Something Weird Video presents

Sweet Georgia/Country Hooker (1972/1974)

"Shut up and lay me!"- Georgia (Marsha Jordan)

Stars: Marsha Jordan, Rene Bond, Sandy Dempsey
Other Stars: Barbara Mills, Gene Drew, Ric Lutzke, Chuck Lawson, Maria Aronoff
Director: Edward Boles, Lew Guinn

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nudity, sexuality, language)
Run Time: 02h:31m:43s
Release Date: 2005-03-01
Genre: cult

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
C	C+	B-	B-	B-

 

DVD Review

Harry Novak Presents.

Those three words harken back to the good ol' days of late 1960s/early 1970s sexploitation filmmaking, when sex, violence, and various sorts of depravity were the golden rule.

Novak was one of the master manipulators, a cinematic P.T. Barnum promotional wiz and sharp-eyed businessman with a sense for what the left-of-center mainstream film crowd was hungry for. Something Weird has always treated the man like the genre legend he was, and this latest offering of lurid Novak-produced Box Office International sleaze is referred to on the cover as a "Deep South Double Feature", and both titles are chock full of near-graphic sex below the Mason-Dixon line that is far more revealing than the soft-core stuff offered today on late-night cable.

Sweet Georgia
01h:19m:24s
Directed by Edward Boles

This may have been Boles' only film (exploitation or otherwise), but it is truly a morals-busting doozy. Sex-crazed nymphomaniac and busty blonde Georgia (Marsha Jordan) may be married to the abusive, greasy, and violent Big T (Gene Drew), but naturally that doesn't stop her from bedding down with just about every other character in the film, including her free-spirited stepdaughter Virginia (Barbara Mills) and hunky farmhand Cal (Chuck Lawson, who resembles an odd cross between Neil Young and Jay Leno).

The sex is frequent, long-lasting and almost unduly excessive, as if Boles and Novak didn't really have much else for the characters to do other than disrobe and go at it. The coupling between Georgia and Virginia, which occurs during a late night campfire, is about as close as Boles gets to high art here, and most of the sex is shot with strange closeups of bumping flesh. A subplot about a goldmine goes nowhere, but things pick up after a main character gets stomped by a horse and another gets a pitchfork rammed through his chest. The twangy guitar music is a bit grating, but Jordan and Mills are attractive women, and Novak has Boles fully utilize their natural talents.

Country Hooker
01h:12m:19s
Directed by Lew Guinn

Like Boles, this was Guinn's only directing gig, and while not as thematically racy as Sweet Georgia, it does feature the same hearty amount of genre required sexcapades, all led by a trio of women, including adult film star Rene Bond. Bond and pal Sandy Dempsey play a couple of honky-tonk prostitutes (the titular country hookers) working for a pencil-thin moustached pimp who controls the action out of a dumpy country bar. Bond and Dempsey get hired to put out, and put out good, for a pair of aspiring musicians—the reasons are very vague, and I was never clear how forcing wild sex on the two guys was really going to be a deterrent to anything.

There are a lot of oily, generally unlikable characters in Country Hooker, but that's a requirement for one of these titles, and even when a woman gets strangled to death, it seems that a dose of some bad country music will make everything all right again. As in Sweet Georgia, Novak has Guinn load this film with barest minimum of plot and goes well beyond the recommended daily requirements for bare breasts and well-lit sex.

While it's true that a Novak film might not be high art, as pure, unadulterated genre trash it has all the right stuff.

Rating for Style: C
Rating for Substance: C+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: Both color features are presented in 1.33:1, and neither look brand new, but that's to be expected; they probably didn't look all that good when they were new. If you want bright, oversaturated lighting for your movie sex, these prints have that, and things almost reach the point of seeming translucent. Nicks and scratches abound, but splices and age-related edits are negligible.

Image Transfer Grade: B-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
Mono	English	no

Audio Transfer Review: English mono, with a modicum of hiss (noticeable in spots) well within acceptable limits for these two sleazy early 1970s sexploitation titles.

Audio Transfer Grade: B- 

Disc Extras

Static menu with music
Scene Access with 21 cues and remote access
2 Original Trailer(s)
8 Other Trailer(s) featuring Dr. Carstairs' 1869 Love-Root Elixir, Marsha The Erotic Housewife, The Daisy Chain, The Divorcee, College Girls, Office Love-In, The Head Mistress, Lady Godiva Rides
1 Documentaries
1 Featurette(s)
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extras Review: The extras will make all the Marsha Jordan fans woozy, because it's Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, with a wealth of grindhouse trailers and a couple of nudity-filled shorts, too.

Marsha Jordan's Swinger Party (10m:34s) is a black-and-white suburban orgy, featuring a cast of odd-looking people eventually losing all their inhibitions in a tiny living room, and Candid Nudist Views No. 3: An Afternoon with Marlene (15m:35s) is a slightly fuzzy old 8mm mail order title, features Jordan relaxing by the pool without a stitch on.

As is typical of Something Weird, the extras also feature the Gallery of Harry Novak exploitation art and photos, in which all the hip and lurid movie art and nekkidness gets paraded out.

Sweet Georgia is cut into 12 chapters, while Country Hooker gets nine.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

As purely titillating sexploitation sleaze, both of these titles deliver what they promise, and then some.

Harry Novak had a real knack for that.

Rich Rosell 2005-03-09