Expensive Tastes Review

Reviewed by T0MBOne  on  3/6/2014

Written by producer William Dancer and directed by Joanna Williams, EXPENSIVE TASTES (1978) is a curious title for a xxx flick with two extended rape scenes bookending the sex scene action. Dancer and Williams cast Elaine Welles (LITTLE GIRLS BLUE) as the young virgin Alex, whose date with David (Joseph Nassi AKA Joey Silvera) goes awry at his apartment. The lean and lovely Phaery I. Burd plays a prostitute, who assists the police in apprehending those involved with the rapes. Standard frame. 77 minutes.

Before her date with David, the lovely Alex gets out of the shower and visits with her land lady, who scoffs at the new expensive lingerie that Alex has purchased for the evening. The couple arrive at David's place that Alex adores but a masked trio disrupt their first date in a brutal way. The masked thugs knock David to the floor then tie him to a table that's hoisted upright so that David can observe the deflowering of the lovely Alex when a masked thug mish fucks the young lady on the floor. The thug leader sticks out his tongue through his mask and forces Alex to suck his prick. Meanwhile, a mysterious third thug sucks off David's prick. The encounter concludes with Alex sucking David; she takes his cum shot while the lead thug fucks her from behind and drops a load on her ass.

A stunned Alex watches a record spinning on a turn table; finally, at David's prodding, she locks the door and gets David down from the table. The duo have a heart-to-heart conversation as to whether they should call the police. They did not see their perpetrators' faces and Alex worries about David having to describe in detail his encounter that includes, what she believes, is a blowjob from a masked guy. So, they do not call the police.

Here, EXPENSIVE TASTES shows most of its cards, so to speak. The thugs return to David's apartment but it's to gloat over their actions. Two of the thugs (John Leslie and Ken Scudder) take off their masks for their reveal; David, the good looking guy in on the scheme, pulls down the drawers of the mysterious third thug (Eileen Welles) to reveal her pussy.

So, David and the female thug land in the sack while a 16mm fuck flick shows on the wall. This dark encounter features wild blowjob moments as a cock sucking female from the flickering 16mmm film is projected onto the side of the third thug's face while she sucks David's cock. Add a few anal positions and a mish fuck finale to this encounter.

Alex's landlady gives David's name to the police, which sets into motion the second half of EXPENSIVE TASTES. A cop (Dan Egan) bursts in upon a prostitute (Phaery) sucking and fucking a john (John Seeman) who dashes out the back door of the sea side premises. The cop and the prostitute know each other well. He wants her to check out David as a favor to him; however, he emphasizes it's not official police business.

So, the prostitute's date with David predictably concludes with yet another rape as the thugs burst in and tie David down then lose their masks once they have blindfold David's date. They keep him horizontal so that they can carry the blind folded prostitute over to David for a cowgirl ride that leads to DP and other positions. After the rape, we witness the prostitute washing off in the shower then making the call to the cops to get this creep off the streets. Uhhhh, that seems a bit backwards doesn't it?

Another rape victim comes forward to identify David and joins Alex and the prostitute near a stairway at police headquarters where the trio observe David being taken away.

So, EXPENSIVE TASTES is quite the sordid tale but it's strange how the rape of the prostitute is painted with such a lighter brush-as if her encounter is just like any other day for her. And including the prostitute in the unofficial investigation is also a bit off the wall; absolutely no one is there to help her when that date with David turns into another full blown suck and fuck fest with the rapist thugs. Those quibbles aside, the film treats the rape of Alex with a certain degree of realism as more rapes in those days were not reported; it's easy to believe that she would not report a rape of her and a male companion by masked thugs whose faces they could not see.

So, let's give EXPENSIVE TASTES (1978, VCX) credit for shifting gears midway by turning its focus on the prostitute who helps apprehend David for the cops. Yes, it's an excuse for another well-staged rape encounter but at least the victims get some justice for the finale.

!!!! outta !!!!! for the well-shot, well-directed and mostly well-written EXPENSIVE TASTES.