Midnight Hustle Review

Distributor: Alpha Blue Archives Edition Details: Standard DVD Release Specs: Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Alpha Blue Archives has collected two films that have nothing in common outside of their similar sounding names together for the Midnight Hustle collection. The first film up is Steve Brown's Midnight Hustle, a comedy from 1977. Midnight Hustle is a fun film but unfortunately, Alpha Blue Archives has put a truncated version of the film on this release. The second film is 1971's The Midnight Hustler from an anonymous director. The Midnight Hustler can best be described as a drama and isn't at all worth watching. Alpha Blue Archives hasn't included any extras on the release. You can jump to the review of Midnight Hustle or The Midnight Hustler or just keep reading to read both.

Midnight Hustle is a fun adult film comedy from director and writer Steve Brown. Midnight Hustle has much the same silly feeling that the R-rated T&A comedies also had in the late 1970s through mid-1980s. The plot, what little there is, is purposely stupid comedic and is really only there to fill the void between the sex scenes. However, this works for Midnight Hustle as long as the viewer is a fan of stupid silly comedies.

In Midnight Hustle, Connie (Yvonne Green) and Lisa (Marsha Wolfe) are going steady with Larry (Michael Orion) and Phil (Jon Martin). While Larry and Phil are trying to find ways to spend time with their girls, Connie and Lisa find ways to slip away and venture on the BART into San Francisco for anonymous hanky panky. Larry and Phil start to suspect that their girls are up to something and decide to follow them.

Brown keeps the film moving at a good pace with a good balance between the sex scenes and the comedic footage. In a slightly cheap move, Brown manages to fill some of the run time of the film by inserting footage from his 1976 adult film Dixie in Midnight Hustle. He works the footage in by having the film playing at a drive-in theater that Larry, Phil, Connie, and Lisa visit. The cast does a great job with their roles — both sexually and non-sexually. Most of the sexual action in the film is carried by Green and Wolfe.

The film utilizes great locations — including BART stations, the BART train, and what appears to be the exterior of a school — that give the film a nice cinematic feel that is all too often missing in adult films. Midnight Hustle is nicely shot and edited for a nice looking completed project.

Midnight Hustle will never be considered a great adult film nor will it be brought up in a conversation about films that broke conventions in adult cinema. What Midnight Hustle is though is a fun comedic film that will make an hour fly by rather fast. Fans of the genre should give the film a viewing.

Alpha Blue Archives has done a poor job with their DVD release of Midnight Hustle. Midnight Hustle was shot on film and Alpha Blue Archives has utilized a high-quality video master for this release. Midnight Hustle is presented in the academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480i. To start off, the original version of Midnight Hustle appears to have had a run time of around 60 minutes. The version presented on this release runs for a scant 45 minutes. The entire initial story set-up to the film is missing from this version starting the film well into the first sex scene. There appear to be more pieces of the film that are missing as well. Other than not being complete, Midnight Hustle isn't bad. The film contains the expected print damage, grain, and artifacts. There are a few jumps present in during the film. Darker scenes are somewhat murky but not horrifically. The colors presented in the film look good. There is a white ABA bug that very occasionally appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. Had the release not been heavily cut, this wouldn't have been a bad presentation of Midnight Hustle.

Midnight Hustle is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. The audio has pops and crackles present throughout the film. There is also a constant hiss. There are a few jumps present in the audio. However, the dialog in the film is usually completely understandable. The audio presented on the release isn't bad.

The Midnight Hustler is a cheap and crude early adult feature film from an anonymous director. Despite being presented as a feature film, there really isn't a plot to The Midnight Hustler. After a brief set-up the film essentially just becomes a series of sex scenes with no real ending to the film. The film doesn't even have the pretense of a story arc throughout out it.

The pretense behind The Midnight Hustler is that Gail (Sandi Carey) has just arrived in L.A. by bus with no money. Angelo (Norman Fields) sees her at the bus stop and lures her to his home with the promise of food. Angelo ends up becoming her pimp and introducing her to party people.

The Midnight Hustler is just an ugly film and reminds this reviewer of the films of Bob Kirk — which for those who are unfamiliar with Kirk's body of work is not a good thing. Angelo's place is just a mattress strewn on the floor, which just eludes the feeling of the fast shot sleazy adult film. One of the sex scenes is even non-consensual, for apparent reason.

The sex scenes are shot with an emphasis on gynecological close-ups, just adding to the sleaze factor of the film. Nothing about The Midnight Hustler even attempts to be on a classy level. Sometimes the camera goes out of focus. The film just looks rushed.

Ultimately, The Midnight Hustler is an easily forgettable entry into the adult film genre that is ultimately best skipped. Despite the allure of Sandi Carey, The Midnight Hustler really doesn't have anything to offer the viewer.

Alpha Blue Archives has done a poor job with their DVD release of The Midnight Hustler. The Midnight Hustler was shot on film and it looks like this release was mastered off of a low-resolution video source. The Midnight Hustler is presented in the academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480i. The image for The Midnight Hustler looks poor with artifacts, print damage, and jumps. The image is low definition with poor detail and colors are a bit washed out. To add insult to injury, when the film was originally transferred from the film print used in the past the last reel was scanned upside down so everything is reversed from how it should be and all the lettering is backward. This is just all around an ugly poor looking image.

The Midnight Hustler is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. The audio for the release is poor but that is likely not just the fault of Alpha Blue Archives. The audio is low with pops, crackles, jumps, a hiss, and a buzz at times. Basically, just an overall poor sounding audio track. There are portions of the dialog that are completely unintelligible. The dialog being unintelligible may be more an issue with the original audio and not with Alpha Blue Archives audio transfer. Altogether the audio is hard to listen to and a good chunk of the dialog is incomprehensible.

Alpha Blue Archives has collected two films that couldn't be more different on their release for Midnight Hustle that are tied together only by their similar sounding names. Midnight Hustle is a light-hearted comedy from the end of the 1970s whereas the second film The Midnight Hustler is a cheaply and poorly churned out one-day production from the beginning of the 1970s. The obvious appeal of the set is for viewers who collect movies with the word Midnight with variations of Hustle in the titles. Neither film has been given an overly good presentation by Alpha Blue Archives, Midnight Hustle doesn't look horrible but is missing a lot of footage and The Midnight Hustler just plain looks awful.

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