Amanda By Night Review

Reviewed by andyblake  on  3/7/2003

Here is a Harold Lime/Robert McCallum classic from 1982 that is still famous over 20 years later. It won six adult film critic awards, including best picture. Because it was filmed near the end of the "golden age," there aren't quite as many exterior shots as there would have been in movies a few years older.

The plot involves a madam named Amanda (Veronica Hart) who, as a favor to her former pimp and lover (Jamie Gillis), sets up an S & M session for a local politician. The girls that she sends for this session (Lisa de Leeuw and Samantha Fox) are later found dead. R. Bolla plays the straight-arrow homicide detective trying to solve the case, without much help from Amanda. To make matters worse, there's a corrupt vice squad cop (Ron Jeremy) who is constantly getting in the way. By today's standards, this is couples' fare, with relatively short sex scenes, and loads of plot. It's so good-hearted, it could almost be on the Family Channel. Veronica Hart gets to over-act and ham it up ridiculously.

It's a good movie, but a poor DVD. The video quality is no better than a VHS tape; in fact, the disc seems to lose all the color the tape has. The sound is just adequate, and seemed to have an echo at times. Extras are full motion chapter stops (although, at this point, can that really even be called an extra?), and some very bad stills. I'd be willing to listen to a Jim Holliday commentary track just so I could say that there were some extras.