“Celebrate a Strange Aesthetic”

Party Doll a Go-Go! Parts 1 & 2 (1991) are not what I was hoping for out of Stephen “Rinse Dream” Sayadian. They’re on par with his substandard Nightdreams sequels being that they were shot on video and are much smaller in scope than his cult 80s films, retaining all of the sex, but none of the plot or bizarre, unsettling imagery — a giant, floppy tongue protruding from a wall of flesh, for example, or a humanoid rat seducing a housewife in front of her three adult babies, who are cavemen. They’re closer to porn vids than actual “movies”, yet still pretty far off from what you’d expect of those too.

What makes them unusual is how often they cut away from the meat and potatoes to crooked shots of the female performers delivering absurd, highly quotable dialogue directly into the camera. This dialogue, bits of which often repeat, is a blend of sexual euphemisms, similes, nonsense, profundity, and 50s/60s references that could only belong to an uncredited Jerry Stahl AKA “Herbert W. Day”. Nowadays, it’s normal for porn stars to break the fourth wall. Back then, it wasn’t. The talking is supplemented with dancing (60s crazes such as the swim) and a scene of Jeanna Fine biting at a dildo dangling from a wire like a fishing lure. Hmm, I guess that visual is kinda bizarre.

The women each have a unique look and name. My favorites are Echo, Tantrum, and Jezebel. They also have total awareness, omniscience. Though no more than two are ever in frame at one time, implying they’re in different locations, they can see and talk to each other, and us. They even do so while mating. It’s mentioned in passing that they’re asleep. The sex scenes are their fantasies (most of Sayadian’s titles have this premise). The women use these fantasies to play a friendly game of one-upsmanship. As one or two put on a show, the rest watch and critique it. The dialogue is their commentary. Fittingly, everything takes place in some nightmarish, sparsely-furnished, quasi-outdoor environment at the edge of reality, where time and space function differently. Fences, fake plants, and netting border the sets. Beyond that is infinite darkness. Ropes and chains connect random objects. A garden hose winds across the ground.

Double Vision returns with a schizophrenic score that alternates between surfy and jazzy. It incorporates covers of famous songs, chirps, gobbles, moos, elephant trumpets, slide whistles, screams, Fred Schneider-esque shouts, chants of “oh baby”, and other unconventional sounds. The opening theme is just Heart’s “Crazy on You”. I also hear the James Bond theme. It gets really strange forty minutes into Part 2.

The tone of these videos starts out fun, hence the title and all the balloons on the covers, but mainly due to the score, gets progressively weirder and darker. In this instance, the covers are a good indicator of what you get — women in bright, solid colors gazing into your soul. One even wears opera gloves. There is guy-on-girl action and girl-on-girl action — no anal, or anything too gross or degrading, besides a moment in Part 1 where Tianna lingually probes every nook and cranny of Madison‘s fart box and another in Part 2 where Madison dildos Bionca‘s. I always misread her name as “Bionica”, which would be great for a cyborg assassin. A highlight is when the very human Bionca tries to return the favor by fucking Madison from behind with her big, erect nipples. The women are enthusiastic and seem to enjoy themselves. Jeanna Fine is especially vocal. As a result, the sex is pleasing compared to the half-conscious movements in Nightdreams and robotic performance art of Cafe Flesh. It’s eroticism over roboticism, to a point. If you’re strictly looking for something to crank to, however, you’ll probably find yourself asking What the Hell is this?

Another thing these titles have in common with the Nightdreams sequels is that they were shot concurrently or back to back and could have easily been combined, but were stretched out to just over an hour apiece minus credits, making them feel more like halves than separate wholes, similar to how video game publishers withhold content so they can sell it for additional cost as “DLC”. The laserdisc of Part 2 even calls it “the second half”. They’re basically the same thing with the pairings switched up. I know most pornos are short, but I wouldn’t spend money on these unless they came packaged together, like the out-of-print DVD I held off on buying for years. I’ll give them a passing grade for catching me in a generous mood.

Since it would be be hard to review them without breaking them down lick by lick, thrust by thrust, below are a ton of screenshots with quotes in rough chronological order. They’re not safe for work. Or home. I’ll eventually circle back for the Cafe Flesh sequels and Dr. Caligari. If you know where to watch Untamed Cowgirls of the Wild West Parts 1 & 2, or feel like sending me copies, please leave a comment. Stay slippery ✌️