Cozy Cool (1971)

74% (11 / 4)

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Description: AKA: Love Me to Death, Love You to Death
Scene Breakdowns
Scene 1. Charlene Webb, Allister Satana
Scene 2. Maria Arnold
Scene 3. Maria Arnold, Tyler Reynolds
Scene 4. Maria Arnold, Sashi Hughes
Scene 5. girls, Veronica Taylor, guys
Scene 6. Maria Arnold, Michael Clark
Scene 7. Mary Rexroth, David Peleg
Scene 8. Maria Arnold, Joey Silvera
Review:
Maria Arnold is fabulous in COZY COOL, a forgotten porn film made by a talented (and also forgotten) auteur using the handle Lowell Pickett. It is marketed on DVD under the title "...Love You to Death", with LOVE ME TO DEATH as the name on screen.

I recently discovered Pickett via his very interesting 1970 softcore opus OONA, and a year later he had embraced XXX filming in earnest with COZY COOL. The title is the name of the leading male character, a young gangster who inherits his dad's half of the Frisco rackets, the other half of town allocated to the Vespucchi crime family.

The film is dragged down from classic status by a needlessly awkward structure, as Pickett is something of an overachiever. Tale is narrated from a manuscript by newspaperman Clark Kent Rogers (James Haynie) to his fellow newsman buddy Bright Eyes (William Weeks) as they get drunker and drunker at their local bar.

It's the saga of Cozy Cool (Michael Clarke), a flashy dresser in loud pinstripe suits who has inherited a crime mini-empire following the death of his dad, Silvio. Cozy's right-hand man Mike (Vinnie Hardin) is plotting behind his back to sell him out to the rival Vespucchis, headed by patriarch Vespucchi Senior (Charles Goode).

But while the boys finagle, the film is really about the amorous and violent adventures of Irma, a sultry and stacked hit lady played to the hilt by Maria Arnold. She was a prolific porn actress, memorable in the title role of the softcore Patty Hearst spoof TANYA, and given a true showcase here by Pickett. Sort of a porn answer to later character actress Joanna Cassidy -distinctive looking and brassy.

She kills targets with a gun or poisoned pin, but what makes this hit lady different is she always has sex with them first, a treat for the fans. Pickett knows how to deliver an interesting storyline and maximize the stimulating porn content in equal measure -no mean feat.

The fun is watching Arnold get it on with various guys and double-cross her employers -it's never for certain where her true loyalties lie. At one point she tries out as a masseuse for massage parlor magnate Tyler Reynolds (uncredited) and I was surprised when she offed him. Later she makes love to a barely recognizable young Joey Silvera as Gay Vespucchi (he uses the pseudonym "Gary Nelson"), but doesn't kill him. This role is a couple years earlier than any of the nearly 1000 credits Joey has, so it's a pleasant discovery -perhaps his first feature film.

Besides the sex and murders, there's a well-done heist scene involving Vespucchi's safe, but a raggedly edited shoot-out climax, beyond the means of Pickett's low-low budget, is disappointing. The framing story involving the scribes' fate is heavy-handed as Pickett strains for irony and twists.

Overall this is one of the better early XXX films, and makes me want to see Pickett's final movie RENDEZVOUS WITH ANNE, currently unavailable.

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