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The Sex Cycle
[Something Weird Video]
1966; b&w
Directed by Joe Sarno
Starring: Nick Linkov, Johanna Mills, Tony King & Sonya Valli
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As the years go by here at the Buffet one thing cannot be denied, we have reviewed a lot of movies. At this point we have reviewed quite a few movies by prolific director Joe Sarno, some of which I have enjoyed quite a bit. Others, not so much. At the risk of repeating something I think I said in another review (at least once) I am much more a fan of his b&w suburban sin era than his later work, which I think was the point where he started trying to appeal more to an arthouse crowd than a grindhouse crowd. (Later he moved on to the raincoat crowd but that's another story.) The Sex Cycle has a lot in common with Sarno's other mid-60s sleazy suburban sin films - mainly the sleaze and sin parts - except, in this one, the sleaze and sin is set in the big city. Or rather in a borough. Brooklyn to be exact and to be even more exact, all the action takes place at Cocoa Poodles cocktail lounge. (Rumored to be a real place. Love the name by the way!) Well, the non-sexual action that leads up to the sexual action takes place there. Everybody seems to go to a nearby apartment building to actually screw, possibly because of New York's famously strict sanitation laws. Anywhoo, it is at the bar that we meet our main characters, as well as our secondary and tertiary characters. Let's discuss the main characters, Janet and Tanya, first though, they have the best storyline. Janet is a model who works, and lives, with her artist boss, AKA Tanya. Typically Tanya the boss is more of a "top", while worker-bee Janet is more of a "bottom." Although Janet really longs to be on top, metaphorically speaking. She also literally longs to be on top, of pretty much everyone, but for whatever reason the fish in her surrounding pond ain't biting. Which is kind of an interesting twist because, you know, models are generally considered to be attractive people. (As far as I understand, that's kind of the basis of how they wind up with that job in the first place.) But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say, and nobody is beholding the beauty of poor Janet. Luckily the Cocoa Poodle just so happens to have a resident gypsy, who just so happens to have awesome hair and quite a talent for the application of liquid eyeliner (played by Joe's wife ad long time collaborator Peggy), who just so happens to be in the possession of one pair of magical earrings that can cure what ails her... for a price. I'm still not really clear on what the price was actually - dare I say it, the plot is a bit obtuse - but if I understood the main gist of the ending, I gather Janet pays it. In between, she has sex with a bunch of people. There's also a whole secondary plot where the sleazeball who owns the bar unsuccessfully tries to keep his virginal sister virginal and some other nonsense occurs, all set to a memorable soundtrack. While I found this movie to be a bit difficult to understand, I would say it's still easy enough to enjoy.
—Bunny
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