42ND STREET PETE'S 8MM MADNESS!
AfterHours Retro

RetroSeduction Cinema’s hardcore branch, AfterHours Retro, have put together an outstanding 2-disc set, hosted by their resident historian 42nd Street Pete: 8MM MADNESS! This is rumored to be the first in a series, and as an aficionado of 70s hardcore, I look forward to every installment!! 21 loops, gathered here, without background music, only the whir of a peepshow loop machine, are all incredible examples of the short and sweet sex scenarios perverts greased their palms to in the perverse 1970s.

Here’s the rundown:

1. “Field of Wet Dreams” – New York hardcore queen Tina Russell (the East Coast counterpart to Rene Bond) co-stars with hairy Jeffrey Hurst (star of Roberta Findlay’s FANTASEX and Sarno’s SLIPPERY WHEN WET). Shot in someone’s apartment, the two of them really get into the sex, and Tina’s oral is beautifully done. Hurst was like a poor man’s Harry Reems, but he deserves more respect as a leading man and sex performer in the early to mid 70s. Russell looks a little pale and bony here, but she was a stunning brunette who sadly drank herself to death after her husband, fellow performer Jason Russell, lost interest in her and took up with underage starlet Jean Jennings.
2. “The Grinder” – Two unknowns, a muscle stud and a long haired brunette with lots of blue eyeshadow (love that slutty look), do it while handy subtitles pop up like “Like It?” and “Mmmmmmmm”. Once again shot in someone’s apartment, in front of their wall of photographs. In fact, I can tell you whose apartment this is: according to Annie Sprinkle’s audio commentary over a loop on the DVD of HERSTORY OF PORN, that uses the same location, this is the Findlays’ apartment!!
3. “The Office Visit” – Enema time! That’s right, not all loops featured people having ordinary or even kinky sex, something as unsexy as an enema was filmed for those pervs who liked seeing water expelled from ladies’ anuses. Those same people apparently demanded a feature filled with it, WATERPOWER! Thankfully, no water is seen shooting out a la Desiree Cousteau in PRETTY PEACHES. Those subtitles turn up again, providing “dialogue” between the participants.
4. “A Fucking Foursome” – Two guys and two girls, together, in a badly decorated bedroom. The real surprise here is the inclusion of multiple anal scenes, considered a fetish then and almost a requirement now. Plus dildo action
5. “Three Way Dance” – A muscular blonde guy gets a large-breasted brunette and a small-chested redhead all to himself, in a motel room somewhere in California.
6. “Slammin’ the Old Back Door” – Another rare all-anal loop, with poetic subtitles for those who’d like to know what these people aren’t saying to each other. A long-haired blonde guy with a sizeable dick gives a painful anal pounding to a lithe young brunette.
7. “Sunset Strip” – John Holmes stars as an enraged husband tired of his wife buying KFC instead of giving him a homecooked meal! He stabs a knife through the Col’s face on the bucket (!) then proceeds to stab his wife all over with his 13-inch weapon. This is a really early Holmes loop, when he had his slicked-back hair and was clean-shaven, as well as keeping his nasty black socks on during sex. Yech!
8. “The Vacuum Cleaner Salesman” – Rough n tough Jamie Gillis (who’s actually a nicer guy than his on-screen personal lets on) is the title character, who demonstrates his wares on a willing, horny housewife. 42nd Street Pete incorrectly identifies his co-star as Maria Arnold. Ummm…Arnold was a California girl, Gillis was in New York. The correct name for Gillis’ female co-star is HELEN MADIGAN, a buck-toothed cutie who was once the girlfriend of Mark Stevens. Gillis is really young-looking here, maybe the most handsome he ever was.

