their sins (devil worship, witchcraft, heresy and murder), including the Girl and two members of the Dulcinites - a heretical and militant cult who believed everyone should be poor:

• Salvatore (Ron Perlman) - a half-witted, hunchbacked monk, a member of the Dulcinite heretical cult with the rally cry: a "Penitenziagite"
• Remigio da Varagine (Helmut Qualtinger), Salvatore's protector

Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham)

Salvatore (Ron Perlman)

Remigio da Varagine (Helmut Qualtinger)

The secret to the deaths was eventually revealed - all the victims (marked with * above) had read a secret book -- "a book which kills, or for which men will kill" (from a hidden stash of books - "restricted books, spiritually dangerous books" - located in the tower's secret library). Once the library was discovered in the labyrinthine tower, William called the collection of books: "one of the greatest libraries in the whole of Christendom." He marveled: "They often contain a wisdom that is different from ours, and ideas that could encourage us to doubt the infallibility of the word of God."

The pages of a humorous 2nd book of comedy by Aristotle, believed lost for many centuries but actually the sole copy, had been tainted with a poison by (Venerable) Jorge de Burgos, a blind and elderly member of the Abbey. He hated the "evil" contents of the 'spiritually dangerous' book, as he had stated earlier:

A monk should not laugh. Only the fool lifts up his voice in laughter. Laughter is a devilish wind which deforms the lineaments of the face, and makes men look like monkeys....As a sin. Christ never laughed.

Blackened Finger of Victim Brother Berengar

Blackened Tongue of Victim Brother Berengar

Therefore, anybody who read the book (and had licked their fingers to turn the book's poisoned leaves or pages) - would die after contact with the book. When William was accusing Jorge de Burgos of the poisonings, he denounced him for his foolhardy attempt to punish comedy and laughter:

William: "But what is so alarming about laughter?"
Jorge de Burgos: "Laughter kills fear and without fear there can't be any faith. Because without fear of the devil, there is no more need of God."
William: "But you will not eliminate laughter by eliminating that book."

Caught, Jorge de Burgos decided to kill himself by consuming the pages of the book, while also accidentally igniting a fire in the tower library and incinerating himself. William was able to save himself and some of the books from being burned. After freeing the Girl from execution at the stake, the revolting peasants pursued Bernardo who fled in a horse-drawn cart - they tipped his wagon over at the edge of a cliff, and he was fatally impaled.

In the film's closing scene as Adso and William rode away from the burned down and smoldering Abbey (and the rescued Girl gave him one last thankful look and kiss to his hand), Adso years later fondly remembered how wise his Master had been, the day he was sent on his way to freedom, and how the Girl had made passionate love to him:

"And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the Girl of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love of my life, yet I never knew, nor ever learned, her name."

Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) (aka 9 1/2 Weeks)

Director Adrian Lyne's (and writer Zalman King's) sensual, soft-porn melodrama was about sexual experimentation - a blockbuster hit only after being released to video (to include some of the scenes removed for the film's R-rating), and a precursor to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy of films (from 2015-2018). An "uncut, uncensored version" 117 minutes in length was released on DVD in 1998.

Although filmed in 1984, it wasn't released to theaters until 1986. In its original form before severe editing, it was five hours in length. The film performed better internationally (in a less-edited version), but still lost money. With a budget of $17 million, it took in gross revenues of $6.7 million.

The semi-autobiographical film was based on the memoirs of Austrian-American author Ingeborg Day (published with the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill) that were published in 1978. The dark affair that the author referenced occurred in Manhattan when she was an editor at Ms. Magazine.

Two inferior successors to the original film appeared: a sequel in 1997 (direct-to-video) and a prequel in 1998 (straight-to-video):

Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)

Another 9 1/2 Weeks (1997) (aka Love in Paris)

The First 9 1/2 Weeks (1998)

Its taglines were:

• "They broke every rule."
• Desire. Infatuation. Obsession.

The main characters were:

• John Gray (Mickey Rourke)- an enigmatic, aloof and handsome Wall Street executive arbitrageur
• Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger who had just recently posed for Playboy) - a divorced, naive, and vulnerable mid-20s NYC art gallery assistant (on SoHo's Spring Street)

The two first met at an outdoor street fair. Soon after, he impressed and surprised her by buying an expensive $300 scarf as a gift. The story was about their bizarre romance that included endlessly creative, obsessive, sado-masochistic and experimental ways that the two erotic but kinky adventurers-lovers in New York City aroused themselves during foreplay (often in his luxury apartment), including submissive sexual power games initiated by John.

Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger)

With John Gray (Mickey Rourke)

After an ultimatum request that she accept being blindfolded, he caressed Elizabeth's half-naked body with melting ice cubes, and asked the thematic question:

"Does this excite you?"

He also presented Elizabeth with an expensive gold watch in a red box - and instructed her to hopefully use it for self-stimulation: "Elizabeth, each day at 12 o'clock, would you look at that watch and think of me touching you?" Elizabeth became aroused while watching art slides in her office. She touched herself all over and then masturbated. As the slide projector automatically clicked through the pictures with increasing intensity, she extended her legs outward onto a wall.

