Films of Phil Prince: Avon 7 Triple Feature Review

Distributor: After Hours Cinema Edition Details: Standard DVD Release Specs: Also known as: Phil Prince Avon 7 Collection, New York Grindhouse: Avon 7 Triple Feature Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

The Films of Phil Prince: Avon 7 Triple Feature is a mixed bag. The Taming of Rebecca is worth having as a film, but the transfer isn't the greatest and the film is missing a little footage. Angel in Distress isn't the greatest film that Prince made, the transfer is a mess, and is missing even more footage. Daughters of Discipline also isn't the greatest film that Prince made and is on the vastly superior Avon Triple Feature: Savage Sadists / Den of Dominance / Daughters of Discipline release from Vinegar Syndrome. The only extra included with the release is a leaflet with the essay “Editing for Phil Prince” by Brian O'Hara. You can jump to the review of Angel in Distress, Daughters of Discipline, or The Taming of Rebecca or just keep reading to read them all.

Angel in Distress is not the best film to have been made by Phil Prince, one of Avon's stable of directors. The movie starts out with a plot and reason, private investigator Amos Brag (Ron Jeremy) his contacted by Susan James (Marlene Willoughby) to find her step-daughter Angel (Joey Karson) who has been kidnapped by Mistress Candice (Candice Wagner) and her three goons (David Ruby, George Payne, and Park Richards). Brag sends his secretary Sheryl (Destiny Duvall) to infiltrate Mistress Candice's Sun Escort Agency and find out what is going on.

The story is a bit too much on the convenient side, for instance, Susan slips Amos a business card for the Sun Escort Agency after they finish having sex making him look into them. Once the film gets to the Sun Escort Agency, the plot gets completely thrown out the window and Mistress Candice's palace of BDSM and non-consensual sex takes over. Not that it is really a palace. The original set for the room is a old room with graffiti on the wall, a swing for Mistress Candice, and a grungy toilet — which thankfully isn't used — in the corner. The second room is clad in black with the BDSM equipment in it one would expect to show up in an Avon title.

It is too bad that Prince lost the story. As stated, the story wasn't amazing and this is far from Prince's best work (See The Taming of Rebecca on this release and The Story of Prunella for my favorite Prince films.). However Prince had the beginning for a decent gritty nasty tale beginning. The ending seems to be thrown together to quickly wrap up everything as fast as possible so the film could end.

The sex scenes are a mixed bag, some are enjoyable to watch and others are not so enjoyable (mostly due to the non-consensual aspect). And since the plot falls to the wayside, Angel in Distress can't justify itself as a adult feature tale that works for the story alone.

Sadly, the print that After Hours Cinema has for Angel in Distress is in bad shape. Angel in Distress is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The print is missing the first minute and twenty one seconds of the film. There is heavy print damage evident throughout the presentation. The picture jumps in places. There are artifacts present. Colors look muted and skin tones look washed out. There is a heavy red hue in places. In comparison to the Alpha Blue Archives release, this release appears to be missing a total of three minutes and thirty five seconds.

Angel in Distress is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The audio isn't in much better shape than the video. The audio has skips and pops. The audio is listenable but there are places where due to the skips some of the dialog is missing.

Daughters of Discipline doesn't really have a plot to it. Sisters Glenda (Victoria Sands) and Rhoda (Robin Thorn), while back from college break, play with each other after viewing their parents bondage girlie magazine. When they get bored with that they call over friend John (David Christopher). Out of the three films contained on the disc, this is probably the least enjoyable. Over the top acting by David Ruby (as the girls' dad) and poor acting by the rest of the cast along with featuring the least attractive girls in the collection work the most against this title. In addition to the bondage theme, the incest theme is pushed hard but is never quite believable. The sets are limited with two indoor cramped rooms and an outdoor establishing shot and an outdoor arrival shot. Had the characters been established better this film might have been more enjoyable.

Daughters of Discipline is the best of the films in the collection as far as the presentation goes. Daughters of Discipline is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1. The film for the master was in relatively good shape. There is some print damage and artifacts. The colors look good. There is an issue with the skin tones shifting though. The print here appears to run about a little over a minute longer than the ones Vinegar Syndrome and Alpha Blue Archives have used. As to the differences I am not exactly sure.

Daughters of Discipline is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The audio track sounds good. There are some signs of age such as background hiss and some pops but the audio sounds good.

Phil Prince had a tumultuous career as one of the Avon stable of directors just before the fall of the Avon theater chain. Most of the work he churned out isn't overly good, however he had a few that were well done. The Taming of Rebecca, might be the best of all of the films that he made.

In this film, Rebecca (Sharon Mitchell) gets invited to a private school for troubled girls after telling the headmistress Miss Zorda (Stella Stevens) how her father (David Christopher) is forcing her to have sex with him. Rebecca finds that the school is run by the sadistic Dean of Discipline Minindao (George Payne) and about the cave where the bad students are brought, never to return from.

The Taming of Rebecca is exactly the gritty, nasty, and ugly film that it sounds like where Prince takes on just about every taboo idea he can think of and manages to work it into the short one hour run time. The film was obviously made on the cheap and rather quickly. Despite the ugliness and quickness of the film, Prince has managed to craft a compelling film. There isn't a whole lot to the plot, but it works and is a coherent story. Prince has nicely shot and edited the film to make the whole film tight. It is interesting that Prince has put what looks like the Bennington flag, or less possibly the Betsy Ross flag, in the corner of Dean Minindao's office instead of the contemporary American flag.

The cast does a good job with both the sexual and non-sexual portions of the film. Payne is over the top as with his acting as usual. Velvet Summers puts in a great performance as Sandra one of the troubled girls, which along with her pierced nipples and some well done blood effects is very convincing. If you can stomach the classic roughies, then you should check this one out.

The print for The Taming of Rebecca is in a little better shape than the one for Angel in Distress, but not by much. The Taming of Rebecca is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer contains heavy print damage along with artifacts, scratches, and jumps. The colors sometimes shift off from proper at times. The print is far from pristine but is also not to the point of being not watchable. In comparison to the Alpha Blue Archives release one minute and four seconds appear to be missing from this print.

The Taming of Rebecca is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. There is hiss, pops, and crackles in the audio along with some jumps from damage. The dialog is usually clear and understandable except for a second or two here and there that was damaged.

The Films of Phil Prince: Avon 7 Triple Feature is a mixed bag. The Taming of Rebecca is worth having as a film, but the transfer isn't the greatest and the film is missing a little footage. Angel in Distress isn't the greatest film that Prince made, the transfer is a mess, and is missing even more footage. Daughters of Discipline also isn't the greatest film that Prince made and is on the vastly superior Avon Triple Feature: Savage Sadists / Den of Dominance / Daughters of Discipline release from Vinegar Syndrome. After Hours Cinema has only included a leaflet for an extra.

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