UNVEILED (1986)
Director: Victor Nye
Vinegar Syndrome

Vinegar Syndrome brings us more Suze Randall with their DVD of the "what's good for the goose" treatise on marital infidelity UNVEILED.

Fed up with his "closet Victorian" wife Cindy (Krista Lane, SPY FOXES), lawyer Bob (Mike Horner, THE RIBALD TALES OF CANTERBURY) spends the afternoon with a prostitute (Patti Petite, FOR YOUR THIGHS ONLY). Also blueballed by his wife Julie (Erica Boyer, CHINA WHITE), Bob's pal Ted (Jake Scott, FLESH TONES) finally makes the move on his secretary (Alexis Greco, IRRESISTABLE II). When Julie finds a used condom in her husband's jacket (ewww), she seeks comfort from Cindy when the gals stay in to watch "Masterpiece Theatre" and the guys go out on the town. Bob and Ted boast of their extramarital exploits while simultaneously suggesting to each other ways to reinvigorate their marriages. The two decide to swap wives without their knowledge, creeping into each other's bedrooms and giving each other's spouses a surprise. When the wives find out the best sex they have had in some time was not with their husbands, they decide to get even. Following Bob and Ted to The Mask Club in disguise, they observe their husbands getting blowjobs from a waitress (Nikki Knights, BABYLON PINK 2). Julie willingly joins the floorshow with a leather-clad male stripper (Francois Papillon, TOO NAUGHTY TO SAY NO) while Cindy gets it on with another club stud (Jason Riley, WEIRD FANTASY). Julie and Cindy soon have Ted and Bob just where they want them, and turn the tables in a foursome in which the husbands have no idea who they are sleeping with; but what will happen when the masks come off?

Suze Randall and credited director Victor Nye (aka Randall's writer husband Humphry Knipe) seem to be channeling Ken Russell's CRIMES OF PASSION in UNVEILED's milieu of unhappy marriages and fantasy worlds of prostitution (the wig and costume worn by THE BACKDOOR CLUB's Taija Rae in her mime performance even recalls China Blue's look along with the neon and gel lighting, expressionistic shadows, and a few canted angles). The principal quartet all give good performances, with Horner providing the comic relief in his reactions to his wife's accounting of "their" romp the night before (working in alternative theatre on the side, Horner double during the club scene as a masked mime in a comic routine with Rae). The overall comic plot is not entirely successful but the sex scenes are as prettily shot as Randall's still sets and performed with gusto (Rae takes on FONDLE WITH CARE to fill out the action during the club scene). While a condom is used for one sex scene, it ends up functioning as a plot device; indeed "close inspection" reveals that it is ripped away with the reservoir hanging off to the side (presumably Randall had in mind to frame the shots so we would only see the base of the condom). Mai Linn (ORIENTAL HAWAII) is also listed among the party extras.

Restored in 2K from the original 35mm camera negatives, UNVEILED is given a colorful 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen transfer that is as crisp as Randall's style of photography allows (the business card for The Mask Club looks like it was hand drawn with a Sharpie), with the more controlled interior location scenes looking better than the exteriors. Grain is heavy enough that it may be a blow-up negative from 16mm like TOO NAUGHTY TO SAY NO. The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track is reasonably clean with clear dialogue and a little umph from the "original music" credited to Cinema Symphonies (the track during Papillon's striptease – in which he may be wearing the same leatherwear as in Randall's TOO NAUGHTY TO SAY NO – sounds familiar or it may just be similar to one of several library instrumentals from the time). Horner appears in a brand new interview (14:19) in which he recalls his move from the east coast to California and getting most of his work by referrals rather than agents, as well as his stage work. He discusses working with Randall in both the film and still sets, and her frustrating habit of telling her performers to hold their positions while she moved the camera and lights. He also briefly touches upon his memories of other performers (including reborn Billy Dee). The film's theatrical trailer (3:15) is also included. (Eric Cotenas)

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