This late in the day porn film takes a great cast and interesting storyline and runs with them - quality Golden Age adult entertainment seemingly lost in the shuffle.
Filmmaker Kemal Horulu doesn't get his fair shake - probably because he doesn't toot his own horn (see: Carter Stevens or Shaun Costello) and has no one shilling for him (see: Joe Sarno and so many other big names). His SOME LIKE IT VIOLENT is a classic soft-core thriller and among the stinkers he has several laudable XXX titles to his credit.
Film opens with a shot of the Twin Towers (RIP) as we hear a jury verdict of guilty announced. Theme music is ripped off from Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love".
With excellent soap opera acting by the cast we're introduced to hero John Leslie, humping wife Tina Marie as Lisa, and we get to see the voluptuous '80s star shot on film for a change, a rarity since her career unfolded in the horrible video era.
An early scene at Plato's Retreat features an orgy as well as a threesome starring Honey Wilder, with disco music on the soundtrack. Joey Silvera shows up aggressively kissing Tina and Ron Jeremy gets to hump the fabulous Chelsea Manchester/Tigr.
The central issue is laid on the table: how Leslie and Tina each view the particulars of their "open marriage" situation. Anna Ventura is having lesbian sex when Joey gets an eyeful, and joins them for some troilism action.
Joanna Storm is Honey's roommate, and Wilder agrees to act as a matchmaker to fix Joanna up with Leslie (his marriage be damned). Meanwhile a clearly disloyal Honey goes out with Tina for some action, and they witness Mistress Sharon Mitchell working over a trussed-up guy (upside down) before joining in on the domination routine. Tina works on George Payne, confined in stocks like old Massachusetts Bay Colony times, while Sharon rides a boy like a pony, replete with saddle. Intercut is a scene of Leslie humping Storm as promised.
At the breakfast table Tina and Leslie frankly discuss sex, apparently not hiding secrets from each other. Tina feels unsatisfied, and Storm turns out to be the black hat of the movie.
Film is far from perfect, as at one point Tina calls Wilder "Lisa" her own character's name instead of the proper "Diana". Following Wilder's advice, Tina has sex with Silvera, and a month later the unlikely duo of Joey & Tina are starting a new life together.
A weird scene, unlikely to pass muster today, has Honey masturbating with a Joe Sarno sized vibrator when two girl scouts arrive at her door, played in unlikely fashion by Sharon Kane and Tigr (back again). The cookie sales-folk are initiated into lesbian sex by Honey and then John Leslie arrives (bringing with him familiar baggage from his loops career as a friendly neighborhood daddy figure). Though Leslie is mad at Wilder for helping to break up his marriage it isn't long before they wrest the vibrator away from the kids and have a foursome on the bed, child porn-baiting of the highest order.
Next plot twist (I'm running through the film in some detail to indicate how rich in story it is compared to the usual porn exercise) has Leslie trying to get Silvera to bang Storm, even threatening his livelihood. Silvera does have sex with her and now manipulative (and turned bad guy) Leslie arranges a confrontation of Tina and Storm, awkwardly staged by Horulu, as "Whole Lotta Love" is reprised on the soundtrack.
Tina shoots Leslie - that was the verdict finding her guilty that the film began with. Trial is not shown, instead we hear the voice of R. Bolla as the judge reading the verdict once again.
As Horulu's swan song, NEVER SLEEP ALONE perhaps is too good for its own good. Over a dozen name stars, mostly from the NYC stable have enough dramatic material to chew over to constitute an entire miniseries on TV, and there are hot sex scenes to boot, all well shot by d.p. Ken Gibb. It makes for a lengthy film, but by Gresham's Law apparently the fans prefer no-nonsense wall-to-wall sex action instead.
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