Directed by George O’Conner
Starring Michael Pataki, Eve Orlon, Sandy Dempsey
Release Date: April 4, 1975
72 Minutes/Color

Nerdy songwriter Mark Markson (Michael Pataki) is getting nowhere fast. To give him a boost, his “with-it” friend Biff invites him out to the wilds of Los Angeles. While he tries to get into the swing of things, Mark’s naive romanticism does not bode well for his chances of making it in sinful SoCal. It’s not until he meets his muse, the equally sweet-natured Mary Jane (the impossibly charming Eve Orlon), that he feels the urge to compose again. But, will the impressionable Mary Jane resist the pull to dive into the heady world of sex and rock-n-roll, and will she take Mark down with her?

A spritely little comedy of cultures clashing, A TOUCH OF SEX almost didn’t see the light of day. Filmed as a softcore romp in the early 1970s, a theatrical release was not immediately forthcoming. It wasn’t until 1975 when hardcore inserts were added that the film finally made its way to audiences. While it’s good to know that George O’Conner’s film did finally get a dusting off for distribution, the hardcore inserts hinder the comedic pace of what is a quite a witty film. It’s a shame that a soft cut has not yet emerged for home consumption, as the available hard version acquires a disjointed visual style from this meddling. It’s a shame, because what remains of George O’Conner’s farcical film is a lot of fun.

Most of the humor comes from Mark’s bemusement at the debauchery going on around him. A recurring gag is a foursome of horny rich hippies who appear at the most opportune moments to temp Mark away from his carnal reticence. At the center of this group is the always delightful Sandy Dempsey. Dempsey would come into her own as an actress on a contemporaneous project, Chris Warfield’s LITTLE MISS INNOCENCE in which she gives a truly sinister performance. She isn’t given anything much to do here but to be pretty and naked, but she does both nicely and has screen presence for days.

A lot of the jokes come off well, mostly because the cast, Pataki in particular, are game for it. Some of the punchlines don’t quite land, but the attempts are always endearing, and the comedy that does go well is laugh-out-loud funny.

After a few reels of Mark trying to make himself less uptight and more interesting, with amusing results, the film ends the way one might expect. This denouement comes right out of the blue, however. Perhaps the final act was cut back to make room for all the hardcore shenanigans, but the character development that was inching forward so nicely suddenly shifts into turbo and it hurts the film. Still, the finale is so over-the-top and ridiculously funny that I think we can excuse any narrative chasms that may have yawned along the way.

The film is awash with just about every familiar face of that era of exploitation filmmaking: Rene Bond, Eve Orlon, Sandy Dempsey, Cyndee Summers, Candy Samples, Jane Tsentas, John Paul Jones, John Keith, Sandi Carey, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Ric Lutze all appear. (I must have blinked, because I missed him.) It’s hard to tell from the extreme close-ups, but one assumes that most of the inserts were filmed much later, and likely by other performers. Cyndee Summers, though, did do her own “stunt work,” as she is seen quite clearly in several shots.

This hardcore re-working may have been a source of consternation for Michael Pataki. Pataki had already enjoyed a long career in film and television, beginning in the late 1950s. As A TOUCH OF SEX re-emerged as a porn film, he was a regular on the high-profile Get Chrissie Love TV series, so he was likely pleased to have used a pseudonym for this project. His smattering of appearances in naughty films, and even directing the softcore CINDERELLA in 1977, seem to have not had a deleterious effect, as he remained a film and TV mainstay for the rest of his life.

While not a masterpiece of adult filmmaking, I don’t think A TOUCH OF SEX was intended to be. O’Conner’s film strives to be bawdy and funny, and this it achieves. It’s a film that does exactly what it needs to do, and with a fair amount a heat. Hopefully a soft cut will emerge in time, so O’Conner’s original vision can be seen and appreciated with out the stream of jarring visits into the world of armchair gynecology.

-Johnny Stanwyck

A TOUCH OF SEX is available on DVD from Impulse Pictures. Early reels are a bit rough, but the widescreen presentation is generally quite pleasing and damage lessens as the film progresses.