Never previously available on home video, ONCE... AND FOR ALL is a largely by-the-numbers NY porn programmer resurrected by After Hours Cinema in their never-ending line of lowest-tier vintage smut.
Starting out with what appears to be even less of a plot than most sex films, ONCE largely focuses on Bill, Chuck, and Stinger, a trio of very long-in-the-tooth high schoolers who appear to constitute about 60% of their graduating class. After a nice intro featuring stock exteriors of a high school overlaid with The Beach Boys' "Be True to Your School" (shockingly not removed by the litigation-phobic folks at AHC), we join the trio in the locker room, where nerdy Chuck (Todd Davis) regales his compatriots with the story of how he got laid by their teacher Miss Evans (Ultramax). The guys barely seem to believe him, but they've got problems of their own - poor Bill (Alan Marlow) can't get his girl Sue (Cedar Houston) to put out, while Stinger (studly David Dell)... well, things seem to be going fine for Stinger. He sneaks off to make it with his more liberated girlfriend Betty (Jean Dalton), while the horny Miss Evans manages to talk Sue into a bit of sapphic action after school - I guess since she's a chick it doesn't count? Bill keeps pressuring Sue to no avail, though once the two appear to be on the outs, a fateful encounter with Stinger and Betty might just change her mind. Will Sue finally give in to her urges and give her classmates what they've been lusting after ONCE... AND FOR ALL?
Well duh. Even for a porn movie, though, ONCE is pretty shaky in terms of story. It less has a narrative than backs into one, with the first two-thirds of the film filled out with an excess of random encounters - the whole character of Miss Evans could be cleanly lopped out and nothing would be missed but some sex. You may profess that that's the point, but I'd still rather watch a porn film that didn't insult my intelligence. Marlow, a consummate professional, at least provides expert cocksmanship, while Dell and Davis, both with much shorter resumes, perform merely adequately, making it clear why Marlow became the genre mainstay. Distaff counterparts Houston and Dalton are about the same - just okay - while Ultramax, another fixture of shoddy New York porn, hams it up at about a 5 of 10 on her usual scale, seeming to suggest that really no one's heart was into making this thing. Despite better camerawork and production values than your typical one-day-wonder, ONCE... AND FOR ALL remains aptly title - because that's exactly the number of times you'll need to see it.
Starting out with what appears to be even less of a plot than most sex films, ONCE largely focuses on Bill, Chuck, and Stinger, a trio of very long-in-the-tooth high schoolers who appear to constitute about 60% of their graduating class. After a nice intro featuring stock exteriors of a high school overlaid with The Beach Boys' "Be True to Your School" (shockingly not removed by the litigation-phobic folks at AHC), we join the trio in the locker room, where nerdy Chuck (Todd Davis) regales his compatriots with the story of how he got laid by their teacher Miss Evans (Ultramax). The guys barely seem to believe him, but they've got problems of their own - poor Bill (Alan Marlow) can't get his girl Sue (Cedar Houston) to put out, while Stinger (studly David Dell)... well, things seem to be going fine for Stinger. He sneaks off to make it with his more liberated girlfriend Betty (Jean Dalton), while the horny Miss Evans manages to talk Sue into a bit of sapphic action after school - I guess since she's a chick it doesn't count? Bill keeps pressuring Sue to no avail, though once the two appear to be on the outs, a fateful encounter with Stinger and Betty might just change her mind. Will Sue finally give in to her urges and give her classmates what they've been lusting after ONCE... AND FOR ALL?
Well duh. Even for a porn movie, though, ONCE is pretty shaky in terms of story. It less has a narrative than backs into one, with the first two-thirds of the film filled out with an excess of random encounters - the whole character of Miss Evans could be cleanly lopped out and nothing would be missed but some sex. You may profess that that's the point, but I'd still rather watch a porn film that didn't insult my intelligence. Marlow, a consummate professional, at least provides expert cocksmanship, while Dell and Davis, both with much shorter resumes, perform merely adequately, making it clear why Marlow became the genre mainstay. Distaff counterparts Houston and Dalton are about the same - just okay - while Ultramax, another fixture of shoddy New York porn, hams it up at about a 5 of 10 on her usual scale, seeming to suggest that really no one's heart was into making this thing. Despite better camerawork and production values than your typical one-day-wonder, ONCE... AND FOR ALL remains aptly title - because that's exactly the number of times you'll need to see it.