DVD Review: “The Vanessa Del Rio Collection”

The three 80's era films in this collection might not be a must-have for Vanessa Del Rio fans (then as now, oftentimes the person appearing on the boxcover doesn't spend too much time in the movie), but they are representative of their time, and feature a lot of performers whose names have become legendary in the adult industry, like Seka, Nina Hartley, John Leslie, and Del Rio herself.

Read our review of the "Vanessa Del Rio Collection Volume One" after the gap.
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The Vanessa Del Rio Collection Volume One

Studio: VCA
Director: Tim McDonald, Joe Verdi, Greg Dark
Cast: Vanessa Del Rio, Seka, Little Oral Annie, Erica Boyer, Marc Wallice, Peter North, Tom Byron

Review by Gram Ponante

The first movie in this three-disc collection, "Beyond Desire", tells the story of a private detective who shacks up in a brothel in order to protect it against a takeover. While originally professing to keep it professional, he eventually falls prey to the available talent and has to fake his own death.

"Beyond Desire"'s aspirations to mainstream fare are apparent from the first scene, establishing the movie as a noirish detective tale mixed with a beyond-the-grave narrator right out of "Sunset Boulevard". With a clear beginning, middle, and end and a few comic moments that are perfectly timed, as well as "Matlock"-worthy acting, it is embarrassing that I now look on a woman with a hairy pussy as an abomination.

There are a few directors extant who put porn movies together like this, and they are all in the neighborhood of sixty. That aesthetic is gone as is, I assume, the market for it. I found myself getting bored and flipping through the movie, looking for a breakout scene.

That scene is between John Leslie and Del Rio, in which he dons a strap-on and fucks her with both appendages in the same hole. It's a scene that says Del Rio was ready for more than her suitors could dish out.

1983's "Dr. Lust" actually stars Del Rio in the title (I would never say "titular" to you people) role. The most satisfying of the three, this movie espouses a swingin' worldview that I find terrifying when I encounter it among people older than I am, and now that I see a movie like this one, I know where they got their ideas.

Dr. Lust fields questions from radio callers like the one in which a lady catches her husband and her best friend in bed together.

"What should I do?" the caller pleads.

"Might you not be angry that they didn't invite you?" Dr. Lust suggests, then tells the caller to join in on the tryst.

Another vignette has the good doctor explaining to a woman the best way to get a three-way going between her boyfriend and his best friend. "Just wear something sexy and sit on his lap," Del Rio prescribes, "wait for his reaction, then go from there."

The ensuing scene (I wish I knew who the woman was - the credits are vague) leaves little room for her boyfriend's reaction. If my wife were to sit on my lap in a slinky pantsuit and tell me, in the presence of my football buddy, that she had the hots for him, well, there would be a lot of sobbing and recrimination.

Greg Dark's "Deep Inside Vanessa Del Rio" (1983) concludes the collection with appearances by Erica Boyer, Peter North, Tom Byron, and the infamous Marc Wallice. We get to see an early incarnation of the way-too-old-to-be-the-naughty-schoolgirl motif in a masturbation scene, and the rest of the movie, like its predecessors, is characterized by the tinny soundtrack that washed over most of the Reagan Administration combined with lighting that is often uncertain.

Del Rio is game, friendly, and approachable in each of these movies. It's clear why fans would follow her career rather than forget about her after the towels arrived. For those of us who grew up lusting after her successors, this collection, especially "Dr. Lust" is worth checking out for its historical perspective.

· VCA pictures (vcapictures.com)
· Order: "The Vanessa Del Rio Collection Volume One" (adultdvdempire.com)

Previously: The Return of Vanessa Del Rio