Odyssey _sitkaman repost.txt
This was the 353rd post made to abdec. It was posted by Studly Gearhead on February 11, 2005.
I don't have any of the original NFO or cover files that might have posted with this film.
Produced in 1977. English. Run time of 1:18:11. DVD size of 3950.559232 MB.
This is an VCX NTSC DVD.
Posted July 14, 2015 by sitkaman.
IAFD Data
http://www.iafd.com/title.rme/title=Odyssey/year=1977/odyssey.htm
Odyssey (1977)
Also Known As: Odyssey: The Ultimate Trip
Distributor: VCX
Compilation: No
Director: Gerard Damiano
Minutes: 86
All-Girl: No
All-Male: No
Actresses
C.J. Laing [Facial]
Ellyn Grant [BJOnly]
Gloria Leonard [LezOnly]
Leonie Mars
Linda Maidstone [BJOnly]
Nancy Dare [BJOnly Facial]
Samantha Fox [MastOnly]
Sharon Mitchell [Facial]
Suzanne McBain (as Susan McBain) [Facial Shaved IR]
Victoria Corsaut (as Valerie Adami) [LezOnly]
Vanessa del Rio (as Vanessa Del Rio) [IR]
NonSex Performers
Candy Short
Celia Dargent
Eva Henderson
Debbie Revenge (as Ginjer Martin)
Mousiendi (as Mouscianda)
Hope Stockton (as Nellie Thompson)
Sandra Blast
Crystal Sync (as Sandy Long)
Sue Bright
Terri Hall
Actors
Bobby Astyr
David Morris [BJOnly]
Gilbert Palmitier (as Gil Perkins)
Herschel Savage (as Paul Hues)
Peter Andrews (as Pepe)
Philip Marlowe (as Philip Marlow) [BJOnly]
R. Bolla (as Richard Bolla) [BJOnly]
Tony Mansfield
Wade Nichols
NonSex Performers
Boris Smith
Don Peterson
Gerard Damiano
Michael Gaunt
Comments
Scene Breakdowns
Scene 1. Sharon Mitchell, Tony Mansfield
Scene 2. Ellyn Grant, David Morris
Scene 3. Nancy Dare, R. Bolla
Scene 4. Samantha Fox
Scene 5. Leonie Mars, Herschel Savage
Scene 6. Linda Maidstone, Philip Marlowe
Scene 7. Gloria Leonard, Victoria Corsaut
Scene 8. C.J. Laing, Suzanne McBain, Vanessa del Rio, Bobby Astyr, Gilbert Palmitier, Wade Nichols
Scene 9. Suzanne McBain, Peter Andrews
VHS Rear Cover Description:
Vanessa Del Rio leads a strong superstar cast of adult entertainment's all-time greats into a wild plunge down the bottomless abyss of sexual abandon. See sex in all its most erotic form as only Gerard 'Deep Throat' Damiano can make it. This classic films is crammed full of steaming non-stop sex, peering deeply into the private sex lives of professional adult stars as you've never seen them before!
DVD Rear Cover Description:
Gerald Damiano's masterpiece has framed each erotic sexual act so as to entice the most prudish taste. Terri Hall & Susan McBain are caught up in a world of multi-abstract erotica-experiencing a world of extreme wanton pleasure-which includes bondage, lesbianism, voyeurism and masked sexual orgies.
XCritic Review:
http://www.xcritic.com/review/19964/c.j.-laing-odyssey/
Odyssey
XCritic's Advice: Recommended
The Movie:
Scene One - David Morris And Sharon Mitchell: In a dark corner of an even darker room, Sharon drops David's pants to suck him off. The catch? She's dressed as a man and he's dressed as a woman. It's an odd scene, with Herschel Savage watching from the dark, and the darkness makes it very difficult to make out the details of what exactly is happening, but it's interesting even if that interest comes mainly from the technique rather than the action. At any rate, after he's hard she gets on top of him and rides him cowgirl style, before heading down and finishing him off with her mouth again.
Scene Three - Nancy Dare And R. Bolla: With both parties wearing strange clear clown facemasks, you know this one is going to be odd. She takes her mask off first so that she can give Bolla a blowjob, and he seems pretty happy about that, after all, she's a nice looking girl. He spreads her legs and eats her pussy next, just to be fair, before she goes down on him one more time and ends up taking his wad in her face.
