Sleepy Head, Full movie (1973)

Description: A frustrated sexually repressed woman lives with her even more repressed sister. When the woman's domineering lesbian ex-lover shows up, she tries to resist her, but the lover will sex up sisters' lives whether they like it or not.
Scene Breakdowns
Scene 1. Georgina Spelvin, Tina Russell
Scene 2. Judith Hamilton, Marc Stevens
Scene 3. Judith Hamilton, Jamie Gillis
Scene 4. Georgina Spelvin, Davey Jones
Scene 5. Georgina Spelvin, Judith Hamilton
Scene 6. Darby Lloyd Rains, Georgina Spelvin, Judith Hamilton, Jason Russell
Scene 7. Georgina Spelvin, Lisa Grant, Tina Russell, Levi Richards
Scene 8. Georgina Spelvin, Judith Hamilton, Tina Russell
Scene 9. Darby Lloyd Rains, Lisa Grant, Jason Russell, Levi Richards
Scene 10. Georgina Spelvin, Judith Hamilton, Tina Russell, Jason Russell
A Woman's subconscious sexual desires are released in this seething film starring the "Devil & Miss Jones" girl, Georgina Spelvin. Georgina stars with the top porn star Tina Russel as two sisters, one breaking free of a parochial upbringing, the other, on the threshold of a terrifying, yet revealing sexual experience. Georgina, freed of her inhibitions by the attention of many friends, is in fear of the upcoming visit of her prudish sister. With the help of her sex partners, she develops a plan to release her sister of her inhibitions. This scene of sexual fulfillment is a torrid orgy unmatched by anything you've seen before. This movie combines some of the most erotic sex scenes ever produced, with the deepest sexual fantasies. The combined performance of Georgina Spelvin and Tina Russel is not to be missed.
Review:
When the book is written, Joe Sarno will take his rightful place as one of three sexploitation Sires of the '60s, alongside Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger, every one of them pushing the porn envelope in his own unique manner and paving the way for the explicit explosion that was to take place over the upcoming decade. Sarno's the most prolific and inevitably less distinctive as a result, in constant conflict with his higher aspirations, thwarted more often than nourished as the industry plummeted into an artistic abyss after hitting its peak in the late '70s and early '80s. he was perhaps the most suited of the three mentioned movie makers to adjust his ambitions to the fledgling fornication film industry's modest scale, having built his reputation on intimate domestic drama focusing on small town hypocrisy regarding matters of the flesh.

Though he would soon enough get the hang of hardcore formula, his early efforts in the field comfortably fit with his cinematic sensibilities of the period, at a crossroads between the Scandinavian libertarianism of INGA and his thoughtful analysis of arbitrary American mores. Irrelevant moniker aside, this monumentally overlooked gem proves as profoundly personal as any of his critically reclaimed simulated sagas, marking it out as one of the best among early adult's sincerely serious offerings which more famously include the likes of Gerard Damiano's DEVIL IN MISS JONES, the Mitchells' RESURRECTION OF EVE and Duddy Kane's WET RAINBOW. Interestingly, SLEEPY HEAD cleverly combines elements from all these notorious titles such as EVE's road to female self-discovery via sexual experimentation, RAINBOW's rocky relationship problematics and DEVIL's sense of sin and the belief in eternal damnation as the price to pay.

Still reeling from the DEVIL's demands, Georgina Spelvin predictably shines as lonely and insecure Bernice Wyatt, writer of conspicuously sexless fiction and - just like the pathetic Justine Jones before her - on a one way trip to spinsterhood. Refraining from intimacy as result of the strict Catholic upbringing that left her kid sister Tracey (an indelible performance for which tragic Tina Russell, arguably adult's first superstar, hasn't received anywhere near according credit) a Bible-thumping fundamentalist, she leads a seemingly serene existence fooling no one but herself, recurring erotic nightmares stirring up needs increasingly difficult to ignore. Her sympathetic literary agent Georgia (the criminally underestimated Darby Lloyd Rains) urges her to go out on a date and break a sex fast that has apparently persisted since she quit college. Troubled by thoughts of her lover at the time, fanciful free spirit Nancy (surprisingly well played by Judith Hamilton, Spelvin's real life girlfriend at the time), increasing her guilt for such an "unnatural" attraction, Bernices reaches out to carefree young Larry (Davey Jones), aimlessly strumming his guitar in Central Park, taking him home for sustenance. Rewarding her TV dinner with tenderness, the boy seems a probable prospect for the woman to turn her life around if it weren't for the blast from the past reappearance of Nancy on her doorstep. Now a successful nude photographer, casually sleeping around with models like Jamie Gillis and Marc Stevens and therefore practicing very much as she has always preached, she's adamant to rekindle their rocky romance. Crassly insensitive to her lover's intricate needs, Nancy assumes the role of ringmaster, deviously warming her to the idea of taking down Tracey's pious attitude by staging to have her raped at knife-point !

The narrative, progressing pleasantly until this point, takes a sharp left turn with the introduction of Nancy's no good "friends" including a slobbering Levi Richards taking Tina's prized maidenhead in an extended orgy finale, pretty much playing out in real time, that had dirty movie detractors accusing Sarno of selling out as he kept piling up performers on Bernice's brass bed. Sarno's rendition in no way betrays his beliefs and concerns, focusing on female pleasure, albeit enforced, tellingly by other women. Russell's facial expressions as she's torn between liberating pleasure and misguided remorse are absolutely flawless, further augmented by subtle details such as Spelvin's softly stroking her sister's foot as the actress's real life husband Jason pushes her over the edge, achieving credible climax. Surely, if the director's intentions had really been as callous as naysayers claim, Tracey's heartbreaking request to Nancy to pray for her now she fears that God's no longer listening since she has become a sinner for having (and worse, enjoying) sex would never have made it into the finished film. The film's compassionate coda finds Bernice tearfully picking up Tracey's discarded Bible, unsure of what she has wrought, making her way back to Larry in the park and suggesting they go around spreading the gospel of a loving and enlightened God. The nuance being that, while fundamentalists would fight tooth and nail to suppress the sex industry, religion in itself was not the enemy. After all, if God is indeed love as ministers have tirelessly preached from their pulpits, then surely even He could find no fault with the free expression thereof, in life as well as art ?

Drifting in 'n' out of a burgeoning business, his time in the trenches totaling less than a year, Davey Jones delivers the standout turn of his short career. His kindhearted seduction of the nervous and self-deprecating Spelvin plays out entirely without music, the actors performing like real people, with unforced naturalistic banter that extends far beyond the genre's comfort zone. The overall effect is simply mesmerizing, like witnessing sex for the very first time, unfettered and unembellished. This unassuming little masterpiece - fully deserving that description though thus far relegated to footnote status even in exhaustive explorations of the director's body of work - proudly positions itself as a prime candidate for porn rehabilitation, a compelling drama adult in content as well as the freedom to show what goes where, both emotionally eloquent and erotically effective.