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The title evokes Robbe-Grillet (Le Voyeur), and gets down to business. The heroine (Bridgette Monet) peeps through a half-open door at her aunt (Pat Manning) romping with a stud (Herschel Savage), then gulps at the sight of Lisa De Leeuw’s scarlet short and curlies (but pockets her discarded panties). Her demure gaze is really a sham, she wants to be ravished but her beau (Mike Horner) refuses to touch her on grounds of respect. ("That’s usually my line," she protests.) Little Oral Annie with plumber Kevin James ("How am I supposed to fix your furnace?" "You’re fixing it right now!") while the spying maid (Anna Pierce) murmurs Teutonically, Monet with De Leeuw watched by a kimono-wrapped swain (David Cannon) -- virtually every coupling is consciously a bit of spectacle observed by somebody else. The continuous keyhole-gazing is milked for pageantry (catwalk-scrambling in preparation for Monet’s big fashion show), comedy (clownish Peeping Toms sneaking into dressing rooms), and even suspense (Horner wandering among the mannequins in a darkened atelier, only to be jumped by a pair of frisky models). Does the emphasis on watching expose the essentially passive nature of the porno viewer, or posit the audience’s potential for stimulating scenes into being? Paul G. Vatelli knows what he’s doing: The Monet-Horner consummation, which takes place on a sound stage empty but for us in the dark, is a more momentous exhibition than the fashion show. With Linda Shaw, Elaine De Santis, and John Ogden.
--- Fernando F. Croce |