Elizabeth Masturbating While Watching Slide Show

The most talked-about segment of the film was the long sequence of John's sensual sex games with food in front of a refrigerator, while spoon-feeding her many items (with her eyes closed), to the tune of the Newbeats' "Bread and Butter."

[Note: The scene was parodied in Hot Shots! (1991) between Charlie Sheen and Valeria Golina but with vegetables and olives.]

Montage of Sensual Food-Sex Games
One Olive	Spoonfuls from Bowl of Maraschino Cherries	One Cherry Tomato
A Pint of Strawberries	One Glass of Champagne	Two Spoonfuls of Vick's Cough Syrup
Forkful of Cold Spiral Pasta	A Spoonful of Cherry Jello	Four Jalapeno Peppers
One Glass of Milk	Spray From A Shaken Bottle of Sparkling Water	Dripped Gobs of Honey

Liz was caught snooping through his apartment's closet, clothes, and his personal items (where she discovered a picture of him with another woman, April Tover). Afterwards, John sexually assaulted and punished Liz, by spanking her, overpowering her and forcing her onto a dining room table to have sex ("pretend" rape?) with him. She eventually pleasurably succumbed to him and remained for the night.

Snooping in John's Closet
	Sexual Assault (Rape?) As Punishment

The two had steamy and wild sex on his apartment's roof-top behind a giant clock-face - to the tune of Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love." Next was a sequence of gender-switched, cross-dressing Elizabeth (wearing a mustache, tuxedo and top hat) smoking a cigar and meeting John in a hotel lobby. Then, after a violent skirmish in an alleyway against two homophobic guys who accused them of being gay (Elizabeth stabbed one of the thugs in the butt with a knife), they had steamy sex on a brick stairway as rain poured down on them. He ripped her tight leotard in two and then fondled her bare breasts.

Elizabeth also performed a slow sensual striptease for John's satisfaction on the outer roof balcony (to the tune of Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On"). Another scene of dominance was introduced by John's question:

"Elizabeth, we're gonna play a little game. I'm a man with a very big problem. Because, you see, I can't get excited. I can't get excited unless I see you get on your hands and your knees and crawl across the floor. And I'm willing to pay a lot to see you do that. Would you do that for me?"

Although she thought his request was "stupid," he repeatedly commanded her to "Get on all fours and crawl...Elizabeth, I don't want to negotiate with you. Now crawl...Pick up the money." As she reluctantly crawled across the floor and picked up bills, he brandished a horse-whip in front of her.

The most controversial scene was set in a dingy hotel room where John had hired a black hooker (Cintia Cruz) to fondle, caress and sexually arouse the black-blindfolded Elizabeth - and then in Elizabeth's presence, he also began touching the semi-naked prostitute to make her jealous during the threesome. Incensed by John's insensitivity, Elizabeth violently slapped the two of them and fled from the hotel.

In the film's ending, the desperately-unhappy Elizabeth challenged John after one final night at his apartment. He vowed that although he had been with lots of women, she was different:

"I want you to know somethin'. I want you to know that there's been lots of other girls. There's been lots of women. But I never felt anything like this before. You know, when I just hold you in my arms, it's just the way you feel. Somethin' I didn't count on. I never counted on loving you so much."

She questioned his mysterious lack of commitment after 9 1/2 weeks by asserting: "You knew it would be over when one of us said stop. But you wouldn't say it. I almost waited too long." In the film's final moments, she walked out on him. After she shut his door and was out of hearing range, he whispered that he loved her and expected her to return within 50 seconds:

"Elizabeth. Elizabeth. I love you. Would you please come back by the time I count to fifty? One..."

She kept walking - with tears in her eyes.

Reform School Girls (1986)

Director Tom DeSimone's exploitative, soft-core and low-budget women-in-prison (WIP) film was reportedly a black comedy satire of the sub-genre. It was reminiscent of the classic b&w WIP film Caged (1950).

DeSimone had previously directed adult gay porn films (with the pseudonym Lancer Brooks) before his cross-over film - the talking-vagina sexploitational Chatterbox (1977), and two other more significant films: the horror slasher film Hell Night (1981) (with Linda Blair) and another WIP film The Concrete Jungle (1982).

This film was reportedly part of a campaign by New World Pictures to release 11 films to capitalize on the youth audience at the time, including such films as: Black Moon Rising (1986), The Aurora Encounter (1986), Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986), No Retreat, No Surrender (1986), Jake Speed (1986), Vamp (1986), and Return to Horror High (1987), amongst others.

It featured the tagline:

• "Some Get Tough. Some Go Insane. Some Will Die..."
• "So Young...So Bad...So What?"
• In Here, the Only Law Is Desire.

The trashy, campy film had some classic lines of dialogue, such as:

• "The last thing we need around the dorm is another pussy."
• "You're just a s--t-stain on the panties of life."

