Every Woman Has a Fantasy (1984)

In Every Woman Has a Fantasy, producer-writer Summer Brown (as Sandra Winters) and husband director-writer Edwin Brown (as Edwin Durrell), let the viewer into the inner sanctum of a group of women who meet weekly to discuss their lives and open up to one another about their sexual fantasies. Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden was published more than a decade before Every Woman Has a Fantasy was made, so I guess it was pretty well-accepted that many women had rich fantasy sex lives. The implication here, at least, was that it was still rare for them to open up about them, with friends, and especially partners.

When Ben (John Leslie) asks his wife, Teri (Rachel Ashley), if he knows any of the women in the group, she explains that the women not knowing each others' spouses is a benefit to opening up since there's no threat of the fantasies getting back to their husbands. Ben's fascination with the group turns to an obsession as he progresses from hearing the fantasies relayed by Teri to convincing her to smuggle in a tape recorder to hiding in the closet when she hosts the group to, finally, dressing in drag and posing as his visiting cousin, Jennifer, to sit in on a meeting.

Most of the hardcore scenes are depictions of the women's fantasies, presumably as conceived of by Ben, since he's present (either active or passive) in all but Bonnie's (Erica Boyer) and Cheryl's (Lisa Lake). In my opinion, the scenes with Ben as the wood and the final scene - an in-group lesbian session prompted by "Jennifer's" urging - are missteps since they change the focus from women's fantasies to a man's fantasy fulfillment. It's worth taking a brief sidebar to discuss a hardcore scene that was and then wasn't in the film, and my history with this picture. From IAFD:

At least four versions of the film exist:

One is the original VCA Pictures version with all scenes intact.

One version had everything intact except for the opening Kristara Barrington dialogue where she describes a fantasy involving pouring tuna juice on her vagina and having her cat lick it off of her.

One is a softcore version, edited down by a now defunct Ontario, Canada censorship board. Note; this version included the beastiality dialogue.

One version (the one released to DVD) was released with ALL of Kristara Barrington"s scenes removed due to her being underage at the time of filming. This is the version most people have seen.

First off, there's reasonable doubt that Kristara Barrington was, in fact, underage at the time of filming. IAFD has her birth year listed as 1963. IMDB has it as 1965. She would have either been 18 or 19 when the film released in 1984, depending on the films release date against her November 22nd birthday (both IAFD and IMDB agree on that). Assuming the filming occurred the year before, she could have been 17 on set.

Every Woman Has a Fantasy was one of the first adult films I saw, and that VHS tape was the one with the Barrington/Leslie scene, but without the tuna juice/cat story. The version I reviewed here was the DVD release without any Kristara Barrington at all (her outright removal makes for a pretty hilarious post-production zoom in one non-sex scene).

Overall, the production value and direction are very nice. For the most part, the women's fantasies are believable as fantasies women could have, and it wouldn't surprise me if some or all were courtesy of Summer Brown or solicited from female acquaintances. I think the film would have benefited from leaning more heavily into the fantasies and left Ben as the fly-on-the-wall stand-in for the male viewer. Maybe that would have been a bridge too far for the adult film viewer of the day. If we must have a male character that basically forced his way into the women's group, at least he was portrayed by John Leslie, who had the charm and charisma to make it - if not believable - at least not obnoxious. For as good as he was, for my money, Rachel Ashley was better, from being cautiously willing to share some inside information, to warming Ben's cold feet when he second guessed "Jennifer" joining the group, and eventually coolly shocking and mesmerizing Ben while sharing her own fantasy. Obviously the industry agreed, with Ashley winning 1984 Best Actress awards from both the AFAA and XRCO.

I'll bet dollars to donuts, Robert Rimmer mentions the couple's appeal of this movie. Let's see, shall we?

"...[M]ost women will like this film."

So, sorta! In addition to that, he says "Rachel Ashley is a good actress" (though adding "and she really looks like a plump, big-breasted, big-ass wife from suburbia who could attract any man," which could use some fine-tuning as compliments go), and that Teri's fantasy sex scene was "exceptionally well done," so the Collector's Choice designation is more implied than explicitly stated.

There is a lot to love about this film. I feel it was a few writing and directorial choices away from being damn-near perfect, in fact, and considering I'll always have a special place in my library for it being instrumental in introducing me to the world of quality adult cinema, I'm rating it a CC5.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° The film cold opens with a clever touch: Jane (Shantell Day) says that Burt Reynolds is "a fuck to end all fucks," foreshadowing Sasha Gabor - who made his career looking like a store brand Burt - as the subject of her scene.

° I'm going to make me idea of Summer Brown collecting women's fantasies (ala Nancy Friday) to work into her script headcanon so that Erika Lust's XConfessions series is a spiritual successor to Every Woman Has a Fantasy.

° In addition to Rachel Ashley's Best Actress award, the film, cast, and crew racked up:

Best Actor (AFAA, 1984; John Leslie), Best Total Sexual Content (AVN, 1985), Best Screenplay, Best Film, Best Director, and Best Couple Scene (Leslie, Ashley) (XRCO, 1984).

° The Best Couple Scene is really top-notch. Rimmer calls it "a very believable marital bedroom encounter" which sounds like it was written by an alien trying to sound human. I get what he's getting at, though. The way the scene is edited, especially the way the sound is mixed, the interaction between Rachel Ashley and John Leslie seems totally in-the-moment, and everything they're saying to one another is for each other, not the audience.

° The September 1984 issue of Erotic X-Film Guide (h/t The Rialto Report) reviewed Every Woman Has a Fantasy and chose a real Cinderella story for the best scene. Bonnie describes how she imagines bringing the dry cleaner's deliver guy (Blake Palmer) into their home and, defying convention, the two of them simply masturbate sitting opposite one another in her living room:

Erica Boyer describes a masturbatory fantasy that is frankly the highlight of the picture (her eyes actually light up and her clit, in extreme closeup, can be seen throbbing).

It should be clarified the the extreme closeup shows her PC muscles and vaginal opening contracting, more than anything, but it is a great scene. I would have pegged it as a bit too niche (no oral, PIV,, etc.) for a highlight. Good on you, EXFG!

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Let's see if the randomizer will keep the good times rollin':