I find Adam & Eve Productions/Ultimate Pictures releases around the turn of this century to represent the pinnacle of achievement in Adult Cinema, even exceeding the acclaimed Porno Chic films of the '70s. Nicholas Steele's "The Puppeteer" is a nearly perfect example, holding up magnificently nearly two decades later.
However, I'm alone in the wilderness at the moment in my discovery of this treasure trove of forgotten erotica. As witness a particularly off- base prior IMDb review of this feature, porn fans' tastes have become so debased, and victimized by industry propaganda, that only all-sex, gonzo content with gynecological close-ups is considered high quality these days. Achievements of the past have been discarded like so much toilet paper.
Briana Banks takes the title role, a mythical puppeteer named Antoinette whose run-in with hero Ian Jacobs (Dale DaBone) has set the fantasy story in motion.
Ian had an accident a year before of which he only remembers a road sign reading Jenkins Pike. Driving in his sports car with girlfriend Julianne (stunning Sky Taylor), he revisits the scene, staying at Antoinette's Bed and Breakfast, and entering a fantasy world, typical of the Gothic structure of this familiar romance: a wayfaring couple staying the night in a strange place.
The little village the couple enters is beautifully designed and atmospheric (with an early 20th Century period look to costumes and props), and its denizens become involved in all manner of sex scenes. These include enigmatic bartender Lexington Steele humping voluptuous dancer Alexis Amore on an animal skin rug on the floor; the weird fetish-costumed twin-styled pair of Brooklyn Rhodes and April having Sapphic sex on the B&B's staircase; a strange threesome involving big- dicked Lee Stone decked out in an ancient Sailor's suit, opposite glamorous and lusty Alexandra Nice and Tina Cherry; Julianne dancing around in the street under gas lamps at the night, having pantomime sex with a gentleman in a striped suit, played by Mark Davis; and of course DaBone eventually in the sack with Briana.
SPOILER:
Many foreshadowings have warned us that this is all the stuff of fantasy, resolved with Briana's final dialog, which reveals that the characters were people who dreamed they were puppets, while Ian was a puppet all along, dreaming that he was human. It's a satisfying, timeless ending that follows a truly amazing sustained demonstration of deep-throat technique (on lucky Dale) by Banks, dressed in a fabulous outfit including sexy lingerie and lavender boots, with bedclothes of violet, purple and blue.
Steele is well-served by his inimitable team of collaborators, principally Saint as composer and designer, Philip O'toole as writer, cinematographer and editor, as well as the unsung Reeni Varga who created the beautiful little puppets (from Saint's design concepts) and even does femme voice-overs. The stunning visuals and elaborate musical accompaniment are actually just par for the course, as the team effortlessly (it would seem) handed in dozens of A&E features of this caliber in the late 1990s into early 2000s,
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