Film (3.5/5)

Veronique and her wealthy Uncle, Lord Robert de Chamoiz, have all the comforts the world could ever offer them, except Veronique’s obsession with the roulette wheel has discouraged her from finding a good and passionate man to please her. All the while, her Uncle Robert can’t quite quench his thirst for tail, salivating over every fine figured woman crossing his path and bending her to act on his sexual requests.   Fed up with roulette’s bad luck, Veronique convinces her uncle to travel the French Riveria in search of her fortune at the wheel.  Can Veronique break away from her gambling addiction and find a man to replace one carnal sin with another?  Robert hopes to guide her his niece’s cravings toward the right direction while also philandering his way through women along the French coastline.

“Sex Roulette” is a foreign film I can get behind!  Birthed from West Germany and Belgium, rostered with mostly French actors, and dubbed in half-baked English, the Impulse Pictures remastered original material DVD release is an amazing, colorfully clean, and vividly explicit feat for this bizarre and desirably raunchy sex comedy.  Robert Le Ray, an uncanny Lloyd Bridges lookalike, is credited as Jean De Villroy and is one dirty, dirty old man with a libido like a teen at puberty’s highest peak.  Dubbed in an enjoyable, nonchalant, and very casually toned English dialect,  the eldest cast member’s wrinkles, flaps, and folds do not phase the ridiculously young and beautiful women of whom he shares bed scenes.  And though Robert Le Ray might be the life of the orgy,  Véronique Maugarski’s jaw-dropping beauty fosters a healthy sexual presence that goes unrivaled.  Maugarski, whose credited with a more Americanized moniker Vanessa Melville, has a tone and tanned body with perfectly round breasts that drips with absolute decadency so much that just gawking at her on screen throws the male genitalia into tingling frenzy.  Her platinum blonde hair and gleaming muscular thighs are the cherry on top during her solo performances of soaping down standing in a tub and masturbating to a backseat fling from her chauffeur’s front passenger seat.

Director Alan Vydra knows how to add spice to a bizarre erotic comedy, but the University of Prague Film School alum knows how to build upon the absurdity by developing a minuscule horror element from within the anemic story in the from of a Freudian nightmare involving a pregnant hotel maid, hooded wool cloaks, billowing fog inside a cavernous tomb, an extremely large knife, and a dwarf dressed in all black.  The scene is a spot on ode to European Gothicism horror, focusing on close up, exaggerated expressions and implied actions that link many Hammer Horror productions.  The dwarf, whose also Lord Robert’s booty-requisitioning assistant, is played by late French actor Désiré Bastareaud in one of his more memorable screen-dominant performances.  Bastareaud comically sticks out amongst a stereotypical tall, blond haired, blue eyed, European cast, which is quite ironic with his dwarfism stature, and adds even more sultry fluff to “Sex Roulette’s” already zany premise by porking heavier set women while standing on a stack of phone books which becomes a constant gag throughout.

With no writer credited, I could be so bold to say Vydra took full control of the helm by letting his direction tell the story.  Some sex scenes don’t connect with the Veronique’s sexless state in the result of her gambling addiction, examples are Uncle Robert getting a rub-n-tug with another male patron joining in on the action or even that solo performance in the bathtub previously mentioned.  Standout scenes like these are just there, existing only for the enticement and doesn’t need to be relied upon to carry the plot progression.  And though the film’s USA title is “Sex Roulette,” spun from the original title “Roulette,” Veronique’s, or anyone else’s for that matter, gambling scenes are few and far in between with a sharply edited introduction of roulette playing during the beginning credits and then an all out orgy on the roulette and card tables in the film’s finale.

Audio/Video (4/5)

Impulse Pictures presents "Sex Roulette" in a stunningly remastered anamorphic widescreen 1.66:1 presentation in a region free DVD.  The 35mm original print had been astonishingly well preserved with only minor, insignificant blemishes barely making their noticeable marks.  Complete with natural, limned coloring, "Sex Roulette's" poignant variety and oddity sexual exhibitions amplifies by tenfold with the duly deserved remastering.  One slight vexation with the remastering comes by way of feeling cheated of content as the DVD back cover does state this particular version being the "longer English dubbed 85 minute version."  When Uncle Robert friskiness with the house maid reaches the next level, the maid goes from descending to her knees for proper fellatio positioning to being across the room, bending over, and spreading her cheeks while Robert masturbates.  The scene is either omitting frames and segments or its a taste of director Alan Vydra's sloppy editing; the latter seemingly unlikely with the rest of the film fairly solid in the editing department.  So i'm dubious to the second of the back cover's description stating "with all the sexually charged sequences intact."

The Dolby Digital dubbed English 2.0 track is clean, despite the dialogues being goofy when syncing up with the respective characters.  Slight hiss throughout, but very low and almost inaudible. 

Extras (0.5/5)

No extras are included.

Overall

"Sex Roulette" is a gamble for the regular spank-moviegoer but is splayed with guilty pleasure all over and to deny yourself witness to Véronique Maugarski in her prime is like denying yourself air to breathe.  Impulse Pictures seriously impressed with their remastered version of this game of pleasure despite the lack of bonus material.  The bonus is in the feature itself and every viewing, whether first or repeat, is winner on black and also on red.  Recommended.