Dark Secrets (1995) is a soft core released direct to video. Monique Parent is a reporter trying to dig up dirt on a wealthy businessman who is rumored to be involved in prostitution, extortion and a secret S & M club. Among his women are Julie Strain and Lori Wagner. As Parent gets to know the millionaire, she falls for him, and is left with a decision -- write the story and become famous, or stay with him. There are several scenes in the S & M club where we see lots of unknown female flesh, and a hot girl/girl with Strain and Parent. Former Pet Wager has sex with a senator while the millionaire tapes it for blackmail.

Parent and Strain show all three Bs, and Wanger shows breasts and buns. IMDB readers have this at 4.2 of 10. Assuming that this DVD is a poor transfer, there are lots of interestingly lit scenes, and it may have looked great when made, but the transfer is not at all good. The plot is also week, but we can't argue with the amount of flesh. C-.

Movies 'n Stuff:

Summer Lovers (1982)

The big question related to this film is this - whatever happened to Valerie Quennessen? Her two young co-stars, Daryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher, went on to be mid-level stars. Valerie disappeared altogether. Without a trace. For years.

She made this movie (August 1982 release) and Conan the Barbarian (May 1982 release), did some French TV work about the same time, and then seemed to disappear from the face of the earth. As of 1997, nobody in the world seemed to have any information about her whereabouts in the previous 15 years. Then this story appeared in the newsgroup alt.obituaries in June of 1998:

...a while back I became acquainted with one of the cast members of the
charming 1979 flick FRENCH POSTCARDS who had told me one of his co-stars, the
French actress Valerie Quennessen (who later appeared in SUMMER LOVERS and
CONAN THE BARBARIAN) had been killed in a car crash close to ten years ago.
Later, I heard that the crash had taken place sometime in March of 1989, and
that she had two children who survived her.

All of the other sources I encountered were based on this same anonymous, unverified, a-guy-told-me-that-his-brother-told-him-and-it's-really-true report.

One more clue turned up. IMDb recently unearthed a 1989 credit for Quennessen

Based on the IMDb listing, I guess she must have been alive in 1988 or 1989, and she must have been attempting a mini-comeback for some reason or another. Nobody seems to know what she was doing between 1983 and 1989. The fact that she has no further credits after 1989 seems to offer no refutation of the theory that she is dead but, frankly, at this point it is nothing but a theory.  She has no IMDb credits from 1984 to 1988, and she apparently wasn't dead then, so the recent gap doesn't prove she is dead now. She likes to disappear. She went underground and disappeared for six years in the 1980's, so she obviously is intensely private, and she may have done it again. It is reasonable to argue that the best way to keep people from looking for her would have been to have someone declare her dead.

So ... who knows?

I believe we are still waiting for the real story to emerge. I won't tell you she is still alive, but neither will I be surprised if she is. I do know this. It would make a great project for an investigative reporter, and it would make a great movie. Why did she disappear for six years? Why did she make her brief 1989 comeback? What happened after that? Did she really die, or did that comeback convince her that she needed to get away from showbiz forever?

Here is the best bio of Quennessen I could find, but it basically stops in 1982, except for one sentence repeating the auto accident rumor.

As for the movie. It was the only full-length film in Randall Kleiser's career which he wrote and directed. After this attractively photographed movie, he was still in demand as a director, but he was asked to leave his scripts home. Kleiser is no Marty Scorsese, but he can still work as a workmanlike director-for-hire, mostly for TV and "B" movies. In 1998, for example, he directed Shadow of Doubt, the film where critics questioned the casting of Melanie Griffith as a brilliant defense attorney.

I think Summer Lovers effectively demonstrates his career strengths and weaknesses. As far as I can tell from the pan-n-scan DVD, he did a capable but not imaginative job in the director's chair. In the writing capacity ... well,  the story isn't so bad, but the characters are superficial and the man could not write dialogue at all.

It is a film with great pluses and minuses. The greatest minus is the acting, which is sub-high school level, closely followed by the dialogue and characterization, which are genuinely uninteresting and superficial. The greatest plusses are: gorgeous and exotic Greek locales, and a truly monumental amount of nudity. I couldn't get into the characters or story at all, and you can consider the film an "E" if you see it on broadcast TV with the nudity removed. If you see it uncut, however, the beauty of the bodies and the scenery make it a solid watch. You can fast-forward through the insipid dialogue and make it a solid hour of hot cinema nudity. Call it a C for the whole, uncut package.

Rip-Off Alert: featureless DVD which only has a pan-n-scan version "modified to fit your screen". Do not buy.

• Daryl Hannah thumbnails
• Daryl Hannah (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• Valerie Quennessen thumbnails
• Valerie Quennessen (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
• miscellaneous thumbnails
• miscellaneous (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

Updates:

• Updated volumes for: Emmanuelle Beart, Sandahl Bergman, Halle Berry, Annette Bening, Monica Bellucci, Brenda Bakke, Brigitte Bardot, Priscilla Barnes, Kim Basinger, Marianne Basler, Michelle Bauer, Jacqueline Bisset, Romane Bohringer, Rene Bond, Traci Bingham, Lisa Boyle, Lare Flynn Boyle

Other crap:

• an academic analysis of J-Lo's nipples
• interview with funnyman Will Ferrell
• The so-called "Canada" is a hoax
• Pennsylvanians picket proposed ban on French Fries. "You can take away the champagne, the existential philosophy, The Three Musketeers, and the lace underwear, and we will get by. But without the French fry, life in the Keystone State will not be worth living."
• the winners of the BAFTA awards (British AcademyAwards). They nominated the same five films for Best Picture as the Americans, and chose The Pianist as the winner. They chose Polanski as Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman won the acting awards, as expected. Christopher Walken was the Best Supporting Actor. The public also got to vote for their favorite movie, and Lord of the Rings was the winner.
• Tiger Woods doesn't win. Finishes three strokes back, contemplating lessons and/or suicide. (Woods did fire a 65 in the final round, so he had those lads thinkin' about him)
• The Sun said it best, "RANDY old blokes who bought tickets for The Blue Room are demanding seats nearer the stage after realising that Tracy Shaw bares all." With picture.
• see the "what're the odds" section for a comparison of Grammy winners to betting favorites.

What're the odds?

Scoops;

Long ago I capped "Death Ride to Osaka" aka "Girls of the White Orchid" from VHS. I now have DVD caps which differ mainly in that they are larger.

On the first set, I decided the unidentified girl was Jenny Dubasso and so far no-one has told me otherwise, so I identified these the same way. If anyone knows better, let me know.

• Yvonne McCord (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Jenny Dubasso (1, 2)

Today the time machine takes a trip to 1988 and a visit with "Action Jackson".

First up Vanity in scenes with bad guy Craig T. Nelson (shame on you "Coach") as she goes topless and gets a little needle action.Then Vanity in cleavage shots with the action man himself Carl Weathers.In the final 2 caps she winds up tied up as a "Damsel in Peril".

Then it's on to a very young looking Sharon Stone who does a very hard to see scene in a steam room. Then Sharon is murdered by her husband (Nelson). Warning on the last two caps, breasts but a very bloody scene.

• Sharon Stone (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Vanity (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)