9. “Spanks for the Mammeries” – A kinky loop, with two girls having their undies yanked down and their buns spanked by a harsh-looking female dominatrix. One girl even wets her panties in fear, a fact we’re informed of by a title card. Pete guesses one of the girls is Sandy Dempsey, but it’s not her; this is a New York-shot loop. I could tell because the dominatrix is played by Christine de Shaffer, before her blonde days, appearing here as a brunette with purple eyeshadow. After being beaten, the two victims console each other by making out.
10. “Arcadia and Friend” – Yes, Arcadia is played by Arcadia Lake, the eye-popping beauty with long, flowing black hair and prominent tan lines. The long-time girlfriend of Eric Edwards, Lake died of a drug overdose, but has amassed a sizable following, thanks to appearances in films like DEBBIE DOES DALLAS, AMERICAN PIE, and NEON NIGHTS. This loop serves as a fitting tribute to this dearly departed icon, as she indulges in a fireside lesbian scene.
11. “Juice” – A spliced-together loop made up of two separate unfinished segments. The first part features a beautiful blonde riding a reeeeally big rod, and the second part stars a fresh-looking brunette and her cute young blonde boyfriend sharing a fine time after some champagne.
12. “Hair Pie, Bake One” – This one’s title stems from the fact that both participants have incredibly hairy bushes. That’s the 70s, folks. Plus the guy has a really gross hairy back!! Eh…skip this one.
13. “Shower Lust” – Sometimes unknowns are the hottest performers in loops. One such example is the brunette with the massive DD chest who stars in this one. She exposes her large breasts during a shower, and invites her two girlfriends to join her for a lesbian threeway on a massage table. Very hot stuff!
14. “Pussy Under Glass” – Rhonda Jo Petty, who became popular thanks to her similarity to 1970s icon Farrah Fawcett and her no-holds-barred performance in LITTLE ORPHAN DUSTY, stars in this one, as she has sex on top of and around a glass table with Don Fernando.
15. “Even Cowgirls Get Blowjobs” – A sexy built Indian has sex with a talented deep throater cowgirl. One of the best no-namer loops I’ve seen!
16. “Nazi Sex Queen” – Yes, there was Nazi porn, but it wasn’t as widespread as some would have you believe. Definitely a fetish for the S&M and violence crowd. This loop is actually an excerpt from a feature film, HITLER’S HARLOTS, which Something Weird offers on VHS. You may recognize Roy Stuart as the fellow who drags in a middle-aged male test subject for a Nazi girl to give a blowjob to. Stuart also has sex with another Nazi gal next to them. Everyone’s really sweaty and horny in this one, the feature film itself is probably even better!
17. “Paradise” – Interracial lesbo lovin’ appears here, with a soul sister graduating from a dildo to rubbing snatch with a white girl. They share a dildo and the white gal performs a party trick by writing “I love you” on a piece of paper with her vagina! Yikes!
18. “Dat Ol’ Black Magic Will Wipe That Lipstick Off Her Face” – Another interracial outing, an even more rare element in porn of the 1970s than anal! Most white women wouldn’t have sex with black men on-camera, though some performers like Sue Nero and Connie Peterson made a career out of breaking the race barrier. The girl here gets lipstick all over her face as she really gives incredible head to her black lover and his mammoth member.
19. “Black and White Cookies” – Yet another interracial loop (an entire collection dedicated to this taboo subject in 1970s loops would be great). If you lived “Paradise”, this is more of the same, with another black girl and white girl enjoying Sapphic delights. Some affectionate ad-libbing makes this an interesting watch. Then a white tattooed guy shows up to tag-team both lucky ladies.
20. “Casting Couch NYC Style” – Another unknown female performer who probably should have done more, judging by her enthusiastic performance and exotic looks. She takes on a massively endowed black guy in order to get a movie role, and passes the audition with flying colors.
21. “Pot and Pussy” – Want to see a Shaun Costello loop? Here you go! One of the three original “loop boys” (the other two being Harry Reems and Jamie Gillis), Costello appears in this black-and-white loop as a pot-smoking young’un who seduces a brunette. There are other random people thrown in, too, but the focus is on Shaun and his lucky lady. He really gets into the cunnilingus!

Needless to say, none of these loops look all that great, filled with black lines, a few print jumps, discoloration, and debris. But hey, I’m glad to see these rarities, most of which I’ve never seen anywhere else! The copy of the disc I received had an audio problem with the 42nd Street Pete intros to the first loop, playing his segments mute, but the audio picked back up for the rest of the disc.

A liner notes booklet contains scene rundowns by 42nd Street Pete, and I wish he knew more about the performers of the era. He only identifies a few of them, though there are a number of popular porno stars throughout the selection, and as mentioned before, incorrectly names a few of them on the disc itself. In addition to the liner notes, a trailer vault includes previews for tons of Nick Phillips films, including a few that haven’t been released but look great (WENDY’S NAUGHTY NIGHT, FIRE IN HER BED, UTA, HOW I GOT MY MINK, L’AMOUR DE FEMME, SCYLLA, SIV). You can pick up LUSTFUL ADDICTION, PLEASURES OF A WOMAN, ROXANNA, LES CHIC, GUNILLA, FANCY LADY, and DR. CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN on DVD.

Pick this one up pronto!! A fine historical document and I can’t wait for the next installment of 8MM MADNESS! (Casey Scott)

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