Mad Love (1989)

... aka: John Leslie's Mad Love

Directed by:
John Leslie

Wealthy, frail old Ben Davis (played by Christopher Lee look-a-like “Walter Electric”), who seems to have recently suffered from a stroke or other malady that makes him unresponsive and mute, and his much younger sexpot wife (Aja) are sitting down to dinner when the doorbells rings. Ralph (Damien Cashmere) and his friend Gary (Jon Dough) have broken down nearby and need to use their phone. After finding out a tow truck won't be able to make it for 45 minutes, the woman invites them to stay and have dinner. When they inquire about why the old man is just sitting there staring at them in silence, the wife points out “He's old. He just does that.” She adds, “But he doesn't do much about anything,” which the guys take as an invitation to bang her right there on the table as the old guy looks on.

Soon after, Realtor Joel Harper (Richard Pacheco) shows the San Francisco home to prospective new renter Jeffrey Reynolds (Jon Martin). Jeff needs a place to stay for six months and this 15-room mansion, which has such 80s amenities as cable TV, a VCR, a whole stockpile of video tapes, an elevator, a great view of the bay, terrible wallpaper and endless tacky décor, antiques, clutter and knickknacks that would make a season's worth of nuts from Hoarders green with envy, seems ideal for his needs. Jeff goes home to tell his wife Elizabeth ("Kendal Marx" / Lisa Bright) the good news. They'll be paid to live there and function as caretakers while the wheelchair-bound Mr. Davis is away. In that time, they can save back money and take their sweet time looking for a new place. Sounds almost too good to be true. Well, except for that little bit about the home supposedly being haunted.

Their first night in the house, Elizabeth is awaken by the sound of music. She goes into another room, where two ghosts (F.M. Bradley and Brandi Wine) are dancing and about to engage in some mildly kinky sex ("Tie me to a chair."). The next morning, Elizabeth thinks it was all a dream but her "brain feels like mashed potatoes." Before rushing off to his new job, Jeffrey writes the whole thing off as her having too much wine the night before but, as we will soon see, that's not the case at all. While she's reminiscing about the couple she'd seen the night before, she hears female voices and has another "scary" vision of ghosts Aja and Rene Morgan messing around with a strap on that has her frantically calling her husband at work. He's busy with a client so she passes out on the couch only to stirred out of her slumber long enough to watch an orgy with big-haired blonde Britt Morgan having sex with two guys wearing leather hoods as the focal point.

Jeffrey returns home to find Elizabeth passed out on the couch with an empty bottle of Valium at her side. He calls in a doctor (James Dalton), who concludes that she didn't overdose but has sustained "a severe shock to the system." He doesn't recommend hospitalization but instead lots of rest, which is easier said than done when Elizabeth keeps being woken up by horny ghosts! She eventually ends up giving in to temptation when she decides to let four poker-playing buddies have their way with her. This somehow all ties into a 1930s sex scandal involving a jealous husband murdering his adulterous wife... and history may end up repeating itself.

While not a game changer or anything, this is well-made by adult film standards, especially ones shot on video. Photography (by Jack Remy), lighting, editing, music and sound are all tended to in a competent way. There's even a plot and acceptable dialogue, which isn't anything deep or intricate, but it's enough to keep this fairly interesting until the twist ending. The best part is Lisa Bright in a rare starring role. She was only in porn for a few years and never managed to make a name for herself despite being one of the most naturally attractive actresses from this time. One of the problems was that she was almost always cast as second banana to a bigger "star" like Jamie Summers, Trinity Loren or her co-star here, Aja. Another problem was branding. While she appeared in around 40 adult titles she managed to use 20 different aliases during that time so no one could even keep track of who she was. Not surprisingly, the advertising materials for this one all use Aja as the poster model and give her top billing.

Leslie also produced, edited and co-wrote this with Pacheco (also the production manager). This won the 1990 Adult Video News Award for "Best Video of the Year" and was selected for their list of Top 500 adult titles of all time. VCA released this on VHS in 1989 and now carry it on DVD.

★★1/2