Vixens from Venus (3 Stars)

This is a film from the Retromedia company directed by Sal V. Miers. I vaguely remember him appearing as an actor in two of the Medina films, "Bikini Time Machine" and "Bikini Warriors". He only had a small role in the two films. I'm surprised to see him return to Retromedia as a director. This is the third of three films that he directed last year, but the first that I've seen.

For 10 years, from 2002 to 2012, Fred Olen Ray, the owner of Retromedia, made the softcore porn films himself, using the alias Nicholas Medina. They were an easy way to make money, needing only a couple of days filming on a minimal budget, after which they were hired for broadcasting by the Cinemax cable channel. This led to them being referred to as Skinemax films, although Fred preferred to call them bikini films. Just to confuse matters, I call Fred's erotic films the Medina films. After 32 films (or 33, if you include "Tomb of the Werewolf") Fred's heart wasn't in it any more. He said that the bikini films had run their course. Dean McKendrick, the film editor for most of the Medina films, stepped in to take over as director. I've watched the first 14 films that he made from 2013 to 2015, and he seems to be imitating his boss. There's a smooth transition from the Medina films to the McKendrick films, with the same actors and the same music being used.

This can't be said of Sal V. Miers, based on the evidence of this one film. The only actor, or rather actress, that he uses from Dean McKendrick's films is Erika Jordan, although she's credited with her name spelt "Erica". The music is very different, recent pop tunes rather than the soft jazz we're used to from the Medina and McKendrick films. Sal is going his own way, rather than following the direction of his predecessors at Retromedia. I don't know what has happened behind the scenes, but it seems to me that Sal was shopping around for a production company where he could make erotic films, and Fred Olen Ray was the first to offer him a new home. This is Sal's own film; he doesn't even use Dean McKendrick as film editor. I'll be able to say more, or at least be able to make a better guess, after watching Sal's two other films.

Sal V. Miers as seen in another film.

The film starts with a cheapskate punter hiring a prostitute, taking her to his room when he only has $50 in cash, half her normal rate. He should go to Birmingham. He could pick up a crack whore for £10 (less than $14) at Small Heath Park. The prostitute foolishly accepts the money when she sees the size of his Schwanzstucker. When he's finished he refuses to pay at all. He reveals that he's an undercover cop -- maybe he should be called an uncovered cop -- and she's under arrest for prostitution. That's interesting. Prostitution is illegal in both America and England, but the laws differ in a subtle way. In England it isn't illegal to be a prostitute, but it's illegal to hire a prostitute, which means that only the customers of prostitutes are punished, not the girls themselves. This is a very useful law. It means that if a customer mistreats a prostitute by beating her she doesn't have to be afraid to go to the police because she's done nothing wrong. In America the law comes down hard on the weakest, the poor girl who's working hard to make a living. That's why the policeman in the film can arrest the prostitute; in England he would be arrested and she would walk free.

However, the policeman immediately offers the prostitute a deal in exchange for going to court. Very suspicious. It seems like he never intended to take her to prison. He's a corrupt cop looking for leverage to blackmail a woman, probably receiving a commission for each woman he captures. He takes her to a laboratory where she meets two other women who are in the same position. A scientific team tells the girls that they've made contact with intelligent life on Venus. The Venusians want to come to Earth by transferring their consciousness into the bodies of three humans. The scientists have been searching for volunteers. The Venusians have insisted on the humans being beautiful women. That's a good reason for not going to Birmingham; the whores who gather at Small Heath Park are so ugly that I don't understand how their customers can get it up. They must be desperate. So what happens to the three girls while the Venusians are occupying their bodies? Their consciousness will be uploaded to a computer database on Venus and returned after a week. "What could possibly go wrong?" At this point a year in jail would have looked like a good alternative to me, but the girls all agree.

When the beings from Venus,  Zonondor, Zorax and Zimbabwe, are downloaded into the bodies of the three girls, we see that they have evil motives. They want to siphon the intelligence from the scientific team and reduce them to mental simpletons. They do this by having sex with them. I wonder if this is a natural ability of all Venusian females. There must be a lot of stupid men on Venus. I would have seen a feminist message in this, except that one of the scientists is a woman and the siphoning works on her as well. My regular readers know that I strongly support feminism, so I see this as a missed opportunity.

The only man who is spared by the Venusians is the laboratory's janitor, Charlie. He isn't intelligent enough to be worth their effort. On the other hand, even though he's not intelligent as far as school education is concerned, he's smart enough to see what they're doing. He asks why they've taken the scientists' intelligence, and they explain to him that on Venus they're afraid of Earth people because of their evil natures, and so they want to remove the intelligence of anyone capable of developing space travel. Charlie asks if he can have the intelligence that they've taken from the scientists if he promises not to use it for space travel. He'll use his new brain power to find ways to feed starving children and heal sick puppies. What a good man! The Venusians gladly agree to his terms before returning to their own planet.

As you can see from the photo, Charlie is played by a black actor, Brandon Greene. This is another new step for Sal V. Miers (must I really use his middle initial every time?) Fred Olen Ray and Dean McKendrick have always used an all-white cast.

P.S. The three girls were successfully given back their own bodies without suffering any brain damage, enabling them to return to their life of prostitution. At least there's a happy ending.