Love Stories

Issued as Volume 1 of a Michael Raven erotic series (followup was titled Dark Sins) Love Stories is more creative than most efforts in this genre, and worth seeing among Raven's hundred-plus titles made before retired from the porn wars a decade ago.

Most offbeat segment is science fiction: "The Companion" has Chris Cannon as a prisoner exiled to solitary life on a tiny prison planet, more like a rock or asteroid in the Solar System. His loneliness is finally alleviated by a sex doll, actually an android brought to him on supply ship by his handler Mike Horner. It's personifed by Monica Sweetheart, one of the most beautiful foreign imports to hit big in the USA, and their sex scene is well-handled, leading up to a quality "Twilight Zone" conclusion.

The other four vignettes are less riveting but do provide eroticism rather than just sex filler. "Silent Sex" is technically adventurous, as Raven, with degrading the footage technique and comical intertitles, simulates a black-and-white silent 2-reeler from a century ago, as Kaylani Lei and gal pal make love to Valentino in a tent. In-joke as Valentino esssentially re-creating Rudolph Valentino's famed The Sheik role.

"Drive-in Love" is a standard '50s nostalgia piece, making love in one's car at a drive-in movie starring little-known but easy on the eye Lea DeMay. "Perfection" is far from it, with Barrett Blade looking identical to hundreds of his other screen appearances, lusting for Alexis Malone.