Women at Play / Good Girl, Bad Girl

In this edition of Vinegar Syndrome's Peekarama series, the two film included are not only linked by the same writer, Ron Dorfman using the pseudonym Pamela Penn, and director, Ron Dorfman using the pseudonym Art Ben, but also by a common theme, a theatrical play.  The two films also share seven of the same cast members and were shot in New York City.  Beyond those similarities though, the two films included on the release are very different.  Women at Play is a light-hearted comedy film and Good Girl, Bad Girl is a light-hearted whodunit mystery.  Both of the films are included on one DVD and Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras on the release.

Good Girl, Bad Girl

The Film (4/5)

Good Girl, Bad Girl is a hardcore mystery from writer and director Art Ben that, despite not having a whole lot of a plot, is a  lot of fun to watch.  The story for Good Girl, Bad Girl is that actress Velva (Colleen Brennan), who is starring in a sex play by Arthur Zoltan (George Payne), is found murdered and her boyfriend is being sought for the crime.  Detective Mike Costa (Joey Silvera) is assigned the case and sets out to solve her murder, with a little help from his “friend” police officer Terry Goodman (Carol Cross).

The story for Good Girl, Bad Girl is enjoyable, however, this is not a whodunit that the viewer can sit back and figure out as there aren't any real clues to who the bad guy is, even though the viewer watches the murder unfold at the beginning of the film.  This is a whodunit that the viewer watches as the story unfolds just to enjoy the story being told and the sex scenes that are being presented to the viewer as well that are liberally sprinkled throughout the film.

The sex scenes are enjoyable with good sexual performances from the cast, which shouldn't be surprising given some of the big names of porn's yesteryear that are in the film.  The sex scenes flow nicely with the story so that none of them feel shoehorned into the film for the purposes of just adding another sex scene.  The cast does a good job with the non-sexual performances as well, especially stalwart adult film actor Joey Silvera, who does a great job with the lead role.

What really separates Good Girl, Bad Girl from the shot on video entries that are gutting the adult movie market at the time are the locations and sets that Ron Dorfman uses.  Good Girl, Bad Girl still holds onto the feel and look that adult films from the 1970s had of being films with sex versus the cheap feeling of many of the film's contemporaries at the time had of being cheap delivery systems of hardcore sex and not actual movies anymore.

Good Girl, Bad Girl looks good too.  The film was nicely shot with actual thought of what was going to be in the frame, which isn't that surprising since Ron Dorfman was also a good cinematographer as well as being a director.  Honestly, Good Girl, Bad Girl is a lot of fun and is well worth checking out.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Vinegar Syndrome has done a beautiful job with their DVD release of Good Girl, Bad Girl.  Good Girl, Bad Girl was shot on film and Vinegar Syndrome has used a 2K scan of the 35mm camera negative for their release.  Good Girl, Bad Girl is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 480p.  The image looks absolutely beautiful with vibrant colors and grain.  No other defects or imperfections were noticeable.

Good Girl, Bad Girl is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track.  The audio has a low hiss throughout the film that is unobtrusive and the dialog in the film is clear and easy to hear throughout.

Extras (0/5)

Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras for Good Girl, Bad Girl.

Women at Play

The Film (2.5/5)

Women at Play is a hardcore comedy from writer and director Ron Dorfman that has a bunch of great ideas but fails to present them well to the viewer.  Women at Play says that it tells the story of six women, a play, spring in New York, and sex; Women a Play mostly tells the story of sex.

Women at Play tells the story of the Downtown Amateur Theater Group, that consists of Lucy McGee (Sharon Kane), Colby Jones (Sharon Mitchell), Priscilla Parks (Tigr), and the Southern belles Faye and Raye Dunbar (Danielle and Cara Lott respectively), and a sex play they are rehearsing for that is being directed by Wallis Greene (Paula Meadows).  They spend so much time “rehearsing” for the play that their husbands start to get concerned about what their wives are up to.

The deficiencies within Women at Play is not at all due to the cast.  The cast members all perform excellently in both the sexual and non-sexual portions of the film.  They do what they can to bring their characters to life on the screen.  The issue lies in the plot, and script, of the film.  There are some good ideas that Ron Dorfman clearly had for the film; ideas that could have worked well.  However, there were problems executing the ideas.

Ron Dorfman tried to make Women at Play a silly comedy, however, many of his set-ups fall flat from being the humorous moments he intended.  For instance, he had Mike and Ike (Johnny Nineteen and Bill Landis respectively) impersonate building inspectors using really horrible fake mustaches and fake eyebrows.  However, the mustaches and the eyebrows were so fake looking, it ruined the joke behind it.  Another example is a joke with Priscilla, her roommates (Sue Merchant and Chrissy Williams) setting their kitchen on fire that was rushed through to get to the sex scene.

Ron Dorfman did do an excellent job with the locations and sets that he used in the film and the film is beautifully shot.  Women at Play would have been a lot better had Ron Dorfsman worked more on his script before shooting the film.  As it is though, Women at Play is an average adult film that fans of one or more of the stars will probably want to watch but the film isn't likely to get much replay value.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Vinegar Syndrome has done a beautiful job with their DVD release of Women at Play.  Women at Play was shot on film and Vinegar Syndrome has utilized a 2K scan of the 35mm camera negative for the film.  Women at Play is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 480p.  The image quality looks gorgeous.  There is grain present in the image and occasional flickers on the screen.  The colors in the film are vibrant.

Women at Play is presented with an English Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural audio track.  There weren't any noticeable issues with the audio track at all with clear and easy to understand dialog and nice sounding music.

Extras (0/5)

Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras for Women at Play.

Overall

Women at Play and Good Girl, Bad Girl are two very different films and actually couple together very well on this release.  Despite the stellar cast, Women at Play is disappointing, however, Good Girls, Bad Girls makes up for the deficiencies of Women at Play.  Good Girl, Bad Girl alone makes it worth picking up this release so Women at Play can be looked at as a bonus film.  Vinegar Syndrome has done a stellar job with the video and audio quality of this double feature for both films.