Nikki Dial Exposed Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  3/18/2003

“Nikki Dial Exposed” begins with a smiling, engaging, and very young Nikki in a scene from Ed Powers’ “Dirty Debutantes 23.” Even Ed, nearing 40, looks comically youthful. The scene, though standard Powers fare, is, thankfully, not one in which Ed takes a sexual role; the closest he comes to making love to Nikki is licking her juices off the dildo she’s just finished using. Typically sloppy, the scene begins with a dog whining in the background, a little dog we eventually see nosing up to Nikki on the sofa; at one point the telephone rings. It takes a girl with a certain star power to fight through this nonsense and emerge with her aplomb intact, and Nikki does it, delivering a short, but effective masturbation performance along the way.

One could wish that movies like this were made with loving care by people who genuinely respected their featured talent. But this is porn, and one could as successfully wish for accurate movie titles, coherent storylines, or directors who understand the difference between fucking and eroticism. While this disc does contain a relatively extensive bio of Nikki, it’s printed in such small type that binoculars are required to read it. Only some of the scenes are identified by title and none of Nikki’s co-stars are named. And in spite of her star status, this film identifies her by association with amateurs, a group that would include the geniuses who put this disc together. Nikki’s masturbation scene is followed by a snippet of video in which a young girl sitting on a bed identifies herself as Tia and admits to being a little nervous. This in turn is immediately followed by a scene from “Nikki at Night,” and Tia, of course, is nowhere to be seen. It goes without saying that no attempt is made to organize the scenes or to put Nikki or her career into perspective.

But, again, this is porn, and things are the way they are because sometimes the material captured on video transcends the ineptitude of its producers. “Nikki Dial Exposed” is just close enough to that line get the nod, thanks mostly to Nikki Dial. Nikki’s style, with both guys and girls, is unusually intimate and appealing. She gives an undeniable impression of a girl who enjoys sex, enjoys sharing sex (the way she constantly seeks to make eye contact is delightfully sexy), and who doesn’t want to miss any aspect of the experience (during her masturbation scene with Ed, she nonchalantly tastes her own juices while fingering herself).

If the film were as exciting as Nikki herself, it would be spectacular. Nikki is featured in five scenes: one solo, two boy/girl, and two girl/girl. The two girl/girl scenes are cut unnaturally short, whether originally or for the purposes of this film I couldn’t say, but that truncation is deflating regardless. One of the boy/girl scenes, taken from “American Built,” has Nikki sexing it up with an actor (Ted Wilson, I believe) in full clown makeup; porn would have been none the poorer for never having imagined this scene, let alone committed it to video. As good as Nikki is, these flaws can’t be ignored.

And then there’s Ed Powers. If you pay attention to such things, the boxcover tells you that “Nikki Dial Exposed” isn’t entirely about Nikki. “Also Exposing,” it says, “Ember, Emanuelle, Rose Lynn, and Nika Devita.” These girls (and I’m not quite sure who “Emanuelle” is since no one by that name appears in the film) aren’t Nikki’s co-stars; they are, in fact, co-featured performers. The last two scenes on the disc pair Ember and Lieng Liu, in a scene from “Cockless 11,” and Rose and Nika, from “Dirty Debutantes 215”—two films made long after Nikki left the business, starring girls who weren’t even legal when she in her heyday. The first of these starts slowly, but warms into a decent amateur/experimental lesbian lovefest. The second is rendered moot by Ed’s involvement, which has him at one point emptying his condom on Rose’s left breast while Nika is busy licking her right. (Nika, by the way, keeps right on licking Rose’s right breast.)

“Nikki Dial Exposed” is a bad movie that just happens to be worth watching, if only intermittently. We can thank Nikki for what is best about it. It’s not her fault the film was produced by a bunch of clowns who aren’t even worthy of her used dildos.