The "reform school" (Pridemore Juvenile Facility) was basically run by two individuals:

• Edna Dawson (Pat Ast) - a despicable, domineering, overweight, red-haired sadistic matron, the predatory, chocolate-eating head of the ward, who treated the inmates with cruelty unless they'd "play nice," and was in perverse cahoots with the warden and a butch inmate named Charlie
• Warden Sutter (Sybil Danning) - the black-jacketed, dominatrix chief officer of the 'reform school', a dictatorial, Bible-thumping and Bible-quoting character who strutted around the prison with a riding crop, leather boots, and padded shoulders [Note: Uncharacteristically for Danning, she was never naked in the film.]

Fat Ward Matron Edna Dawson (Pat Ast)

Warden Sutter (Sybil Danning)

Jennifer Williams (Linda Carol) On the Prison Van

Blue eyed blonde Jennifer Williams (Linda Carol) - a first-time offender, was sentenced to a 3 year reform school (or prison) term (and eligible for parole in 14 months) for serving as the getaway driver during a late-night robbery with her boyfriend (the film's pre-title credits sequence). She was charged as an accessory to armed robbery and murder.

Another new inmate was shy, fragile, intimidated, weak and mentally-unstable Lisa Stewart (Sherri Stoner) - a captured runaway who fled from cruel and abusive foster parents (they had murdered her brother). She cradled a small, gray stuffed rabbit ("rag doll") for comfort (that was quickly confiscated by Edna) and was fearful of everything.

When the new group of inmates ("fresh meat") arrived, including Jennifer and Lisa, one guard announced for the females to prepare for a shower:

"Strip down! Showers to the left! Physical in ten minutes. Get undressed ladies."

As another Shower Matron (Dharvi Darrell) snapped on a latex glove for personal inspections, she added:

"You're gonna be inspected inside and out, so get it clean."

A returning offender named Nicky (Laurie Schwartz) whispered back: "Happy hunting, pig." The five girls huddling together were sprayed with a big canister of delousing DDT, as the guard announced a major cavity check: "Shake out your hair. Turn around. Bend over, spread 'em wide!"

New Inmate Jennifer Showering After Induction into 'Reform School'
New Inmates Sprayed with De-Lousing Repellent DDT

During her first interview with the school's well-meaning, do-gooder psychiatrist and guidance counselor Dr. Norton (Charlotte McGinnis), Jennifer confessed that she had been sexually-molested by her father. After meeting the despicable Ward Matron Edna, the new inductees Jennifer, Lisa, and Nicky (with drab blue uniforms) were led to their assigned bunk beds in Dorm 14. There, they met the acknowledged pack leader:

• Charlie Chambliss (36 year-old Wendy O. Williams, ex-Plasmatics punk rock band member in the 80s) - hard-bodied, often seen in a stained bra, fingerless gloves, and a black thong bikini bottom

Her lingerie-wearing, Sapphic dyke gang members (branded with a circular tattoo on their butts) included two exceptionally slutty females: dark curly-haired "Knox"/Karen Charmin (Darcy DeMoss) and "Fish"/Andrea Eldridge (Tiffany Helm).

Charlie Chambliss (Wendy O. Williams)

Knox/Karen Charmin (Darcy DeMoss)

"Fish"/Andrea Eldridge (Tiffany Helm)

Charlie immediately marked her territory with Jennifer and they engaged in a cat-fight, broken up by Edna who unfairly sided with Charlie: "The name of the game ladies, is control, complete control," and penalized Jennifer by denying her two privileges. Later as the girls were bedding down for the night, Edna reminded everyone:

"Keep your fingers above the sheets. We only change them once a week!"

In the first of a pair of cruel sequences, during her first night, Lisa snuck into Edna's office to retrieve her beloved stuffed toy bunny in her desk. She was caught and her comfort toy was burned, as she was dragged screaming back to the dormitory.

While showering (a requisite scene for WIP films), Jennifer noticed that each of Charlie's groupies had around-mark on their butt. Charlie tried to intimidate the new-comers by warning them, speaking directly to one of her rivals - black girl Paula (Andrea Darnell):

"You butt-hole bitches better wash your 'things' real good. 'Cause we don't want none of your crotch-rot in our dorm."

One night during dinner in the mess hall, Warden Sutter was addressing the girls when they collectively revolted by banging silverware. She was forced to leave the room, and then reprimanded Edna: "I want this bulls--t stopped, and I want it stopped now. You're losing your charisma, Edna. You're too easy. It's time you put on your 'f--k you' boots and start kicking!"

After Jennifer found a cute stray kitten while on outdoor field work duty, Lisa began sleeping with the adopted pet named "Joey." Lisa was placed into Isolation after being blamed for a fight that began when Charlie and her followers kidnapped Lisa to brand a circle into her flesh in the toilet area, and Jennifer came to her defense.

