I had this on DVD from the Retro-Seduction Cinema line back in the early 2000’s and enjoyed it well enough to keep it in my collection for all these years. Now that I have the Al Adamson Collection Blu-Ray box set from Severin Films, it’s (mile) high time I upgraded. Since I bought the disc prior to the creation of my original blog, I never got around to reviewing it. Until now.
Even back then I knew this was one of Adamson’s best, and that opinion hasn’t really changed all that much, even if it isn’t exactly “good”. Although many of his films had a smattering of nudity here and there, The Naughty Stewardesses was Adamson’s first out-and-out sexploitation flick. Once again, he and producer Sam Sherman were cashing in on the latest exploitation craze. In this case, they were riding the coattails of the booming Stewardess genre. It’s also one of his best-looking films, thanks to Gary Graver’s excellent cinematography. The editing is equally remarkable as this has to be Adamson’s most coherent feature to date.
I only wish the editor was more judicious in the cutting room as this clocks in at a whopping 109 minutes. There’s no reason for a softcore stewardess movie to be 109 minutes. Heck, there’s no reason for an Al Adamson movie to be 109 minutes. In the film’s defense, I will say that this is the “steamy” international cut that includes six extra spicy minutes of footage previously unseen in America. Just one more reason why I’m glad I upgraded my disc.
The film centers around a shy and virginal stewardess named Debbie (Connie Hoffman) who rooms together with three sexy, much more experienced stews, played by Donna Desmond, Marilyn Joi, and Sydney Jordan. Slowly, Debbie loosens up and eventually finds herself torn between the horny old rich man Brewster (Robert Livingston) and a young photographer named Cal (Richard Smedley, who played Akro in Adamson’s Blood of Ghastly Horror), who has a mysterious sexual hang-up. When Debbie spurns Cal in favor of Brewster, he plots to get even.
Adamson had previously shown restraint with nudity in his films. While there is much more of it here in The Naughty Stewardesses, it’s still more tease than please. Still, many scenes are sexy without going overboard. For example, this movie probably features the first pussy shaving scene in a non-hardcore flick. That sounds great and all, but Adamson’s shy handling of it makes it feel a bit tame.
The opening scene is particularly great. Marilyn Joi asks, “Have you girls ever tried doing it standing up?” Then one of the stewardesses proceeds to bang the captain standing up in the back of the plane, just out of view from the passengers. We also get a memorable birthday party scene where a stewardess receives a cake that’s just a dude with whipped cream all over his body and candles sticking out of his nether region.
The travelogue scenes of the girls walking around Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Palm Springs, adds to the abundance of padding. Despite that, it plays rather well, and works more often than not. The problem is the third act. It’s here when the film turns into a dull kidnapping drama. The pacing was already erratic to begin with, but once this subplot takes hold, the movie hits a brick wall and never quite recovers. If the script had just stuck to being a slice of life look into the bedroom activities of sexy stewardesses, it could’ve been a minor classic. Too bad that last half hour moves like molasses.
If you can get past the obnoxious length and the gratuitous third act, I think you’ll enjoy The Naughty Stewardesses. The ladies in the cast (especially Joi) are sexy, feisty, and likeable, and are equally amusing in their clothes as they are out of them. The music (by the girl group Sparrow), is quite good too.
Desmond gets the best line of the movie when she tells Livingston: “Life to me is just one big orgasm!”
AKA: Fresh Air.
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