Private Gold 69: Sex Thriller

Antonio Adamo made many fine features for Private, but decided (disastrously) to try his hand at a Hollywood production with "Sex Thriller". Finished product is neither sexy nor thrilling.

First deadly mistake was casting Alex Divine in the major femme role, crucial to the story and action (plus plenty of sex required). She's unattractive and untalented, end of story. If he wanted as winsome plain Jane for the role, he had his pick of many greats, ranging from superstar Chloe to a favorite of mine working at this time, Julia Taylor aka Natalie Woods. The fact that Adamo's favorite actress was the OTHER Julia Taylor (who played Cleopatra for him among numerous starring roles) from Europe would have made for some fine confusion for film historians.

Not so Divine plays Jennifer Parker, a young woman who gets sort of obscene phone calls throughout the film. It's no mystery at all who's calling her as there is only one logical suspect, introduced early in the picture. So zero suspense. Also, she is never in any danger, merely ordered by the voice on the phone to go visit various homes to watch or participate in sex, a transparent gimmick to permit Adamo his episodic story structure.

Divine suspects her on again/off again boyfriend John West is the caller, but I knew she was wrong immediately and so would any other attentive viewer. The big fella's acting is usually A-OK, but this time he's merely whiny, frequently trying to get Alex to take him back has her lover, to no avail.

Keeping the viewer awake is the task of some beautiful co-stars, all of whom upstage the blank Alex: superstar Katie Morgan, wonderful fellow blonde Brooke Banner, and sexy Shy Love who's cast as Jennifer's BFF Susan.

It would be hard to imagine a duller, more pointless "stalker thriller" than this one -even thousands of lousy B movies on the subject are better. All Adamo has going for him is explicit sex, and his habit of having the girls look directly at the camera (an attempt to involve the horny viewer) serves to destroy any semblance of credibility. Film almost plays as if ultra-censorship had forced the removal of any bit of violence or even threat of same. And Divine's monotone non-acting seals the fate of this unconvincing exercise.

Fortunately, Adamon scurried back to Europe where he still had a few good movies in him, such as the big-deal "Roma" trilogy for daring! Media. His attempt to make a pretend All-American porn film (crew is largely European, however, visas and green cards be damned) quickly forgotten in the mists of Adult Cinema history.