The Movie:

Marilyn Chambers may not have made headlines the way that, say, Linda Lovelace did but there's no denying the impact that she had on the adult film industry in the seventies through the 1980s. The very embodiment of the 'girl next door' look that is so popular with North American men, she was just about the hottest thing on two legs and one of the most popular women to ever star in porno. Chambers got her start in 1972, starring in the classic Behind The Green Door for the Mitchell Brothers but it is 1980's Insatiable, directed by Godfrey Daniels, that she remains best known for.

Chambers plays Sandra Chase, a wealthy model that just cannot get enough sex no matter how hard she tries. The film begins as Chase lies in bed masturbating (while Chambers sings the opening theme song), rubbing her clit until she climaxes. From there we see the neon credits and Chase's phone rings – she's needed at a photo shoot. She puts on her robe (look for the Ivory Snow box in one shot) and gets ready for her big day. She's whisked off in a Rolls Royce and then a helicopter to a remote estate where she's introduced to Serena. After some narration we see Chambers and Serena get it on in the hot tub, rubbing and licking away at each other and paying close attention to one another's feminine needs. Serena looks fantastic here with her short, cropped hair and Chambers is obviously having a good time with her in this truly hot scene.

From there, Sandra goes for a drive in her black Ferrari. She picks up a dorky hitchhiker (Richard Pacheco) and they pull over to the side of the road out in the countryside. She unzips his pants and sucks his cock for a bit, until he shoots his load onto her face. From there we're treated to a little sightseeing in London before she winds up back at the estate where she plays a game of billiards with a young man who works as the gardener (David Morris). He trash talks her and tells her she's a cock tease and after he's made it clear what he wants from her and that he knows she wants it too, he pushes her down on the pool table and sucks on her tits. She fights, but not too hard. He eats her out and uses his fingers on her, making her beg for his cock. She tells him she wants it and he teases her some more until she's about ready to explode, and then he unzips and fucks her missionary style. He pulls out and waves his dick around her face, making her beg for it some more before letting her suck him off while she fingers herself until he's ready to unload on her face. HOT. HOT. HOT.

After that encounter Sandra enjoys a fancy dinner and then does some more sightseeing. While this is going on, John Leslie and Jesse St. James are hanging out on the patio of the estate. One thing leads to another and, after Leslie proposes to her, they make out and he fingers her and eats her pussy. Chambers is up in her room masturbating while this is going on and soon Leslie is fucking St. James missionary style. She gets down on all fours and he fucks her in the ass, and then she sucks his cock until he goops in her mouth and on her face. All the while, Chambers is playing with her pussy and her nipples thinking about her earlier encounters. As her fantasies get more intense, she imagines herself lying in a dark room on a table covered in cloth. David Morris, Jesse St. James and Mike Ranger come into the room they have an orgy with Jesse and Marilyn sucking cock and Ranger eating Marilyn's pussy before fucking her. Jesse goes to work on Marilyn's tits as she sucks and fucks and before they disappear she gets a facial and a load on her belly.

At this point, her fantasies are starting to overwhelm her. She's been fucked, and hard, but she still wants more and there's only one man who can take care of her – John Holmes. John appears out of the darkness and kisses her before playing with her tits and eating her pussy. Once he's hard enough he gets a good portion of his cock into Chambers' mouth and she sucks it like a champ. He fucks her missionary style before shifting gears and slipping most of his dong into her asshole, which really works her into a frenzy. Holmes pulls out of her ass and jerks off onto her stomach and her mound, as she lies there quivering and moaning, covered in sweat. Chambers looked right into the camera and tells us she wants more, bringing the film to a perfect close and setting up the inevitable sequel (Insatiable 2, from 1984, also directed by Godfrey Daniels).

Chambers was an established star by the time that this film was released, having been fucking on camera for over eight years at this point – but nothing prepared audiences for the true tour de force performance she would deliver in this film. She is virtually on fire throughout the movie, taking anything that he partners can give her in hopes of ending her quest to finally put a rest to her insatiable appetite for sex. The beauty behind this being that Chambers, according to her commentary, wasn't really acting and it shows. If the smoking hot sex scenes weren't enough, the movie also really benefits from some lush European location shooting and swanky, soft focus cinematography making Insatiable look about as classy as hardcore porno can look. The soundtrack is dated by today's standards but it serves as an effective reminder of the era in which the movie was shot and takes place in, so it's certainly forgivable in that regard. Ultimately the film stands the test of time very well and it's as well made and scorching hot today as it was almost three decades ago.

The DVD

Video:

The 1.33.1 fullframe transfer presents the film in its original aspect ratio. The picture has been re-mastered and it looks considerably better than the previous DVD that was available. There's still some print damage and moderate grain present throughout but there's a lot more detail evident here and the color reproduction is definitely stronger than it has been in the past. Sometimes the picture looks quite soft but the movie has always looked this way and that's just the way that it was shot, not a fault of the transfer.

Audio:

Raincoat Theater provides three audio options for this release – a newly created Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix, the original Dolby Digital mono mix, and a Dolby Digital Mono dubbed track in Spanish. There are no subtitles or closed captions provided.

As far as the quality of the audio goes, the surround mix is fun as it spreads things out a bit, primarily the music, but the mono track is the way to go. This track presents the movie the way it's supposed to sound. There's a little bit of background hiss here and there but that's about the only complaint one can levy against the track and it's not that big a deal in the first place. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout, and Alden Shuman's score comes through nicely. Levels are fine, they're balanced properly and if this sound mix isn't going to blow your mind, it really does get the job done nicely.

