Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Desires Within Young Girls [1977]

Maddy Stone, a peripatetic wheeler-dealer who would have made Auntie Mame wilt with envy, suddenly finds herself a widow after an especially heavy afternoon of amour. In fact, her husband literally expires inflagrente delecto.

Quickly taking stock of her assets and liabilities, Maddy discovers that she has just enough money for three more years of high living and two teenage daughters who are being raised in a strict finishing school catered to by neglectful
mothers. Maddy pulls her daughters out of school and ever mindful of her three year limit embarks on a crash program to groom and prepare her lovely offspring into snaring the wealthy. Maddy’s motto is quite succinct: “…either get a proposal or get pregnant!’

Maddy’s two daughters are as different as two girls could be. Penny is serious, cynical and intelligent. She is constantly challenging her mother’s “game plan.” Cissy, on the other hand, is Candy, Little Annie Fannie and any other super nymphette you may have heard of all rolled into one and to her Maddy’s program is going to be one big (no pun intended) ball.

Once they have been schooled in the arts of attracting the opposite sex with special emphasis on how to make it in the bedroom (as brought about by a stud-tutor who is an old friend of Maddy’s) the two girls and their mother take off on a quest for quick security before the well runs dry.


Their adventures include:

A rich, retired rancher whose son has a relationship with Cissy in a haystack. This affair is abruptly terminated when Cissy discovers what ranch life really has in store for her.

An eccentric, libidinous millionaire who gives parties in his mansion where sexual games are played by the “beautiful people” to smoke out their every fantasy and perversion, with the winner being the individual who can successfully finish an assortment of bizarre encounters. Mouth-watering young teeny boppers, a sadistic general, two luscious lesbians, a beautiful but emasculating vixen and a super stud eventually fail to finish the game. Cissy, however, whose nature precludes any sexual hang-ups, screws her way to the championship.

A wealthy industrialist, whose son rescues Cissy from drowning during a yacht party, consequently collects his reward in a giant sunken tub on board the ship.

Has Maddy’s mission finally borne fruit? Not quite. Penny, thoroughly disgusted by the goings on at the previous party, has run off with the stud-tutor (penniless).

Cissy, in turn, elopes with the wealthy industrialist’s son, but Maddy’s joy turns to something else when she discovers his father has disinherited him some time ago.

All this has taught Maddy two lessons in life. The first lesson is that you can’t live your children’s lives for them, and secondly, salvation may be where you least expect to find it. Far from being washed up herself (as she had feared, alas), Maddy has caught the eye of the industrialist himself.

Maddy Stone …………………….. Georgina Spelvin
Cissy …………………….. Annette Haven
Penny …………………….. Clair Dia
Mark …………………….. John Leslie
Marty …………………….. John Seeman
The Baroness …………………….. Joan Devion
Erika …………………….. Bonnie Holiday
Gail …………………….. Abigail Clayton
Clark Dayton, Jr. …………………….. Paul Thomas
Clark Dayton, Sr. …………………….. Carl Irwin
Jace Blanchard …………………….. Ray Randall
Duke Blanchard …………………….. Ralph Jenkins
Harrison Dasher …………………….. Frank Hollowell
The General …………………….. Chesley Noon
Chris …………………….. Robert Met

Directed by …………………….. Ramsey Karson

Screenplay by …………………….. Ramsey Karson and Harold Lime

Production Manager …………………….. Brent Barrydown
Director of Photography …………………….. Mike O’Hara
Assistant Cameraman …………………….. Arnold Stein
Sound Mixer …………………….. Brad Drexel
Boom …………………….. Cary Maize
Head Gaffer …………………….. Ric Benson
Key Grip …………………….. Jose Cervantes
Script Supervisor …………………….. Mary Murphy
Wardrobe …………………….. Tina Looseman
Set Decoration …………………….. Jerry Dale
Make-Up …………………….. Angela Tien
Stills …………………….. Jerry Slater
Film Editor …………………….. Murray Roth



Producer Harold Lime, the Louis B. Mayer of porn, set out to make big studio-type movies with all star casts, lavish production values and an upbeat message. Before hitting his stride in his justly praised collaborations with Gary Graver a/k/a "Robert McCallum" as the '70s gave way to the '80s (ECSTASY GIRLS, AMANDA BY NIGHT, INDECENT EXPOSURE), he had already teamed up with another co-conspirator from his sexploitation days when he was better known as "Ted Paramore", the man who gave the world the classic "nudie cutie" NOT TONIGHT, HENRY. The filmmaker in question was the sadly overlooked Richard Kanter, who had made the popular RIBALD TALES OF ROBIN HOOD prior to embarking on an all too short-lived explicit career as "Ramsey Karson". Though his initial alignment with Lime remains his finest achievement, he would also direct the massively underrated "loop carrier" UNTAMED and the bloated if occasionally effective SENSUAL ENCOUNTERS OF EVERY KIND for him. For DESIRES WITHIN YOUNG GIRLS, a title forever targeted by moral crusaders because of its supposed pedophile suggestion (oh, get a life, you lot !), this twosome emulated Old Hollywood in their choice of material as well as style with a sexed-up rendition of the Marilyn Monroe soufflé HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE.

