Saucy 70s! - A British Sex Comedy Threesome: Deluxe Collectors Edition – 88 Films (Blu-ray)
Theatrical Release Dates: UK, 1973 (The Sex Thief), UK, 1972 (Au Pair Girls), UK, 1969 (Zeta One)
Directors: Martin Campbell (The Sex Thief), Val Guest (Au Pair Girls), Michael Cort (Zeta One)
Cast: Jennifer Westbrook, David Warbeck, Henry Rayner, Gerald Taylor, Michael Armstrong, Terence Edmond, Diane Keen, Christopher Neil, Harvey Hall (The Sex Thief), Astrid Frank, Johnny Briggs, Gabrielle Drake, Me Me Lai, Nancie Wait, Joyce Heron, Daphne Anderson, Geoffrey Bayldon (Au Pair Girls), James Robertson Justice, Charles Hawtrey, Robin Hawdon, Anna Gaël, Brigitte Skay, Dawn Addams, Valerie Leon, Lionel Murton, Yutte Stensgaard (Zeta One)
Release Date: December 19th, 2022
Approximate Running Times: 93 Minutes 9 Seconds (The Sex Thief), 84 Minutes 29 Seconds (Au Pair Girls), 85 Minutes 50 Seconds (Zeta One)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (All Films)
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono English (All Films)
Subtitles: English SDH (All Films)
Region Coding: Region B
Retail Price: £35.00 (UK)
"From the era that also bought us the seedier Carry On films and the Confessions… movies there also came a run of other ‘delightfully of their time’ British sex comedies. This beautifully presented set brings together three of those typically silly and salacious soft porn romps in Zeta One (1970), Au Pair Girls (1972) and The Sex Thief (1973). Combining elements of science fiction, crime and plenty of smut these movies could only have sprung from that strangely odd time which fell somewhere between the dying sixties and the Deep Throat generation.
Featuring an eclectic mix of talent including James Robertson Justice (Doctor in the House), Me Me Lai (The Man from Deep River), Charles Hawtrey, (Carry on up the Jungle) and Diane Keen (Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush) these films are at least guaranteed to raise a smile if nothing else…
Daring, daft and unspeakably naughty, here is a threesome you’ll never forget." - synopsis provided by the distributor
Video: 3.75/5 (Zeta One), 3.25/5 (The Sex Thief, Au Pair Girls)
Here’s the information provided about this release's transfers, "The masters of Zeta One, Au Pair Girls and The Sex Thief were transferred in High Definition from best possible archive film materials and supplied by Tigon Film distributors.
Additional restoration was carried out by 88 Films at ITV Studios in 2022 to remove excess dust, instability and flicker."
The Sex Thief comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 40 GB
Feature: 27 GB
Au Pair Girls comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 29.1 GB
Feature: 23 GB
Zeta One comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 33.1 GB
Feature: 24.9 GB
Though none of these transfers are reference quality, they are all still better than what has come before on home media. Zeta One is the best-looking of these three films, while the other two look similar quality-wise.
Audio: 3.5/5 (Zeta One), 3/5 (The Sex Thief, Au Pair Girls)
Each film comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The Sex Thief and Au Pair Girls have sibilance issues. The dialogue is consistently clear, the overall sound is well-balanced, and the audio range is satisfactory.
Extras:
Extras for The Sex Thief include overseas version (intro only) from hardcore version of The Sex Thief (2 minutes 53 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English with burnt-in Dutch subtitles), an interview with Michael Armstrong titled To Catch a Thief (11 minutes 10 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled It Must Be Burglary - Making The Sex Thief, featuring production accountant David Ball, composer Michael Vickers, editor Peter Musgrave, art director Tony Noble, stunt arranger Paul Weston, and actress Veronica Doran (32 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw.
Extras for the Au Pair Girls include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), three extended scenes from the Export version (5 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and a featurette titled Au Pair Appeal (10 minutes, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), featuring actor John Standing, camera operator Geoff Glover, and first assistant editor Tariq Anwar.
Extras for Zeta One include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Angela Grant titled Outerspace Girl (10 minutes 2 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Robin Hawdon titled Zeta Man (9 minutes 2 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled Earning a Crust, featuring assistant editor Jonathan Morris, and camera operator Geoff Glover (7 minutes 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw.