Extras:

The main extra features on this release come in the form of two feature length audio commentary tracks. The first track comes courtesy Marilyn Chambers herself, moderated by Alex Sena. It's interesting to hear this two ladies look back on the picture and to hear Chambers reflect on the film and the impact that it had on her career. The track starts off a little slowly and the levels could have been better as it's a bit muffled sounding in spots but once Chambers starts talking she proves to be a really interesting subject. She talks about some of the work that she did in England and how she wound up in a recording studio working on the song used in the opening of the film. Marilyn talks about how she takes her career pretty seriously, opting not to go out on the town and party like a lot of adult movie stars tend to do. She covers flying around in the helicopter and how the crew did a great job of booking the elaborate sets that the film plays out on. The two ladies talk about how refreshing it is to see two women with smaller, natural breasts on screen (referring to the hot tub scene), and Chambers talked about how she worked hard to keep her body lean. Chambers also talks about how Chuck Trainer, Linda Lovelace's ex, taught her a few interesting tricks of the trade. She's completely upfront and honest, admitting that in a specific scene (the infamous pool table) she's not acting and how she enjoys being manhandled to a certain extent. She also points out that anal sex was not the norm in the industry at the time that this movie was made and how it was considered very risqué. The two women even discuss the lighting and how it accentuates certain features of certain performers and how Marilyn's tendency to play with her pussy lips made them swell up and look bigger for the camera but also made them more sensitive. Of course, towards the end of the movie she talks about her work with John Holmes, commenting that he was great at giving oral and how it's a shame that he was simply 'used for his cock.' She mentions that taking him in her mouth was tough and that she had to practice beforehand, mentioning that after she'd fucked him she was sore but 'in a pleasant way.' She talks about Holmes with affection, describing him as a complicated person with some serious ups and downs. This is a really good commentary and it's interesting to hear the kinds of questions that a female moderator asks a female performer. The two ladies have a really good relationship together and it results in comprehensive and smart dissection of the movie.

The second track is with Gloria Leonard and those who owned the original DVD release that came out a few years ago will be familiar with this track as it's been ported over from that disc (and rightly so, as it's pretty interesting). Leonard's track is also very solid, as she talks about working with John Holmes on three different movies, and how performers in adult movies from that era didn't bother with nose jobs or tit jobs and how it was risky being in the business as you could go to jail for making porno films. Gloria talks about how women can fake orgasms which gives them an advantage over male performers who cannot fake an erection or a cum shot which results in female performers sometimes giving in and ensuring that the male performers get what they want on camera. She talks about shooting on the coast of France at a sixteenth century chateau and how some of the French cast members got 'the clap' and how they had to work around that. She talks about Linda Lovelace and how she was mistreated in her life but not by her co-workers as she claims, and she even talks about whose handprints you'll find immortalized in cement in front of the Hustler Store in Los Angeles, commenting on the impact that Chambers had on the industry. Leonard is very frank and honest on this track, pointing out the good and the bad that comes with working in the adult movie business and if you haven't already heard this track, it's well worth sitting through as she's a smart and sometimes very funny subject.

Rounding out the extra features on the first disc are trailers for Debbie Does Dallas, The Devil In Miss Jones (looks like a recreated trailer and not the original), Neon Nights (a lengthy 4:19) and Babylon Pink (also quite length at 3:50).

Disc two contains the softcore version of the film that runs just a hair over seventy-minutes and is pretty much the same movie without the penetration scenes (which kind of kills the point of the movie). Regardless, it's here as a companion piece to the uncut version and like the softcore version that was included on the second disc of The Devil In Miss Jones and on the second disc of Debbie Does Dallas, it's really more of a curiosity item than anything else. This version doesn't look nearly as nice as the restored feature on the first disc, it's considerably darker and the image is dirtier, but it's nice to see it here for the sake of completion.

Chambers appears in front of the camera for an interesting interview entitled Inside Marilyn Chambers in which she talks about her life and times in front of and behind the camera in the world of adult movies. She covers what she did before porno and how she got into it after attempts at making it as a dancer. She discusses her work on a few different movies and covers some of the people that she's worked with over the years, claiming that Desire was her favorite out of all the movies that she appeared in. She's very open and honest about her career, even talking about her personal life and the birth of her daughter (which she says is the best thing that ever happened to her). Although she's no longer really active in the porn industry she states that she had a great time doing it and doesn't really seem to have any regrets. Throughout this thirty-seven minute discussion Chambers comes across as a genuinely nice woman and it's great that she's been given a chance to tell her tale with this featurette – she even closes with some heartfelt sex advice!

Chambers also provides commentary over fourteen-minutes of 8mm footage documenting the premiere of Insatiable from May of 1980 at the Pussycat Theater in Los Angeles. Chambers shows up in a fur coat that she disrobes to unveil a pair of cut off jeans that look eerily similar to the ones that she's wearing on the cover of the movie. We see her put her hands down into some wet cement in front of the theatre, and then pose for the various photographers who have shown up for the event. This was shot without sound so it's nice to hear Chambers' commentary and recollections of the event over top of the images. Vince Miranda, the head of the Pussycat Theater chain, as well as Chuck Trainer, both appear on camera here and we also get a look at the press kits that were handed out to theatergoers. It's interesting to see and hear how well Chambers was treated at this event, being driven around in a Bentley and carrying a bouquet of roses.

Rounding out the extra features on the second disc is the original theatrical trailer for the film, a still gallery featuring some promotional shots and interesting 'Chambers related' items such as the Ivory Snow box with her face on it. There's also a deleted scene (1:15), appearing here without sound as none was shot for it, in which Marilyn rubs herself while various faces flash for a frame or two at a time.

Final Thoughts:

Insatiable is one of the hottest films of all time and Raincoat Theater has done an excellent job re-releasing it with plenty of extras and an improved audio/video presentation. Having Chambers on board is a nice touch and the interview and commentary that she provides are both interesting and entertaining. Highly recommended.