Scene Four - Linda Maidstone And Philip Marlowe: A brief blowjob scene in which she sucks him off, but the camera doesn't cover the end, or the money shot.
Scene Five - Gloria Leonard And Valerie Adami: These two cuties lovingly and tenderly touch each other in the dark, before Gloria goes down on Valerie and starts licking away at her swollen clit.
Scene Seven - C.J. Laing, Suzanne McBain, And Wade Nichols: So is this! These two girls double-team Wade's cock. They suck him off together and take turns riding his dick doggy style. C.J., sporting a studded leather collar, deep throats him and then both parties sort of merge into one mass of mutual fucking and sucking.
Scene Ten - Suzanne McBain, And Pepe: Laying atop a massive silver bed the two lovers come together. She's clad in white lingerie, which she leaves on as she gives him head. Soon he gets on his back and she climbs up on top of him and rides him reverse cowgirl style and that's how they both finish.
While this is very much a hardcore DVD with insertion and penetration shown in plenty of detail, the soft lighting and the shadows give the presentation an air of class that makes this a decent venture for couples into vintage fuck films. It's not hot and heavy all the way through and some of the scenes are quite brief and a little on the softer side than most modern pornography is, Damiano puts a lot of care into setting up the sex and providing some moderately believable emotion into his scenes, that is to say, there's no grudge fucking or degradation here, and you could almost be convinced that some of these people care about one another, even in the raunchier scenes like the orgy in the club.
The DVD
Video:
The film was shot on 35mm film stock and so it has a nice, high level of detail that shot on video porn sadly lacks most of the time. Great care was obviously taken in the shot compositions and the movie exhibits some really nice cinematography. Some of the lighting could have been a little brighter but even the darker scenes exhibit some truly artistic compositions. Quality of the transfer on this DVD is quite good, without any compression artifacts to report and only some slight edge enhancement. There is some minor print damage present but it's never enough to distract from the onscreen action. The image is presented fullframe and it's unknown whether or not this was the original aspect ratio intended for the film, but compositions seem to make it through alright.
Sound:
The English Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack is just fine without much to complain about in the way of hiss or distortion. Levels are balanced nicely and the background music never overshadows the sounds of sex or the dialogue. There are a couple of scenes where a line or two are a tiny bit low in the mix but this is more to do with the conditions of the original shoot than with the audio mix on this DVD, as even on the VHS releases of this title in the past they've sounded that way.
Extras:
Extras are limited to trailers for New Wave Hookers 5, Shock and The Devil In Miss Jones 6, a photo gallery consisting of twenty or so images from the film, an internet link and some phone sex commercials.
Final Thoughts:
Gerard Damiano made more movies than just Deep Throat and it's nice to see some more of his material surfacing on DVD even if the presentation could have been better. This is a well made and erotic adult film that benefits from a recognizable cast of golden age performers which earns a solid recommendation with the caveat that it probably won't appeal to people only familiar with gonzo or more modern style of porno.
jayo review on adultdvdtalk.com:
http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/review/odyssey-vca
Odyssey (VCA)
Studio: VCA
Category: Classic
Directed by: Gerard Damiano
Starring: Vanessa Del Rio, Susan McBain, Hope Stockington, Eva Henderson, Ellyn Grant, Bobby Star
Released on: 1/10/2006
jayo's ratings for Odyssey (VCA):
Overall Rating 3 stars
Odyssey (VCA) overall rating 3 stars
Female Looks Odyssey (VCA) Female looks rating 4 stars
Male Looks Odyssey (VCA) Male looks rating 3 stars
Sex Odyssey (VCA) Sex rating 2.5 stars
Plot/Acting Odyssey (VCA) Plot/Acting rating 3.5 stars
Extras Odyssey (VCA) DVD Extras rating 1 star
Audio/Video Quality Odyssey (VCA) A/V Quality rating 2.5 stars
Worth $15.00
Reviewed by jayo on 1/5/2008
Gerard Damiano's Odyssey
Studio: VCA Classics
Stars: Richard Bolla, Nancy Dare, Sandy Long, Michael Gaunt, Celia Dargent, Gloria Leonard, Samantha Fox, Linda Maidstone, Sue Bright, Susan McBain, C.J. Laing, Vanessa Del Rio
VCA running time: 76:30 (IMDB running time: 82 min)
This is one of the first porn movies I ever saw. Not the first, but the first one that really made an impact on me--so much so that I remembered it some 25 years after I first saw it.
