Much weirder-than-average pornographic lunacy from the 1970s, an era that contained more than its share of bizarre porn (including THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, F…AND LOTS OF IT! and BATPUSSY). LITTLE SISTERS was released in 1972, the same year as the seminal DEEP THROAT, yet has more in common with the era’s counterculture cinema (such as CHELSEA GIRLS and EL TOPO). It was an early effort by the late Alex De Renzy (1935-2001), who at the time was known for making saucy documentaries (such as 1970’s notorious ANIMAL LOVER), but would go on to become a furiously prolific pornmeister with anti-classics like FEMMES DE SADE (1976), BABYFACE (1977) and PRETTY PEACHES (1978).
The title characters are Emily and Kandi (Clair Dia and Kandi Johnson), two twentyish “little girls” who reside with their mother in a DIY mobile home that’s currently parked in a vast forest. Mom warns the girls that they live in “very, very bad times” and shouldn’t venture too far into the woods, while nearby, in a veritable illustration of her fears, a group of hippie pirates are engaged in an orgy.
The following morning Mom heads off for supplies and Emily and Kandi are set upon by the pirates, who take the gals into the forest. Vowing “I won’t rest until I get my babies back safe in their beds,” Mom sets off in search of her daughters. Her odyssey brings her into contact with a cabal of hedonistic lesbians, who elect to join the search. This leads them to the pirates (they aren’t exactly hard to find), who the lesbians fight and best, but instead of returning Emily and Kandi to their mother they make the girls their sex slaves.
Mom solicits the assistance of a local monk, but he, like nearly everyone else in this film’s warped universe, turns out to be a raging pervert, and one who engages in ritual sacrifice. Salvation finally appears in the form of Derek, a magical elf who can appear and disappear at will, and eventually sets things right among the film’s various horned-up factions with the admonition “You people think you can come into the woods and do what you please—well, you’re wrong!” The result: Emily and Kandi are reunited with Mom, while Derek leads the lesbians and the pirates in a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
This being a porno film, one has to overlook the amateurish performances, poor sound mixing and narrative that feels made up as its director went along. What’s surprising is that in most other categories, such as photography and editing, LITTLE SISTERS is quite strong, with crisp outdoor imagery put together with a professional sheen that renders it unique in the porno field.
Alex De Renzy may have been attempting a funhouse inversion of early 1970s America, although that would be giving far too much credit to a film whose anarchic, quasi-comedic tone (replicated in any number of 1970s porn features) obliterates any serious issues its maker might have had in mind. De Renzy did at least have an evident knowledge of fairy tale tropes, many of which are highlighted (including a direct quote from Lewis Carroll’s 1871 poem “Jabberwocky”).
Such things, however, never register very strongly, as De Renzy, for all his pretentions, was focused mainly on genital acrobatics.
Vital Statistics
LITTLE SISTERS
Good Times Productions
Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor: Alex De Renzy
Screenplay: Edwin Brown, Alex De Renzy, George S. McDonald
Cast: Clair Dia, Kandi Johnson, Dale Meador, Tyler Reynolds, Robert, Margo St. James, Barry Vane