Swingtown

Otto Bauer is the sort of ordinary porn actor, who for some reason had delusions of grandeur, directing several crummy features (with decent budgets) such as this loser, among dozens of gonzo junkers in the "Barely Legal" series.

Why daring! Media, in its original Spain-based era, let him pilot this film as well as equally poor "Smokin' Tailpipes" and "The Program" is a small mystery, of no interest to anyone including myself. I watch all the daring! movies, so here's my take on this forgotten, and in fact hard to find (I had to send away for a German copy released locally there by VPS) title.

Most offensive aspect of "Swingtown" is filmmaker/star Otto's condescending attitude. His manner betrays a disdain for his own material as well as the viewer, when in fact this might have been a worthwhile project. Its sole point of interest for me was a surprising (in light of the gonzo-level content such as two, count 'em two, actresses suffering through double-anal sex scenes) old-fashioned tone to the film.

It plays like a 1960s soft-core treatment of the trendy topic, but of course with plentiful XXX footage for today's audience to lap up. There's no writing credit, and the story line is rather ludicrous: Alec Knight was laid off, so now he's working as a used-car salesman for a firm owned by his beautiful wife Bobbi Starr. They're somewhat miscast as the "innocent couple" so important to this genre, led into the wild, wild world of swinging by experienced folk, led by ultra-sleazy and misogynist Herschel Savage (one of his better late-in-career performances, making you believe he believes the drivel he's spouting) and his ex-hooker wife, the glorious Mika Tan. Pre-credits tease scene has Tan on the phone with Herschel, each one humping while yapping with their partner: she punishing a sex slave while Savage humps a co-ed, in his capacity as a college professor.

The other super-swinging couple with an open marriage consists of Audrey Hollander, uninhibited as usual but oddly sporting straight hair rather than her trademark curls, and as hubby Bauer himself. Besides mere wife- swapping, we're treated to several swing parties, generally degenerating into orgies, just like porn in dem good ol' days.

Early on I was mightily turned off when Savage, in one of his rants, intones how exciting it was to see the new Tarantino film before it was released (apparently pirated by his pal Bauer for him), the picture's only name-dropping and further evidence to me of the incredibly pernicious influence of Q.T., the contemporary filmmaker I utterly despise. Even a nothing porn film feels obliged to pay homage to His Greatness.

The sex footage, most notably the d.p.'s rendered unto Hollander and Starr, is routine while the acting apart from Bauer himself is convincing. Porn stars portraying swingers is always a dicey prospect, since they get on the job more sex with more anonymous (until they're introduced via the call sheet) partners than any real-life swinger could aspire to. So when Bobbi pleads innocence and must be warmed up to anal sex, Sapphic style, by Audrey, the scene is preposterous -after a couple of minutes demure Bobbi is four-fingering her own asshole with ease and enthusiasm, and would undoubtedly have fisted if the gendarmes would allow.

I like to call Adult purveyors on their sloppiness, and in this case I spotted Jack Vegas (one of porn's most recognizable support players) in the mix in the orgy finale, and sure enough he is credited on the DVD box. But the extensive end credits list his role as played by Jack Venice, the blond young stud who other than Christian name and initials on his towels bears no resemblance to journeyman Vegas. Par for the course in an industry where No Credits is the norm.