Perversions (2000)

Michael Zen wanted to pay tribute to film noir with this minor video and its sequel, but didn't put his heart (or effort) into it.

Mike Horner is suitably cast as a clumsy sort of private eye, still humping women on screen at this stage in his career (later such roles would be merely non-sex to tap his considerable acting talent). His case of interfering in the affairs of Sydney Steele's daughter Jewel De Nyle is boring, and the sex scenes rather perfunctory, as Zen's brief (76 minutes) tale is also slowly paced.

The saving grace is Steele's elegant styling and on-the-mark acting as a femme fatale, who seems to have stepped out of the '40s into this modern day tale. I usually object to the frequent porn ploy of casting same- generation talent as mother and daughter, but Sydnee is convincing even though only 8 years older than Jewel.

Credits are sloppy, with a major role (both sexual and in the story) of Syndee's maid named Jules (or Jewels -verbal only) left out of the credits completely, along with Erik Everhard who makes love to her and is even at this early age immediately identifiable. I couldn't identify the actress, but presumably she is Lola as that is a dangling credit already in IMDb.

Normally I am johnny-on-the-spot watching all editions of a series of sequelized project, but this lame Part 1 ends my interest in the followup. The wonderful Gwen Summers in the cast is tempting, but she was not given a good role here so not much hope of her shining in Part 2.