Sleazy Stags, American Style (2009)

Vintage Erotica

After Hours Cinema

R1 NTSC

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

In recent months we have been examining the historical rise of film erotica as shown in the different styles of film produced since World War II. This DVD fills in another gap in the history, that of the “dirty movie” or “stag film” of the 1960s and early 1970s.

These films were generally quickie low quality productions. They were shot on 8mm film or Super 8 with a handheld camera and lasted about ten minutes – the length of a roll of cine film. Film quality was rarely high, there was no sound, and any pretence at plot was a joke. At least one of the films in this collection substitutes subtitles for sound with such illuminating comments as “ ahhhhhhhhhhhh” or ohhhhhhhhhhhhh”.(I think I spelled that correctly) or even “ring, ring” for the telephone. This is about as high as the production values ever got for this type of film.

Their intention was to titillate men with shots of the typical “girl next door” having sex. They were meant for private home use on the increasing number of film projectors.

With only ten minutes or less to get it all over with, the plots were very conventional and followed a simple formula.

Get your gear off

She goes down on him

He goes down on her

Penetration in full detail

Money shot.

It was hardly a genre with which to launch a film career, and indeed most of the actors and actresses were amateurs doing a couple of quick films for some ready money.

It was about as low as the erotica genre got. With the tremendous rise in home videotape machines a decade or so later the production values improved. No longer limited to short film reels, videotapes allowed professional producers to enter the market with higher film quality, sound and traditional values like plot. The stag film simply faded away, a piece of film history that was mentioned occasionally but rarely seen. As it says on the cover, “Once thought lost, these unique examples of American erotic cinema have been popping up in garages and shoe boxes across the country. “

The quality of the films is poor, with many scratches and a lot of graininess. I doubt they could have cleaned up much better. The sound track is simply a noisy “projector” that sounds more like a Volkswagen. In spite of these defects they are typical of the genre and After Hours Cinema is to be complimented for resurrecting the films for us.

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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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