Love Witch, The (Vinegar Syndrome) Review

Distributor: Vinegar Syndrome Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Classic, Feature Film Also known as: Deep Boat Run Time: 69 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1973 Director: Charles Carmello (as Mort Shore), Morton Schwartz, Louis Peraino Written by: Charles Carmello, Morton Schwartz, Louis Peraino Cast: Marc Brock, Robert Sargent, Ann Marshall, Linda Del Toro, Cathy Parker, Ami Nitrate, Francine Baker, Al Goldstein, Mark Suben (as Irwin Schmeck), Harry Reems, Toni 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 Love Witch, as it exists in this release, is an odd mishmash of material created by two different filmmakers and shoved together. The original version of The Love Witch is assumed to have been mucked with in the process of joining the material. The material that is presented in this version is an absolute mess.

It appears that The Love Witch started out in 1973 as Deep Boat, made by Morton Schwartz's Master Movie Productions and Leonard Kirtman's Kirt Films. It was then leased for 14 years to Gerard Damiano Film Productions. Gerard Damiano Film Productions was run by Louis Peraino and Phil Parisi at this time this reviewer believes. Gerard Damiano Film Productions then added socially redeeming value to the film.

This reviewer is assuming Louis Peraino created the first set of footage (the socially redeeming value), which was never originally part of The Love Witch, out of anger over the obscenity prosecutions that were occurring at the time against Deep Throat. Deep Throat had been produced by Louis Peraino (using the alias Lou Perry) and Phil Parisi (using the pseudonym Phil Perry), who appear to have been the producers of the original version of The Love Witch as well.

The footage created by Louis Peraino involves a backwoods redneck courtroom where judge Clarence “Clem” H.J. Lyle (Harry Reems) is overseeing the prosecution of adult film producer Mr. Feinberg (Mark Suben) by prosecutor Luke Lyle (Harry Reems), Clem's brother. To judge whether the movie Mr. Feinberg made is dirty and whether Mr. Feinberg is a sexual degenerate, Clem has the film, The Love Witch, shown in the courtroom.

More proof that Louis Peraino created the courtroom footage is that Jay Feinberg of the Pussycat Theatres was the West Coast sub-distributor of Deep Throat and was one of the distribution principals looked at by the FBI during their investigation of Deep Throat.

The courtroom footage was very noticeably a rushed production. Most of the set is drawn onto a white wall. Harry Reems plays four of the five characters that are in the courtroom segments. In addition to playing Clem and Luke, Harry Reems also is the sheriff and the defense attorney.

The second set of footage is The Love Witch a film that this reviewer believes to be directed by Charles Carmello using the pseudonym Mort Shore. Charles Carmello was also likely the director behind the Louis Peraino and Phil Parisi produced film The Evil Ways of Love, which Louis Peraino also mucked with before release.

The Love Witch, itself, has Barry (Marc Brock) and Bob (Robert Sargent), that are spending a weekend on a boat getaway aboard the Love Witch. The Love Witch is a boat filled with women who are willing to submit to all their carnal desires. The Love Witch, as it appears in this film incarnation, is mostly a wall-to-wall sex film with no coherent plot. This reviewer isn't sure if The Love Witch is contained in its entirety. The film here has a 58-minute runtime, which would fit as an acceptable run time for the period.

If all this wasn't enough, Louis Peraino went all Mystery Science Theater 3000 on The Love Witch long before Joel Hodgson ever conceived the notion of Mystery Science Theater 3000. As the film plays, Clem, Luke, and the defense attorney talk over the film, although none of their remarks have the wit that Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, or Elliot Kalan have come up with for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Also sound effects and “action cards” have been added to the film à la Lorenzo Semple, Jr., and William Dozier's Batman.

None of the sex scenes are overly enjoyable. In other words, there is no point in watching The Love Witch for the sex scenes. They aren't overly erotic and contain way too many gynecological close-ups. The sex scenes are poorly edited to boot often frantically moving between showing two different sex scenes at one.

The only cast member in either set of footage that does a good job is Harry Reems. He does the best he can with the limitations of the material that he was provided. He, unfortunately, doesn't save the film though, mainly since none of his material ever existed in the original version of The Love Witch. If you are considering watching this film, do yourself a favor and don't bother.

The edition of The Love Witch screened is the streaming-only edition available on Exploitation.TV. Vinegar Syndrome has done a nice job with their streaming-only edition of The Love Witch. The Love Witch was shot on 16mm film, and it looks like Vinegar Syndrome may have used the negative for this release; if not a good print was used. The Love Witch is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 pillarboxed to the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The colors for the Louis Peraino created material are good; however, the colors for the Charles Carmello created footage are more washed out. The image itself contains print damage and artifacts, far less than was expected though.

The Love Witch is presented with an English monaural audio track. The sound for the film is good with some crackles present. The dialog in the movie is clear and easy to understand at all times.

Vinegar Syndrome hasn't included any extras for their streaming-only edition of The Love Witch. The Love Witch is a film that needs extras. This reviewer doesn't know if The Love Witch ever played before Louis Peraino's alterations to the film or if any copies of the movie before the modifications still exist. Mark Suben is still alive and working as a lawyer. He was the Cortland County, New York, district attorney before the news of his acting in blue films came out. As a result, he may not be the most willing to talk about the courtroom segments, however, since he may be the only one alive who still knows the story behind them a featurette with him would be desired.

This edition doesn't contain the original version of The Love Witch but instead only includes the modified version of The Love Witch, which has cheaply produced courtroom segments that were created by Louis Peraino with Harry Reems. Honestly, The Love Witch is a mess with the original version of The Love Witch massacred by the new footage and inserted dialog (This isn't to say that The Love Witch was a good film before the alterations; based on what is presented here it wasn't.). This film is an easy pass. Vinegar Syndrome has done a nice job with their streaming-only release on Exploitation.TV with good video and audio quality.

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