The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1975)

As this year the Radley Metzger's productions will finally receive the treatment his name deserve I decided to revisit them to finish the month of February. I also decided to take the DVD versions and not the video versions (except for Naked Came the Stranger since I found no reason to justify an upgrade of my tape in this release). So we start this series with the film with which Metzger has made the transition, of course it started with Score and if I have time I will close with this title but I decided to open where the real transition has begun.

The story at first view may seem simple because it's about a husband (Alan Marlowe) who hires a private detective (Eric Edwards) to follow his wife (Barbara Bourbon) he thinks unfaithful. This does not seem very new, but things are not always what they seem to be. So for most of the film we follow as the detective the tribulations of Pamela Mann in the course of this day.

 

In this film we see perfectly the difference a director can do (which is also the case with Joe Sarno). There is a progression in the sexual scenes that are not a collage of five interminable scenes of twenty minutes without emotions. The result is an highly erotic film as I love them. Simple details such as the use of slow motion or  the presence of many mirrors or the lighting used (which will be much more apparent in the remastered version that Video-X-Pix prepare actually) adds greatly to the visual experience. The film is also accompanied by an excellent soundtrack which also adds a lot to the erotic mood, the final being the perfect example of this. The film also relies on a strong distribution with, in addition of the names already mentioned, Georgina Spelvin, Jamie Gillis (his big scene is cut in this version), Darby Lloyd Rains, Marc Stevens, Sonny Landham, Kevin Andre (short cameo at the beginning) and Levi Richards.

 

Obviously I recommend waiting until the upcoming release of the Video-X-Pix remastered version  and pass  this one. The mere fact that a scene is missing is already a good reason, but the presentation itself is not that great (the colors are rather dull and the print had it's good share of dammage). But  on the other side the commentary track with Eric Edwards and Veronica Hart is interesting and I would be really surprised to see it appear in the next version.