"We are all the gutter," Oscar Wilde famously quipped, "but some of us are looking at the stars." This quote inspired the title of Fatboy Slim's 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. And “Halfway between the gutter and the stars" is an apt description of the charming "classic" adult film, Blue Magic.
Blue Magic is well-crafted porn with artistic leanings. Too explicit to be mainstream, it nonetheless manages to be earthy and frankly erotic without being crude.
Blue Magic is directed by Larry Revene and features Samantha Fox, Veronica Hart, Ron Hudd, Josie Jones, Merle Michaels, and George Payne. Its top-billed stars are Jack Wrangler and Candida Royalle. Candida Royalle also wrote the original screenplay.
According to her website, candidaroyalle.com, Ms. Royalle "first came into the public eye for her internationally acclaimed line of erotic films from a woman's perspective. Innovating the concept of ‘couples erotica,’ she created Femme Productions, Inc. in 1984 in order to produce adult films that spoke from a woman's voice." Blue Magic doesn't seem to be in the Femme Productions online catalog. Still, Royalle's feminist-porn cred is impeccable.
The concept of couple’s erotica isn't clearly defined. I suspect it assumes a heterosexual couple, with a highly visual male turned on by lots of nudity and graphic sex, and a female who's turned on by the sex, but also wants some romance, with characters who care about one another. This film isn't likely to interest same-sex couples; there is only one all-woman scene. However, it’s a good choice for straight couples (with traditional sex roles or otherwise), and for female or male solo sex. And Candida Royalle's script does a good job of combining sweet action with an intelligible plot.
Blue Magic isn't perfect, but it does have a number of good features. Set in the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, when prototypical autos shared the road with horses, it features believable sets and costumes. Note, especially, the turn-of-the-century underwear. The appeal of corsets and the old-fashioned bustier has long been apparent, but who knew that pre-nylon, knee-high knitted stockings were so enticing? The acting is decent, and the actors have natural, non-surgically-enhanced bodies.
The protagonist is Natalie Woodhurst (Royalle), the sole inhabitant (except for a butler and chambermaid) of extravagant, mysterious Woodhurst Castle. Natalie invites three men and four women to spend the weekend at her castle, though she doesn't tell them exactly what to expect.
Her guests are Sarah and Bart, a young married couple; three single women named Jenny, Loretta, and Maria, and two single men, Richard and Matthew. Matthew Getty is there with an ulterior motive. He's the junior partner at Wood and Getty's Investigators, a private detective agency, and is determined to discover and report what goes on inside Woodhurst Castle. He's sure that Natalie is up to no good.
All of Natalie's guests soon discover that Woodhurst Castle is a charming, inviting home, decorated with fresh flowers. After all of the guests meet and socialize (without their hostess), Andrew the butler takes them to their rooms to unpack before dinner. Sarah and Bart do more than unpack, taking advantage of their time alone to demonstrate sizzling marital sex.
What Natalie's guests do not realize, however, is that Natalie has stolen one item from each of them. She's a witch– though a benevolent one– and uses their stolen items as charms to cast spells on them. Natalie Woodhurst is over 200 years old, and maintains her immortality with her sexcapades.
At dinner, Natalie seems the perfect hostess. Afterward, however, Natalie retreats to her room, and the guests find that their passions are aroused. Richard and Jenny play a non-regulation game of (naked) backgammon in the library, while a cat-like Maria joins Loretta and Matthew's full-contact waltz in the parlor.
Other highlights include one of the lucky women donning leather boots and dominating two guys at once, saddling one of them and riding him across the floor. The final scene is a sizzler, in which Natalie and all of her guests – even the reluctant Mr. Getty – participate.
Choose "Scene Selection" from the DVD menu, and you'll find a "Memo from the Producers." It reads, in part: "It is the wish of the producers that you watch this film in its entirety, without flipping through the scenes, or fast-forwarding through the story." Respect the wishes of the producers, and this film will pleasantly surprise you.
DVD Avenue subscribers can find Blue Magic under "Classic Adult" and "Straight."
Originally published August, 2008