SEA CADETS is almost completely useless, a prime example of the "loop carrier" - a flimsy narrative established to bookend sex scenes re-purposed from silent loops.
Aforementioned frame device consists of two guys sitting on a couch, with one ostensibly telling stories of sexy adventures from his naval training. As far as my eye could tell, he never appears in any of the loops, nor are they narrated with his voice. The film does engage in some limited "Oh yeah, suck it"-style overdubbing delivered in a creepy whisper, but mostly everything stays silent, wallpapered together with a throbbing disco soundtrack. For anyone interested, the loops are identified and dissected in detail at the Gay Erotic Video Index.
The version I viewed initially, which only ran about 50 minutes and appeared to be taken from an old video, started with credits and a beginning to the wraparound, with the Navy boyfriend hopping on the couch with his lover (who is either future gay sex star Derek Stanton or his dead ringer) and beginning to talk. By contrast, the version released by Alpha Blue Archives, taken from a very splicey 16mm print but showing marginally better sharpness and detail, picks up directly in the first loop, making it disorienting when the film returns to the couple later.
The big plus to the ABA release is that it runs about 11 minutes longer and features a well photographed and executed sexual encounter (with sync sound!) between the couple on the couch. The footage from the loops, by contrast, while featuring a plethora of very attractive men, is marred by the creepy overdubbing, and retains a strange, airless quality that never lets the viewer forget it was originally silent. While this recycled material is certainly enough to meet a viewer's needs (eh-hem), the only thing to really write home about is the final encounter, which carries real weight and has some passion to it. Beyond that (and even featuring a heavy- hitter like super-stud Jack Wrangler in the reused footage), SEA CADETS is listless grinder fodder, for die-hard completists only.
Aforementioned frame device consists of two guys sitting on a couch, with one ostensibly telling stories of sexy adventures from his naval training. As far as my eye could tell, he never appears in any of the loops, nor are they narrated with his voice. The film does engage in some limited "Oh yeah, suck it"-style overdubbing delivered in a creepy whisper, but mostly everything stays silent, wallpapered together with a throbbing disco soundtrack. For anyone interested, the loops are identified and dissected in detail at the Gay Erotic Video Index.
The version I viewed initially, which only ran about 50 minutes and appeared to be taken from an old video, started with credits and a beginning to the wraparound, with the Navy boyfriend hopping on the couch with his lover (who is either future gay sex star Derek Stanton or his dead ringer) and beginning to talk. By contrast, the version released by Alpha Blue Archives, taken from a very splicey 16mm print but showing marginally better sharpness and detail, picks up directly in the first loop, making it disorienting when the film returns to the couple later.
The big plus to the ABA release is that it runs about 11 minutes longer and features a well photographed and executed sexual encounter (with sync sound!) between the couple on the couch. The footage from the loops, by contrast, while featuring a plethora of very attractive men, is marred by the creepy overdubbing, and retains a strange, airless quality that never lets the viewer forget it was originally silent. While this recycled material is certainly enough to meet a viewer's needs (eh-hem), the only thing to really write home about is the final encounter, which carries real weight and has some passion to it. Beyond that (and even featuring a heavy- hitter like super-stud Jack Wrangler in the reused footage), SEA CADETS is listless grinder fodder, for die-hard completists only.