A flirtatious Jennifer allowed herself to be seduced in a van outside the prison by a male prison transport truck driver-worker (James Staszkiel). She had sex with him in exchange for help in escaping. At the start of the sex scene, he suggested: "Let's play carnival." Jenny asked: "What's that?" He replied: "Sit on my face, and I'll guess your weight!" Once he enjoyed taking advantage of her, he drove to the exit gate and turned her in to the authorities. Knowing that Jennifer had been detained, Charlie's group again attacked the unprotected Lisa and brought her to the toilet area where Charlie fondled her ("I'm all the stud you need") and made her "one of my girls" by branding her with the circle mark using a red-hot coat hanger. Meanwhile, Jennifer was punished with two weeks in an Isolation cell.

In the most cruel and merciless sequence, the adopted dormitory kitten was discovered by Edna. She chased it and stomped it to death with her oversized, white crepe-soled shoe. Afterwards, an upset Lisa broke out of the dormitory and attempted to escape by climbing a ladder up the side of the wooden loudspeaker tower, but suicidally fell to her death while being pursued by Edna.

In retaliation for Edna's cruelties, the rebellious Jenny (with others) instigated a major nighttime prison riot in which all of the girls revolted against the tyrannical staff. Mayhem, chaos, and destruction of property commenced, as well as numerous skirmishes and fights between Charlie's gang and Jennifer's followers. The conflict was soon broken up by the Warden with a shot-gun. Charlie and Jennifer were singled out for blame. As punishment, Jennifer was forced to strip and sadistically sprayed with a high-intensity water hose held by Edna until she fell down unconscious.

After Dr. Norton was fired from the facility, she complained to the Youth Authority Commission and made numerous serious accusations about the torturous disciplinary treatment of the reform school girls (specifically by Edna), and was able to convince Jenny to bravely testify to the committee about "child abuse." Learning of Jenny's role, Edna again targeted her and brutalized her inside the isolation cell, to silence her and make her unable to appear before the board and corroborate the accusations. At the meeting held in the prison, four other girls were brought in to testify, but no one was courageous enough to tell the truth. Meanwhile, Jenny escaped from the infirmary and fomented a second major revolt throughout the prison. En masse, Jenny led a massive march of a group of inmates to the commission meeting, challenging Edna's rule and chanting: "Killer, killer!"

Edna grabbed a pump-action shotgun from one of the guards and shot one of the girls, Claudia (Denise Gordy), in the shoulder and then climbed the guard's spot-light and loudspeaker tower, to continue firing randomly. The girls grabbed hoes, rakes, shovels and any available garden tools to use as weapons. Charlie ended up fatally shot by Edna, but was still able to ride atop a driverless Pridemore school bus and ram the vehicle into the structure, causing a massive explosion. The fat matron, cackling hysterically, fell from atop the tower's fiery conflagration. Charlie crawled from the wreckage and delivered her infamous last words: "See you in hell, Edna!"

Charlie Atop Bus

Edna Pumping Shotgun

"See you in hell, Edna!"

Soon after, in the final scene, Jenny was released, and as she was leaving the facility gate - bidding goodbye to Nicky and Paula, and entering a taxi-cab, it was implied that Dr. Norton would now be in charge of Pridemore and would bring more humane conditions. The end credits scrolled to the tune of Wendy O. Williams singing "It's My Life" (written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS).

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Writer/director Spike Lee's R-rated, Rashomon-like comedy/drama, a low-budget independent film, was his first feature-length film - a black and white feminist comedy - with abundant female sexuality and nudity. Surprisingly, it was a major hit (grossing over $7 million on a budget of just $175,000).

The breakout film, taglined as "a seriously sexy comedy," was revolutionary when it first screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Years later, director Spike Lee created a updated TV series based upon the film, that ultimately ran for two seasons on Netflix (with 19 episodes from late November 2017 to the end of May 2019).

The film's prologue opened with a provocative quote from a 1937 novel, with white on black lettering - with a piano soundtrack:

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." - Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

The 84 minute film portrayed a black woman who was sexually-liberated, self-assured and free-thinking, who couldn't commit or settle down with a single man:

• Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns in her debut film) - a successful, good-looking, independent-minded, African-American, gentrified Brooklyn graphic artist ("a layout/paste-up artist. I do mechanics for magazines") who was engaged in a complex love triangle with three men; she was an only child with a musician father, Sonny Darling (Bill Lee, Spike Lee's father)

The film opened with Nola directly addressing the camera about her search for her one true love - she concluded that ultimately she discovered that she wasn't looking for declarations of love, or crude pickup braggadocio about manhood size, but a man who could express his feelings:

"I want you to know the only reason I'm consenting to this is because I wish to clear my name. Not that I care what people think, but enough is enough. And if in the end, it helps some other people out, well, then, that's fine, too. I consider myself normal, whatever that means. Some people call me a freak. I hate that word. I don't believe in it. Better yet, I don't believe in labels. But what are you gonna do? This was the deal."

One of her three major suitors, Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks) who was most prominent in her love-search, also interjected:

"I believe that there is only one person, one person in this world, who is meant to be your soul mate, your lifelong companion. The irony is rarely do these two people hook up. They just wander about aimlessly. But if you're lucky, and you do find that person, you can't blow it. Nola was that person."

