42ND STREET FOREVER: THE PEEP SHOW COLLECTION, VOL. 3: A Smut Smorgasbord With A Sadistic Surprise

July is here and so is the latest installment of the new Impulse Pictures compliation DVD series, 42nd Street Forever: The Peep Show Collection, Vol. 3.  This series is devoted to the silent adult movie loops of the '70s and it doles out another fistful of sweaty '70s loops for the long hot summer.  While it delivers the kind of carnal gymnastics you might expect, it also a memorable little surprise up its sleeve.The third volume of Peep Show Collection settles comfortably into a groove established by the first two volumes.  It dishes up fifteen vintage loops, broken into three catagories of five films each: "boy-girl," "three" or more and "lesbian."  As always there are a smattering of porn stars in the mixture of fly-by-night performers drawn to the quicks money of shooting loops: notable performers here include Linda Wong, Candida Royalle, Jamie Gillis and Susie Nero (who appears in both a boy-girl loop and a lesbian one).As usual, John Holmes also appears and is represented by one of his early loops, complete with awkwardly slicked-down hair and post-hippie swinger duds.  It's worth noting that the Holmes loop makes a novel use of butter that suggests a loop-style tribute to Last Tango In Paris.However, the big surprise here is the final loop, a bizarre and sadistic little ditty entitled "Barbarian Girls."  It begins with two hitchhikers getting (unconvincingly) sideswiped by a car.  When one member of this duo is knocked out, the other drags her into a shack and breaks out the torture implements for a session of sadism that plays like an episode of Videodrome done with H.G. Lewis-style effects.  It might seem like something you can chuckle off as a sick joke until it goes for a memorably nasty bit of mutilation that will make you squirm.The package is rounded by a liner notes booklet from Robin Bougie, who uses the opportunity to muse philosophical about the rite of passage that is discovering your old man's hidden cache of smut.  He weaves in some quotes from an article in his porn mag research stash and gives the reader fair warning about the "Barbarian Girls" loop.  All in all, another solid package of smut from the Impulse films - just look out for that sting in the tail.