Slutty Stewardesses 1975 – 1976

Classic erotica / porn

Grindhouse Cinema

After Hours Cinema, 2009

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

This DVD includes two early porn films of the type classified as “stag movies”. These were low-budget (VERY low) quicky knockoffs to fill the growing home market. Although they would have been the height of raunchiness in their time, now they would be better classified as “quaint”. Yet they are important in the erotica genre because they are examples of the type of film being produced at the time for the private market as it matured into modern cinema.

“Grindhouse” was an American term for the sleazy theatres trying to keep up their flagging audiences by showing pornos, other exploitation movies and special interest films like Kung Fu. Audiences were moving away from theatres as television increased its market penetration. TV shows were very bland and unadventurous so there was a gap in the market for stag movies for home and grindhouse showing. Many homes in newly-rich America could now afford home projection equipment so these films were widely circulated. With the development of videotape they were quickly transferred to the new media and their circulation increased.

I saw quite a few of these in my earlier days (purely in the interests of research, you understand) and they were all much the same. They had improved from the five-minute quicky “roll around on the bed for a while” peepshow films of World War 2 to something that at least had a minimal plot. The plot was never allowed to get in the way of the action. The films were of fairly decent quality, but their low budget origins were evident in the fact that most were shot in only one or two locations (usually bedrooms). The plots could be summarized as “Oh hello. Let’s screw”. Penetration and money shots were compulsory, but the cinematography wasn’t as clinical or the women as well groomed and artificial as in the later XXX films. There is a subtly dated look to the films, mostly to do with the costuming and hairdos.

The two films on this DVD are In-Flight Service (1975) and Come With Me My Love (1976). Charles Lamont directed In-Flight Service, which is about a party thrown by airline hostesses one Halloween. Come With Me My Love (1976) is a Doris Wishman story about the ghost of a man who was shot by a jealous husband many years ago. Every time the girl who currently occupies the flat brings home a boyfriend the ghost kills him. It features the legendary Annie Sprinkles. It is a little unusual in that it has “special effects” – the ghost is shown in negative. Wow.

The films are very low quality, reflecting the heavy use and circulation of the originals. There are lines through the film, the sound is tinny and full of crackles and everything jumps occasionally – just the way I remember them. Since some of the effects continue through the modern title screen they may have been enhanced just a little for effect. No doubt the films could be carefully filtered and improved, but I think the original look just sets the period and adds that nice touch of sleaze that is so appropriate. They are not in themselves great works of art but they do show an important segment of the development of erotica in cinema.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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