Retro Porn Review - Confessions

While Confessions was directed by notorious adult filmmaker Anthony Spinelli, it was still a year or two before his biggest films (SexWorld, Talk Dirty to Me, Aunt Peg) hit the theaters. Spinelli was still using pseudonyms then; in this case his last one, Leonard Burke.

Confessions is the oldest story in the book. An unsatisfied housewife named Beth (Kristine Heller, then going by Cindy Johnson) doesn’t seem to be getting what she wanted from her husband Gary (John Leslie), so she decides to sleep around instead.

Gary really likes talking about himself in the third person, which is the main reason why I was happy he was gone for like 90% of the movie, even if that seems like a waste of John Leslie.

Heller had some moments of decent acting, although a bit inconsistent at times, but she did convey her general dissatisfaction well. Beth tries to talk to her husband briefly, but Gary wants what Gary wants. At least that’s what Gary says before disappearing into porn limbo and unknowingly letting everyone else take his place.

Beth follows a biker on her car and picks him up with ease. He seems to be having fun when he communicates to Beth that she really needs to work on her blowjob technique. A surprised and slightly offended Beth doesn’t seem to like the comment, but she follows the guidelines nonetheless. No one complains about it ever again. Just for that, the biker decides to take his Magic Wand for a spin (or thousands) and please Beth in an unusual — for porn in the 70s, anyway — sex toy scene.

At this point Beth is on a roll. She starts prostituting herself just for the fun — although $200 sounds like a pretty hefty sum in 1977. She’d do lonely guys, sure, but she’d also do couples and light BDSM play.

Once on a date with a couple, a woman instructs Beth on how to deal with her husband, Howard, who was a submissive. Beth stepps to the plate quickly and — with no indication of previous dom experience — she handles it well. After Howard comes on Beth’s tits, it is the wife’s turn to satisfy Beth.

The sex scenes are nicely shot, with better lighting than a good share of its peers. Extreme close-ups are not my thing, but they’re well made, and some people do really like them.

Maybe the marriage could have been explored a little more. I think the idea was just thrown around and they decided to wrap it up with a wink, which is not the cleverest of endings.

In the years when feminism was still taking baby steps as a mass movement, the whole “sexual awakening” thing was very much in demand in porn, which is why perhaps if we don’t factor that in, the movie might not feel as powerful. Having said that, it doesn’t suck; but later Spinelli films prove to be much better.

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