PEEKARAMA: CARNAL HIGHWAYS (1983)/CARNAL OLYMPICS (1983)
Director: Carlos Tobalina
Vinegar Syndrome

Vinegar Syndrome resurrects their Peekarama line with a pair of Carlos Tobalina clunkers in CARNAL HIGHWAYS and CARNAL OLYMPICS.

Hitting the CARNAL HIGHWAYS is the goal of buddies John (John Seeman, BABY ROSEMARY) and Fernando (Tobalina's "always ready" cinematographer Fernando Fortes, COME UNDER MY SPELL) when they look into buying a truck since truckers get all the girls. The previous owner says he will give them his old truck if they handle his next delivery, hauling a bunch of school desks to San Francisco. Along the way they pick up a girl who ran away from home after being caught with her sister in the tub – John and Fernando take her back into the cab so she can prove she's not a lesbian – and a hooker (Brooke West, CENTER SPREAD GIRLS) before stopping at a trucker hotel and spying on Blair Harris (LADY DYNAMITE) and Juliet Anderson (HOT LUNCH) before hiring their own masseuses for their happy endings. The bumpkins get lost in San Francisco, but fortunately desperate housewives Marlene Munroe (FANTASYWORLD) and Seka (ORAL DELIGHTS) are willing to give more than directions to the school which turns out to be consist solely of sex education classes taught by no one other than director Carlos Tobalina which John and Fernando decide to stick around for (cue requisite orgy).

The CARNAL OLYMPICS are a scam set up by horny and rich Herschel Savage (PRETTY PEACHES 2) when he pretends to work for an adult magazine and calls up porn starlets Gail Sterling (LUST INFERNO) and a rather rough-looking Lynx Canon (EXPOSE ME NOW) to tell them the vote for hottest porn star is a tie between the two of them that can only be resolved with a contest and a fifty-thousand dollar prize. The first phase of the contest has the two starlets starring in and directing their own scenes. Both Sterling and Canon bring their own co-stars in Anna Pierce (EVERY MAN'S FANTASY), Marguerite Nuit (BREAKING IT), Kathy Kay (FLESH POND), and Sabina Tramel for a pair of lesbian threesomes that Savage manages to augment with himself and a couple male co-stars including Tobalina regulars Jesse Adams (OREINTAL HAWAII), Blair Harris (COME UNDER MY SPELL), and Don Fernando (BUSTIN' OUT). The next phase challenges the starlets and their friends to call cops to their homes and seduce them while Savage watches. Sterling and Pierce take on Paul Harmon (FLESH AND LACES) with a story about a big-cocked peeping tom gardener while Canon and Kay wrestle down bashful Michael Morrison (PURELY PHYSICAL). Savage announces that the two are still tied, leading to a massive poolside orgy with pop shots by the bucket load (literally); but what will happen when the starlets discover the truth?

Tobalina's porn oeuvre is not known for its eroticism or its cleverness, but most of his efforts have enough quirks to entertain while others are just interminable (MARATHON, FLESH POND, ANTICIPATION). CARNAL HIGHWAYS is a buddy road movie in only the barest (no pun intended) sense with Seeman and Fortes' friendship established by calling each other buddy and a string of sex scenes by recognizable performers of the era brought in without ceremony to pull faces and pick up their checks (or cash or coke) including Seka and Anderson. CARNAL OLYMPICS at least has Savage earning his novel comeuppance but the film really is a contest where no one wins.

Long unseen after its theatrical release from Tobalina's own company, CARNAL HIGHWAYS comes from a 2K scan of the original 35mm camera negative with typically grainy titles but overall a crisp and colorful look thanks to brightly lit photography (although there is one instance where the cameraman can be seen opening up the iris as he pans the camera from a window to the dimmer motel room interior). An emulsion scratch pops up for a moment or two. Although CARNAL OLYMPICS got a Caballero VHS and DVD, it is probably safe to assume that the original camera negative was largely untouched until Vinegar Syndrome did their 2K scan since the progressive, anamorphic transfer is spotless throughout with well-saturated colors and healthy skintones. The Dolby Digital 1.0 tracks are in overall good condition, doing what they can with some variable dialogue recording and overdubbing in some of the exteriors. The only extras are extended trailers for both films (5:01 and 4:26, respectively). (Eric Cotenas)

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