8 To 4

Caballero Video

Genre: Feature, Classic

Director: Louie Lewis

Cast: Annette Haven, Loni Sanders, Lisa DeLeeux, Veronica Hart, Lee Carrol,
Juliet Anderson, Herschel Savage, Paul Thomas, Jessie Adams, Tigr/Chelsea McClane, Mike Horner/Don Hart, Jim Price, Michael Scott, Jason DeWitt (non-sex)

Length: 81 minutes

Date of Production: 1981

Extra's: All that was included was a ~2 minute photo gallery, chapter stops (also stuff like a phone sex ad, a list-no trailers-of other releases, and the company web address

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: The movie is 24 years old if I remember correctly. I remember renting this one in 82 or early 83 and the quality was okay by the standards at the time. The DVD quality is better than I remember for the VHS tape back then but it was a heavily rented title subject to wear. In any case, the movie never looked better but it still looked a bit grainy with some compression artifacts and video noise. The monaural audio is hollow much of the time and there are plenty of visual imperfections that were part of the original film (it was shot on 35 mm film and not video) but this should be expected. The focus is soft and the score is the droning disco beat stuff we all remember from the classic era.

Body of Review: Classic porn is something that reviewers rarely talk about since we tend to move forward without looking back all too often. The reasoning for this is that as technical advances are made, the industry employs them and changing social trends tend to make older porn look kind of weird, to say the least. How many of you enjoy watching the hairy gals of yesteryear, for example? That said, there was once a golden age of porn where a fair amount of well done movies were made by directors that cared about more than their next meal as some of the recent crop seem to be. One movie that really floated my youthful boat was 8 To 4, a porn parody of the mainstream hit, 9 To 5. Here's what I said about the DVD years ago: "The movie is a take off on the mainstream 9 to 5, with Annette, Lisa and Loni taking the roles to new heights. This movie was very popular in its day because its message, just like the mainstream version, told us what we all knew about office politics'. There are seven sex scenes and none of them are as graphic as the gyno-cam's used today. In a sense, they are more couple friendly as the theme of the movie itself is to couples. The scenes include straight, 69, lesbian, oral and multiple partner. Here's a look at the action:"

Scene One: The first sex scene is between Lisa and Paul in their bed. Paul was one of the most productive actors of the day and you'd scarcely recognize him with the beard he's sporting in this scene. The two have a good time and it makes me think back to all the wonderful scenes Lisa was in back in the "good old days" before she died of AIDS.

Scene Two: The next scene was between a very young Herschel and Veronica in the office. Veronica still takes small roles in movies (such as Flashpoint) and it's easy to see why she is regarded so fondly by the industry. She looked and performed in a very hot manner in this scene. If I were Herschel, I'd have hired her on the spot.

Scene Three: The third scene is between Loni and Jessie in the copy room. Chelsea/Tigr joined them after the preliminary fun. Loni never looked bad on screen and this movie was no exception. There was plenty of heat from these three.

Scene Four: The next scene had Loni and Lisa in a sauna, enjoying each others bodies. I enjoyed this scene years ago and still do although I'm far more jaded now than I was back then.

Scene Five: The fifth scene had Juliet and Mike/Don in an office screw. Juliet was never a favorite of mine but she could always turn up the heat with whomever she worked with. Mike is still acting in front of the camera and can still handle anyone he works with.

Scene Six: The next scene was an orgy of sorts with Annette, Jim, and Michael joined by
Juliet. Juliet was dressed as a cleaning woman during this fantasy sequence since Annette was sick and tired of such a bitchy boss. Everyone I know seems to be able to relate to this scene. The sex was good too although I wished they had used Annette much more back then as well as now.

Scene Seven: The last scene had Herschel and Lee back in the office. Lee performed a very erotic striptease for him and then takes charge of the sex. While she is not the hottest looking woman in this movie, this scene has the hottest sex.

Summary: Many "classic" movies should be left to fade away into obscurity but this is not one of them. It has attractive women in good sex scenes with a story to boot. I have always liked this one and the weak DVD treatment is not going to change that fact now. Some aspects in the porn industry have changed a lot over the years. Nowadays, the performers shave their genitals and get lots of implants. Back then, it was less common to do either. The focus was on hot sex. This movie stands as an example of why the sex should remain the top quality in a movie. It also shows us that acting and a bit of plot don't harm the overall quality of a production.

I'm rating this one as a Recommended for fans of classic porn but for people that are too young to remember this title, you may not care for it nearly as much. You aren't going to see the actresses take it anally and then take a facial to the face. You aren't going to see DP's and extreme close-ups of everyone's genitals every two seconds. What you will see is some of the class that the industry had in years gone by. The extras were pretty much nonexistent, the technical qualities were not up to current standards, and the sex was more couples oriented than many features you'll see on current releases. That said, this movie has a charm all it's own and anyone who watched it in the early eighties will likely appreciate it for what is was/is a pleasant look back in time.

Note to Caballero: Please consider spending a bit more money and releasing your old classic titles with some of the same features the high end stuff routinely gets. You should be able to dig up more than just a couple minutes worth of still photographs for movies like this that have reaped you huge sums of money over the years. People, like me, will buy these for the nostalgia instead of renting once like the modern day crowds seem to do.

This Don Houston "retro-review" was written long ago before the so-called Professor of Porn had much experience writing reviews. Since that time, he has seen more porn than almost anyone reviewing on the internet. Keep in mind that his comments accurately reflected his fresh viewpoint of the time he first saw the movie.

For even greater choices in porn, check out: 2004's Top Porn List and 2003's Top Porn List

Note: You can see recent candid shots of recent performers by visiting: My Photo's and read about their antics at 2004 AEE Show.