Barbara Broadcast (VCA) Review

Reviewed by andyblake  on  2/12/2001

Barbara Broadcast is a Radley Metzger classic from 1977, starring Annette Haven and C.J. Laing. For more on Metzger, see my review of "The Opening of Misty Beethoven." The plot, to the extent there is one, involves C.J. Laing as a reporter interviewing Annette Haven, as "Barbara Broadcast", a sort of "Happy Hooker"/Xaviera Hollander type character. This is my least favorite of the Metzger hardcore pieces, but is still an excellent example of golden age adult film making. My favorite scene is a simple oral scene with under-celebrated seventies star Suzanne McBain. There is also the famous kitchen scene in which C.J. Laing does an anal scene with Wade Nichols. Nichols went on to star on a daytime soap opera for about 7 years, later succumbing to AIDS. There is a scene with Constance Money that was an unused leftover from "Misty Beethoven." In accordance with current law, because Constance was securely chained in the scene, no sex is shown, which is a darn shame. You can at least get the flavor of the original scene, however, which is better than most VHS versions, in which the scene is deleted in its entirety. On the commentary track, Gillis tells how Constance Money sued Metzger for using the scene, because she had signed a release for "Misty Beethoven" but not for this movie.

The video quality is about equivalent to a tape, but the audio quality is better. As with "Misty Beethoven" VCA has taken the trouble to do an audio commentary track with Jamie Gillis and Gloria Leonard. Leonard was not even in this film, but no one more closely connected with the project would do it. According to Gillis' commentary, he talked to Annette Haven on the telephone for two hours in an unsuccessful attempt to get her to agree to do the commentary track. According to Leonard, Radley Metzger never goes to adult industry functions. So VCA really did the best they could.