Coming out at the tail end of the Golden Age (1984), "Indecent Pleasures" is an all-but-forgotten miniature gem, directed by unknown "Phillip Gem". He needn't have disguised his name, as this is a simple, satisfying movie worth crowing about.
Jesie St. James, perhaps the greatest actress of her era (after Veronica Hart), is well-cast in the role of neglected housewife, whose traveling salesman husband Jon Martin is an instant heavy in the viewer's eyes for not putting the divine JSJ on a pedestal.
SPOILER ALERT:
Simple story has him predictably revealed as a cheater, but presented in an unusual manner as she discovers him on a sexual date with cutely Southern-fried Janey Robbins at a sex/night club where St. James has started hooking as a B-girl under the prompting of her neighbor's sexy daughter Laurie Smith. The way Jesie plays this pivotal scene is both original and against the rom-com clichés, quite memorable.
Also memorable is Gem's interesting motif of live sex shows at the club presented in Framed window-type views, recalling the Living Tableaux of pre-pornographic days nearly 100 years ago, as in Earl Carroll's Vanities or Ziegfeld Follies stage shows. These little vignettes provide some potent sexual content spotlighting great stars like Erica Boyer (playing on stage a lesbian masseuse) and Daniele, who is also working as a B-girl. Eric Edwards as the club owner is unusually sympathetic.
It adds up to a quickie that is precisely unpretentious and all the better for it. Those surveys of the "Greatest Adult Films of all time" naturally omit this type of picture, but a true aficionado can appreciate the hidden gems over the ballyhooed, overblown titles any day.
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