Dirty Deals (Alexia & Cie) Review

Alexia & Cie
Video Marc Dorcel
Directed by Marc Dorcel
Starring: Laura Angel, Olivia De Treville, Kate More, Nikki Anderson, Silvia Saint, Maeva Exel, Philippe Dean, Hugues Robert, Gili Sky, Claudia Demoro, Bruno SX, Francesco Malcolm, Sébastian Barrio, Rodolph Antrim, Kevin Long
Running time: 2hrs 10mins (feature), 27mins (report)
Format: NTSC
Note: this movie is available in a US edition called Dirty Deals, distributed by Wicked

Laura Angel, at the peak of her powers, heads an all-star cast in this lavish sex thriller. It's a tale of blackmail and double-cross, set among the beautiful people of France's Côte D'Azur. Good-looking women, stylish and sexy costumes and attractive sun-drenched locations are all captured to a high standard in a respectably polished 1999 production from the veteran French director Dorcel.

The story
Amid various diversions into the sex lives of its staff, a model agency run by Alexia (Laura Angel) with the dubious assistance of Jacques (Philippe Dean), her philandering photographer partner, becomes the subject of an unwelcome offer from a certain Baron Swank (Hugues Robert, I presume). Alexia had hoped he could help her business out, but his intentions are less honourable - he has apparently been spying on her and attempts to blackmail her into participating in his scam. The Baron arranges illicit liaisons for the rich and famous, secretly photographs them on the job, so to speak, and then blackmails them. His idea is that Alexia's agency should supply the girls to keep his operation in motion. He offers her an ultimatum, to agree before an evening reception at which more blackmailing activities occur. Alexia refuses and constructs an elaborate entrapment of her own, the details of which I won't divulge but suffice to say that its success, or otherwise, does depend on events which require a little suspension of disbelief. The details of the sex scenes below may spoil the story, so watch out.

Generally, the story is hardly outstanding but still quite agreeable, good fun and done with a touch of humour and the odd little kinky twist. That said, it's still very much a porn style script - the model agency setting being as much use in providing shots of scantily clad girls posing on the beach at Saint-Tropez as it is in driving on the main thrust of the tale. The performances are good - Laura is a very credible leading lady, and the supporting cast all do their part, Hugues Robert being a believable baddy and having the decency, unlike certain other Frenchmen of a similar age, to keep his clothes on.

The sex
Maeva and Claudia with Rodolph
Two models, French starlet Maeva Exel and Claudia De Moro (perhaps better known in her shaven-headed guise as Reapley - she has short hair here) are given a lift by Rodolph Antrim. The two slender girls put off their trip to town to head into the woods with Rudolph, where they blindfold their willing victim, give him a double oral treat, then let him stagger around while they slip off their skimpy summer clothes. A condom-clad fuck for both girls takes in some energetic sex, vaginal and anal, the rubber being removed in time for Rodolph to come on Claudia's face. It's a shame the dubbed audio cheats us of the chance to hear what kind of noises Claudia really makes to go with the funny faces she pulls.

Olivia and Philippe
Even though he's supposedly Alexia's man, Philippe's character has a roving eye and can't resist the temptation of skinny brunette Olivia (Laura aside, the waif like figures are more in keeping with the fashion model background) and a moonlight fuck on the beach. Some hard doggy anal is slightly at odds with the smoochy setting, but it's not a bad little scene.

Laura and Philippe
To celebrate what she hopes is an impending deal, Alexia gets close to her man, presumably unaware of his womanising. Laura and Philippe perform well here as a passionate couple and it's quite a hot scene, taking in some excellent oral sex, and some extravagant and athletic positions for vaginal and anal sex. Laura is tanned and buxom, and must be in great shape to achieve some of these poses! Again, this may be a polished production but that doesn't preclude some hard anal that she seems to enjoy. His come shot on her ass is a weak finale.

Nikki, Silvia and Kate
At the Baron's chateau, in order to illustrate his plans, Alexia is taken to peep onto a sexy scene where a gorgeous young woman (a brunette Nikki Anderson), evidently the wife of a foreign dignitary, has an opulent girly session with the equally gorgeous Silvia Saint (say no more) and leggy Dutch brunette Kate More, while Sebastian Barrio looks on like a little lost puppy. The poor boy isn't allowed to join the luscious tangle of lingerie-clad ladies. In truth this scene looks great (even if the camerawork slightly struggles to get it all in), but is hardly a sweaty free-for-all. Shaven pussies are licked, fingered and rubbed together as the devious Baron snaps covert pictures.