She was juggling three sex partners in separate open relationships - all of the men were very competitive and combative with each other:

• Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), young and handsome, an alpha-male, stable and overprotective
• Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), a wealthy, self-obsessed and vain model, narcissistic, with a cover photo for the magazine Gentleman's Quarterly
• "Mars" Blackmon (Spike Lee), a talkative bicycle messenger with an arrow design pointed downward that was hair-sculpted on the back of his head; he was the most immature, carefree and comical of Nola's three lovers

After Jamie's monologue at the film's start, the film's most memorable sexual encounter was sex by candlelight with Jamie.

Film's Opening: Sex by Candlelight with Jamie

Due to her many male friends who often stayed on weekends, Nola's roommate Clorinda Bradford (Joie Lee) had moved out (after two years) following a "big falling out" - as she explained in the film's third statement toward the camera: "I couldn't keep track. I'd get up in the morning and I'd run into all these strange men in my bathroom."

Another statement was made by "Mars" Blackmon, commenting on Nola's sex appeal: "Nola had the goods and she knew what to do. Look, all men want freaks. We just don't want 'em for a wife." During his first visit to her apartment, Mars suggested that they could be roommates.

While involved with her three male lovers, Nola also maintained a relationship with Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell), a lesbian, who described how she would like to modify Nola's sexual preference: "Nola may have been straight as an arrow. I just want her to be open-minded. Check it out. Then decide. That's all." During a conversation, Opal inferred that Nola needed to find out what it was like to make love to a woman, and she would learn what it wasn't: "It's not some musty man pounding away inside of you a mile a minute." Jaime was particularly threatened by the thought that Nola might consider bi-sexuality ("What's up with you and Opal?").

Nola's 'third' boyfriend was Greer Childs, whose first on-screen words were indicative of his extreme narcissistic personality: "I was the best thing that ever happened to Nola Darling. Ask her, she'll tell you that herself. Why, she worshipped me....It was I who made her a better person. I molded her." Nola was aware of his deep vanity and once told him: "I've never seen anybody who liked to look at themselves more than you do. Don't you ever get tired?" He was very shallow-minded about her appearance: "You know, if you weren't fine, I wouldn't even bother with you....I'm everything that you need."

After exercising together in her apartment, Nola decided to invite Greer to have sex with her. She quickly undressed on her bed and then watched patiently as neat-freak Greer carefully and obsessively folded each item of removed clothing before finally getting into bed with her, for an athletic bout of sex.

When Nola's father Sonny was introduced, Nola admitted she wished she wasn't an only child: "I do wish I had a brother or a sister. Sometimes I got lonely being the only child. Nola Darling is having herself a big family when the time comes. Five rusty-butt boys!"

Nola's birthday (May 19th) celebration and a park picnic was part of Jamie's surprise for her. The colorful musical sequence was prefaced with Nola's clicking of her heels three times and the statement: "There's no place like home." The day featured two lovers-dancers, and was followed with sex by candlelight (already seen earlier).

Nola's Colorful Birthday Celebration with Jamie
Two Dancers	Nola and Jamie in Park

There were two immense close-ups of Mars kissing Nola's breast, and then tickling her belly-button with his tongue. After having sex with her, Mars became insecure and asked Nola: "Am I as good as Jamie or Greer?" And then he added: "Nola, I think I love you." She disagreed: "We are not in love. We're in like....If anything you're in love with my love-making. So don't mess it up." Joking with her, he put her panties on his head, and then jealously asked: "Do Jamie or Greer make you laugh like this? Huh?"

Nola refused to commit fully to Jamie, and he became exasperated with her: "To Nola, we were all interchangeable, simply parts of a whole. And it didn't matter who, just as long as it was a warm body. Nola had no devotion, allegiance, or loyalty whatsoever." He hated sharing her as a sex partner: "Nola hurt me to the core, but she's gotta have it." Then, Greer accused Nola of being a sex addict: ("I think you're sick. Now, I'm not saying that you're a nympho, a slut, or a whore, but maybe a sex addict...A nice lady doesn't go humping from bed to bed"), but of course, he thought she should only devote herself sexually to him.

As a result, Nola spoke with sex therapist Dr. Jamison (Epatha Merkinson) who concluded that she had "a healthy sex drive" and was not an addict.

Nola was simultaneously handling three disparate male lovers, who each wanted her commitment demanded by an ultimatum, despite her resistance to belonging to one man. To try to bring the three men together, Nola invited all of her suitors to a Thanksgiving get-together: ("I invited all of you fools. You were gonna meet sooner or later, so why let it be an accident?"). During the meal, the males awkwardly interacted, insulted, and argued with each other. Fed up with all of them behaving like children, Nola went to bed but ended up in Jamie's arms on her bed in the living room while the other two left.

In a "bad dream" nightmare, Nola dreamt that all three of her beaus' girlfriends arrived to call her a "homewrecker" and then set her bed on fire - and then she awoke.

