Findlay Week (August 18 – 24) Husband and wife Michael and Roberta Findlay made mean-spirited films. They collaborated on films like Take Me Naked, The Ultimate Degenerate, and the notorious Flesh Trilogy, plus they actually looked like criminals – walking mug shots! You expect to see them glowering on the cover of one of those tabloids next to a headline like “KIDNAPPER COUPLE COLLECTED VICTIMS FINGERS.” Instead they were pornographers which did make them like criminals in their day. A lot of the filmmakers of their era would claim they only made this kind of movie because there was money in it, but Michael and Roberta were sincere adherents. Even when audience tastes changed and the couple were divorced they continued to make their own films that mixed in elements of kink and cruelty. 

Directed and written by Roberta Findlay, this is the story of Punkin (C.J. Laing), a country girl who works as a maid for the rich Jason Crean-Smith (Marlow Ferguson). When that dirty old man dies, Punkin gets all of his money, if not the respect of the rich people she must now be around. People like Deidre (Jennifer Jordan, Abigail Leslie Is Back in Town) and Diana (Crystal Sync, Punk Rock), who we meet as they judge who has the largest member, Russian rich guy Peter the Great (John Holmes) or Southern gentleman The Great Peter (Tony “The Hook” Perez).

The story is told by Dixon the butler (Jeffrey Hurst, The Tiffany Mynx), who is more into bread and pastries — to an absurd degree — than any of the gorgeous women around him. It all ends with Laing encountering Holmes, Perez and Eric Edwards, which is the kind of athleticism that should make you an Olympian.

Supposedly, Roberta was frustrated by lack of acting Laing did in this, but the actress famously said, “I purposely would not act. I despised the people in these films that said they were actors. I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me! This is about fucking and sucking!”” That scene where she’s rolling around naked, covered in money? Yeah. That’s still acting.

There’s also a scene with Marlene Willoughby that is edited from a lot of versions of this. She’s an adult actress who crossed over into the mainstream, appearing in Married to the Mob, Trading Places and I, The Jury. She was married to Sonny Landham, Billy from Predator.

The music in this comes from Slim Pickins, an Allentown, PA rock band that appeared or did music for several other of Roberta’s films, including Sweet, Sweet Freedom, The New York City Woman, Dear Pam and Fringe Benefits. Speaking of Findlay and music, I’m always amazed that Sonic Youth recorded at the Reeltime Distributing Corp. studio that she owned with Walter Sear.