Mona the Virgin Nymph, Full (1970)

Description: AKA: Mona
Mona is engaged but wants to remain untouched until she is married. However, since her childhood, she has had a fascination for blow jobs, which her fiancée has benefited from. He arranges a sex party where Mona has many opportunities to further her capability in this field.
Scene Breakdowns
Scene 1. Fifi Watson, Orrin North
Scene 2. Fifi Watson, faceless guy
Scene 3. Fifi Watson, Calvin Victor
Scene 4. Fifi Watson, Susan Stewart
Scene 5. Judy Angel
Scene 6. Judy Angel, Orrin North
Scene 7. Fifi Watson, Gerard Broulard
Scene 8. Fifi Watson, Susan Stewart, Calvin Victor, Gerard Broulard, Orrin North
Review:
This is the original porno classic, the one that helped shape explicit commercial erotica into what you find on adult video store shelves today. No, I'm not talking about DEEP THROAT, even though that of course will forever remain the breakthrough film, the one that dragged viewers out of the closet and for a brief moment in time made their cinema-going habits fashionable, chic even. The treat I've lined up for all you boys and girls was made nearly a full two years prior to THROAT and was simply called MONA, with the subtitle THE VIRGIN NYMPH added in some venues and on select reissues for unneeded pizazz. It came hot on the trail of a long line of semi-documentaries and pseudo-informative "white coaters" yet dispensed with the hypocrisy of both these embryonic forms of adult entertainment by presenting its non-simulated delights as part of a plausible plot and adhering to a traditional cinematic narrative structure. From that moment on, in a way, porn was born.

The creative brain behind MONA was a loud-mouthed L.A. denizen named "Bill Osco" a/k/a Michael Benveniste who planned on revolutionizing pornography by mainstreaming it. He faded into obscurity after his early '70s burst of creativity - and committed suicide halfway through the decade - that left us with a triumvirate of classic carnality. In addition to MONA, he also made the initially well-received though now virtually forgotten HARLOT and the all time cult favorite FLESH GORDON which was shot as a hardcore porn film but eventually released in a watered-down R-rated version only. As a footnote, Benveniste was also responsible for Hollywood BLUE, a compilation of stags and loops rapidly assembled to cash in on the success of Alex De Renzy's superior A HISTORY OF THE BLUE MOVIE. The longevity he envisaged was ultimately bestowed on his friend and regular cinematographer Howard Ziehm who, as a director, made his fame with some of the finest "loop carriers" ever made like HONEYPIE, SWEET CAKES and NAUGHTY NETWORK.

When viewed three and a half decades after its inauguration, MONA might not seem like much of a groundbreaking achievement to the uninitiated. After all, both form and content have served as a virtual blueprint for pornographic cinema ever since. Back in 1970 however, it was the first of its kind, with very little to compare it to except soft-core movies perhaps, which it far surpassed by making the entire film about sex, wasting no time on melodramatic complications or burlesque humor, either of which would continue to serve as an occasional excuse for porn. On the other hand, it never neglects the finer points of film-making with intricate lighting and professional photography (superior to that of THROAT which can't help but look slapdash by comparison) and passable acting in the parts that require any.

Frieda "Fifi" Watson heads the cast as the titular Mona, a virgin who plans to stay that way until marriage to her boyfriend. Fortunately for said boyfriend, and for frustrated viewers, she has a taste for oral sex due to a childhood experience involving her father (whose face is never shown) ! Such elements only go to distinguish this early adult film as a more subversive creature than the current incarnation, a close relation to '60s underground cinema in fact. Mona performs fellatio on various men, be it in an alley or a movie theater, and even shares a lesbian liaison with hooker Susan Stewart. Meanwhile, the girl's seemingly puritan mother (played by the most recognizable actress in the movie, Judy Angel, star of mostly forgotten early fuck fare with titles like SMASH OR HOW TO GET HUNG and MISSUS LITTLE'S DUDE RANCH) dresses up in see-through lingerie and tries to have her wicked way with her daughter's fiancé who feels rightfully neglected now that Mona's mouthing off all over town. Thoughts of vengeance creep into his fevered mind, a feat accomplished with the help of all those she has serviced throughout the movie.

MONA was one of the first full length pornographic films to offer a recognizable three act dramatic structure that progresses logically within its own confines. Its trailblazing importance in this respect simply cannot be overstated. To paraphrase Mr. Spock, it boldly went where no film had gone before. It did so with a technical prowess that few other porno features at the time could even begin to equal. And on top of that, it brought audiences what was undoubtedly the hottest, most genuinely arousing sex they had seen on the big screen until then. Watson's oral expertise may not approach the sideshow quality of Linda Lovelace's exploits but remains extremely erotic all the same and Angel almost steals the show as the prude with the dirty mind even though her masturbation sequence, shot in extreme close-up, may strike some viewers as tasteless, especially as we're talking about a woman who seems to be in the early stages of middle age.