Daughter of Discipline Double Feature Review

Distributor: After Hours Cinema Edition Details: Standard DVD Release Specs: Also known as: Daughters of Disclipline Double Feature Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

After Hours Cinema has put together two films that don't really go together on this release at all. One of the films, Daughters of Discipline, was made by Shaun Costello and shown at the Avon cinema chain and the other film, House of Kinky Pleasures, was made by Lowell Pickett and is clearly not made for the Avon cinema or at least in its present form it isn't. Unfortunately both films are incomplete and the transfer for both are rather rough, House of Kinky Pleasures is in better shape than Daughters of Discipline. I know there aren't a bunch of Pickett's films known to be available but some are so I am not sure why After Hours Cinema didn't license one of them and made the sets director specific. Or if that wasn't possible I'm not sure why they didn't pair two films together that would at least generally appeal to the same audience. After Hours Cinema hasn't included any extras on the release. You can jump to the review of Daughters of Discipline or House of Kinky Pleasures or just keep reading to read them all.

Daughters of Discipline is a roughie that Shaun Costello made under commission for Avon. Contrary to popular belief, Costello was never one of the Avon stable of directors despite making several titles for Avon. Costello worked for the adult film division of the Gambino crime family, who made films under the commission of Avon to be shown at the Avon cinemas.

Daughters of Discipline is a rather nasty film, which would have fit right in at the Avon cinemas, that would be hard to watch during certain portions if one didn't know that Costello faked all the nasty portions with angles, editing, and some good blood effects. He did a great job of making those faked shots look real.

The story for Daughters of Discipline doesn't make a whole bunch of sense. Ellie Devereaux (C.J. Laing) receives the death card from the sex cult that she belongs to. Ellie reminisces about how she first was brought to the cult run by Bruno (Shaun Costello) by her friend Bob (Victor Colicchio). Then the cult members prepare during the day for Ellie's sacrifice that night.

Ellie expresses her desire for much of the film to skip out on her sacrifice yet then willingly ends up going and participating. Barry Milton (Leo Lovemore) and Jeanette (Brenda Filbrick), who are other members of the cult, question whether the sacrifice will really happen, yet they too willing go and participate. Costello does use the flimsy plot to manage to introduce several sex scenes of variety, some far more tame than others, into the film.

Costello makes good use of camera angles for shooting the film to create some rather unique shots, however there does seem to be an issue with the camera staying in focus at times. His cult dungeon looks rather scuzzy and fits well. His way the cult kills their sacrifice, which I won't reveal here, is rather inspired as well.

After Hours Cinema unfortunately hasn't done the greatest job with this transfer. Daughters of Discipline is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The print shows signs of print damage, very heavy in some places, as well as artifacts, jumps, and grain. All of that would be acceptable other than the fact that the film isn't complete. The After Hours Cinema version does run seven minutes and 47 seconds longer than the Alpha Blue Archives version, however the After Hours Cinema version is missing at least one minute and ten seconds of footage. The beginning one minute and seven seconds of footage, where Barry and Jeannette get their blank card is missing along with, oddly, the roughly three seconds of the second cast card. All the other title cards appear to be there.

Daughters of Discipline is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track, which works. There are some pops and hiss along with some jumps on the audio. However the audio isn't horrible and the dialog is clear.

House of Kinky Pleasures is directed by Lowell Pickett, owner of Leo Productions, using the name Artaur Ego, one of the aliases he used while making films for Ruben Sturman's Evelc Productions. The use of the alias is understood given the differences between some of the films Pickett made for Evelc and what Pickett made and produced for Leo Productions for showing at Arlene Elster's Sutter Cinema.

House of Kinky Pleasures isn't really a plotted film nor is it really a scripted film, or at this point in time at least it isn't a scripted film as After Hours Cinema has altered this print which may have effected the dialog. The flow of the film, or idea behind the film, is an interviewer is given a guided tour through a house of ill repute by the mistress (Rose-bud Bush). He is shown five different themed rooms.

The first room has a dominatrix (Gabriel) and her submissive (Paul Scharf) and shows their sex scene. The second room has been cut from this release, I am assuming the theme was interracial sex given the participants were Vicky Lindsay and Jonathan Younger. The third room has an orgy involving KFC — yes that is Kentucky Fried Chicken not an obscure sex term — with Mara Dunn, Ann Woods, Michael Farr, and Peter Moore. The fourth room has an interracial double penetration scene with Dory Devan, Toni, and Jonathan Younger. The fifth and final room has two women dressed from the Victorian era (Susan Davis and Laura Bourbon) having sex with their servant (John Seeman), who is in blackface.

In reality, House of Kinky Pleasures is essentially an all sex film. The rooms are essentially devoid of dialog. After Hours Cinema has had to change the music used in the film, which appeared to have been featured heavily over the sex scenes, which may have caused the lack of dialog. At one point I will assume that the sex scenes may have pushed some boundaries. Interracial sex scenes appear to have been rarer in 1975 when this film came out and were certainly more hyped when thinking back to 1972's Behind the Green Door, which seems to be the first feature-length hardcore film to have included an interracial scene. The dominatrix scene is rather tame, especially when compared to the bondage films that Avon was and would later produce. The scene with the KFC chicken pieces being used as sexual objects is honestly one of those where you just go um, okay. I'm not entirely sure what was the idea behind the blackface on John Seeman. I would think even at that time it would turn off some of the viewers. I am curious about what was so bad about scene two that it has been removed yet the blackface scene remains. Either way, the scenes vary from unappealing — ya baby turn me on with that KFC — to just average &mdahs; the interracial double penetration scene.

The film seems to have been rather quickly shot and assembled. Then again since it isn't much more than a series of silent loops with some connective tissue added with the interviewer being shown around by the mistress, not much work was necessary. Overall, there is no huge reason to seek out this film.

After Hours Cinema hasn't done a great job with this transfer. House of Kinky Pleasures is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The print has considerable damage in places and contains artifacts throughout. The worst of it is that the film has been heavily cut. Despite running for almost 14 minutes longer than the Alpha Blue Archives release of the film, the entire beginning of the film has been removed and the film starts with the first room, meaning the mistress taking the interviewer around doesn't make much sense here. In addition the second scene and whatever the mistress said to the interviewer about the second room has been excised completely from the film as well.

House of Kinky Pleasures is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The little dialog that is present sounds muffled and can be hard to properly discern. After Hours Cinema has also removed the original unlicensed music and replaced it with generic music.

After Hours Cinema has put together two films that don't really go together on this release at all. One of the films, Daughters of Discipline, was made by Shaun Costello and shown at the Avon cinema chain and the other film, House of Kinky Pleasures, was made by Lowell Pickett and is clearly not made for the Avon cinema or at least in its present form it isn't. Unfortunately both films are incomplete and the transfer for both are rather rough.

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