The summer before going off to college, buddies Tracy (Darcy Hollingsworth) and Gene (Bo White) jump into their van "The Meat Wagon" and bum around in search of tail. They encounter sexy thieving hitchers, a lone biker, pimps, nymphos, and lonely housewives. Nearly every invitation to free love and a good time reveals people on the take or some other downside (the buddies usually manage to turn the tables) but it makes for a memorable summer (amounting to two days it seems) before the inevitable loss of freedom represented by adult life. Although rumored to have been released initially as a hardcore production, BLUE SUMMER as presented here does not feel like a hardcore sex movie lacking the explicit angles (although the lengthy scenes do look real); rather, it feels like a road movie/sex comedy with sex scenes that are more explicit than the norm for the genre. Produced by Allan Shackleton (who had a box office hit with SNUFF by adding fake snuff footage onto the end of another production and hiring people to protest its release), the acting is generally good with the leads having a good rapport and while more quirky than funny (despite comic situations) BLUE SUMMER moves at a quick clip. Seventies porn couple Eric Edwards and the late Chris Jordan appear in separate supporting roles.

An X-rated variation on THREE FACES OF EVE, SOMETIMES SWEET SUSAN was the first (and only) adult film registered by the Screen Actors Guild and was produced by Craig Baumgarten (who went on to be a Paramount VP and then joined Columbia Pictures). Harry Reems plays a doctor trying to get at the sexual trauma that has split the personality of patient Susan (Shawn Harris) three ways. While BLUE SUMMER does not suffer in its softcore cut (if indeed a hardcore version was produced), SOMETIME SWEET SUSAN does feel lacking as the sex scenes go on and on (seemingly, longer takes of the softcore angles were used rather than shortening the musical accompaniment) and dialogue scenes are flatly directed and fail to convey the dramatic punch that is required of the story while the institution settings fail to convince (the place does not seem so much understaffed as the film under-budgeted). This is unfortunate as Harris (who also provides vocals with composer Scott Mansfield) and Reems are quite good. Also interesting is Sarah Nicholson/Jennifer Jordan (Joseph Sarno's ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN) as Reems' attention- (and sex) started wife. The liner notes that while successful "the film seems not to have inspired many unionized copyrights" and this is not surprising as nothing is achieved here that could not have been done without SAG registration (and scale).

SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS is one of Roger Corman's New World Pictures line of sex comedies (usually involving nurses, stewardesses, or teachers). Three pretty teachers take summer jobs at a California high school (where most of the student body aren't much younger than the teachers) and manage to stir up trouble. One has an affair with one of her delinquent students, another puts together a girls' football team (to the consternation of Coach Dick Miller), and a third challenges notions of obscenity with her photography class. The girls uncover illegal activity, corruption, and chauvinism but all ends well. Directed by Barbara Peters - HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP - SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHERS is the best of the set. Although there is less bare flesh on display than on any of the other titles in the set, it is funny, fast-moving, well-acted, and well-written despite the cliche sex comedy tropes (dirty-minded old women, leering faculty, outraged parents, and gym showers) with such lines as "You give a guy an inch, he takes two, you discover he's got only three, and pretty soon you've got nothing."

TEENAGE DIVORCE tells the story of two men and one woman who, disillusioned with their marriages, get divorces and head to San Diego to try to form a communal existence. Things get ugly when a broke Leonard (Tom Fielding aka Tom Holland, director of FRIGHT NIGHT and CHILD'S PLAY) feels the need to "flash his manhood" by dealing in dope for both the money and the thrill, Ken (George Takei) - who has been fighting off the advances of a queeny film student - discovers his ex-wife is pregnant with his child, and Josie (writer Holly Mascot) tires of Leonard's activities. When they are busted for dope dealing (and set free because the stash was fake), they go their separate ways. The film gets better after the setup which is composed of three tired variations on "we don't communicate any more," pretentious poetry, and five musical montages in the first twenty minutes. After that, the nostalgia for the free love movement of the sixties (the film was shot in 1971 but not released until later) - which the three character missed because of matrimony - is somewhat moving and there are some beautiful views of 70's San Diego along with a lengthy orgy.

Eric Cotenas