Still working on film (see a useful review of FLESH AND FANTASY by IMDb's expert from Belgium for example), Gerard Damiano's mid-'80s films strayed from the quality that made him famous. This chamber piece, a sort of XXX soap opera/dream sequence fantasy, is hard to watch, especially as it reeks of earnestness in an industry already devoted to the ephemeral.
Two couples include Sharon Kane and Johnny Nineteen celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary (hints of Sharon having that itch are made evident). After sex, Kane talks dirty and wonders if Johnny's dick is as big as that of other guys and whether she is indeed a good lay.
The other couple is Tasha Voux and Richard Gaunt, and we see a flashback of Tasha and Sharon in which the actresses unconvincingly portray themselves as young girls. This poorly written (by Damiano) segment plays like a bad SNL sketch.
Alone with hubby Gaunt, Voux deep throats him and then demands anal sex, but he's gone limp. He tells her he fantasizes about making it with two women, and then she fantasizes a dominatrix scene torturing Gaunt (as "Dan Danger") in bondage, while Gaunt is sucked off by two sisters.
While Gaunt sleeps in real life, scene returns to Voux in her fantasy dungeon finally getting anal sex - yes we've arrived at the cast's cravings.
The foursome go out for dinner together, with tickets to see "Cats" on Broadway. Now it's time for Kane's cravings, as she proves a party-pooper and doesn't go with them to see the hit musical. Instead she masturbates at home on her bidet, and fantasizes being in a cave as voices call to her. She wanders into a living room where an older lady serves her tea, while a sexy maid named Sara Lee (played by Melanie Scott) serves her food. (Doesn't Sharon know you shouldn't eat right before bedtime as it might cause nightmares?)
WIth one nude breast hanging out Sharon is led around an abstract set as Damiano enters Jean Cocteau territory, with nude women lighting candles and sucking cocks extending from the walls (XXX version of LA BELLE ET LA BETE). After a rock score crescendos during a deep throat scene, Kane is led to a girl who's sucking 2 cocks at once -"It all seems so impersonal" says the elderly lady, as Damiano gets more and more pretentious.
Sharon seems to be led into degradation, and next we see her sucking 3 cocks at once. She seems to be watching herself go through these motions, as the lady demonstrates the pointlessness of SK's cravings. The guys faces in this "hell" are glimpsed, and they have animal makeup - perhaps inspired by thoughts of the play "Cats" she missed? Kane wakes up from this very lengthy nightmare, nude in bed in a sweat.
Johnny arrives to comfort her - he's bought her a plush toy from Times Square. Film ends with "Happy Anniversary" -she seems to have been cured from her 7 Year Itch.
You have to hand it to GD for trying, but this indigestible movie is a tough slog -the writing is just not up to the theme and the cast is very weak. Compare this to any number of all-star porn films of the '70s into the '80s and you wish Damiano had rounded up the usual suspects: PT, Haven, Leslie, Gillis, Savage, Thorpe, Thatcher, etc. I mean, Johnny NIneteen & Tasha Voux -seriously?
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