TABOO (xxx film review)

 

Another classic porn film from my collection. We’re going back to the year 1980, with this breakthrough film that tackled the ultimate taboo topic: incest! Specifically, incest between a mother and her son. I don’t think this was the first major porn film to utilize this topic as a plot device, but it was certainly the first "mainstream" porn film to do so.

It's funny that they were able to shoot this film back then, at a time when society was much more conservative. Today, most major porn companies avoid actual incest as a plot-line, and instead would have made this film about a woman and her stepson, as pseudo-incest in the form of stepparents and stepsiblings is socially acceptable, and quite popular, in porn.

Written by Helene Terrie and directed by Kirdy Stevens (who were married until Kirdy's death in 2012), the film stars Kay Parker and Mike Ranger as Barbara Scott and her son Paul.

I’ll note that when the film was released Kay was 36 and Mike 28, but neither character’s age is expressly stated in the film, Barbara just once refers to Paul as a “teen.” He’s shown to be in school, and there is a UCLA flag on the wall in his bedroom, but the film takes place in San Francisco, so he can’t be living at home while attending that university, so my guess would be that he’s meant to be a senior in High School, perhaps planning to go to UCLA after graduation, and therefor 17 or 18. 

Turk Lyon plays Chris Scott, Barbara’s husband and Paul’s father. In the beginning of the film he leaves Barbara in the middle of the night, blaming her for being too sexually inhibited (for example we see that she only likes doing it in the dark with the lights off) and saying he’s going to live with his secretary Jean, whom Barbara calls a “teenybopper” and speculates later that she’s only 19 or 20. Chris offers to let Paul come live with him, but Paul tells Barbara that he’d rather stay with her. He even offers to drop out of school and get a job to help out, but Barbara rejects that idea and resolves to get a job herself.

Paul clearly doesn’t take after his mother in regards to sex. He’s shown to have an active sex life with his girlfriend Sherry, who is played by Dorothy LeMay. Sherry’s pretty wild herself, as a study session with Paul and their friend Diane (Tawny Pearl) leads to both girls giving Paul a double-blowjob and then Paul fucking Diane at Sherry’s suggestion while Sherry watches.

 

Also rather uninhibited is Barbara’s best from Gina, played by Juliet Anderson. It’s not clear what she does for a living, but most of the time we see her she’s engaging in sexual activity with an unnamed man and woman, played by Don Fernando and Miko Yani, who seem to just be staying at her apartment. After hearing how difficult it is for Barbara to find a job, Gina recommends that she look up a man named Jerry Morgan. He was an old friend of Chris and Barbara’s when he was married, but he’s single now and runs a real estate agency. Gina also convinces Barbara to let her set her up on a blind date with a man she knows, although Barbara is reluctant at first.

Milton Ingley plays Jerry Morgan, and Barbara gets a job as his secretary. But at one point he aggressively starts groping her and she gets angry and quits. But Jerry profusely apologizes and convinces her to stay, promising not to do that again, so she agrees. Then that night she has her date.

Now, up to this point the film hasn’t done too much to suggest anything between Barbara and Paul which, in retrospect is a bit of a surprise and I’d argue somewhat of a failure in terms of the script. Early in the film, while discussing who Paul is going to stay with, Paul says tells Barbara that he has “the hottest mom in town”, and is seen staring at her cleavage. But since she’s only wearing a robe with nothing on underneath as she leans in front of him, it would be hard for him not to stare.

In a later scene when they’re talking while sitting next to each on a couch, she tries to kiss him on the cheek but Paul turns his head unexpectedly and they kiss on the lips, which surprises them both, but they just play it off. 

Things don’t come to a head until the night of Barbara’s date. Paul brings Sherry home while Barbara is getting ready, and he leaves her on the couch while he goes to check on his mother. He goes to her room and hears the shower in her bathroom running, and he peeks through the door and watches as she soaps up her naked body. Then he continues to hide and watch as she gets dressed, after sitting by her dresser rubbing lotion on her big breasts. He’s clearly turned on and rubs his crotch as he watches all this. He goes back to Sherry before Barbara catches him and as soon as Barbara leaves Paul and Sherry have sex on the couch. When it’s over a flashback shows that Paul was thinking about his mother as he fucked Sherry.

