Crooked Arrangement, The (Vinegar Syndrome) Review

Distributor: Vinegar Syndrome Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Gay, Thriller Also known as: A Gay Psychodrama Run Time: 64 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1973 Director: Roger Marks Written by: Roger Marks Cast: Keith Dana, Jerry Hanson, Bill Travis, Dell Jacks, Bob Moner, Harry Zacks, Richard V. Bojeski III Release Specs: Audio: English Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

The Crooked Arrangement is a gay hardcore thriller feature film from director and writer Roger Marks. In The Crooked Arrangement, Davey Williams is kept off the street by Jim Lamont as long as Davey services him sexually. In the three weeks that Davey has been with Jim, he has gotten no idea of what Jim does for a living and Jim's world is about to come crashing down on him.

In some ways, The Crooked Arrangement is a great film and in others, it isn't so good. The plotted portions of the film were very well done, however, this reviewer wishes that there were a lot more plotted portions in the film. For the first half of the film, there really appears that the film doesn't have a plot at all. The film kind of plods along, going nowhere fast. Then, about half way through the film, the plot suddenly kicks in.

The story, once it starts playing out, is very well done and very compelling. The design of the story isn't the only odd part of how Marks opted to put together The Crooked Arrangement. There are only two full sex scenes within the film as well, one that fits in with the story and one that feels forced in. The film looks nice with a nice variety of interesting and unique camera angles. Overall, The Crooked Arrangement isn't the best adult feature ever made but it is worth watching.

The edition of The Crooked Arrangement screened is the streaming only version available on Exploitation.TV. Vinegar Syndrome has done a good job with their streaming only version of The Crooked Arrangement. The beginning of the film has a red flickering in the image. After the beginning, the issue clears up and the rest of the film looks really good. There is grain, print damage, and artifacts present. Overall, the video quality looks nice.

The Crooked Arrangement is presented with an English monaural audio track. There is damage to the audio in the very beginning of the film that causes some garble. Throughout the movie there are pops and crackles in the audio. The dialog in the film is clear and easy to understand.

Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras for their streaming release.

The Crooked Arrangement is a gay hardcore thriller film from director and writer Roger Marks. The story in The Crooked Arrangement takes a while to get going. However, it is worth the wait as, by the end, The Crooked Arrangement is well worth watching. Viewers may be disappointed in the fact that the film only has two sex scenes through. Vinegar Syndrome has done a good job with their streaming only version of The Crooked Arrangement on Exploitation.TV.

Past Reviews Interviews