“Are those your testicles?”

“Balls. We call them balls.”

Dawn breaks on another routine day in the Big Apple, but in the fevered imaginations of several of its citizens, today will be unlike any other. First up is frumpy mom Vanessa Del Rio, who submits wearily to an early morning poke-and-go by husband Bobby Astyr, but she longs to be ravished by a brute like local fruit vendor Dave Ruby. Bobby hurries to work just in time to be chewed out by ballbreaker executive Samantha Fox, but beneath her severe bun hairdo, she’s dreaming of Bobby taking her from behind on her office sofa before dropping a load on her pristine face. Meanwhile, Samantha’s plain Jane secretary Merle Michaels is getting hassled by her roommate Arcadia Lake (here billed as Arcadia Blue) to make herself scarce tonight so she can enjoy some one-on-one with her married boyfriend (Lake’s real-life partner Eric Edwards). Merle can’t land a date, so she stays home and sulks… and fantasizes about being molested in her sleep by Edwards and Lake, who rev up her engine with poppers before double-stuffing her. Then it’s over to Bobby and Vanessa’s motormouth teenage daughter (Georgette Sanders from Debbie Does Dallas), who’s feeling all kinds of put out because she’s got to play waitress at a dinner given by her uptown auntie (Georgina Spelvin) for her tennis pro (David Morris). But the bash is a total bore, judging from the amount of horny daydreams that burst from the attendees: punk-haired guest Debbie Revenge cooks up a scenario in which she’s gang-banged by the entire party, while bored Auntie Georgina wanders off to the bathroom and drifts into a vigorous dream-fuck on the sink with Morris. Last but not least, Georgette checks out Georgina’s new lacy underwear, which sets off a nasty wet dream in which her aunt’s “elegant” new husband (R. Bolla) takes her cherry. Sadly, this parade of sex dreams comes to a halt with nightfall, which finds our cast tucked in their beds, wrapped in the boredom of their everyday lives… and waiting for tomorrow to come.

A major hit for producer Cecil Howard, Babylon Pink is exceptionally hot wall-to-wall porn wrapped in a smart and slick package by director Henri Pachard (who made his hardcore feature debut with this feature). The premise of exploring everyday people’s fantasies isn’t particularly novel – flip through any ‘70s grinder and you’ll find at least one wobbly daydream sequence – but Pachard puts a novel spin on it by creating realistic characters (Ruby’s simian fruit seller aside, there are none of the chuckleheads or gassy-headed sexpots that populate most XXX on display here) whose fantasies are not born from overactive hormones but genuinely dull lives in desperate need of an outlet. The fact that the characters are so dull gives an organic reason for the sex to be exceptionally hot (and it is – check out Ruby flipping Vanessa on her head to eat her out, and her slithering across the bed sheets to devour his cock whole; Bolla’s enthusiastic drilling of Sanders – who can’t shut up for a second (“I’m really FUCKING!”) – is another fiery scene, as is Astyr’s stone-faced domination of Fox), which in turn, makes the fantasy that much sexier for the audience? The fact that it’s all delivered with Hollywood-quality camerawork (courtesy exploitation vet Roberta Findlay, who also edited the film) and even a original score, with great power-pop tunes by The Purple Claw (where are you now?), makes Babylon Pink the ‘70s sex flick to show that friend who thinks any smut made before 1999 is dated and dull.

Kitty Media presents Babylon Pink in an impressive two-disc set which offers the film in its original uncut presentation, as well as an edited-for-cable version that’s still surprisingly steamy. Producer Howard and director Pachard are featured on two separate commentary tracks – Pachard is enthusiastic and funny, but his moderator, Adam Trash, shows he’s not up to the task by hemming and hawing his way through the movie. Casey Scott fares better with the very upbeat Howard – Scott also moderates a battery of interview featurettes with Edwards, Pachard, and the notoriously elusive Findlay, who gives a cranky but thorough overview of her jaw-dropping career, from her early collaborations with her “insane” husband Mike (together they made the infamous Flesh trilogy, as well as my personal favorite, The Ultimate Degenerate) to her work on Snuff and subsequent direction of softcore and XXX titles. The original trailer is included, as well as ones for Neon Nights (another Howard classic, also available from Kitty Media) and spots for Eurosmut like Emanuelle, Queen of Sados. –