Night of Seduction

"Night of Seduction" is a unique Adult movie, a personal project by famed actress (turned makeup artist) Kelly Nichols, that is a serious, wonderfully performed feature. Its near-complete obscurity is attributable to it avoiding what porn enthusiasts have overwhelming preferred: raw, perhaps sleazy sexual content.

Instead we have a perfect example of sexual positivity in a movie that is not explicitly feminist but is aimed squarely at a female audience. Watching the movie I was constantly thrilled by the sincerity and freshness of Nichols' approach. Her director is Wesley Emerson, a prolific porn director whose experience with documentaries pays off here.

Its full title is "Night of Seduction: an Erotic Make-over", and the film begins with a 15-minute segment of Kelly Nichols meticulously applying make-up to change star Tina Tyler's look, as well as lecturing her on tips to make her more attractive to her boyfriend (Jon Dough). She then instructs Tina in the art of masturbation, holding a make-up mirror to let Tina see how she's doing.

Premise is that Tyler's relationship with him has gradually lost its spark, and she needs advice and help to be more appealing and seductive. Like other cast members, Nichols is sort of playing herself, as she became a prominent make-up artist called "Marianne" after moving away from her XXX acting career.

Next, Tina gets wardrobe tips from Nicole London, a star who also moved away from acting to working behind the camera. She also gives Tyler plenty of advice, cuing a flashback of how she used "the strip" in her love life, a striptease in which she performs at a club, leading seamlessly to a live sex show with Mike Horner. Following Nicole is a visit to Ariana, also playing herself, but exposing a different aspect of her life -she's exercising (sexily) with weight machines and treats Tina to workout instructions in the mode of a personal trainer. She explains how important body language is (especially in seduction) and lectures Tina on how to carry herself. It's a strong performance by the strikingly beautiful actress Ariana, and she is amusing in managing to name-drop such disparate celebrities as Theda Bara, Madonna and Katharine Hepburn (quite a trifecta) to make her points.

Victoria Andrews also plays herself in a role near the end of her brief porn career. She lectures and demos the art of aromatherapy to Tyler, stressing how important one's natural scent can be in creating a sexual mood. After pouring samples of key ingredients like rosemary into the bath, she and Tyler take a plunge together and she treats Tina to a watery shoulder massage. The scene effortlessly segues to lesbian sex, highly sensual and very effective in what emerges as the New Age segment of the movie.

As the title suggests, the show climaxes with Tina lighting candles and welcoming boyfriend Jon Dough, who is quite impressed (along with the audience) with her magnificent new look. She does the tutored striptease for him, moves on to masturbation and seamlessly morphs into a XXX encounter that ends the movie on a high note.

Rather than compare "Night of Seduction" to the thousands of mediocre sex films of the VHS era, I would place it in a time capsule, enshrined as a prime example of what Adult Cinema could have been had it not lost its way in a stupid quest to be the raunchiest, sleaziest -choose your own adjective.