When aging gold-digger Madeleine Stone (the incomparable Georgina Spelvin) embraces widowhood for the second time as husband number 2 (John Leslie in fairly convincing old man make-up) comes and goes at the same time, if you catch my drift, she finds her amorously amassed fortune dwindling rapidly. The time is ripe to call on her two daughters from her first marriage who have been kept stashed away at a posh boarding school out of mom's way. Now that she considers herself too old to trap a wealthy spouse, Maddie wants her girls to pick up where she left off and marry into money. While adventurous Cissy (Annette Haven displaying rarely tapped comedic abilities) is pretty much game for any scheme her mother could dream up, the more level-headed Penny (unjustly forgotten Clair Dia who had co-starred with Spelvin in Graver's excellent 3 A.M.) refuses to go along now that she has found love with her drama teacher Marc (also played by John Leslie). A maiden attempt to get Cissy hitched to a rich ranch owner's hilariously cowpoke son ("Radio" Ray Wells) doesn't provide the expected result. So Maddie decides to throw her offspring to the wolves – pity the wolves ! – by attending an elegantly perverted soirĂ©e thrown by her old friend and partner in slime Harrison, another expert portrayal of sophisticated sleaze by the legendary John Alderman a/k/a "Frank Hollowell". This lengthy sequence makes up the meat of the movie and comprises several well-done erotic encounters. A stroke of genius caused the casting of near lookalikes Bonnie Holiday, star Haven's erstwhile girlfriend who introduced her to the industry and subsequently made history, and all but forgotten Joan Devlon (who did her finest work in William Dancer's seldom seen NIGHT PLEASURES) for the obligatory Sapphic session, as the model and the snooty Baroness respectively, scored with the kind of mock Morricone music that always seemed to accompany such scenes in '60s saucy Euro fare. Cissy's supposed S&M session with campy General Carl Irwin (one of the "Magnificent 7" from Antonio Shepherd's 7 INTO SNOWY) remains one of the funniest moments in any sex comedy. Penny expertly turns off – no, that's not a typo ! – millionaire playboy Turk Lyon with Cissy stepping in for some carnal comfort. Dominatrix Sabrina (who had a small part in Bob Chinn's very funny HARD SOAP HARD SOAP) wanders about threatening various participants yet remains all talk and little action. One of this reviewer's all time favorite scenes comes – and, boy, does it ever ! – in the gentle deflowering of devastatingly handsome Jon Martin (those familiar with his near-mummified appearance of the late '80s are in for a serious shock) at the hands and so much more of achingly sweet Gail Lawrence a/k/a "Abigail Clayton" and fly by night starlet Stacy Evans. Annette's frequent screen partner Paul Thomas provides the romantic capper as Maddie's plans are sabotaged, or are they ?

A final word on Caballero's current DVD presentation of this classic. A lengthy film for its day, when everything over 90 minutes was considered excessive, it has rarely been seen in a complete version. Alas, this is still not the case. Though they have reinstated the casually cut seduction of Clair Dia by John Leslie, an exceptionally erotic encounter I am glad to have finally witnessed, this apparently came at the expense of another highlight : Annette's energetic romp with chauffeur John Seeman. An early crucial expository sequence of Georgina picking the girls up from school has also been completely removed, presumably because of the (clearly adult) actresses' school girl uniforms and the under-age implications thereof, but it makes the flick's story-line unnecessarily incoherent. A trivia note in parting. The film's cast contains an inordinate amount of performers who would become directors in their own right eventually. Now, Leslie and Thomas are obvious, but John Seeman would also go on to make several interesting movies like VIRGINIA and TEN LITTLE MAIDENS and Clair Dia was one of all too few (albeit short-lived) female filmmakers with the wonderful HEALTH SPA and its sweet sleeper follow-up SCREWPLES.

AKA: Desires (USA)
Desires Within Young Women (USA)

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