The Golden Age of Porn: Five Favorite Examples with Plots

Quality Erotic Films with Acting, Storylines, and Hot Sex!

I began watching porn professionally during the 1990s. I have seen a lot of porn since then. I have my favorites and I have a lot of releases that I can’t remember having seen. While there have been some amazing examples of art, music, scriptwriting, and acting during the time I’ve been a reviewer, some of my favorite explicit movies were released long before I knew porn came with sound. Some of them can be found on “Best Of” lists and some are surprisingly obscure. But each has a special place in my heart and genitals.

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer that plot and dialogue are so important to me. Like cartoons, I don’t expect reality from my porn, but I do want it to keep me engaged and wondering what comes next. Or who. Some may consider my recommendations to be “women’s porn” because they don’t feature gonzo anal milk fountains expelled and lapped up by chicks in kitty costumes. Well, I’m a woman, so these are certainly this woman’s porn, but your mileage may vary.

With that having been established, let’s begin! Five of my favorite Golden Age films, in no particular order:

The Dancers: Absolutely my favorite Golden Age movie is this 1983 release that actually was specially made with the ladies in mind. Sure, there are plenty of sizzling women, including Vanessa Del Rio, Kay Parker, Mai Lin, and the Grande Dame of the Golden Age, Georgina Spelvin. Also known as Jackie & The Dreams, it tells the tale of a touring four-man stripper troupe who arrives in a small town for a gig. While chilling until showtime, the handsome, horny, and complicated men hook up with equally attractive, horny, and complicated women for some great, and even deeply emotionally moving, sex. Under the direction of Anthony Spinelli, John Leslie is the dance troupe’s leader, former real-world male stripper Randy West is a charming cad, Richard Pacheco is the Renaissance Man smart women swoon over while Joey Silvera plays his polar opposite. It’s a fun, erotic 100-minute watch that manages to make you care about the characters and still want to watch them fuck.

Bad Girls: If you watch this gem for no other reason, watch it to see a thin Ron Jeremy give himself a blowjob in a library. The 1981 release has one of the weirder plots I’ve encountered, and that’s part of its appeal. Four hot models do what hot models do, which is vacation in the Rocky Mountains mostly in their birthday suits. Unsurprisingly, this comes to the attention of some sketchy men, including a woodcutter, a scout, and a scout leader. Once the twain meet, things move from Golden Age sex and sexiness to officially weird. The ladies are kidnapped and handed over to a secret society that specializes in coercing women to be sex slaves. Sounds kinda like a Gor novel. Michelle Bauer, Anna Ventura, Victoria Knoll, and Lenora Bruce are our brave female models. John Leslie, the aforementioned Jeremy, Randy West, Mike Ranger, and Richard Pacheco provide fascinating foils. At 82 minutes it’s a comfortable view and an opportunity to see what kind of trouble sometimes controversial directors David I. Frazer and Svetlana Mischoff got into.

The Seven Seductions of Madame Lau: A visually beautiful movie that couldn’t be cast with a white female lead today, which is a good thing. In 1982, the chances of that happening were sadly slim. Although the amazing Annette Haven cops a tragically stereotypical “Asian” accent, she plays the lusciously New Age-y shapeshifter, Madame Lau. After an opening scene that could have used some recasting of its inconsequential female role, we learn that Lau likes her privacy, which is why jaded brazillionaire Richard Pacheco must fly to her mysterious sanctuary and then be led into it blindfolded. Once inside, he confesses his deepest sexual fantasies and frustrations, which the morphing Haven helps him realize. Age and replication mean that copies can include scenes that are a little dark to completely see what’s happening, but the enduring eroticism of the settings, the activities, and the people involved make up for it. Sensitive views should know that Lau turns herself into a female Johnnie Keyes at one point, complete with black face and body makeup and the iconic white cutout-crotch jumpsuit. Another scene that wouldn’t get shot this way today, it nonetheless features a scorching six-way. Bonus points for performances by Georgina Spelvin and Kay Parker. Clocking in at 74 minutes, this is another great “couples” film. It even includes condoms!

Sex World: I was blown away when I watched this on VHS for the first time. I’m a sucker for science fiction and a fan of porn, so the attraction was immediate. A parody of the movie Westworld, it recounts the surprisingly deep and sometimes even heavy desires of a tour bus full of vacationers staying at the Sex World resort. With the help of androids, the vacationers think they’re going to get their wildest sex dreams realized, but some horndogs get more than they expected. The 1978 film packs an amazing amount of acting, high production values, plot, and performers into 77 short minutes while producing some hot sex and unexpected explorations of racism, passionless marriage, and devastating loneliness. John Leslie plays a bigot and Desiree West is the Black woman who puts him in his place. Leslie Bovee gives in to her lesbian desires when robo-neighbor Abigail Clayton goes down on her. Kay Parker has her first on-camera sex scene when she submits to Joey Silvera while husband Jack Wright peeps through a one-way mirror. Sharon Thorpe is treated right by Johnnie Keyes, and everyone leaves the resort a changed person. Roberta Findlay edited the film and created the amazing cinematography for this Anthony Spinelli masterpiece.

Babylon Pink: When I met Henri Pachard, who won an AFAA Award for Best Director for this 1979 movie, I was utterly charmed. I’d seen the surprisingly feminist-leaning film years before and was thrilled to encounter the man who blended unspeakably hot sexual encounters with an intelligent and thought-provoking plot. Seven women of various social classes fantasize about sex that ranges from tender to fierce. Each is shot with a less male-focused gaze than most porn at the time could claim. Samantha Fox plays a business exec who has loose connections with the rest of the cast. She and real-life lover Bobby Astyr get into it before getting down to it. Merle Michaels plays her secretary, whose deepest desire is to be ravished in her sleep by roommate Arcadia Lake and lawyer boyfriend Eric Edwards. Vanessa Del Rio is Astyr’s miserable wife, who fantasizes about getting sweaty with Dave Ruby. Her teen daughter, Georgette Sanders of Debbie Does Dallas fame, is forced to play waitress to rich aunt Georgina Spelvin, Uncle R. Bolla, tennis pro David Morris, and his girlfriend Debbie Revenge. Naturally, this turns into a lava-hot orgy, Spelvin and Morris fuck in the bathroom, and Uncle Bolla introduces Sanders to the wonders of non-virginity. Roberta Findley made the visuals wonderfully memorable, and The Purple Claw made the soundtrack tragically likewise.

There are so many other Golden Age films I want to watch for the first time or old-time’s sake. The Autobiography of a Flea, Resurrection of Eve, The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann, The Story of Joanna, Naked Came the Stranger, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Barbara Broadcast, and the legendary Talk Dirty to Me among them. Frankly, there are so many movies from this era that I want to watch that it’s hard to choose among them. I guess that means I’ll have to watch them all. But not at the same time.