THE GOVERNESS is a slight departure (only slight) from formula for French pornographer Marc Dorcel, in which the usual audience sympathies are inverted. With hot sex delivered I enjoyed the switch.
Horst Baron is the best actor in Dorcel's stable, and is quite convincing as a villain (who also happens to handle the sex scenes well). Here he becomes the pathetic protagonist, confined to a wheelchair and mistreated (mildly, this is not an s&m exercise) by the gaggle of beautiful women who are usually Dorcel heroines.
By focusing on just three main characters, director Toni/Tony Del Duomo creates some welcome tension and solves the problem of these video features becoming overlong or tedious due to throwing in both sex and story elements. The simplicity and streamlining are the solution. I ended up liking this video almost as much as Del Duomo's best work, MADAME.
Both superstar Melissa Lauren and tantalizing Regina Ice fill the title role. Melissa is the mean, bossy governess to Horst, ordering him around and not letting him enjoy the simplest pleasures, e.g., reading his porno magazines. He's the employer, but this is clearly a domination relationship with ML in control.
Regina arrives at the mansion (I've seen it, with its well-kept gardens and grounds, a dozen times in Dorcel productions) as a live-in nurse to take care of Horst and gradually asserts herself. The video revolves around the power struggle between the two women, with a predictable but satisfying conclusion.
To keep the porn pot boiling, Del Duomo has the usual lengthy cast of sex performers, only here they are incidental -doing their XXX thing but not needing any characterizations or back stories like the three principal players.
An unscrupulous doctor is shtupping Melissa when he should be taking care of Horst, and besides his beautiful assistant there are other attractive women introduced in fantasy sequences. Use of fantasy helps, as Horst eventually imagines himself able to get up out of the wheelchair and do what porn actors do best.
Lauren is convincing as a villainess, and her uninhibited sex scenes are up to her high standard. I liked Ice a lot, and have enjoyed her work in other Dorcel efforts, notably CASINO, NO LIMIT.
Another Dorcel stable director Hervé Bodilis gets a special thank you credit for a scene featuring Sophie Moon and Zaphira, demonstrating how Dorcel, rather than the individually credited helmer, is the auteur.