Nikki and Sebastian
Fortunately for Sebastian and the viewers, the tale takes a welcome if dramatically unwarranted diversion into Nikki's hotel bedroom where she entertains the young chap to the hearty sex session he doubtless desired after the preceding show. After an initial strip to stockings and suspenders to show her lovely body, they go to it in fine fashion in another good-looking sex scene that doesn't dodge some exciting anal, nor does she dodge the load that she coaxes from his cock by hand and mouth.

Kate, Gili and Kevin
Kevin Long plays the latest blackmail victim, as from a champagne reception he sneaks off with Gili Sky, her sometimes gothic look refined in evening dress, and a similarly elegant Kate. It's hard not to notice just how tall Kate must be - she towers over little Gili and even over Kevin. In the bedroom, after some mild girl-girl play, Gili wraps her pouting lips round Kevin's cock. He fucks her first, condom in evidence, and then gives Kate her share. The highlight is an intense anal penetration, Kate's long legs in the air as he enters her tight ass with his sizeable tool. He finishes by loosing off a large wad that gives Gili a pearl necklace rather than landing on the girls' faces.

Laura, Bruno and Francesco
As part of her revenge plot, Alexia, in the guise of an aristocrat, has extracted a large pile of cash from the Baron, reward for her to please him. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on view point, she doesn't have to do it with the old boy - but instead she takes on two demanding henchmen in a scene that sees her screw like a demon while still handcuffed to a briefcase full of her loot! Voraciously devouring their cocks, Laura sets the tone, and Bruno responds, pounding her pussy and then her ass in some perhaps surprisingly strong action (Francesco has to make do with oral, finishing on Laura's face), though again a come shot on her ass is a weak conclusion.

Claudia and Philippe
Less than concerned about the plight facing his lady Laura, Philippe hooks up with Claudia in another smoochy encounter, beautifully shot as the sun goes down and the moon rises. It's also a tame scene and strangely lacking in passion, something that is at least partially due to Claudia's slightly inhibited performance.

Olivia, Bruno and Francesco
Having decided to seek funds for her own enterprise, Olivia arrives at the Baron's mansion, only for him to think she's a whore sent by Laura's alter ego character (it all makes sense, trust me!) - she has to take on the Baron's cocksmen too! The sleazy "aristocrat" sniffs her discarded panties as his henchmen take her every which way including a DP that does make one wonder how her extremely slim frame can cope. Nonetheless, Olivia performs with gusto until one load of come lands on her face, the other on her ass.

Olivia and Claudia
In what is perhaps a sexual anticlimax, if dramatically justified, Olivia and Claudia join forces for an extremely mild girl-girl encounter, located on the deck at Alexia's beach front office, that appears largely designed to provoke the Baron into giving the game away. You'll just have to watch the movie to see if the plan is successful, won't you!

Overall
Alexia and Cie's strong suit is the female cast - first rate in fact, and presented in a way that really shows them to great effect. With Laura Angel fully justifying her top of the bill status, the performances are, in the main, sexually quite strong and gosh, some of them can even act! Deficiencies in the story and so forth are easy to forgive when the girls, and indeed the production as a whole, look this good, and besides, I sense it's all been done with a certain knowing, tongue in cheek style. It is not the hardest movie you'll ever see, I suppose, but it is a very consistent production that I suspect could have quite a broad appeal to different types of viewer.

DVD Comments
Slick menus lead us into a respectable array of options, but bypass the modest photo gallery and text biographies to get straight to an interesting 30-minute "making of" feature (French language only) where Laura and Olivia annoyingly have French dubbed over their adept English language interviews. The highlight has to be where Kate More crosses herself before taking Kevin's cock in her ass - she is worried because she says, "it is enormous!" The documentary can spoil the fantasy too, though - it's a touch disappointing to see that ravishing sex stars like Nikki and Silvia need to be taught how to perform "lesbian" sex acts by an aging male director. Anyway, there's 5.1-surround sound on the audio track, but only the French version seems to have been mixed properly. There are several dubbed languages, including English, plus several more in subtitles. If you are as easily amused as I am, you can have a laugh at the voices that are dubbed on in the various languages - Philippe Dean has a rather camp American accent - and wonder why the German version has different music. The picture quality is excellent, and (this will suit US viewers) the disc appears to be in NTSC format, which is not so common.