Friday, September 10th, 2010

The Shaun Costello Vintage Porn Collection from Pink Flamingo Entertainment

Published on July 24, 2010 by Greg B. · No Comments

Shaun Costello is a 42nd Street legend who almost wasn’t. The now exploitation/porn icon started out making porn film shorts called “Loops” while working his “legit” job as editor of a college magazine. To keep his day job, now in advertising, Costello would keep his real name off of any and all credits of his films, going by a multitude of fake names. Making loops wasn’t enough for him so he began work on his first feature film Forced Entry which was admittedly based on the gritty New York classic Taxi Driver. As the director/actor became more and more familiar with the filmmaking process, he also became more efficient to the point of being able to shoot, edit and copy a film in three days. In four months he could crank out thirty-two approximately sixty minute features costing around $5,000 apiece. Costello would go on to make hundreds of films, most of which have since been lost, but the ones that survived are now loved by the fans of the gritty XXX cinema of Times Square in the ’70s and ’80s.

There have been very few legitimate releases of Shaun Costello’s films but upstart classic porn and art-house DVD company Pink Flamingo Entertainment has set out to fix that. They, along with Costello himself, have begun releasing some of his very best and most loved films on Region 2 DVD (Europe). The first three films released under the “Shaun Costello Vintage Porn Collection” in May of this year are Forced Entry (1973), Pandora’s Mirror (1981) and Hot Dreams (1983). In August, also of this year, Pink Flamingo plans to release 1979′s More than Sisters and maybe the most infamous of his movies, Water Power (1977) to follow. All of these titles are digitally remastered in their original aspect ratios (usually 4:3 fullscreen) and Dolby Digital Audio. The audio is in English, but each disk has subtitles in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German, French and Dutch.

Check out the disk specifics below for all of the badass DVD extras included on each release!

Forced Entry (Uncut: 84 minutes)- Released at the peak of the Vietnam War, it was the first motion picture to use that war as central to its theme. Porn-legend Harry Reems stars as the deranged Vietnam veteran who hunts down young women, brutally torturing, raping and eventually killing them. Forced Entry is a bizarre combination of horror and sado-masochistic hardcore pornography combined in the best Grindhouse tradition. Shocking, disturbing and brutal!

For many years the prints and negative of this film remained in storage, and eventually disappeared. Recently, prints and video sources have materialized, making this DVD possible. The film’s director supervised the authoring of the disc. And states that, editorially, this version is as close as he can come to the original.

DVD Extras – Interviews with Shaun Costello and Maryse Alberti, slideshow with rare pictures from other Shaun Costello films, slideshow of the director, ”Hooked on Sleaze” – about the life and carreer of Costello, ”Forced Entry” – the cocktail, booklet in English and French by Nicolas Rioult.

Pandora’s Mirror (Uncut: 84 minutes) – When Pandora (Veronica Hart) goes into an antique shop to buy furniture, she takes notice of a large mirror hidden in the back of the shop. She is instantly drawn towards the mirror but the owner refuses to sell it, claiming that it’s possessed. She persuades him to let her borrow it for a few days but when she gets home, she discovers that it has the power to show her the sexual escapades of the people throughout history who have looked into it. “Pandora’s Mirror” is one of the finest classics from the golden age of porn.

The restoration of this release of “Pandora’s Mirror” was supervised and approved by the film’s director himself, making this the best possible version of the film.

DVD Extras – Interviews with Shaun Costello and Maryse Alberti, slideshow with rare pictures from other Shaun Costello films, slideshow of the director, booklet in English and French by Nicolas Rioult.

Hot Dreams (Uncut: 84 minutes) – As the passion in her marriage fades, Lisa Curtis (Sharon Mitchell) is besieged by uncontrollable sexual fantasies. From her morning shower to formal dinner parties, Lisa’s daily grind sizzles with her own torrid visions. While dinner guests down their main course, Lisa becomes the dessert in a gourmet orgy. An afternoon massage at the health spa turns into the hottest sex scene ever filmed.

The restoration of this release of “Hot Dreams” was supervised and approved by the film’s director himself, making this the best possible version of the film.

DVD Extras: Interviews with Shaun Costello and Maryse Alberti, slideshow with rare pictures from other Shaun Costello films, slideshow of the director, booklet in English and French by Nicolas Rioult.

I am by no means a porn connoisseur but I know high quality DVD releases when I see them. Pink Flamingo has taken the time to treat these titles as they should be treated; like the classics they are. Getting Costello aboard for these releases is a real coup. These remastered disks look and sound good considering the state of the original print and soundtrack, which are rough in some instances but it works for these films in the nostalgic sense. These are also the definitive cuts of these films according to Costello, which is good enough for me. The interviews on each disk (which is text, not video and are the same on each disk) with the director and photographer Maryse Alberti are very interesting. The booklet inside each DVD is also vastly entertaining as it reprints an article from Nicolas Rioult about the life of Shaun Costello.

To pick up your copies of these quality XXX classics and more visit Pink Flamingo Entertainment!

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