By Dan Scapperotti

Having taken on King Kong, Gladiator and Spiderman the culprits at Seduction Cinema set their eyes on Ironman, of course with their traditional Sapphic insights. The Insatiable Ironbabe stars Darian Caine, Kerri Taylor and Jackie Stevens as Horny Fark, subtlety is not an option at the New Jersey studio, a billionaire who got her dough producing a line of sex toys. When Fark is captured by terrorists while at an international sex toy fair she has an epiphany and decides to strike back with her own super sex toy suit.

Stevens owns a boutique store in New York and has created a lingerie clothing line. She was looking for models and photographers to publicize her designs before she decided to model the clothes herself. After hiring a photographer, Steven put the picture on onemodelplace.com. “That’s a website for amateur models and photographers where a lot of people find work and a lot of people find models,” she explains. “I wanted models to see what kind of lingerie they would be modeling.” The move had a welcome, but unexpected side effect. Stevens was contacted by Seduction Cinema who had seen her on the website. [Read more…]

By Dan Scapperotti

After spending several years in the Hollywood trenches with such roles as hat check girl, perfume girl and dream girl and an encounter with the East Side Kids in Ghosts on the Loose, Ava Gardner hit it big in 1946 with The Killers as the double crossing Kitty Collins. Two years later, MGM loaned their budding star to Universal for One Touch of Venus, the screen adaptation of a stage musical. The production dropped all but five of the original sixteen tunes from the play.

The gorgeous Gardner was perfectly cast as the title deity. When, on a whim, store window dresser Eddie Hatch, played by Robert Walker also on loan from MGM, kisses a famous statue of Venus just before it’s unveiling in a swanky department store, the Roman deity comes to life in the glorious form of Gardner. She immediately falls in love with Eddie. Soon, he is being pursued by detectives who think he has stolen the statute, his girlfriend dumps him for Eddie’s best friend and his boss can’t wait to get his hands on this beautiful woman who magically showed up in his store’s bedroom display.

The film has been released on DVD by Lions Gate. Surprisingly there are no extras on this release, but when Republic released the film on tape ten years ago it included the original trailer.

Advice of two kinds from LA’s Fitness Trainer / Dominatrix
Dear Minx,

Is your dungeon mobile? I’m asking because I’m in London and wonder if you ever make house calls.
Lord Despero, UK

Dear Faraway Lord,
There would have to be an exceptional reason for me to fly to the UK. Anything is possible. Are you worthy and how would you make it worth my time and be somewhat deserving of my Presence ? [Read more…]

How do you promote The Changeling, a grim true drama about a woman who’s son was kidnapped and then replaced with another child? If you’re Universal/Imagine and Angelina Jolie is your star you get her head as big on the poster as possible. And that poor kid? That’s him on the lower right cowering before his mother’s giant lips.Jolie, who does the best “Give me back my son!” since Mel Gibson shouted in Ransom “Give me back my son!”seems distractingly gorgeous for a heavy drama like this period piece directed by Clint Eastwood. Usually when you do this tortured mom thing you get someone like Meryl (”A dingo ate my baby. Honest!) Streep.

Those that fear the film will be overshadowed by Jolie’s famous bee stingers will be relieved to know her depression era hat co-stars. Admittedly we haven’t seen the film but here’s a quick rundown of what the lip-hat duo endure…

Suspense.

Anxiety.

By Dan Scapperotti

British actress Ida Lupino, yes British, was such a natural that she disappeared into her roles. Never flamboyant, the doe-eyed actress could convincingly portray a girl desperately seeking a gangster’s attention as she does in High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Out of the Fog opposite John Garfield or a down and out waif at the end of her rope. As an actress she seldom drew attention to herself. While her more mercurial studio sisters  like Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and Olivia deHaviland would get the showy roles, Lupino would be cast in films turned down by the A list.

In the late 1940s, Lupino became a producer aligned with RKO Studios and directed her first film Not Wanted followed by Never Fear. At the time she was the only female producer-director in Hollywood. She went on to direct dozens of films and TV shows.

As part of their “Fox Film Noir” series Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has just released a pair of Lupino films; Moontide (1942) and Road House (1948). In Moontide, an oddly compelling film, Lupino plays Anna a waif of a girl who is rescued from a suicide attempt by Bobo, a strange drifter played by French actor Jean Gabin in his first American film. The book on which the film was based was so filled with objectionable material it was deemed unfilmable by the Production Code. Lupino’s character in the novel is a prostitute so desperate that she tries to kill herself, but in the film her back story is completely eliminated. Lupino’s Anna is so vulnerable it could break your heart. [Read more…]