This is also the strangest feature I've seen. Porn features are typically just a series of sex scenes linked together with enough filler to make them all interrelate somehow, but the sex scenes are all just masturbation fodder.
Odyssey is more of an art film than porn. It has explicit sex. Hardcore sex and cumshots. But the sex scenes serve to drive something more than simply arouse.
The problem is--what?
The movie is broken into three unrelated acts. "The Beginning," stars Nancy Dare and Richard Bolla as an estranged married couple. Bolla is introduced onto some kind of strange fantasy world of porn, and ends up having porn-movie sex with his wife. I think.
"The Middle" features Gloria Leonard, Samantha Fox and Linda Maidstone in a bit about two women discussing their sex lives to a therapist. One complains that her husband doesn't get her off, but then segues to a vignette about how she needs to be degraded and objectified to be pleased. Gloria Leonard talks about picking up girls for lesbian trysts.
and then "The End," which stars Susan McBain as a nude-model and wannabe actress who's burned out and beaten with life, and unable to break out of the dark place she's found herself. This portion includes a nightmare fantasy with an appearance by Vanessa Del Rio. VDR now gets top billing and a photo on the DVD covers, but she's really on in this for a few minutes.
This is a tough movie to review. I wouldn't exactly call it erotica because I can't imagine pleasuring myself to this movie; but it's an interesting move to watch. It was made in 1977 when these things were shot like real movies, and it has a good enough budget that they spent good money on art direction and cinematography. Viewers with modern tastes will hate the relatively short scenes, and while the sex action is explicit, it isn't nearly as long, as brightly lit, or as in-your-face as modern movies. It's far more dreamy and moody, less explicit, and definitely dark. Several scenes are lost in shadows, particularly the Gloria Leonard lesbo piece in the middle.
The movie's other highlight (along with the photography) is the music. This doesn't have the typical porn score of the 70s. The music varies with the scene, and includes (and ends on) the beautifully melancholic "Sleepy Shores." You don't see that in your typical porno.
So what the hell is this movie about? I can't quite figure it out. The New York Times says it's about "societal taboos in a series of dramatic and graphic vignettes exploring sexual guilt and repression. Sketches feature clothing fetishes, sadomasochism, homosexuality, and alternative paraphilias." Uhh---maybe. I don't really see it. To me it seems far more about a journey through the world of porn, where "the beginning" is the first realization and the shock of discovery, "the middle" is discovering what it is that gets you off and what doesn't, and "the end" is burnout and cynicism and a longing for escape.
Or maybe it's not. The IMDB listing says it's 82 minutes. My VCA DVD edition weighs in at 76:30 including the end titles, so it seems some time has been cut. I remember enough from the first time I saw it to know that some of it is at the end, because the ending has changed (and if you wouldn't otherwise notice, listen to the hard edit of the music in the final scene in a movie that's otherwise pretty fluid). It's possible that other little bits may have been snipped here and there. Would they have made the movie a little more coherent? I don't know, but I'd like to have seen it in its full form.
As far as this DVD version goes: I haven't seen this movie since I originally saw it on VHS so many years ago; I don't know how well or poorly VCA did with the transfer. I think a couple of scenes are just too dark and might have been improved in the transfer. I am pissed by the missing 6 minutes. And VCA divides this movie into a whopping 6 whole chapters, which seems chintzy at best.
Final verdict: as far as porn goes, I don't like it. It's not erotic, it's a downer. There are a couple of good scenes but I don't think it's satisfying. As an art film about sex--it's better but it leaves something to be desired. Even with the missing 8 minutes, I get the impression this movie probably was meant to be an hour longer and got cut already, and it would have made a lot more sense in its fully-realized form. It's choppy, it's vague, it's obviously attempting to do something but nothing ever seems to gel. It's full of dream logic, and in a dark, downbeat study, that just doesn't work.
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