Chamber Maids (1974)
X 03 Apr 1974 • Adult, Comedy • 1h 11m
IMDb buries the lead, identifying this as a 3-D movie, certainly possible but highly unlikely, unless the depth of vision process was being applied to gynecological vagina close-ups for a change. I can't imagine 3-D and a 1-day-wonder in the same breath -that makes no sense whatsoever.A usual cast of NYC stalwarts is assembled, capable at both exemplary humping and acting - still a difficult combo of talents to acquire in one's thespian tool-kit. Film's style most closely resembles the work of Richard Mailer, though any number of NYC helmers could have been responsible for the anonymous result, and producer Leonard Kirtman frequently hired this set of performers.Typical musical-chairs but bedrooms farce, far from the great French dramatists like Moliere or Guitry. It is naturally set in a hotel where maids Valerie Marron (redhead) and Mary Stuart (haircut as if auditioning to play Joan of Arc) decide they are so underpaid (probably true of not just their characters but the actresses themselves) they might as well start servicing the guests for a bigger payoff.This sets in motion a comedy of errors and mistaken identity that is hardly worth chronicling or even summarizing, but is fast-paced, well-acted, and loaded with the necessary triple X content. My favorite '70s porn starlet Leslie Murray pops up as a newlywed, looking great as usual, with a sandy-haired young Eric Edwards, early in his feature career (post-loops). Eric delivers three money shots, the last one perhaps faked or doubled per the choppy editing of an otherwise nice print used for DVD transfer, but he is oddly stoic and even bored-looking while having sex. Perhaps he was still between who-cares loops and Sarno/Findlay stardom. Rest of the cast is more animated, as substitutions (Marron drops out of the film early on, a bit cryptically but not harmfully) and impersonations multiply. Some of the central gimmickry revolves around Levi Richards, a hotel guest satisfied with one of the maids who arranges a party later that night, to impress his big client Jeffrey Hurst and get latter to sign on the dotted line. Hurst's better half Andrea True visits the hotel, is mistaken for a maid while wearing a disguise (ugly wig and dark glasses), and later even Leslie Murray gets confused for a maid causing no end of complications.After a very large number of sex scenes (many cross-cut for variety), the confusion gets sorted out in whirlwind fashion in the final reel, leading to a very satisfying ending closeup of Levi staring in disbelief at what his minor foible has wrought, and a most diverting little triple-Xer comes to a halt.Major drawback in this otherwise entertaining piece of fluff is the musical track, which has three songs, one a sax solo, another Wes Montgomery style guitar piece plus a fairly lame imitation of Tijuana Brass doing "Look of Love", all 3 stretched beyond all comprehension. Each one is played between five and and eight times (I lost count), pure torture. The last time I heard such a stunt of repetitiousness goes back to my youth - Tom Clay, a great Canadian deejay at CKLW in Windsor Ontario used to play the Rolling Stones cover of "Mona" off their debut British album over and over (this was 1964), sometimes all night long, and the hypnotic sound has stayed with me ever since.
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English
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United States
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