Babyface (TVX) Review

Distributor: TVX Home Video Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film Also known as: Baby Face Run Time: 105 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1977 Director: Alex de Renzy (as Alex deRenzy) Written by: John Milligan Cast: Carla Harwood, Molly Seagrim, Rudy Graham, Blair Harris, Angela Haze, Kristine Heller, Amber Hunt, John Leslie, Turk Lyon, Lyn Malone, Sandy Pinney, Amber Rae, Kathryn Reed, Dan Roberts, Ken Scudder, Joey Silvera, Otis Sistruck, Paul Thomas, Desiree West, Linda Wong Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Babyface is a great film to have come from the golden age of adult films and director Alex de Renzy. The film tells the story of Dan (Dan Roberts), who gets caught seducing the underage Priscilla (Lyn Malone) by her mother Molly (Molly Seagrim). Dan barely escapes, gets rescued, and ends up at The Training Camp, a male brothel where he hides from Molly and the law.

John Milligan does a great job of revealing the story through the film. Instead of starting at the beginning, the story starts out at The Training Camp with Dan already in hiding. Through his time there the story of how he ended up hiding out there is told, then the story goes forward. Not only is this a great way to tell the story, but it allows for numerous sex scenes, all fitting within the narrative, to be within the film.

The sex scenes are well done. Alex de Renzy has done a great job shooting them, as he did with the non-sex portions of the film. The cast does a good job with the sex with not just visually appealing scenes but also with staying in character during the scenes. Alex de Renzy utilized some great locations while making Babyface. The end result is an intriguing adult film which never gets old throughout the run time and shows why Alex de Renzy is though of as one of the great directors from the golden age of adult films.

The release of Babyface from TVX Home Video is disappointing. Babyface is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer appears to be uncut, as the box states, but the master was clearly video. The transfer has a lack of definition, glitches in the video, and artifacts. The colors are not very strong either. Overall, the presentation is very disappointing. Sadly, as of the time of publication, this would be the best release of the film available. The Alpha Blue Archives release has a worse transfer and the VCA release has a much nicer picture but it is cut and has significant audio issues.

Babyface is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The track is acceptable, the dialog can be heard throughout the film. There is a background hiss throughout the entire film.

TVX Home Video hasn't included any extras on this release.

Babyface is one of the best films that Alex de Renzy made with a good plot, some great sex scenes, and the weirdness that de Renzy tends to have in his older films. The TVX Home Video release appears to be uncut but the transfer is poor unfortunately.

Past Reviews Interviews