yelling face (a clip from GOD’S BLOODY ACRE) ordering us to eject the disc. The disc itself carries the Code Red imprint. The feature is accompanied by an audio conversation with Sarno’s friend, filmmaker Gino Colbert and filmmaker David DeCoteau, which has nothing to do with the movie at hand but is revelatory in its own way. Colbert—who worked regularly on Sarno’s New York crews from 1979 on, therefore mostly hardcore projects whose titles have only come to light since his 2010 death—offers some fascinating tidbits of informa- tion, including Sarno’s practice of interviewing his actors prior to writing scripts to tap into their own psychologies and fantasies, and his hiring to shoot hardcore scenes for Roberta Findlay films and to complete Doris Wish- man’s last film, left unfinished at the time of her death. The discussion runs far afield of Sarno at times but paints a can- did, always-interesting memoir of the NY adult film scene of the 1980s. Like MARCY, which had few known playdates, DADDY, DAR- LING had a troubled release; it was acquired for distribution in 1970 but received no release until 1972, after which it played on US drive-in and indoor grind- house screens for another few years. For this first authorized 2008 release, a best-possible assembly had to be pieced to- gether from various prints, and this concoction looks as badly scratched as the more obscure feature. This is more grievous damage as DADDY, DARLING—produced in Den- mark by former sound engi- neer Kenn Collins—was one of Sarno’s slickest productions, benefiting from handsome pho- tography (by Mikael Salomon, THE ABYSS) and one of the few fully
realized scores (by Tony Hazzard) to be found in a filmography that sometimes couldn’t afford more than a harmonica or bongo score.
Described by Sarno as “a coming of age story,” it’s about Katja (Helle Louise), a teenage art student whose increasingly ro- mantic devotion to her long-wid- owed father Eric (REPTILICUS’ Ole Wisborg) is tested when he decides to marry Svea (I, A WOMAN PART II’s Gio Petré), a co-worker. Though Eric is pos- sibly pushed into marriage to prevent himself from succumb- ing to Katja’s increasingly ag- gressive temptations, his relationship with Svea is happy enough, and Katja flees the moans from their honeymoon suite to the home of her friend Lena (Lise Henningsen), who is making moans of her own with boyfriend Lars (Soren Strom- berg). She soon betrays Lena with Lars, albeit without discov- ery, and returns home, where her desire to please her father by accepting Svea’s affection coincides with her acquaintence with lesbian teachers and art- ists, who teach her how women satisfy one another. In her con- fusion, she returns home and seduces her new stepmother, equally confused in her desire to establish a stable home for her husband, resulting in untenable tensions.
The taboo of incest is a sub-
ject addressed by numerous Sarno films (notably CONFES- SIONS OF A YOUNG AMERI- CAN HOUSEWIFE), and as with those, this film teases those boundaries without actually let- ting its characters cross over into true commission. There is a fantasy sequence in which Katja and her father make love to bongo-drum thunder; Ole Wisborg obviously declined to participate and his stand-in is
so poor a physical match that the scene loses its intended definition and desired impact. DADDY, DARLING also reaches back to Sarno’s third feature SIN, YOU SINNERS! (1963) by adding to its plot a “love amu- let” necklace, a gift to Katja from Svea, meant to win her personal favor from the resent- ful daughter but which un- leashes dangerous primal forces instead. The performances are above-average with Petré, her mature beauty framed by a hor- rid golem-like wig, standing out, particularly in the scene where she seduces Wisborg. Helle (ac- tually Helli) Louise is wide-eyed, voluptuous and convincingly naïve, making her induction into alternative adult lifestyles all the more believable. Bland, graying and pipe-smoking, Wisborg is the weak link in the cast, hardly virile enough to hold a teenage girl in thrall and looking more ready for retirement than a hon- eymoon (he was only 44, and would die prematurely at age 53). Not too surprising for a film of this vintage, its depiction of lesbianism is generally sympa- thetic and accepting though, for the purposes of the story, it fo- cuses on a furtive, spiteful and predatory pair successful in the art world—a realm for which Sarno’s films show tendencies of mistrust. RetroSeduction Cinema’s disc, pre-mastered in high defi- nition, is packaged in a slipcase concealing a somewhat bolder interior jacket design. The back cover claims the film is “not rated,” though it received an MPAA X rating in 1970. The disc’s play automatically defaults to a procession of Sarno trailers upon loading, but an informative 12m featurette about the production, featuring interviews with pro- ducer Kenn Collins, Sarno and his production associate (and
67
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
