Lesbian Adventures: Victorian Love Letters

"They humped with their boots on" would be an accurate subtitle for Nica Noelle's lesbian companion piece for Sweetheart Video to her studies of Victorian erotica for Sweet Sinner: A MAN WITH A MAID and FAMILY SECRETS. This 4-part romance is an invigorating variation on the standard lesbian video content and is well-cast.

Key elements are the authentic looking Victorian costumes (including non-removable high- laced boots) and period decor, as well as the general absence of those annoying tan lines and tattoos that litter contemporary porn. Only one actress has a large tattoo on her rump that is out of place and perhaps needed some "she's eccentric" explanation not proffered here.

Magdalene St. Michaels is the genre's queen, and only performer to appear in two episodes of LETTERS, vaguely knitting the disparate stories together a bit. Her professionalism shines in the opener titled "Petulant Little Girl" in which she disciplines misbehaving petite Nicole Ray with a spanking which soon leads to sex. Ray has become a favorite of mine under Noelle's direction (her THE BABYSITTER was outstanding) and the teaming with Maggie is terrific. Only error is Nicole wearing modern high heels, rather than 19th Century garb, but Maggie's corset adds to the atmosphere.

Clean-up vignette "A Midsummer Tryst" also briefly brings back St. Michaels, attending a tea at the director's home with Nina Hartley. After small talk Nina and Maggie leave, but Nina quickly returns on a pretext, and immediately the two mature actresses Noelle and Hartley hump. I enjoyed Nina (only one in the cast to attempt this) throwing in some dated language with her chant during sex of "Oh my goodness!", quite convincing as some of the other girls end up with the usual "F*ck, f*ck, f*ck" exclamations.

Unusual aspect of this encounter is that Nica the director is hot in the sack but says nary a word during lovemaking, leaving the expressiveness completely to her hired talent (Nina).

Best vignette is probably "True Answers", with Annabelle Lee making love to her future mother-in-law Melissa Monet, latter like Nica becoming a filmmaker herself writing several scripts for Sweet Sinner. Apart from her large insect tattoo on buttocks, Melissa is outstanding in the passion department, and the well-named Ms. Lee previously starred in a segment of Noelle's "Lesbian Noir" video series.

"Secret Muse" features a brief cat fight between letter-writing Zoe Britton and Earth Mother Julia Ann, which segues (inevitably) to sensual sex. It's nice to see that Zoe has graduated from a career that started off with ephemeral (and utterly beyond my comprehension) fetish videos like ANGRY HOGTIE CAPTIVES! and WARM SUN/HOT FEET.

Julia's prominent beauty mark on her right breast is perfect for a period adventure and makes me wish that budgets would permit Nica or another talented pornographer to bring back those wonderful Gainsborough risqué adventures like the classic THE WICKED LADY, either as a straight or lesbian (or perhaps mixed?) XXX version.