All three men began to pressure and demand for Nola to make a final decision or choice between them:

• Jamie confessed that for two weeks, he had been dating the dancer in the park named Ava (Cheryl Burr) - and wanted Nola to decide about her commitment to him
• Simultaneously, Greer invited Nola to a two-week, all-expenses paid trip to the Caribbean in the next week, but she refused: "I don't know if I could stand being alone with you for two weeks."
• "Mars" began to feel that Nola was undependable, and complained to Jamie: "Nola's about dependable as a ripped diaphragm...Man, making a date with her, it's 50-50 she shows at all...The sister was bogus. Twenty-four seven, 365. Bogus."
• Nola appeared to want to break up with Jamie for good when he became impatient with her about a delay in making up her mind: "Sweetheart, what are you searching for? Do you honestly ever think you're gonna find it?"
• Opal arrived and offered to comfort Nola ("I can make you feel good"), but Nola also rejected her: "Opal, it's time for you to leave"

That evening, after Opal left, Nola pleasured herself as she lay in bed alone. Afterwards, she called Jamie in the middle of the night (he was in bed with Ava), and claimed he had to come over, because it was a "very important" emergency. When he arrived, he was angry that he had been misled into having sex with her, when all she wanted was sex: "I need you....Make love to me." She experienced a forcible rape when he was consumed in anger by her indecisiveness, as he took her from behind. During the rape, her other male sex partners briefly appeared in Jamie's place:

Jamie: "You don't want me to make love to you. You want me to f--k you! Is this the way you like it? Huh? Is this the way you like it? Does Greer do it like this? What about Mars? Who else? Who else?"
Nola: "You're hurting me!"
Jamie (demanding): "Whose pussy is this? Whose is it?"
Nola: "It's yours!"

He left her following rough sex by pushing her face down into her bed, and as he left, looked back with pleasure at degrading her: "Here I am trying to dog you the best I can. And what bothers me is I enjoyed it."

Greer came to the conclusion that Nola was dissatisfied with all three men, because they were not complete enough for her: "I can now see that Nola saw Mars, Jamie and myself as a whole. Not as three separate individuals but as one organism. We let her create a three-headed, six-armed, six-legged, three-penised monster. And it was all our fault." There were three back-to-back breakups:

• Greer - was basically insulting and demeaning during their parting: "There are plenty of fine, super-fine women in Manhattan. You never did have enough drive or ambition for me. You don't wanna be somebody! I am, so forget you! Keep your tight ass here in Brooklyn! I'm gonna get me a white girl. You could have had it all! Forget you!"
• "Mars" - Nola was very direct: "It's not gonna work, Mars...You and me...Me and you is not gonna work, either...I don't love you....It's time for you to grow up."
• Jamie - Nola told Jamie that she had finally come to a decision - that she had chosen him, but needed to be "celibate" with him; he was bitter and disagreed with her: "There's no middle ground with you. No stability!"; he added: "I'm moving forward, Nola"

Nola returned to Jamie for a brief time, but then in retrospect admitted: "That celibacy thing didn't last too long. Who was I fooling?" In the long run, she ultimately came to the realization that she should have never given Jamie a second chance - and it was a "momentary weakness." He was too controlling, traditionally patriarchal and only wanted a 'standard-issue' wife:

"He wanted a wife, that mythic old-fashioned girl next door."

She was determined to not settle down with any one man - for the time being:

"It's about control, my body, my mind. Who was going to own it? Them? Or me? I am not a one-man woman."

The film ended with her in bed and asleep, surrounded by many candles.

Something Wild (1986)

Jonathan Demme's offbeat, black romantic comedy was a yuppies-go-wild odyssey of unbuttoned and liberated wild behavior - rife with car thefts, kinky motel room adventures, lots of skipped checks at restaurants, an acoustic guitar-driven sing-along to "Wild Thing" with four hitchhikers, and many other unpredictable and tremendously-edgy circumstances during a fanciful weekend.

Fearless actress Melanie Griffith - appearing after her eye-opening role as porn actress Holly Body in Body Double (1984), played the role of a hell-raising, quirky, rebellious, and unpredictable female.

Its tagline was:

• Something Different
  Something Daring
  Something Dangerous

The unconventional film about middle-aged rebellion was not to be confused with the psychological thriller Something Wild (1961) about the traumatic effects of rape, starring Carroll Baker.

The off-kilter and idiosyncratic film was a screwball road odyssey about the developing relationship between two mismatched, very opposite individuals who were also attracted to each other:

• Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels), a staid and married yuppie executive, a white-collar NYC tax consultant and bond trader, recently promoted to VP, initially wearing dull gray Wall Street attire; it was revealed that he was estranged from his wife and had recently left her nine months earlier, but he was lying about it
• Audrey Hankel (Melanie Griffith), free-spirited, impulsive, kooky, black-wigged; nicknamed Lulu - after sexy actress Louise Brooks' femme fatale character in Pandora's Box (1929)

Lulu (in a slinky black dress) was first viewed in the HERO SHOP - a NY street-corner diner/coffee shop, where she was reading a book on Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and watching another customer - Charles Driggs who was finishing his lunch.

