Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf May 6, 2016

1985’s “Trashy Lady” is a rather extravagant adult cinema effort from director Steve Scott, who looks to celebrate the traditions of the gangster genre from the 1930s, assembling a highlight reel of dangerous encounters that typically end in sexual gratification. The basics in seduction and temptation are covered, but there’s more concentration on glamour and role-playing to give “Trashy Lady” a decidedly filmic presence. It’s a bit too loose from a narrative standpoint, but creative achievements are numerous here, offering more to the viewer than the essentials in hardcore entertainment.

“Trashy Lady” follows the concerns of gangster Dutch (Harry Reems) who’s looking for a new girlfriend, finding a candidate in Kitty (Ginger Lynn), a clueless cigarette girl. During the transformation process, Dutch employs the services of floozy Rita (Amber Lynn) to teach Kitty a thing or two about sex, enraging her incarcerated husband, and Dutch’s rival, Louie (Herschel Savage). Heated confrontations ensue, but Scott maintains a certain level of expanse to the effort, visiting a nightclub, an apartment building, and a bootlegging hideout to vary locales, carefully framing to preserve the period appearance. Helping immensely is costuming, which retains style and disposability when the time comes to lose clothes. Visually, “Trashy Lady” is impressive, while Reems does his best to be the most exciting thing in every shot, delivering amusingly big work as a Cagney-esque crook.

Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (--- aspect ratio) presentation for "Trashy Lady" brings the feature to life on Blu-ray, doing justice to the picture's ambitious production achievements. Sharpness is satisfactory when not battle inherent focus issues, bringing out necessary detail during sex scenes, while costuming also benefits from the HD upgrade. Colors are secure and inviting, great with displays of skin and fabrics. Grain is heavy but always filmic. Delineation is strong. Source encounters a few faint scratches, but remains free of pronounced damage.

Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix shows surprising immediacy with the main titles, finding music sounding big and broad, establishing the mood of the picture. Instrumentation is open for study. Dialogue exchanges are easy to follow, only hampered by a slight compression-y sound that's not distracting. Genre sound effects retain their snap, and club atmospherics are acceptable.

Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary #1 features director of photography Tom Howard and filmmaker David McCabe.

• Commentary #2 features actor Herschel Savage and XRCO co-founder Bill Margold.

• "Coming West" (53:32, HD) is a 1971 adult film from Steve Scott and Tom Howard.

Trashy Lady Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The story of "Trashy Lady" is fragmented, jumping around to various set-pieces instead of working organically through a tale of competition and retaliation. It may seem ridiculous to criticize an adult film for lack of drama, but the rest of the effort is so strong, it feels weird to watch Scott skimp on incident. Lack of depth isn't a deal-breaker, as there's plenty to enjoy about "Trashy Lady," which takes the challenge of period recreation seriously, even while it indulges the ways of lust.