Vinegar Syndrome looks at female sexual hang-ups in the intensely dramatic MASCARA, on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome.

New York single Harriet (Lisa De Leeuw, DIXIE RAY HOLLYWOOD STAR) works as a secretary and makes excuses to herself (and her mother) that she is too busy for a social life. When co-worker Linda (Tiffany Clark, CORRUPTION) asks her to pinch-hit on a double date with David (Sean Elliott, FIRESTORM) and Richard (Ron Jeremy, FAST CARS FAST WOMEN), something is awakened in Harriet's libido but quickly cooled off the morning after when her partner promises to "call" her sometime. When she discovers her boss (Robert Kerman, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST) having a nooner with regular prostitute Lucy (Lee Carroll, HOT BUNS), she consults the other woman about her sexual inhibitions and Lucy responds by plunging her into a threesome with "john" John (Ashley Moore, ALEXANDRA) that only succeeds in getting her rocks off. A few days later, Harriet voices her desire to have a threesome with two guys, whereupon Lucy engineers a hookup with a pair of businessmen (LADY LUST's George Payne and IN THE PINK's Jessie Stewart) in which she plays the lesbian who Harriet tries to turn onto guys by letter her watch. Lucy had already been feeling used by Harriet; but when Harriet aborts an S&M encounter set up by Lucy and finds one of her own with a married couple – submissive Bobby Astyr (VIXENS OF KUNG FU) and dominant Mistress Candice (HOUSE OF SIN) – Lucy begins to feel unneeded and unwanted.

Co-directed by Henri Pachard (PUBLIC AFFAIRS) and an uncredited Roberta Findlay (A WOMAN'S TORMENT), MASCARA is an early 1980s-era East Coast porn film with a lot of familiar faces (and body parts) in which the sex scenes are actually the least interesting aspect of the film. Although De Leeuw takes part in a number of sex scenes, she ably conveys her character's sexual hang-ups and inability to enjoy these scenes as "fantasies" she wants to live out, instead getting caught up in the mechanics and let down in the aftermath. Carroll also is convincing in her increasing feeling that Harriet may have come to her for help but is treating her more like a pimp and procurer than a friend despite her own assertion that she is not a "hooker with a heart of gold." The ambiguous ending is able to move from melancholy to a bittersweet optimism with a handful of shots and cuts, making this perhaps the most consistently satisfying of Findlay's adult films in dramatic terms. Findlay also photographed the film, and the results are polished apart from one sequence of Harriet and Lucy "sharing" a bed in which the blue gel lighting gives an almost clownish effect to their pancake make-up. The electronic score is credited to "Walter Dear" who is most likely sound tech Walter Sear who handled the scoring and post-production sound on Findlay's eighties horror productions (along with the replacement score to the American versions of Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND titled 7 DOORS TO DEATH and ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST titled DR. BUTCHER M.D.).

Previously released on VHS by Caballero and DVD by Alpha Blue Archives – in likely poor condition – MASCARA comes to 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original 35mm camera negatives which look to have been little used since the original release prints were made. Some faint dings and scratches pop up – noticeably in some opticals like a momentary French New Wave-y freeze frame for emphasis towards the end – but the results are generally slick-looking in keeping with Findlay's eighties work. The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono track is clean but does not get much of a workout with mostly production sound, Sear's post-production sound that is more supportive than emphatic, and the scoring. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.

Casey Scott moderates an audio commentary by producer/cinematographer/co-director Findlay that is a wonderful listen, with Findlay recalling that she and partner Sear were an ill-fit for pornography, with her interested only in dialogue scenes and he in social commentary, leading to them recruiting Pachard/Ron Sullivan to direct the sex scenes (with Findlay directing everything else after she and Sear noted that he had little affinity for camerawork). In addition to discussing the film, she provides a lot of information on the behind the scenes goings-on, with her obscenity busts for films she shot with Jack Bravman (SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED) or those she distributed, the previous partnership with Sear and Dave Darby (whose wife may have had reason to disapprove of a working relationship between two men and a woman what with Sear and Darby trying to show each other up to impress Findlay), and Pachard's wife – niece of Radley Metzger's Audubon Films co-founder Ava Leighton – disapproving of porn altogether but liking the lifestyle to which she was accustomed. She also discusses the founding of their company Reel Time originally to distribute their older titles before moving onto the eighties horror productions, as well as the Caballero Video deal for all of their titles in the early days of home video.