Glitter (1983) XXX

Actresses Actors
Alexis X (as Alexis) Ashley Moore
Athena Star Jerry Butler
Kelly Nichols Michael Knight
Marlene Willoughby Lee Allen Richardson [NonSex]
Rhonda Jo Petty
Shauna Grant
Tiffany Clark
Tish Ambrose
Roberta Findlay (as Robert Walters) [NonSex]
Sherry Shapiro [NonSex]


Scene Breakdowns

Scene 1. Tish Ambrose, Jerry Butler
Scene 2. Rhonda Jo Petty, Michael Knight
Scene 3. Marlene Willoughby, Ashley Moore
Scene 4. Alexis X, Athena Star, Michael Knight
Scene 5. Kelly Nichols, Michael Knight
Scene 6. Shauna Grant, Tiffany Clark, Jerry Butler
Scene 7. Shauna Grant, Jerry Butler

full review here

Judging by cast similarities, Roberta Findlay shot this one back to back with the unpretentious yet (actually more) enjoyable PRIVATE SCHOOL GIRLS, another case of the conveniently crafted supporting feature surpassing its heavily hyped “tow truck” vehicle without which it would not exist. Part of the problem lies with a detailed if rather dull script by R. Allen Leider, an author who was to gain real world credibility with his Field Guides to Monsters & Aliens but got a head start in the adult industry. Strangely, though he penned the excellent screenplays for genre classics like Ron Sullivan’s SEXCAPADES and Howard Winters’ STAR ANGEL, his abilities seemingly deserted him whenever employed by Findlay, for whom he wrote the dire PRODUCERS “pornification” LIQUID A$$ET$ as well as the supremely silly THE ORACLE, one of her weakest non porn, ultra low budget horror entries.

Following the death of his father, painfully shy David Preston (a subdued Jerry Butler) finds himself pressed into duty as new chairman at the Glitter advertising agency, a task he’s clearly not up to as brow-beating bitchy exec “MS.” Benson can’t resist pointing out when they first meet. Cursed with an oh so ’80s loose perm, the incomparable Marlene Willoughby has a field day camping it up, effortlessly hijacking each of too few scenes she’s in. Too bad her sole sex scene, with fellow fornication film veteran Ashley Moore, proves such a damp squib, sabotaged by sloppy editing. A chance encounter with old buddy and prodigious ladies man Brad (Christopher Reeve lookalike Michael Knight) and the introduction of a temperamentally contrasting modeling team at the office push David down the road to assertiveness. Kelly Nichols shines as protective, dyed in the wool Marcie, looking out for innocent little Amy (the late, lamented Shauna Grant at her most rigidly guarded), who naturally falls head over heels for her equally awkward employer. Newfound romance gives him the strength to stand up to his controlling harridan of a fiancée Paula, played with lip-smacking relish by Tish Ambrose, unfortunately done few favors by the make up department here.

Not wholly unexpected, the effervescent Nichols turns in the movie’s hottest sex scene with hunky Knight in the back room of a bar in front of a crowd of onlookers. Tiffany Clark, who could act up a storm on those few occasions she could be bothered (as in Shaun Costello’s excellent HOT DREAMS and Sullivan’s underrated NASTY GIRLS), appropriately phones it in as the complacent company secretary. A more zaftig than usual Rhonda Jo Petty fleetingly appears as a slutty cocktail waitress, just long enough for a snappy ladies room screw with Knight. My esteemed virtual friend Casey Scott informed me that Petty’s minimal screen time was the result of Findlay’s disenchantment when the coked out starlet showed up on set without knowing her lines, which resulted in her part being drastically reduced ! A totally gratuitous health spa sequence does deliver two of my personal favorite unsung performers, enthusiastically engaged with lucky Mike. Alexis X is the short-haired redhead who only did porn for about a year and was perhaps most memorable in Sullivan’s uneven BABYLON BLUE. Her platinum co-hort’s Athena Star. She would rack up supporting credits till decade’s end, culminating in her sole female presence in Mark Reynolds’ gay porn classic BEST FRIENDS.

Production’s predictably polished with Findlay filling her own DoP slot as per usual. Stepping down from his solid achievement on Sullivan’s superlative DEVIL IN MISS JONES 2, soundtrack composer Barry Levitt really pours on the syrup and, yes, shudder oh ye music lovers, there is indeed a title song ! Set design remains bland but befitting whenever it sticks to the traditional boardrooms and bedrooms but drops the ball badly whenever something more elaborate is called for. The bar for instance, supposedly a hot ‘n’ happening place where the city’s movers and shakers come to mingle, looks like a seedy down-market dive instead. Even worse is what they came up with for Butler’s daydream “inspired” by the ad campaign for Sheik! perfume, when he imagines himself as Rudolph Valentino ravishing (Shauna’s almost touchingly inept impression of) Vilma Banky, and both sets and costumes appear to consist entirely out of drapes !