First Encounter at a NYC Street-Corner Diner/Coffee Shop

She noticed that he pocketed his check and deliberately did not pay before leaving. After accosting him outside and pretending to be a waitress ("You didn't pay your bill, big boy"), she heard him claim that he was just preoccupied and had forgotten. She realized that he was a kindred spirit: ("You're a closet rebel"). She offered to drive him away in her green 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible with a black top ("Ready or not, babe"), convincing him to take the Friday afternoon off from work: ("You deserve it, really!").

They traveled together in her broken-down vehicle through the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey, as she began drinking directly from a bottle of Seagrams 7. In New Jersey, Lulu stopped at a Country Squire liquor store to buy more Scotch, and stole money from the cash register when the clerk (Tracey Walter) wasn't looking.

After getting a room in the Apalachee Motor Lodge (an Econo Lodge), a seedy roadside establishment, she engaged in kinky sex with him - handcuffing him to the motel bed, stripping off her top, and making love to him ("Charlie, you must not be getting enough at home") while also forcing him to call in sick directly to his boss and lie about his whereabouts - as she offered him oral sex. Lulu complimented him - not realizing how true her observation really was: "Charlie, you’re a really good liar when you wanna be." She also pressured him to call his wife - and Charlie faked speaking to her (he had separated from her nine months earlier when she left him with their two kids and the family dentist).

Kinky Sex at a Seedy Motor Lodge in New Jersey

During their unforgettable road trip to Pennsylvania, they drove off from Mom & Dad's Italian restaurant without paying, and were forced to buy a used 1970 red Pontiac Catalina convertible after crashing Lulu's car; Lulu also pressured Charlie to buy a new wardrobe for himself at a vintage clothing store. She urged him to dress in a blue suit with a bright yellow tie and white buckskin shoes. For herself, she purchased a girl-next-door white sundress printed with red and green flowers.

Once arriving at her small-town suburban home in Pennsylvania, she gave her real name as Audrey when she introduced Charles as her husband to her square mother Peaches (Dana Preu). Audrey stated: "He's just the kind of man you always said l should marry." But Peaches guessed that he probably had a real family elsewhere, and that their 'marriage' wasn't real. She also warned Charlie that Audrey was unreliable: ("She's got some strange notions about life").

Audrey (now a blonde after removing her bobbed dark brunette wig) announced that they would be attending her class of 1976's 10-year HS reunion ("Spirit of '76 Revisited"). At the gathering, Audrey falsely stated that they were husband and wife with two children. Charlie was completely flustered when one of his co-worker office accountants named Larry Dillman (Jack Gilpin) was in attendance with his pregnant wife Peggy (Su Tissue). Audrey lied again that now they were lovers and that she was expecting. As they parted, Larry expressed his surprise: "Driggs, l didn't think you had it in you."

At his wit's end, Charlie expressed his distress: "God, you're a great girl. You got a few problems, but you're a great girl. And you're loaded with potential. But you're just too much for me. I can't handle this" - and he suggested going back to his own "boring, very safe life while if I've still got one."

Then about 50 minutes into the film, there was the surprising appearance at the reunion of Lulu's dangerous, violent, homicidal and greasy ex-con husband Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta in his feature screen debut). He had just been released from prison. As Lulu and Charlie were dancing and kissing, another couple suddenly slid behind them, and Ray leaned over to speak to her: "Hi, baby. Surprise!" He had a menacing look on his face, as he leered at them, and Audrey urged: "Let's just go." In the lobby, they formally met Ray and Irene (Margaret Colin), his date. A closeup of Ray's pock-marked, dead-eyed, angry face hinted that there would be trouble, and Audrey tried to leave. He later told Audrey in private: "I missed you so god-damn much! Every sweet little part of you...You should've never quit me, baby."

The foursome left the reunion together in Ray's car (a stolen 1968 Cadillac Seville convertible), and Ray was able to strand Irene by driving off when he requested she buy him some "smokes"; then amidst heavy drinking, he pistol-whipped a clerk at a second convenience store, stole cash, and broke Charlie's nose before he escaped with Audrey and Charlie in his car. At Ray's cheap roadside motel, Audrey confessed to the situation with Charlie: "He's just a guy. I picked him up on the street in New York. We pretended to be married for Mama, and it just carried over to the reunion. The guy's got a real wife and two real children. It's just a joke that got outta hand," but Ray wasn't entirely persuaded. Charlie was ordered to leave and drive back to his suburban home (with Audrey's car parked outside the reunion), while Ray and Audrey remained in the motel.

