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on the (increasingly rare) phenomenon of a video store's "mystery" section being a repository for soft-core pornography

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how often do you see this anymore? it used to be standard practice that "mystery" was a euphemism for "playboy's angels of the night" and such.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

i remember once realizing that my local video store had a whole huge porno backroom i'd never seen before. it was like a dream where you're in your house and it's not really your house because there are these huge rooms you've never noticed before.

ONLY ALL TOO REAL

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Bruce Willis' ass in "Color of Night" to thread

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

hey it said "NEW GERMAN CINEMA"

― n_RQ, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

haha

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

i associate this trend with the pre-DVD era. also with sundry post-blockbuster chains that (in chicago at least) have come and (mostly) gone: "hollywood video," "west coast video," etc.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

i still don't understand how blockbuster itself survives; i haven't stepped inside one for a decade or more.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

When I was a kid the video chain my family went to distinguished between "Thriller" and "Naughty Thriller".

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

Also "Comedy" and "Seexy Comedy" (which, if I remember correctly, was mostly 'Ski School' sequels)

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

"new german cinema" = "schoolgirl report"?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

I don't understand either! Berkeley has two quite transcendent independent video stores and yet people always go to the depressing Blockbuster on the corner next to Jamba Juice, with all of those Ernest Goes To BlahBlah DVD inserts faded by the sun!

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Isn't Hollywood Video nearly as big as Blockbuster?

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

reel does much better business than that blockbuster

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, reel is always jammed, but reel is the best video store on earth and it is only 3 or 4 blocks away!

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Although Reel may not have the soft porn mystery hookup, I'm not sure.

I'm hoping they have SANTA SANGRE in tomorrow evening.

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

Amateurist I think you are thinking of the enormously popular "erotic thriller" genre that had B-list Playmates getting their kits off in the midst of some voyeur-centric plot, usually involving creepy husbands and handsome private investigators. I picked up this info from reading the backs of the boxes of course.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

yes that's precisely what i'm thinking of! but often video stores with classify these simply as "mystery" or "thriller" and you would have to take the hint. although occasionally hitchcock films would be interspersed amongst the other titles for good measure. i think the genre you describe is one of the major legacies of hitchcock actually!

chicago has like one or two good video stores, maybe. hard boiled is nice if tiny and very specialized, specialty on clark is pretty good, earwax is very good. facets is theoretically a great video store but in practice their indifference/incompetence makes me mad and i completely avoid it.

the branches of hollywood video around here closed a while back, and good riddance.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

facets is like kim's (and that other one in manhattan, what's it called, tla?) except joyless and overpriced.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

My homegirl Shannon Tweed to thread! (Seriously, we grew up in the same town. Not at the same time, mind you.)

― Huk-L, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

I remember renting an "erotic thriller" one time in high school, assuming I'd be drawn into this adult world of beautiful women having sex constantly, occasionally with each other, whilst manipulating a hapless schlub of a P.I. Alas the only mystery was how a guy as uncharismatic as Jeff Conaway got laid perpetually by Shannon Tweed.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

i think reel has actual porn, I believe I saw some.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

oh

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Brian DePalma is a "master" of these.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

it was like a dream where you're in your house and it's not really your house because there are these huge rooms you've never noticed before.

i've had this dream!

(is alan's alley in nyc still open? great great store.)

― metal detective (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 June 2005 06:58 (twenty years ago)

my first awareness of video-store porn was my local mom 'n' pop store's large collection of swedish erotica tapes, right out in front for anyone to rent.

EVEN BEFORE THERE WAS VIDEO, THERE WAS "SWEDISH EROTICA"
With millions of volumes sold world wide for over twenty years, "SWEDISH EROTICA" is the most successful film and video series of all time!!

In the early 70's Caballero was a small start-up company, specializing in filming and distributing hardcore adult "stag" movies. It was an unenlightened era, with uncontrolled censorship permanently closing most adult businesses. Caballero, however, persevered, grew, and prospered. But it really became an overnight sensation when they decided to produce a new 8mm film series called "SWEDISH EROTICA". This new series showcased the most exciting and salacious stars of that time.

John Holmes, Seka, Aunt Peg, Desiree Cousteau, Serena, and countless others performed their most erotic scenes for these early subtitled home movies. But with the advent of video and the personal VCR, Caballero's success was meteoric. Hundreds of scenes were shot and released to a grateful world of aroused viewers and serious collectors.

― metal detective (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:11 (twenty years ago)

they had all the emanuelle movies too.

― metal detective (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

sorry, emmanuelle.

― metal detective (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

...or the "special interest" section, which apparently means "fly-fishing instruction" and "filmed wet t-shirt contests."

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 17 June 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)


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