The Movie:

VCX have dug deep into the vaults for this one, Pleasure Motel, a film with no opening credits and only very brief closing credits which attribute this mess to a Sven Christiansen, presumably in an attempt to make it sound European when it's obviously not. An opening narrative tells us that the room we're looking at is in the titular motel before a prostitute comes into the room with a bag. She opens the bag and takes out some kinky accoutrements such as a whip, a dildo and a vibrator. There's another girl in the room and she's tied to the bed. They talk a bit and the dildo finds its way into the bound girl's snatch. She gets untied and they talk more, the conversation doesn't really make much sense and we don't really know why these girls are here aside from the fact that they're just looking for a place to lez it up. The previously bound girl works the other chick over with the dildo and the vibrator at the same time and then a jarring edit shows her sucking her tits. A pussy gets fingered and eventually eaten, rather gently and tenderly which isn't something you often see in smut but which actually fits the odd tone of this scene. They finish up and girly number one splits after they mutter something about not wanting to stay in the dumpy hotel.

In the next scene, a girl named Maureen shows up with her boyfriend who is referred to as a loser and who certainly looks the part. The camera zooms around and loses focus making you wonder why the editor didn't chop a few shots out of the film. After muttering and insulting one another, creepy boyfriend pushes Maureen to the bed and as she bitches him out for wasting all their money gambling he fingers her bush. He takes her clothes off, her top first, then her boots and eventually her pants, and then he drops trou so that they can get it on. They make out and he fingers her and he goes down on her with a surprising amount of gusto. She returns his oral affections and gobbles his prick before climbing on top of him and riding him cowgirl style. He fingers her ass briefly and they roll over for some missionary style pumping and bumping which goes on for a mind numbingly long time until he pulls out and unloads on her belly.

Creepy guy heads out to gamble some more but thankfully for Maureen, there's a hand strap-on in the room. Tina Russell shows up and Maureen bitches about the aforementioned gambling problem. After some lame dialogue they complain about how hot it is and decide to undress to beat the heat. Maureen uses the strap-on as a dildo on herself while Tina uses a small vibrator as they lay in bed beside one another. They suck one another's tits and kiss while pleasuring themselves, this is the Pleasure Motel after all, and eventually move into a sixty-nine using tongues and toys on one another. They never actually use the strap-on as a strap-on here for some reason and Tina looks odd with her big beehive hair style.

Creepy boyfriend comes home and Maureen is still horny. Apparently she doesn't want the imitation stuff, she wants the real thing and she says as much. She takes her man's cock out of his pants and throws him to the bed to suck him off. She blows him and they fondle one another with clumsy abandon making you wonder if they're drunk. He goes down on her and she starts to get into it a bit and then she blows him a bit more. She rides him cowgirl style and you get the suspicious feeling that footage from their first session is being used here to pad the running time, but you don't care enough to rewind and check. He pulls out and blows his load.

Maureen and her man mysteriously disappear and then we see the hooker from the first scene again. She's got a john in the room and she's undressing him in the bed. They talk about some nonsense and she goes down on him but he doesn't seem too interested if his limp rod is anything to go on. She eventually gets him hard but he just kind of lies there, seemingly unimpressed by her efforts. She rides him cowgirl style and then he fucks her missionary style. She blows him again and he talks about how he's going to come but the dialogue doesn't really match what was said earlier making it obvious that this was recorded in post production in an attempt to spice up the scene (this is made all the more obvious by the fact that when we do occasionally see his face, his lips aren't moving). He pulls out and says that he's going away because he can't come. She seems moderately upset and he tells her it's not her, it's him. The narrator ends the film by telling us 'there are 365 stories a year in room 169 of the pleasure motel, this has been five of them.

The back case mentions that Gene Knowland directed this and it gives a few performer credits but doesn't bother to mention Tina Russell, the only recognizable face in this picture. Shot in a single room on a single bed, this is the very epitome of low budget, minimalist one-day-wonder adult filmmaking. There are virtually no production values to speak of and only the narration really attempts to add much of a context to the scenes. At fifty-seven minutes it goes by fairly quickly and the sex isn't always terrible, as there are moments of spark here and there, but really, this isn't anything to write home about here. It's interesting as a curiosity piece and Tina Russell's fanbase will enjoy seeing here in such an obscure film, but aside from that, there's not a whole lot going on here.

The DVD

Video:

This fullframe transfer, which appears to present the film in its original aspect ratio, looks surprisingly sharp and colorful, if a bit faded, even if it is interlaced. The picture quality, for an old XXX film from some point in the seventies (no date is given), looks surprisingly good. There are some specks here and there as well as a moderate amount of grain but this looks to be a film sourced transfer and not a VHS or tape source. The black levels stay strong, the skin tones look natural, and while there are a few scenes that look a bit on the soft side in addition to come mild compression artifacts noticeable in the blacks, overall this is a nice picture when you consider that it was probably made for about $100 over the course of an afternoon.

Sound:

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound soundtrack is a little muffled and not of the best quality, but again, it's taken from an older source so the limitations of the era's technology are going to be there when that's the case. Dialogue is pretty easy to understand, however, and the background music comes through reasonably clear. There aren't a lot of sound effects used in the film, mostly just some random moaning and groaning during the action scenes and these are handled just fine, as are the talkier bits of the movie. There's very little surround activity here, it's a front heavy mix that doesn't sound too far off from an old Mono track, but 5.1 is what it says on the packaging, on the receiver, and on PowerDVD so 5.1 it is.

Extras:

Aside from some tacky animated menus, VCX has included four bonus scenes, the first of which is from Take Me Down (7:11) and it stars the eternally gorgeous Brigitte Lahiae in a scene where she makes out with some curly haired guy, blows him, and then gets her box munched. They sixty-nine and he fucks her doggy style and then shoots his goop onto the small of her back. The second clip is from Pussycat Ranch (16:54) and in it Eric Edwards comes to a house where he finds Arcadia Lake. They make out, some disco music swells up on the soundtrack, and he sucks her tits and eats her out. She gives him head and then he fucks her missionary style and then from behind until he finishes. The fourth and final clip is from Untamed Passions (8:47) and it features Paul Thomas and Danielle. They're in the living room hanging out and they head into the bedroom where she puts on some slinky lingerie. He eats her out and she sits on his face and then they move into a sixty-nine. She rides him reverse cowgirl and then he fucks her doggy style until she strokes him off all over her ass cheeks.

Rounding out the extras are trailers for Here Comes The Bride, The Bets Of Breasts, Swedish Sorority Girls, and Visions Of Clair (starring the lovely Annette Haven), and the Legendary Tribute montage of vintage adult movie clips as well as some animated menus.

Final Thoughts:

Pleasure Motel definitely delivers a whole lot of bumping and grinding but with such an unremarkable lack of style and enthusiasm that it's rarely particularly sexy. As a seventies curiosity item it's moderately amusing and Tina Russell's fanbase will obviously have an interest in it but aside from that it's hard to recommend this amazingly inept film. Cult enthusiasts might get a kick out of it though. If you fall into that camp, rent it.