Lesbian Tear Jerkers

LESBIAN TEAR JERKERS is a title that suggested to me a triple-x variation on those wonderful old '40s women's pictures with Irene Dunne (among many other stars) that piled on the misery and pathos and had audiences ready with the hanky. This Girlfriends Films video has little to do with its title, generally jettisoning narrative in favor of dreamy atmosphere in which beauties gently couple.

Once you get over the marketing misstep, it's a lulling exercise, providing the pleasant comforting experience that only some lesbian videos can deliver within the XXX spectrum. Back when soft-core ruled, David Hamilton was perhaps king of this genre with his soft-focus studies of jail-bait beauties, followed by equally vapid (but popular) explicit films by Andrew Blake.

Only one segment sort of delivers on the premise: fan favorite Darla Crane masturbates as she gazes tearfully at semi-nude little Jessie Andrews (wearing high heels) sprawled on a bed with a pink rose. Implication is that Andrews is a corpse, but of course when the tears drip off Darla's face and land on Jessie's face she comes alive and an arousing lesbian sex scene ensues. This very romantic vignette set a high standard, which the other more generic segments fail to attain.

My favorite scene was embodied by Natalie Moore, the only obscure performer in the cast but boasting as beautiful a pair of pink nipples as seen on screen in ages (almost up to the classic level of such soft-core greats as Olivia Pascal of VANESSA fame). Whether masturbating with rose petals in a huge, empty bathtub or making love to Allie Haze on a bed, this showcase has me hoping Nat will emerge from gonzo oblivion to quality assignments soon.

Romance of a similar nature is also presented in the Ash Hollywood/Veruca James pairing, replete with a trail of rose petals up a stairway accompanied by love notes, leading to the bedroom tryst. DVD box stresses "bittersweet" content, but this is sweet to the level of saccharine.

Departure from the basic format comes in a superstar segment, which given the unrelated vignette structure (Girlfriends is much better at on-going soap opera storyline videos) seems to have been appropriated from another project. Capri Cavanni, dressed to the nines and sexy as ever, is going out on a date with a boyfriend, when partner Lisa Ann gets extremely angry at her forgetting that it is Lisa's birthday and they should stay home and celebrate. The improvised dialog is quite clumsy, but leads to a dramatic moment when Capril smashes Lisa's cake to a pulp and storms out of the house.

Lisa is left forlorn on the floor with a candle sticking out of a slice of rescued cake, masturbating alone. When she blows out the candle, Cut to duo back together again humping in bed, with a segue to porn-speak of the "Just like that!' nature. There is no verbal resolution to this fantasy, but a good time was had by all.