I have many Alpha Blue dvds, the volumes starring Candy Samples (3 or 4 of them) and Little Oral Annie are my favorite so far. Picture quality varies, some Candy Samples loops have an excellent picture quality, but generally, don't expect a "digitally remastered" quality : they use dvd-5 only, and you can't do wonders when you put 120+min of material on dvd-5. I'm currently in the process of purchasing a few of the newer ones, including the Lysa Thatcher dvd. They also have a series dedicated to hard to find BDSM loops from HOM, TAO, RDF..
I recently got Little Oral Annie Rides again (a comp) from cduniverse.com DVD is of average quality at best. I agree with Wodgers' assessment on this.
I will say that despite the downright poor quality of a couple of the scenes, this is still a pretty hot movie overall. Oral Annie was one of my first porn "crushes", and the energy and spontanaeity in some of these early movies rivals some of the best gonzo out there today. God that woman can suck cock!
She's one of my favorite performers ever. And, btw, she was equally skilled at the BDSM play, enduring amazingly tight breast-bondage "torture". She would do everything.
I ordered the Kay Parker Collection from adultdvdempire.com and while the scenes are grainy and altogether bad as far as picture quality goes the content is still hot. I'd totally have to agree that the older film stars they're putting compliations together for are far better then some of the stars today. now if someone could just get off their ass and put a criterion-type version of "Taboo" together and not the supposed "special editions" they keep saying are gret out then I would be in Kay Parker heaven.
Hi everyone! I've been lurking here for a while, but this is my first post.
I really dig ABA's market "niche" and product. I have a handful of their discs that I've been very happy with, despite the less-than-ideal condition of some of their source materials, including A Climax of Blue Power, Linda Lovelace Collection, Avon Dynasty/Shaun Costello box, and the Rhonda Jo Petty and Little Oral Annie comps.
However, I recently picked up their DVDs of Sex Wish and Hot Summer in the City and discovered a frustrating problem that I thought I would share with you guys and ask if anyone else has experienced. Both of those discs have inconsistent audio playback problems. With Sex Wish , I get audio during the menu screen, but no where else on the disc (feature or extras). HSITC has audio during three of the twelve trailers/loops in the extras section, but not during the feature film or anywhere else on the disc.
Just to make this all the more maddening, I popped the discs into my Mac PowerBook and they both played fine, audio and all! What gives?!
I've never experienced this kind of an issue before, but I thought I would ask here (I've contacted ABA and they've yet to reply to me), before I go through the trouble of returning them. If it's a mastering issue, I would expect my replacement copies would have the same problem.
For what it's worth, my DVD player is a year-old Sony.
I agree, ABA has released films that probably otherwise would have been completely lost to time, so the sometimes less than stellar condition can be overlooked.
Regarding Sex Wish and Hot Summer in the City, neither of my copies have these problems I have audio throughout the extras and the feature presentation for both.
I'm sure David Naylor at ABA will get back to you he has never ignored an e-mail of mine.
Thank you Flash for the prompt reply! That's encouraging to hear. I'd hate to find myself becoming distrustful of the company's product (which I love) as a result of this experience.
I agree, but if only ABA could be to vintage hardcore what Something Weird is to softcore sexploitation : the latter company not only unearths lost gems, but also restores them.
Many of their masters appear to be from a VHS, which may be the only known copy left of some of these titles. There isn't much one can do to clean up a deteriorating VHS. Some appear to have come from film masters but many of those show massive signs of deterioration, probably not economical to restore given what ABA will make in profit off of them. They do appear to try to aquire additional masters if they can I'm not sure if they aquire one that is in much better shape than one used if they will issue fix discs for them or not.
It puzzles me that Something Weird always manages to find original masters of real obscure movies or loops by Harry Novak, Wishman, Sarno, Findlay et al., while ABA often gets VHS masters. The SW catalog does not exactly comes from the MGM vaults...
I know Harry Novak has saved almost all of his masters and tons of memorabilia, and gives Something Weird access to just about whatever they want. Mike Vraney is a pretty big-time collecter himself, I believe he researches where lost films could be hidden and goes excavating for them personally like an archaeologist. I'm not sure if anyone knows where alot of Alpha Blue's stuff could be found in its original form, if it still exists. I guess maybe Something Weird could even own superior copies of some of it, they've released some of the same films on VHS before.
I wish these guys would release a dvd of nothing but trailers of the roughie movie movies they put out. I think the trailers for some of these flicks are great, but the movies themselves sometimes don't live up to the coolness of the trailers.
I don't believe David Naylor is as gung-ho about archiving prints like Mike Vraney. Naylor has a network of collectors who trade prints with him, as far as I know, but I don't believe he's gone vault-raiding like Vraney has, or made deals with original producers to have access to their libraries (i.e., Friedman, Novak, Lewis, Distribpix). That's how you find long-lost negatives to stuff like THE ULTIMATE DEGENERATE, SEEDS OF SIN, MONA; you can't rely on print collectors having these in their collection. That's why ABA has to rely on ancient, out of print tapes for their masters. I was monumentally disappointed that their DVD of SEX WISH was from a worn tape. Only one or two of the Avon films they offer actually come from film prints, the rest are from the old Avon Video tapes. VHS is easier to come by and collect than film, it's that simple. It takes a lot more effort to track down prints, negatives, and personalities to ensure quality product. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad ABA is offering films that would otherwise be forgotten, but their presentation leaves much to be desired more often than not.
And yes, Something Weird has found prints of several films that ABA also offers. This has led to some rivalry between the two companies, and I've heard rumblings about both actually lifting film transfers from each other and claiming them as their own. ABA's APPOINTMENT WITH AGONY transfer has the SWV bug on it!
That makes sense. Yeah, watching a film transfer is alot more satisfying than a VHS one, I wish they were all as enthusiastic as Mike Vraney. I'm glad ABA's stuff is out there on dvd though, I think they're one of the better companies releasing classics. I also think an Alpha Blue trailer comp would be cool.
Little Puck Interview
Posted - Jul 30 2004 : 4:05AM