Lee LeMay (it's unclear if he's related to Dorothy) plays Charlie, Barbara’s date. He takes her to a party at a house far out in Monterey (that’s 17 miles from San Francisco), and she is utterly shocked when it turns out to be a swinger’s party. As people start getting naked and hooking up, Barbara demands to be taken home, but Charlie refuses and leaves her sitting on the couch in the living room as the rest of the guests move to a larger room and have a big orgy. This is a long scene of maybe a dozen people all fucking in various combinations, B/G, G/G, B/G/B, and G/B/G. Occasionally Barbara pokes her head in to watch, but mostly sits on the couch and rebuffs all offers to join in.

The next scene is late at night, back at home Barbara is lying in her bed in a nightgown. She can’t sleep, as she keeps thinking of the orgy, imagining that she had taken part in it. We get a couple of brief flashes of her blowing some man, and her laying naked on the floor as a bunch of men and women fondle her body. She gets out of bed and walks down the hall, as she passes Paul’s room she hears him moaning in his sleep. When she looks in the door she sees him laying naked on his bed on top of the covers. She tries to leave but keeps turning her head to look at him again. Unable to stop herself she ends up laying next to his bed and starts sucking his cock.

 

So the indication is that she got so turned on by the orgy she witnessed that she couldn’t resist her own son. Looking at it logically, it’s a bit out of left field, as she’d given no indication of finding her son desirable before this. Paul wakes and is surprised to find his mother sucking his cock, but he loves it. Of course, his lust for his mother had been established. Still, I guess it works well enough for this film, and they have hot sex. The next morning Barbara leaves before Paul wakes up and goes to work, but is distracted. Jerry notices this, and suggests that they both take the day off and go sightseeing around town, which she agrees to. They spend the day together and end up at the beach where they kiss. 

When Barbara gets home that night, she finds Paul on her bed, blowdrying his hair and wearing nothing but a towel. They talk about what happened between them, with Barbara insisting that it was wrong and should never happen again, but Paul still wants her and comes on to her. Barbara tries to resist, but quickly gives in and they have hot sex again.

The next day Barbara goes to see Gina and tells her what happened. She is confused because even though she’s had sex with Paul, she also thinks she’s falling in love with Jerry, something which really seems fast and out of left-field. But Gina is so turned on at the thought of Barbara having sex with her own son that she starts masturbating right in front of her. “I don't believe this, I come to you for help and you’re having orgasms all over the room!” Barbara declares and leaves in a huff.

Next, we see Barbara, Jerry, and Paul all have dinner together. Jerry suggests taking the two of them to his cabin in Lake Tahoe for some fishing next weekend. But Paul says he’ll be busy and then leaves, not finishing his dinner because he says he lost his appetite. After he’s gone Jerry takes Barbara into her room and they make love. As they lay together afterward, Jerry says he’s in love with her and wants to marry, but she asks him not to rush her, as she’s going to live her life on her own terms from now, and that includes keeping him as her lover.

 

THE END

There’s some story flaws, as I noted. More time could have been spent on the build-up to Barbara and Paul’s getting together, more scenes of the two of them being tempted by each other. And really the whole subplot of the romance with Jerry Morgan just feels out of place, I would have dropped that and just kept the focus on Barbara and Paul, who's story is left open-ended.

Still, it’s a classic for a reason. It’s a well-shot movie, and well-acted. And the chemistry between Kay Parker and Mike Ranger is off the charts (all the more reason I wish we’d seen more of them together). But those story flaws do keep me from giving it a perfect rating, especially when compared to its sequel (which I’ll get to next). Nevertheless, Taboo is worth a Chacebook rating of FOUR STARS