Adam and Nicole (1975) User Reviews

Reading of a will with a twist...

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 6 April 2016]

EROTIC INFERNO is, as the title would suggest, an erotic drama filled to the brim with wall-to-wall softcore sex scenes. It's also a distinctly adult-flavoured movie, with aforementioned sex feeling rather rough and no doubt inspired by the adult roughies that America was making during the decade.

The film was helmed by one Trevor Wrenn, a former protégé of Jose Ramon Larraz, and he certainly brings some atmosphere to the establishing shots, few that they are. Jonathan Gershfield wrote the script under the pseudonym Jon York, and has latterly turned to directing himself and is still working today in TV on the likes of BIG TRAIN and TROLLIED.

The storyline is one of those 'reading of the will' type tales in which various parties congregate in a rambling old house to find out who's about to inherit a fortune. Use of natural lighting throughout means that the whole thing's pretty dark and grubby, but the grubbiest thing is in the attitudes towards women; as the scheming brothers, Chris Chittell (EMMERDALE's Eric) and Karl Lanchbury spend their time abusing and pushing the women around, particularly in the unappetising sex scenes.

Said actresses include SEX EXPRESS starlet Heather Deeley and the late Mary Millington as lesbian lovers, alongside various other assorted down-to-earth performers. GRANGE HILL's Michael Sheard has a one scene cameo too. Bizarrely, for a film with so much sex, none of it is erotic whatsoever, there's no inferno of sorts, and indeed it's all very cold. A bit of a depressing film overall.

If this is hell, who would ever want to go heaven?

[lazarillo · 13 August 2009]

After learning of their father's death, two nasty, bickering brothers, "Martin" (Christopher Chittel) and "Paul" (Karl Lanchbury), descend on their father's estate where they find themselves locked out of the main house by their father's unpleasant butler/procurer "Adam" until the will is read. While they wait in the guest house, all three men amuse themselves by having a lot of swinging 70's sex with the sundry available women including "Adam's" casual girlfriend (Jenny Westbrook), "Martin's" fiancée (Jeannie Collings), and the lovely young stable lass (Heather Deeley) with a very jealous lesbian lover (Mary Millington). But there's a very big surprise in store for everybody. . .

The male characters in this movie are all unlikeable jackasses, but then they're played by actors (Chittel, Lanchbury) who really specialized in portraying unlikeable jackasses. The female cast is pretty impressive for a softcore British sex flick. Jenny Westbrook was a kind of homely girl with a great body. Heather Deeley was a very attractive girl with a great body (she later appeared in "Diversions", easily THE most disturbing hardcore porn movie to ever come out of a Britain). Mary Millington (who also has a great body, of course) was literally a British sex legend in her own time (although she's credited as "Mary Maxted" and dubbed in this early role). But perhaps the most beautiful girl here was newcomer Jeannie Collings. This movie is kind of like an American "roughie" or a Japanese "pink" movie in that all the women, if not actually raped, are often treated pretty roughly. (So if all your personal sex fantasies involve nothing but scenes of loving, respectful monogamy, you probably will want to avoid this).

The director Travis Wren was a protégée of the Spanish/British "Eurotica" director Jose Larraz. Like Larraz Wren doesn't have much gift for comedy, but then thankfully he also didn't cast a bunch of over-the-hill Brit "comedians" to mug their way through this so the prudish, hypocritical British audience of the day could pretend they were NOT simply watching a raunchy sex flick. This pretty much wears its raunch on its sleeve. Like with many Larraz films, there is perhaps TOO MUCH sex here, but rather than the sex scenes being interminably long, they're instead laughably numerous (When Mary Millington plays a movie's most monogamous character, that REALLY says something!). Not for everybody, but you know you are. . .

The smell of horses drives Chris Chittell crazy, but Heather Deeley just wants to feel as good as she smells in 'Erotic Inferno (1975)'.

[gavcrimson · 10/10 · 31 January 2003]

SPOILERS INCLUDED

Erotic Inferno is based around a 'reading of the will' scenario. When Old Man Barnard, a millionaire, is reported drowned at sea his gold digging sons come sniffing around for their inheritance. Youngest son Paul phones the bad news to Brother Martin who greets it with 'the silly old buggers kicked the bucket at last'. When these playboy brothers finally find their way onto the Barnard family estate they renew an old enemy in Adam-their father's square jawed butler. He tells them the Barnard mansion has to remain locked and bolted until the will is read,begrudgingly all three will have to stay in the neighbouring farmhouse over the weekend. Adam regards the pair with contempt-and they don't think highly of him either. Unbeknown to him Adam is Old Man Barnard's illegitimate son-a fact Paul and Martin are determined to keep from him. Secretly they fear the whole inheritance will go to Adam. With their privileged lifestyles hanging by a thread the Brothers Barnard decide to go on a lusting spree,pursuing all the women in the vicinity in the hope that one of them might know where Adam has hidden the keys to the mansion. Their final aim?-to break into the mansion and destroy any evidence of Adam's heritage. The women,like Martin's fiancée Brenda,seem to be on this dirty weekend purely to wind up in forceful sex scenes that border on rapes. While the average scene between Adam and his unfaithful girlfriend Nicole involves him slapping her around the face and screaming at her. Adam treats horses with more respect than his girlfriend.

