5/5 OMG!!! IT IS THE MAY QUEEN HERSELF!!!
  by Heavenly Hash
Mary Mendum is the daughter of my 5th grade teacher at St. Mary's grade school, in West Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, also named Mary, must have gone to her grave embarrassed and broken-hearted over her daughter's choice of profession. The daughter as I remember her was a plumpish, rosy-cheeked girl who was, of course, chosen by the nuns to be May Queen in the second grade or thereabouts to compensate (let's call a spade a spade) her mother for devoting her adult life to teaching parochial school students for minimum pay. The May Queen, for you non-Catholics, is the girl considered the most angelic child of her class year and is the girl who represents her class at the crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary every May in her local Catholic parish.

I wish someone would do a documentary about Mary Mendum, especially if she is capable of self-reflection and insight into her life, her pathway, and her career. Her stage and film career is an amazing story, apparently begun in the Chicago road show of HAIR. Someone please do the documentary!! How in the world did she go from May Queen at the age of 8 or 9 to porn actress??!!

1/5 More non-erotic softcore from Metzger.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
The Image (Radley Metzger, 1975)

The Image, aka The Punishment of Anne, stands alone in a sea of mediocrity as the single most boring softcore movie I have ever come across. I actually had to start watching it four times over the course of about a year before I could finally finish it. I've read a few reviews of it since, and they all talk about the subtlety of the movie and how that differentiates it from most erotica. That may all be well and good, but it seems to me that if you're going to try and make a serious drama with erotic elements, you should probably make a serious drama with erotic elements, which would involve actually focusing on, you know, the drama. And, yes, I do mean to imply that it should be able to be held up to non-erotic dramas for a favorable comparison. Just because it's better drama (and that is a highly debatable proposition) than, say, Debbie Does Dallas does not a great, or even a good, film make.

The plot is quite simple: we meet Jean (Carl Parker in his final film role), a seemingly wealthy chap who is acquainted with a stylish lady by the name of Claire (Marilyn Roberts in her first film role; these days she's probably best remembered for a bit part in Looking for Mr. Goodbar). Claire has a young acquaintance by the name of Anne (Misty's Rebecca Brooke), a beautiful, submissive lass who will do anything Claire asks of her. Jean gets it in his head that it would be fun to test these limits, though of course things get complex as he finds himself developing feelings for Anne.

Or they would get complex, had that serious drama been addressed. Instead, these characters are about as three-dimensional as stalks of hay, and we grow to care as much about them as we would the plant in question. (Actually, I could see myself developing more empathy for hay.) And, yeah, some of the softcore works, but not nearly well enough on its own to carry the entire movie. It's an awful script that I can't imagine could have possibly been based on anything written by a member of the Robbe-Grillet family, though IMDB tells me this is so. Eh, well, Georges Bataille's wife wrote really, really bad erotica as well. (A quick trip to wiki tells me she wrote this before she married her novelist husband; I hope some of his immense talent rubbed off on her eventually.) This is really, really bad. Avoid like the plague. *


5/5 one of the best erotic movies ever
  by X. Wang (New York, NY USA)
Obviously "the Image" directed by Radley Metzger is one of the best erotic masterpieces ever, it does more to titillate and stimulate than anything else, therefore the sexual tension. There are graphic sex scenes also, but those are not the most memorable parts. The S&M scenes are quite shocking, unless you are an expert of European S&M movies, so that includes most of us I am afraid. It is also called the "the Punishment of Anne", it is based on the book by author Jean de Berg. To me it is even better than "the Story of O", because almost every scene in "the Image" leaves you wanting more, of course we can not always have what we want. The girl Anne is a very desirable creature indeed, aside from being a good actress. This movie is not to be missed, unless you have a problem with S&M scenes, submission, whipping, urination etc.. Highly recommended to any adults searching for great erotic movies.

4/5 old school arousing
  by Deedee Acquah
this was a good movie. a hidden unspoken classic. there were a few hot sceens in this movie that will me embedded in my mind forever. i enjoyed watching it. it wasnt as nasty as i wanted it to be, but it got the job done, and held my interest.

4/5 A bit old, but still interesting
  by M. Jobbagy (Florida)
This is a bit long in the tooth, age wise, but it's a subject that never gets old. An interesting tale of sex, dominance, submission with a few twists thrown in.

There are plenty of sexy scenes with bondage and dominance playing center stage. An older mistress leading the male lead into and through the various scenes and in the end getting to see it from the other side.

Recommended if your interested in these things, otherwise stay away, might be a little too hard core for you.