THE DIRTY MIND OF YOUNG SALLY (1973)/TEENAGE BRIDE (1975)
Directors: Pete Perry (as "Bethel Buckalew"), Gary Troy
Something Weird Video/Image Entertainment

In the annals of exploitation cinema, there are not many redheaded sex sirens. Ann-Margret, Dagmar Lassander, Brigitte Skay, Tara Strohmeier, and a few others have developed cult followings. But none of those steamed up the drive-in screens more frequently than Harry Novak standby Sharon Kelly. What a career Sharon has had! Beginning with Harry Novak films including SASSY SUE and A SCREAM IN THE STREETS, receiving the equivalent of a big-bust actress Oscar by appearing as SuperCherry in Russ Meyer's SUPERVIXENS, and continuing in exploitation classics before graduating to hardcore under the nomme de porn "Colleen Brennan," Sharon has dropped out of sight since the late 1980s. But she has left behind a number of superb sexploitation gems in her path, including two preserved here on a SWV double feature.

Before there was Howard Stern, there was "Dirty Sally McGuire" (Ms. Kelly), a pirate radio DJ who operates out of a run-down old van run by her loyal sidekick Toby (George "Buck" Flower). Both work regular jobs at the local radio station, but in their off-time broadcast sexy music with Sally turning on listeners with quivering masturbation sessions. Sally and Toby are chased all over California by the state police, and decide to put on over on the fuzz by broadcasting Sally having sex with an unsuspecting police inspector!

OK, so there's barely a semblance of a plot in this flick. It's one hell of a fun movie, especially considering it's a Harry Novak film, packed with borderline hardcore sex that tends to get boring at times (the film runs a very long 96 minutes, in sexploitation time a magnum opus!)! Some of the beachside sex orgy is very good, well-shot with handheld camera, and featuring sexploitation pixie Sandy Dempsey, she of the sexy overbite and the butterfly tattoo on her thigh; Angela Carnon (from BOOBY TRAP, and actually a very good actress) is featured in a later sex scene. There's also a funny scene between a virgin girl and her horny boyfriend that finally decide to screw after hearing the radio show, and additional humor is present in the form of the bumbling police force. But the real star of the sex scenes is Sharon Kelly, who has several all to herself, including an unexpected back-of-the-van romp with George "Buck" Flower!! YECH! Her large, beautiful breasts get maximum exposure, she indulges in an out-of-left-field catfight at her office, and even though Sharon's acting abilities would improve with the years (she's not bad here, just not as whacky as she would become), this early feature of hers is still a great spotlight for her winning, sexy personality. There's even has a theme song called "Dirty Sally," recorded by some country-rock group with Sharon Kelly actually in the studio with them shouting dialogue! A highly recommended sexploitation mini-masterpiece!

The fullscreen transfer of DIRTY MIND OF YOUNG SALLY is colorful, but not as gorgeous as other more vivid Novak transfers on previous SWV discs (COUNTRY CUZZINS, PLEASE DON'T EAT MY MOTHER!). There is a fair amount of grain and white lines every once in a while, but it's a great transfer for a no-budget sex romp. The mono audio is, like many SWV discs, too quiet when it comes to dialogue, but the music is pumped up to enjoy the "sexy music, with love" from Dirty Sally.

After basking in the orange-tinted charms of "Dirty Sally", be prepared to be blown away by not one, but TWO redheaded sex queens: Sharon Kelly AND Cyndee Summers, one of the earliest hardcore porn starlets. They play the two women in the life of chubby greaseball jerk Charlie (guess he has a thing for redheads). He's married to Sandy (Summers), a cutie with sparkling eyes who hates his guts and forces him to eat frozen dinners because she can't cook. Charlie's so sick and tired of her bitching and moaning he begins shacking up with busty neighbor Marie (Kelly), who has sweaty sex sessions with him almost every night. But Sandy's no faithful wife herself, as she takes no times making the moves on Charlie's young college student stepbrother Dennis, who stops in town for a few days on his way to Florida. To make things even stranger, Charlie's cute blonde secretary has the hots for her boss! Don't worry, there's plenty of sexual intrigue to go around, especially after Charlie hires an alcoholic private eye who schtupps his secretary in the office to catch his wife in the act of adultery to get a divorce!

Despite the cool exploitation title, there is no TEENAGE BRIDE in this sexploitation tale of marital bliss gone sour. But that doesn't matter, it's a cool, sexy, funny flick with nice photography (even some dolly shots!), excellent editing during the pretty good sex scenes, and a great soundtrack by Vic Lance (who also scored YOUNG SALLY). If that isn't enough reason to see it, there are some good boom shadow shots, Summers gives perhaps the performance of her career (which continued into her 40s in hardcore films), you can see nasty pimples on Charlie's legs during sex (icky!), a fat hippie gas station owner in far-out colorful clothes who looks like Michael Pollard and talks like Cheech Marin, and almost non-stop "hard" softcore sex, the Novak way! By the Novak way, I mean unattractive guys and drop dead gorgeous women knocking boots like they just don't care. But even better than that, if you thought you couldn't get more up close and personal with Sharon Kelly after YOUNG SALLY, think again! Tight close-ups of her melons being continually squeezed into butter, dangling like pendulums, and her rosy pink nipples, and of her blazing red pubic hair make this the ultimate pre-porno Sharon Kelly appreciation movie! Cyndee Summers ain't no slouch, either. While other sexploitation queens matched a certain type (Sandy Dempsey the goofy girl, Rene Bond the girl you take home to mom, Sandi Carey the shy girl, Angela Carnon and Becky Sharpe the sophisticated debutante, Candy Samples and Uschi Digart the MILF), Summers was the cheerleader you dreamt about in high school. Her winning smile and perfect body made her a real draw considering most of her contemporaries, and she was not a bad actress, either.