Instead of returning directly to his own home in Stony Brook, Long Island, Charlie made a daring play to return to the motel, follow Ray's car and take Audrey back. He bought a T-shirt, shorts, and hat as a disguise at a gas station market, and trailed them into Virginia, where he spied upon them as the two booked a room at the Cozy Rest Motor Hotel. In the company of a few police officers in a western-themed restaurant near the hotel - and knowing that Ray couldn't make a scene (as a convicted felon with a concealed weapon who had robbed a store and assaulted the clerk, and was also driving a stolen car and violating his parole from Pennsylvania), Charlie was able to acquire Ray's wallet and car keys, and the two fled to his home on Long Island in Ray's car.

They were followed there by the terrorizing Ray in pursuit in another stolen car. Audrey asked Charlie about his future plans: "What are you gonna do now you've seen how the other half lives?...The other half of you." Suddenly, Ray crashed through a rear patio glass door, roughed up Charlie, and threatened Audrey: "I'm glad to see you finally made it to the suburbs, bitch!" Ray handcuffed Charlie to the pipes under a bathroom sink. During a horrific fight scene, Charlie released himself from the pipes and used the handcuffs to attempt to strangle Ray.

Horrific Bathroom Fight Sequence

Ray got the upper hand on Charlie and then produced a knife, but was shockingly and semi-accidentally stabbed to death when he charged at Charlie and was struck in the abdomen. Ray's disbelieving last words were: "S--t, Charlie..." When the police arrived at the crime scene to question them, Charlie and Audrey were separated.

In the crowd-pleasing conclusion set shortly later, Charlie had quit his job, with a final few words of advice for his friend Larry: "It's better to be a live dog than a dead lion." Audrey (wearing black and white) reappeared in Charlie's life - she met him at the same coffee-shop that opened the film. To get his attention, she had taken the $5 dollar bill he had left on the table with his check for the waitress. She told him: "I never wanted to say goodbye," and offered: "You wanna ride?" He answered emphatically: "Sure, Audrey, why not?" and they drove away in her vintage, wood-paneled, suburbanite station wagon (1941 Ford Super De Luxe Station Wagon) as the film ended.

Sorority House Massacre (1986)

Writer/director Carol Frank's R-rated slasher film (her only directorial effort) was a tedious horror film - capitalizing on the slasher-film craze of the time period, and copying many traits of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) without much of the suspense. It was unrelated to Slumber Party "57" (1976).

It was followed by two sequels:

• Sorority House Massacre II (1990) - a mostly T&A flick
• Sorority House Massacre III: Hard to Die (1990) - its virtual remake with much of the same cast

Sorority House Massacre (1986)

Sorority House Massacre II (1990)

Hard to Die (1990) (aka Sorority House Massacre III)

There were three series of "Massacre" films:

• SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE Trilogy (1986, 1990, 1990)
• SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE Trilogy (1982, 1987, 1990) - Note: Carol Frank was assistant to the director on the 1982 film
• CHEERLEADER MASSACRE (2003, 2011)

The film's taglines were:

• Who'll Survive the Final Exam?
• A Slash Course in Absolute Terror!
• A Blood-Crazed Psycho Takes a Stab at Higher Education

This average horror-thriller told of a disturbed, amnesia-suffering young woman:

• Laura "Beth" Henkel (Angela O'Neil) with a short haircut, a sorority house pledge

She arrived at an LA sorority house (Theta Omega Theta) after the death of her aunt, to have a fun Memorial Day weekend with her girlfriends. She was experiencing recurring nightmares and hallucinations of psychopathic, giant hunting knife-wielding killer Robert Henkel (John C. Russell) stalking her.

[Note: The sorority girls and their boyfriends watched Slumber Party Massacre on TV during part of the film.]

There were only three girls, plus Beth, left in the house over the weekend. During the film's sole scene of extraneous nudity in an MTV-style musical montage, the trio of girls (with Beth watching) included:

• Tracy (Nicole Rio)
• Linda (Wendy Martel)
• Sara (Pamela Ross)

The threesome took advantage of rich sorority girl Cindy's absence and raided her closet - trying on various outfits. Unfortunately, one by one, the girls were being slaughtered by the killer.

The predictable twist in the film was that Beth was the killer's younger sister. Bobby Henkel had murdered the rest of their family years ago and was bent on revenge against her as well. He had escaped from an insane asylum, and then stole a knife from a hardware store and killed the owner. He was targeting the LA sorority house - the same house that his murdered family had lived in when Beth and her older brother were children.

The murders started to pile up with very little variety: first, a visiting male named Andy (Marcus Vaughter) was killed. Then, Tracy and her boyfriend Craig (Joe Nassi) were making out in a teepee on the lawn of the sorority house - and when the killer struck, she ended up with a hunting knife stuck between her bare breasts, while Craig fled into the house naked. A second and third male were then murdered, John (Vinnie Bilancio) and Craig. Sara then met the fate of Tracy. During a final confrontation with Bobby, he stabbed Linda before attacking his sister Beth, who overpowered him, stabbed him in the neck, and killed him.

The film ended with Beth waking up with a scream from her hospital bed - with another vision (?) of her brother (with a bloody face) calling out her name ("Beth!").