Dirty Tricks 2

From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.erotica
Subject: 'Dirty Tricks 2' by John Leslie
Date: Sat,  8 Jun 1996 05:37:32 UTC
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Message-ID: <8344192514733@apollo>

REVIEW OF 'DIRTY TRICKS 2'  Eroticism, prostitution, money, sex.

This is the second tape in a series by John Leslie. The 'Tricks' in the
series title has to be understood in the same meaning as in 'turning a trick',
that is, the theme of the series is the interchange of sex and money. Other
than this thread, the 'DT' series is very similar to the 'Voyeur' tapes by
the same director. The camera is hand-held, and the action somewhat improvised.
In the credits for this tape two persons are mentioned (one Leslie himself)
as being in charge of lighting. Despite of this, lighting is a weak point
in some of the scenes, as is occasionally sound. The latter problem is
exacerbated by the difficulties of some of the participants with the English
language. In a few occasions, the dialogue actually lapses into Italian or
French. These are the minuses. The big plus is the inimitable style of
John Leslie, in my opinion the thinking person's favorite porno director.
Leslie understands sex, make no  mistake about this, he knows what turns
people on. He also knows how to explore the relation between sex and money,
desire and fantasy, and even sex and violence.

DT2 consists of six main episodes and some brief interludes in between. 
Except for the first one, the episodes are connected. Many of the participants
are the same, and there is a kind of a thread, not quite a plot but a
connection between the scenarios.  As to the performers, they are what
I would call semipros: some have appeared in other Leslie tapes, but few
are recognizable faces from other films. 

The first scene is Leslie at his best. We are told what it is that we are
seeing (it involves a man and two women)  but something doesn't seem right.
The man and the woman he is having sex with, (the other woman, who gets
paid at the beginning, watches and masturbates) are supposed to be a couple,
but they do not act like one.  For a while I thought the scene was badly
misdirected. At the end Leslie shows us that in sex movies, as in real life,
things are not always what they seem to be, and that the scene was acted
and directed correctly. I will say no more.

This episode is like an appetizer for the connected stories that follow.
We move on to a house where a man 'Carlo' is awakened by a couple who
are coming to visit. We have seen his face during the titles, where he
had a gun in his hand. Carlo's wife lets the visitors in. In the kitchen
there are two male friends of Carlo's. We slowly are told that the visitors are
husband and wife, and that the reason for their visit is ostensibly to
repay a debt (that is, for the wife to repay the husband's debt to Carlo with
her sexual favors). We soon suspect, and the behavior of the participants
later confirms it, that in reality the whole thing is probably set up to
fullfill a fantasy (the husband's or the wife's, it is for us to guess) and
Carlo is a prostitute.  It is Leslie's strength, however, that things are never
spelled out, we are nearly sure but not completely. There is a hint of desire
that could be apprehension in the wife's eyes. In any case the husband
hands Carlo some money (ostensibly partial payment on the debt, more likely
Carlo's fee). After that and some talk, Carlo fondles the woman
while the man watches. At one point Carlo's wife walks in and an
altercation (in Italian) begins during which Carlo slaps his own wife
(off camera) who retreats upstairs. The husband then leaves. Then Carlo
and his two friends (the ones that were in the kitchen) do the wife in
every possible way, in a very hot, long, four way on a staircase, well filmed. 

After this is over, there is a brief interlude, where Carlo asks one of his two
friends to murder his wife, apparently for interfering with business as shown
by the previous altercation. Then this friend mentions that his own girl
friend does sex for money. He explains that she did three French guys and we
get to see her doing it. It is a standard set up: a birthday party with two
buddies buying the services of a whore for the birthday boy. A three on one
ensues. It could be as hot as the previous one, but the lighting leaves a lot
to be desired and the guys are really French and their English is not all that
good.  The woman is very good looking and the men do her in every way.

Next we see a woman with two men at a restaurant. Another man is watching them
from far away. The two men feel the woman up and then the trio moves inside,
to an empty night club. The mysterious watcher drives off. The woman dances
naked for the two men and then they have sex. Two things save this from being
a cliche: first, we are eager to know what is going on: Who is the woman? What
is her relation to the watcher, and to the two men? Second, the woman is very
hot. I believe she is the same performer thet appears in the first episode
of 'Voyeur #6'. Be that as it may, she manages to  persuade us that she is into
three way sex. An arousing scene. Our questions are answered only at the end:
the woman receives money from the two men, so  she is a whore, and then the
action switches to a house.

There we see first Carlo's friend, the one whose girl-friend did the three
French guys earlier. She is also there and some other people. Then in another
room we find the watcher, and we learn he is a pimp, and that the woman he was
watching works for him. He is not happy with her earnings. Two other women, 
also working for him, are in the room. He praises them for bringing a lot
of money and then they have three way sex. One of the females is a very pretty
partly black girl and the other a dark brunette, but the dialogue refers to
both of them as black. Oh well, ever saw the Secretary of Energy?
A well-filmed scene ensues. The women make a point of pleasuring their pimp in
every way, as in a frequently cherished male fantasy. 

After this the woman from the restaurant walks in and the pimp argues with
her about money. He begins to slap her around (I assume for censorship reasons
we do not quite see his hands hitting her.) Carlo's friend and his girlfriend
walk in from the next room and kick the pimp out of the house.

We then go back to Carlo's house. He and his wife are in the bathroom and they
have sex. Every advantage is taken of the many mirrors in the bathroom to make
the scene look voyeuristic, although nobody is watching. Carlo leaves after
climaxing and his wife stays. Carlo's friend and his girlfriend walk into the
house. He carries a gun, presumably to kill Carlo's wife as requested. But
once they are in the bathroom, he puts the gun away on a vanity. He and the
two woman begin a three-way which soon moves to the bedroom. We do not know if
Carlo's friend has decided not to carry out the murder, or if he simply wants
to fuck Carlo's wife before killing her. In any case the sex is very well
filmed and extremely arousing. After everybody has climaxed we see Carlo
coming back to the house, also with a gun. I do not think it would be right to
reveal what happens next, but it is certainly a pleasant surprise to see a
proper ending in a movie of this nature.

The tape lasts way over two hours, but it does not seem long at all. 
Every part of the movie holds the viewer's attention. I did not fast forward
once and a couple of times I rewound and watched something again. The technical
shortcomings (sound, sometimes light, shaky camera) of this tape preclude
any kind of high rating. It is painful to think of what Leslie could do with
a decent budget. Nevertheless, do go ahead and rent this tape if you can find
it (forget about Blockbuster!). Watch it with your spouse or special friend.
Explicit, raunchy sex does not have to be brainless or mindless: Leslie has
proved it again.