A brief respite from all the face slapping and clothes ripping is provided by a sub-plot concerning a pair of lesbian stablegirls played by Mary Millington and Heather Deeley-two of the most raunchiest and ultimately most tragic of British sex film stars. Deeley's character is a bi-sexual flirt who catches the lustful eye of the Barnard men-much to the annoyance of her possessive girlfriend (Millington) who's being driven up the wall by Deeley's sexual zig-zagging. Cornering Deeley in the stable Martin feeds her the chat-up line-'the smell of horses drives me crazy'-which she rebukes with-'in that case you're not my type'. Later Deeley tells Millington-'I want to feel as good as I smell'-which presumably means not smelling of men.or horses. Erotic Inferno offers Heather the most exposure outside of her porno extremist tour de force in Diversions while brief appearances from a sour faced Millington shooting dirty looks at her male co-stars are a jarring contrast to her later onscreen persona. For all of Millington's peeved expressions,scenes of the two women embracing make up virtually all of Erotic Inferno's genuinely caring moments. A subversive touch for a film that often seems to get as carried away on male dominance kicks as its protagonists.

Erotic Inferno's co-producer was Bachoo Sen a cinema-manager who seeing the success of sexploitation films firsthand decided he'd have a bit of the action himself. Sen was the kind of producer who'd drive crew members home himself rather than hire a taxi. Considering these shoestring origins,director Trevor Wrenn does a first class job here-turning out arguably the finest film from the Sen Stable. A former cameraman on Jose Larraz's horror films-Wrenn shares the Spaniard's eye for using rural English settings to picturesque yet quietly sinister effect,all the while building the tension between essentially unlikeable characters as they sweat it out and scheme behind each others back. At times it's like you've been locked in that farmhouse with them.

Ultimately-the core of the film pits the thuggish Adam against the cunning,roguish Martin. Will Adam get what's rightfully his?-Or will Martin convince Nicole to help destroy her boyfriend's heritage? As Adam, Michael Watkins is quite terrifyingly,genuinely conveying the sense that his character is becoming more agitated with each passing scene. In contrast Chris Chittell's Martin treats the whole caper as a debauched lark. Completely full of himself-its beyond Martin's thinking that Nicole wouldn't want to help him after all the great sex he's throwing in her direction.

Romping around naked and hissing filthy dialogue Chittell comes across as a seasoned hardcore performer. Which seems appropriate as that's exactly what he became soon after-acting under the name 'Charles Canyon' in several hardcore features. Chittell did all the sex films out of financial necessity and eventually reinvented himself in the comparative safety of a TV soap opera. For more than a decade now Chittell has entertained audiences by playing a more socially acceptable,toned down for primetime television variation on Martin Barnard. Actually Chittell comes across as being good natured about his stints as a sex film stud-jokingly shrugging off mentions of these films by claiming it was either rob a bank or take what was on offer. Chittell has even been known to discuss Erotic Inferno on afternoon talkshows-no doubt leaving daytime audiences flabbergasted by admitting not all his sex film credits were this softcore.

While there are a few light spots like when Paul gets trapped under a bed,what stays with you from Erotic Inferno is its hostile atmosphere which runs throughout its sex scenes and onto its punchline-that in turn offers a surprise last minute of the spotlight to Old Man Barnard (Tony Kenyon-in his customary dirty old man role). It turns out the old man had faked his own death, all along he's been hiding out in the mansion having a merry old time partying with a couple of blondes and putting back several bottles of wine. With his big moustache,intoxicated demeanour and smoking jacket Kenyon resembles a stag movie caricature of a depraved Victorian. In a sadistically funny irony Adam had only been aiding and abetting a practical joke being played out on him. Fuming he storms off into the night then finds Nicole is leaving him for-'her boyfriend'-Martin.

With its memorable leads and marriage of graphic sex to a compelling storyline driven by its characters hatred of each other,Erotic Inferno is one of the best British sex films-albeit the most mean spirited.