Taboo 7: The Wild And The Innocent (Metro) Review

Distributor: Metro Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Golden Age Classic, Comedy Also known as: A Woman's Dream, Taboo 7 Run Time: 91 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1980/1989 Director: Peter Perry, Jr. (as Kirdy Stevens), Richard Mailer Written by: Richard Mailer Cast: Randy West, Lysa Thatcher (as Lisa Thatcher), Suzannah French, Herschel Savage, Jamie Gillis (as Jaimie Gillis), Mai Lin, Michael Morrison (as Milt Englud), Leslie Laine (as Bonnie Walker), Jesse Adams, Lisa Sue Corey (as Polly Wagner), Gary Eberhardt (as Robert Balder), Tigr, Russell Tynan, Rita Woods (as Karen Striker), Dwight Walker (as Dwight Arlington), Jim Malibu, Brian Cepana, Lynx Cannon (as Lynx Canon), Bryan Carrier, Mark Crosby, Lester Devonshire, Rick Faulkner, Monica Stapelton, Kitty Shayne, Mischa Zabaroff, Victoria Slick Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono 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

Taboo 7: The Wild and the Innocent, is not a part of Kirdy Stevens Taboo series as Metro nor Intropics Video, the company that originally released Taboo 7 in 1989, would like you to believe. It is not even directed by Kirdy Stevens. Taboo 7 is actually A Woman's Dream, a 1980 film by Peter Perry, Jr., originally attributed under the name A. Stootsberry. Intropics removed the original opening and closing credits and have replaced both with very cheap looking computer generated credits. They also added a brief narration by Randy West, which weirdly starts over the original FBI warning screen for the VHS tape, to try and tie this film into the Taboo series that was likely written and directed by Richard Mailer. A Woman's Dream is an odd choice to steal for the Taboo series, since there is no incest theme anywhere within the film. A Woman's Dream is a comedy, making fun of the 60s counterculture.

Ben Brookfield (Randy West), a poet who is at his book signing for his new book Return to Romance, runs into Emily (Lysa Thatcher), an old fling. The two reminisce about Whitestone Greenhouse for the gifted, an artists retreat where they first met, and the various artists in residence.

A Woman's Dream, despite having high aspirations, is ultimately a fair-to-middling effort. The cast does a great job depicting the strange denizens of Whitestone. Suzannah French plays Daina, a painter who paints using human sexuality, Herschel Savage plays Lenny, a vulgar poet, Jamie Gillis and Mai Lin play Bubba and Liz, who are interpersonal relationship artists that spend their time making love. The film utilizes some great locations and well done sets. While dated, there are some genuinely funny parts to the film.

The film does slow down during portions when it pushes deeper into the various relationships going on at Whitestone. And some jokes seem to have never been fully developed as there is a point where Lenny paints on the Whitestone sign, which could have made a fun sequential joke series, but after being covered up is forgotten.

Overall, A Woman's Dream is worth watching, especially if you like a feature film with more plot than sex and when actual time and effort went into making adult films. If nothing else, Randy West's random musical number “A Woman's Dream” in the bookstore is worth watching the film all by itself.

Metro has done a poor job of releasing Taboo 7. The disc itself only contains the altered Taboo 7 release and not the original release A Woman's Dream. Taboo 7 is presented in the full screen aspect ratio. The new credits, both opening and closing, are in poor shape with numerous glitches in the video. The film itself is in better shape. The disc looks like it was mastered from a video master and contains a soft picture with artifacts and glitches in the video. There are a few abrupt jumps in the film. I don't know if they were a result of editing mistakes when making A Woman's Dream or whether small portions were excised for the Taboo 7 version. Taboo 7 is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The audio is a little on the low side, but isn't horrible.

The only extra that Metro has included on the disc is a photo gallery. Metro should have done a much better job with this release, starting with the original film A Woman's Dream, mastered from a restored print. The inclusion of the altered Taboo 7 footage would have made for a nice extra, but a better master should have been used as well. A featurette on why this film was altered to become Taboo 7 would have been nice. Along with maybe a short featurette by Randy West on being brought in to make the new opening narration. For now though, this subpar release is the only way to watch A Woman's Dream.

Taboo 7, which is really 1980's A Woman's Dream by Peter Perry, Jr., redecorated with a new title and new cheaply made computer generated beginning and end credits with a brief new opening narration with Randy West by Richard Mailer. A Woman's Dream isn't a bad film with a developed plot, great locations, some good acting, and nice sex scenes. Metro's release of the film is poor but sadly this is the only currently available way to see it.

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