Alpha Blue Archives has rescued THE GODMOTHER from near total obscurity with a current DVD reissue saluting its cult-to-be busty heroines Ann Ali and Tina Smith. It was a pleasure to see this forgotten opus.
Unlike several other pretty dreadful cash-ins on the Mario Puzo classic pulp novel that Francis Coppola immortalized on film (c.f., Harry Novak's wretched THE GODSON, out there with self- serving Novak commentary on the SWV/Image DVD), THE GODMOTHER delivers hot sex scenes and a serviceable crime storyline.
Title character is played by a buxom blonde woman who can't act but is a suitable dead ringer for the popular Candy Samples -and one wonders why the filmmakers didn't hire Candy instead - she was much in demand in 1972. Unnamed Godmother has difficulty reading her lines (like Brando, she seems to be actually reading them off of strategically placed cards on set) and unlike Candy she does not participate in any of the sex scenes.
Like Puzo's key theme in his best-selling book, the film emphasizes that the Godmother sticks to prostitution as a racket and eschews any involvement with narcotics, She gives her girls (and the audience) a throw-back lecture on the evils of drugs that is reminiscent of the classic exploitation films of the '30s and '40s, giving THE GODMOTHER socially redeeming value!
Plot is simple: evil drug-lord Nick (Keith Erickson) gives a beautiful blonde a heroin fix after she services him, but it's an overdose that kills her. Erickson reminds one strongly in both his look, facial expressions and even acting of Michael Keaton (!), whose own career was still several years in the future. You know he's a really BAAD guy, by the callous way he treats the girl's corpse at the end of the scene.
Godmother has a strip club where we see the amazingly cantilevered Ann Ali dance a striptease. Ordinarily this would be a soft-core guest appearance in a hardcore film for a busty magazine star, but Ali has two torrid hardcore sex scenes later in the film. She and the other girls in Godmother's stable command $100 for a roll in the hay, excellent wages for 1972.
Ali plays Cindy, who was the dead blonde's roommate. She and the Godmother swear they'll revenge her death, and that's virtually the entire plot line of this hour long exercise.
Another hooker working for the Godmother is Regina, played by Tina Smith, another cult ultra-busty actress who is being championed by ABA in its current round of DVD reissues. She performs in stimulating fashion, and some of the sex scenes are shot using soft-core angles (you can't see exactly what's going on) yet others are 100% hardcore. This was likely an early '70s ploy in order to derive dual versions of the same film for different theater uses (akin to the '90s Playboy Channel showing soft versions of many an adult film directed by Paul Thomas). Both Tina and Ann appear opposite such greats as Candy Samples and Marsha Jordan in the classic 2-part 1972 loop from Diverse Industries BREAST ORGY.
Among the other girls in Godmother's stable is an actress who I believe to be popular Becky Sharpe, appearing in a couple of threesome scenes but not given a name for her character.
The Godmother arranges to provide her girls as entertainment for one of Nick's poker games, and following the guys' fun (including one of the players portrayed by early porn superstar Rick Cassidy who (natch) has a yen for buxom women) the Godmother kills Nick by lethal injection, and with a stash of incriminating documents and photos puts an end to the gangsters' reign of terror over her girls.
Obviously an ephemeral film when issued over 42 years ago, it is great to see THE GODMOTHER rediscovered, as virtually the only hardcore tribute to the great Ann Ali.
Unlike several other pretty dreadful cash-ins on the Mario Puzo classic pulp novel that Francis Coppola immortalized on film (c.f., Harry Novak's wretched THE GODSON, out there with self- serving Novak commentary on the SWV/Image DVD), THE GODMOTHER delivers hot sex scenes and a serviceable crime storyline.
Title character is played by a buxom blonde woman who can't act but is a suitable dead ringer for the popular Candy Samples -and one wonders why the filmmakers didn't hire Candy instead - she was much in demand in 1972. Unnamed Godmother has difficulty reading her lines (like Brando, she seems to be actually reading them off of strategically placed cards on set) and unlike Candy she does not participate in any of the sex scenes.
Like Puzo's key theme in his best-selling book, the film emphasizes that the Godmother sticks to prostitution as a racket and eschews any involvement with narcotics, She gives her girls (and the audience) a throw-back lecture on the evils of drugs that is reminiscent of the classic exploitation films of the '30s and '40s, giving THE GODMOTHER socially redeeming value!
Plot is simple: evil drug-lord Nick (Keith Erickson) gives a beautiful blonde a heroin fix after she services him, but it's an overdose that kills her. Erickson reminds one strongly in both his look, facial expressions and even acting of Michael Keaton (!), whose own career was still several years in the future. You know he's a really BAAD guy, by the callous way he treats the girl's corpse at the end of the scene.
Godmother has a strip club where we see the amazingly cantilevered Ann Ali dance a striptease. Ordinarily this would be a soft-core guest appearance in a hardcore film for a busty magazine star, but Ali has two torrid hardcore sex scenes later in the film. She and the other girls in Godmother's stable command $100 for a roll in the hay, excellent wages for 1972.
Ali plays Cindy, who was the dead blonde's roommate. She and the Godmother swear they'll revenge her death, and that's virtually the entire plot line of this hour long exercise.
Another hooker working for the Godmother is Regina, played by Tina Smith, another cult ultra-busty actress who is being championed by ABA in its current round of DVD reissues. She performs in stimulating fashion, and some of the sex scenes are shot using soft-core angles (you can't see exactly what's going on) yet others are 100% hardcore. This was likely an early '70s ploy in order to derive dual versions of the same film for different theater uses (akin to the '90s Playboy Channel showing soft versions of many an adult film directed by Paul Thomas). Both Tina and Ann appear opposite such greats as Candy Samples and Marsha Jordan in the classic 2-part 1972 loop from Diverse Industries BREAST ORGY.
Among the other girls in Godmother's stable is an actress who I believe to be popular Becky Sharpe, appearing in a couple of threesome scenes but not given a name for her character.
The Godmother arranges to provide her girls as entertainment for one of Nick's poker games, and following the guys' fun (including one of the players portrayed by early porn superstar Rick Cassidy who (natch) has a yen for buxom women) the Godmother kills Nick by lethal injection, and with a stash of incriminating documents and photos puts an end to the gangsters' reign of terror over her girls.
Obviously an ephemeral film when issued over 42 years ago, it is great to see THE GODMOTHER rediscovered, as virtually the only hardcore tribute to the great Ann Ali.