Ron Sullivan returns with the further adventures of his alter ego Harry Crocker, introduced in the previous year's exceptional SEXCAPADES, and delivers a sequel that is at least every bit as good. The main difference is that the satire of the adult industry and the people in it has softened and grown more compassionate, something that actually makes me prefer this second installment to the original.
Still played by Eric Edwards, Harry's back on the singles circuit, making all sorts of promises to wannabe porno starlets like Joanna Storm (reprising her "Yvonne Rose" character from SEXCAPADES) and Rene Summers (who was soon to become Mrs. Edwards in real life) just so he won't have to sleep alone at night. Setting up a new movie for fledgling producer Louis Charger (a terrific turn from Robert Bolla), Harry encounters a whole new set of problems in dealing with his imposed new star, pretty 18-year old Frances (ravishing redhead Tanya Lawson making a credible stab at innocence), being pimped around town by her ambitious mother Mrs. Exeter, a show-stopping performance by N.Y. actress Chelsea Blake. To further complicate matters, he also falls deeply in love with his dyed in the wool leading lady Marilyn Camp (wonderfully portrayed by superstar Kelly Nichols) and henceforth no longer wants to direct her in any sex scenes. How on earth is Harry ever going to finish his movie on time and within budget ?
Keeping the recipe of humor and heart (with the balance this time clearly tipping in favor of the latter), Sullivan takes viewers on another wild 'n' crazy journey through the world of porn, a subject he knows like few others. The observations ring true, from the clueless producer who has his wife (the incomparable Honey Wilder, a first rate comedienne as TABOO II and NIGHT MAGIC can attest) audition male talent in this case Jerry (RAW TALENT) Butler in one of the film's comic highlights to the ebullient stage mother and/or suitcase pimp types.
Sex comes in all shapes and sizes, most of it light and fun with Nichols' on-set scene with John Leslie a prime example, though there's room for darker motivations as well when that same actress deals with her director's declarations of love by instigating a cruel power game that finds the hapless (if perhaps deserving) Mrs. Exeter caught in the middle. I'll let you discover that scene for yourself, but I think it's some of the strongest stuff both sexually and dramatically that Sullivan has ever come up with. The ending, like just about everything else in this flick, is absolute perfection and a fitting epitaph to the Harry Crocker saga.
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