Once again I have to state beforehand that older movies need
to be viewed in the context of when they were made rather than watching them as
if they were made last week. With that in mind I watched the Kino Lorber
blu-ray release of PLAY MOTEL, a movie made in 1979 that combines the soft core
Eurotrash genre with the giallo genre and does so effectively for fans of both.
The story involves a blackmail scheme that takes place in a
hotel catering to secret rendezvous between lovers. While one room offers the
accoutrements of kinky sex (everything from whips and chains to costumes) the
room next door has a two way mirrored view of the room for the nefarious
photographer. The first person we see blackmailed considers what to do when the
demand comes his way.
That all changes when his wife finds the photos and then
goes to the hotel herself. There, she finds the second room and begins watching
another couple having sex. As she does so a mysterious, gloved figure
approaches her from behind and strangles her. It isn’t until later that a young
couple who were staying in the hotel find her body in the trunk of their car
when they have a flat tire.
The couple connect with the police who talk to the husband.
It turns out the blackmail victim and his wife were in the process of getting a
divorce. He now cooperates with the police in the investigation. At the same
time the police recruit the young couple who found the body. Fortunately for
them the man is an actor on break. He and his wife are more than willing to help.
Things take a turn for the worse when the woman involved in
the first blackmail attempt is found murdered shortly after being questioned by
the police. Her place of employment is a porn magazine and the publisher there
was once wanted for white slavery. The staff immediately become the main
suspects as the police and the couple they’ve brought in try to find out not
just who is involved in the blackmail scheme but the murderer as well.
This is a solid enough story but more inclined to fill out
an hour long program at best. Which means that it leaves at least 30 minutes to
bring on enough skin to qualify as soft core porn, the R rated stuff that was
prevalent in the 70s. If you’re a fan of either genre you should find enough
here to hold your interest from start to finish.
What I found more interesting was the extra that discussed
the company behind the movie and how things were done at the time. The film was
released in two versions back then, one the R rated version all of the actors
were well aware of and then an X rated version where lookalike actors were
brought in to perform more pornographic scenes. These were made for markets
that were beginning to boom with that sort of film like France even though they
were banned in Italy, the country the film was made in.
Also included for those curious about those special scenes
are the extra sequences that were made for the X rated versions of the film.
While they are indeed graphic they are a far cry from things found by curious
teens on the internet these days. From a historical point of view this can be
interesting, but if you’re looking to be titillating then there are other ways
to do so.
The movie does offer a good giallo here and the actors do a
great job for what would seem a low budget film. In the end fans will have a
new film worth adding to their collection.
Click here to order.
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