Other extras include a double-sided fold-out poster, and a 80-Page Perfect-bound Book with cast & crew information for each film, an essay titled Boobs on Screen, Bums on Seats written by Simon Sheridan, Why i Made Sex Comedy an archival interview with director Val Guest, archival reviews for each film, archival images and other promotional materials, and information about the transfers.
Summary:
Besides being British, the other commonality of these three films is that they were produced or distributed by Tigon Films.
The Sex Thief: A novelist who writes trashy novels by day becomes a masked jewel thief by night, seducing his victims when he gets caught in the act.
Everyone must begin their journey at some point. That said, it's head-scratching that Martin Campbell, who directed films like GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro, and Casino Royale, began his career directing sex comedies like The Sex Thief. Though the premise of The Sex Thief is absurd and the narrative predictable, the direction is solid, particularly in the exaggerated sex scenes.
There is nothing memorable about the performances; David Warbeck (The Beyond), in the role of the protagonist, a novelist masquerading as a jewel thief, spends most of his time having sex. The humor, most of which is sexually laced, misses more than it lands. The funniest joke is how all of the women who have been robbed give different descriptions: a 6-foot-6 Russian who disguises himself as a midget. Worst of all, the narrative just plods along, never gaining any momentum. Ultimately, The Sex Thief is a forgettable comedy whose negatives far outweigh its positives.
Au Pair Girls: Four women from foreign countries go to England to work as au pairs, and sexy shenanigans unfold.
Au Pair Girls was helmed by a director that one does not usually associate with sex comedies. Up to that point in his career, Val Guest was most known for his 14 collaborations with Hammer Films and his work in the science fiction genre. That said, Au Pair Girls would mark a shift in his career; most of his films after it would be in the comedy genre.
The main attractions of Au Pair Girls are the four actresses who portray the au pairs: Astrid Frank (The Resort Girls), Gabrielle Drake (There's a Girl in My Soup), Me Me Lai (Man from Deep River), and Nancie Wait (The Amorous Milkman). Each of these four women’s characters is given a different nationality, and the humor takes advantage of their traits. Of course, all of them shine their brightest when their more than ample assets are on display.
You have to give Au Pair Girls credit for never straying too far from its strengths. Though the focal point is a series of sexual rendezvous, that is not to say that sufficient time is not devoted to exposition. Au Pair Girls is filled with sexually laced humor that rarely misses its mark, and its gratuitous amount of nudity is a plus. Ultimately, Au Pair Girls is a fun time waster that holds up better than most 1970s British sex comedies.
Zeta One: A secret agent encounters a group of alluring women from another dimension who abduct women from Earth to repopulate their planet.
Co-written and directed by Michael Cort, Zeta One would be his only feature film. The camera just lets characters take center stage; his direction is flat, never delivering any personal flourishes. That said, it is not surprising that he did not direct another feature film.
Considering the premise—a film filled with beautiful, scantily clad women from another dimension—its lack of nudity feels like a missed opportunity. Another area that is not as strong as it could be is the narrative structure; it uses a wrap-around with a secret agent character whose retelling of his adventure with the women from another dimension. Before he even begins this story, there is a lengthy game of foreplay between him and a woman he works with. Needless to say, though Zeta One is a mess, it is not a complete loss.
The most surprising aspect is its cast of recognizable faces: Dawn Addams (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse), Valerie Leon (Blood from the Mummy's Tomb), Yutte Stensgaard (Lust for a Vampire), and James Robert Justice (The Guns of Navarone), who portrays a major whose capture tortured some of the women from another dimension. In the case of the latter, it is documented that he was ashamed of working on a film like Zeta One. That said, the performance suits the story that unfolds.
Though billed as a fantasy film, it often employs its humor with tongue firmly in cheek. The planet Angvia, where the women from another dimension are from, is an anagram for vagina. The special effects are atrocious; the women from Angvia have fingers that are a deadly weapon, which they shoot like a gun. There are a lot of James Bond references; the secret agent character is a spoof of James Bond, and his boss's name is W. Ultimately, somehow, despite its shortcomings, Zeta One manages to be a mildly entertaining film in a campy way.
Saucy 70s! - A British Sex Comedy Threesome gives the three films in this collection their best home media release to date, recommended.
Written by Michael Den Boer
