Secret of Harlot Hill, The Review

Distributor: Adam & Eve Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film Run Time: 86 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2000 Director: Stuart Canterbury Written by: Stuart Canterbury Cast: Gina Ryder, Angelica Sin, Taylor St. Claire, Alexis Amore, Lola, Zora Banx (as Mina), Stevie, Tyce Bune (as Tyce Buné), Nick East, Kyle Stone, Chris Cannon Release Specs: Audio: English MPEG 2.0 Stereo, English Dolby Digital AC-3 2.0 Surround Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 9 (SS, DL) Special Features: Full Motion Menus, Behind the Scenes Footage, Bonus Scene, Cast Bio, Photo Gallery DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
Estella March (Angelica Sin) goes to see Sherlock Holmes (Tyce Buné) because her legal guardian Lord Bolstrom (Kyle Stone) won't let her marry her fiancee Cedric (Nick East) due to the fact he is rumored to have been seen in the arms of a harlot. Holmes takes the case to prove that Cedric has been faithful to Estella.

Video/Audio:
The Secret of Harlot Hill is presented in a 1.33:1, full screen, aspect ratio, which appears to be the original aspect ratio for the film. The picture presentation is flawless with perfect color levels and no blemishes or visible grain on the print. The disc box claims that the presentation was filmed on film and not on video.

The available audio tracks for the presentation are a 2.0 English MPEG Stereo track and a 2.0 English Dolby Digital AC-3 Surround track. After listening to selected portions of both tracks, there was no discernable difference between them. The audio presentation is not as perfect as the video. The dialog did lower in places making it harder to hear. That is the only issue with the audio tracks though. There are no other language tracks available and no subtitle options.

Chapters/Time Code:
There are six chapters available for The Secret of Harlot Hill, one for the beginning of each scene itself. There are also six “hotshots” which are available from the chapter menu or from watching the film if you have the hotshot feature turned on. The hotshots bring you to when the guy blows his cum all over the place (or weakly dribble as is the case in one scene). The hotshot option can be shut off from the set up menu so you don't have to deal with the little icon on the screen. The hotshot feature didn't work right on my DVD player, but this could just be an incompatibility with a late model player. These navigation options allow decent ability to navigate though the disc. The Secret of Harlot Hill does have a time code so time-searching is also an option.

Special Features:
There are several extras available for The Secret of Harlot Hill. Behind the scenes footage is a short five minute feature that goes behind the making of the Nick East/Angelica Sin scene. A fun feature to watch, but I wish it had been longer. Bonus Scene is a sixteen minute scene from the Adam & Eve film The Puppeteer. Cast Bio offers a short text biography with a picture and a link to jump to their scene in the feature film for all the cast members except Mina. The Photo Gallery contains 20 photos, each one identified with the performer(s) in the photo, that you pick from a menu, you can also flip through all of them as well. Other unlisted extras are, Previews which has the trailers for Sex Across America 1: Las Vegas, Sex Across America 2: New Orleans, Sex Across America 3: San Francisco, Sex Across America 5: Miami, Crystal Dreams, Sex Spell, The Puppeteer, A Midsummer Night's Cream, Caribbean Undercover, A Wolf's Tail, Emerald Rain, The Fiesta, Invisible, Sex Island, and A Witch's Tail. The only other unlisted extra is an advert for the Adam & Eve Productions website. All together a nice set of extras have been assembled for the disc. A few that have to do with the feature film, the extra scene has been identified to the film it comes from. Vivid take note, this is a much better way to do your extras.

Review:
The Secret of Harlot Hill ends up being a fun couples film as well as a mediocre period piece. There are many problems with director/writer Stuart Canterbury's England, the biggest of which is the only person sporting an English accent is Nick East as the stableboy, which he actually does rather well. Another issue is the astute will notice tropical plants that I have never heard of growing in merry olde England amazingly enough growing in merry olde England. But lets face facts, since this is porn we aren't expecting technical perfection.

The acting here is your typical adult film acting, which means that much bad acting abounds. Nick East has a horribly fake looking handle bar mustache as Cedric the fiancee. I'm still not sure what Tyce Buné was trying to do with his voice in the film. It came off sounding like he was an emphysema patient. All the bad acting just adds to the fun though and helps out the horribly cheesy lines.

The sex is well done, but unfortunately rather formulaic as appears to be the style these days. Apparently the days of teaser scenes and variety in the sex scenes are gone. Maybe I have just been spoiling myself by watching several of the classics in the last two months. There is still plenty of action to watch here though with two threeway scenes, a lesbian scene and some anal. The sex though is rather tame in comparison to some of the films being put out so don't be expecting anything Earth shattering here.

I've heard that Stuart Canterbury is good at doing period pieces and, other than the earlier mentioned issue of the wrong indigenous plants being in the wrong locale, the sets and locations used are very good and set the mood for the proper period. Thankfully there were no vibrators or other yet-to-come inventions featured in the film.

The Money Shot:
The Secret of Harlot Hill is a well-done film on a decent disc, if you don't mind cheesy dialog with poor acting that's fun to watch this is the film for you. It is recommended for couples and fans of porn with a plot. Those who despise a plot or like nastier sex will probably wish to avoid this title.

Past Reviews Interviews