Pornonomy Reviews: All the Way In

All the Way In (1984)

Directed by:
Bob Chinn

Starring:
Annette Linder
Candy Samples
Mai Lin
Martina
Shanna McCullough
Tanya Lawson
David Morris
Eric Edwards
Francois
Mike Horner
Pat Romano
Ron Jeremy

There is a surprising amount going on in this film for how boring it is. Well, I suppose one's interest in the film is directly tied to how intrigued you are by Candy Samples, which for me is "little to none."

The main story is that Ultra Flesh magazine has just been sold to P.J. Corona, a man with a reputation of cleaning house after buying magazines. Justifiably, Ultra Flesh's staff is concerned for their jobs. The card up their sleeves is sex advice columnist Candy Keen (Samples), but unfortunately she'd been down in the dumps since falling in love with a man while on a burlesque club tour and just didn't have it in her to try to charm the new owner.

The sex scenes are pretty well-integrated. One in particular is impressive in its editing. Magazine head Mr. Dicker (Edwards) reads one of the fantasy letter's Candy received to her over the office intercom. While he's reading the fantasy - a story about a dom man with a sub "Oriental mistress" who is, in turn, dominated by Candy Keen herself - the film cuts between the fantasy (in which Edwards and Mai Lin are in the roles), Mr. Dicker and Chrissy, the magazine's adult film reviewer (Lin), in his office, and Candy masturbating in her office while listening to the letter being read. While all of the sex scenes are handled with Chinn's normal craft, none are all that noteworthy for their sexual "heat." Although maybe it's just the fact that I couldn't get into Samples, who is a participant in half the film's sex scenes.

It's too bad that the film focuses so much on love - both Keen's seeming star-crossedness and managing editor Martina's (Martina) longing for art director Jeff (Morris) - because the film could have been a magazine-based successor to Chinn's superior The Young Like it Hot. In fact, the film opens in a manner that seems like it's going to be quite a bit of fun. The opening credits are set over a montage following the magazine from the printer, to a newsstand, to the hands of a man (Horner) on an airplane. A woman (McCullough) sitting near him notices that a woman on the plane bears a striking resemblance to the picture in his magazine. The man explaining who Candy Keen is is a pretty clever way of introducing the viewer to the character. Add a cameo by Russ Meyer (a nod to Samples' earlier career) and a silly gag in which Samples' and Lisa De Leeuw's busts prevent them passing one another in the plane's aisle, and the first eight minutes make it seem like All the Way In will be quite a lark. After the story starts, though, it becomes kind of a drag.

I realize I'm probably being extra critical of this film because it's a Chinn, and I know how much better it could/should have been. All the Way In just didn't do it for me. C-