The fullscreen transfer for TEENAGE BRIDE is much sharper and more colorful than that of YOUNG SALLY. There is still a fair amount of grain and white lines infrequently popping up at reel changes, but this is a very good-looking transfer. The mono audio is quiet during dialogue scenes, but loud and bombastic during sex scenes!!

Kicking off the extras is a batch of trailers, beginning with those for the feature films. The YOUNG SALLY trailer is just as funny and sexy as the feature film, and as usual for Novak previews, features alternate takes of dialogue and sex scenes, as well as snippets of sex that didn't even appear in the finished film!! See rare Sandy Dempsey, Angela Carnon, and Sharon Kelly footage! TEENAGE BRIDE's trailer features deleted and alternate takes of Cyndee Summers and Ms. Kelly, and scrapped extensions of dialogue and expositional scenes. DON'T JUST LAY THERE is an incredibly graphic trailer for a regional sex romp probably originating from New York City. A redhead fools around with a dildo, two lesbians frolic in a haystack, a female stripper has sex with a thin male dancer in front of a black curtain, and the plot seems to be about a private investigator. Remember the slow-motion scene in Franco's BARBED WIRE DOLLS where the actors pretend to be in slow-motion? It was done here first!! Where did this one disappear to, it looks fascinating and the sex is hot!! THE EXPERIMENT was a painfully low-budget hardcore film shot exclusively for engagements at the Dragon Art Theatre. The young blonde woman who introduces the trailer will be familiar to you as the woman who flashes her boobies in the rapist-beating scene in Al Adamson's ANGELS' WILD WOMEN!! I've seen three of the four other women before, and the dark haired one actually wearing clothes definitely appeared in other softcore fare. Just wish I remembered her name!! And pay no attention to the supposed "plot" explained by the women, it's offered on video from Something Weird and apparently it's a completely different movie!! The narrator says the sex scenes are "R-E-A-L...REAL!". FEMALE FACTORY (which might be SURFTIDE FEMALE FACTORY, directed by Lee Frost) is a bizarre one. A stud worker at a mannequin factory takes part in orgies with mannequins come to life (?!). Dummy arms and legs figure into the sex...um, OK...... One girl tells a co-worker to "Screw off!" before screwing her grossly obese boss on the leather sofa in his office. Both PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD'S and ITALIAN STALLION are trailers for the same movie, the infamous skinflick that marked the film debut of superstar Sylvester Stallone, who was reportedly paid $100 for this thing. It's a boring flick, but I've only seen the softcore version. There is reportedly a hardcore version but this may be inserts by different actors...I want to see it regardless! Look close at the PARTY trailer, the woman who opens her fur coat in the dead of winter in Central Park to flash her nude figure at Sly Stallone is none other than Findlay regular Marie Brent aka Janet Banzet, in possibly the last film she shot before her suicide. She looks miserable here.... The music in the PARTY trailer is outtasight! The final preview is for the infamous THAW THE FRIGID BIRD, another graphic sex film with an appearance by she of the gargantuan bust Uschi Digart, the undisputed queen of the Double DD's! It has an unsexy love scene with a nasty bald guy and his "secretary" on top of a desk, followed by the steamy Uschi bedroom scene where she really gets into it! When was she never into it?! I think this film is missing, which is a shame because it looks to be a highlight of Uschi's career; she even has a lesbian scene. It looks ultra-cheap, which is a major plus, and was shot with live sound apparently! As a special treat when accessing the trailers, select "Play All!" and hear Dirty Sally welcome you to the trailer show!

The only other video extra is a short called "Bad Girl in Black Boots," shot on a living room set with a mini-chested vixen with a big hairdo, garish eye makeup, and luscious pink lipstick stripping and prancing for the camera. She wears black leather boots and red see-through panties during the entire short. It's kinda boring, eventually she just decides to roll around on her bed till the camera runs out of film. She finally takes off her panties, but it's not worth waiting for. Two galleries are included, one of Harry Novak pressbooks and promotional posters with tunes like "Midnight Plowboy" playing over the images, the other of Harry Novak promotional photos and stills with Novak radio spots. Nothing new here, I'm afraid.

Sharon Kelly, wherever you are, your legion of fans greatly appreciates your contributions to the exploitation genre. Your always smiling visage was a welcome alternative to other starlets of your day. God bless you and your flaming hair. (Casey Scott)

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