Almost great, but not quite
"That's Outrageous is almost, almost great. A fun script, a great cast, excellent cinematography, a decent music score, it's a rock solid effort with some great scenes, that never quite coheres into a classic but has a damn good go. Shot in both the US and France, with lots of Parisian street scenes (including Jamie Gillis looking sad while staring at the Arc de Triomphe), it's a film with a bit of class to go with its general silliness, but it would have benefited from a little more bite, a little more kinkiness. Gillis plays Paul, an American photographer living in Paris and dating two gorgeous sisters, Michelle (Frances Lomay) and Martine (Natasha). The problem, laid out by Gillis with admirable and to-the-point clarity in an opening expositional scene, is that they don't know they're dating the same guy, and he'd really like to get them into a threesome. Cue a fairly weak variant on the old "masqued ball" porn theme, which doesn't go according to plan (everyone's too drunk, and when they wake up in the morning, in the same bed but with Gillis' desires unfulfilled, the two sisters are not impressed by the situation Gillis has attempted to engineer). Of course, this being porn, they eventually come round to his way of thinking. Meanwhile, in a barely-connected sideplot, Gillis' assistant/friend Joey Silvera has the hots for one of Gillis' models, Nicole (Anna Ventura), who in turn thinks he's an idiot. A quick turn around and a sex scene later, they're engaged. So, plot-wise, nothing special. But the cast is gorgeous, the setting is gorgeous, and the cinematography is luxurious and beautiful, and there's a lot of fun to be had along the way to the predictable destination. It's Gillis' film, as he's in over half the sex scenes, and while he's not giving it his all here, he still turns in a fun performance - the scene where he wanders into a restaurant in leather kecks and a black satin shirt open to the navel, pure lothario, and every woman in the restaurant can't take their eyes off him, is both ridiculous and enormous fun. Anna Ventura's scene posing for photography (clothed, unfortunately) in front of a significant crowd of Parisian onlookers is also entertaining, not least because one wonders just what the onlookers think they're seeing. Do any of them know they're going to appear in a porno? The sex scenes are, for the most part, excellent - particular stand-outs are the two last scenes, with Lomay and Danielle together at last, realising tha sisterly love doesn't have to be platonic, and then Gillis in a slightly randomly inserted but still welcome anal scene with Lisa Cintrice (they were working together pretty frequently around this time, and the heat between them really shows). There's also a nice intercut scene of Danielle masturbating while "imagining" herself fucking with Gillis, and Silvera's scene with Anna Ventura is pretty good too. The soundtrack seems to be original, and mixes the naggingly hooky if somewhat irritating upbeat themetune with someone giving their best Roy Orbison impression, alongside the more usual early 80s disco-funk porn grooves. On a personal level, I absolutely have the hots for Natasha who is gorgeous. Gillis looks good here too, still youthful, muscular but with just a little softness to him, and it's nice to see him in an 80s production where he doesn't look like he's on sleazy autopilot. Mai Lin and Tiffany Clarke turn up at one point for a (supposedly fantasy) threesome with a photography assistant who's shooting them, but the scene is a weirdly brief blow-job only scene and not really tied into anything. The street scene with Anna Ventura modelling has the opportunity to do something really outrageous but teases without fulfilling. Maybe, overall, that's the issue here - That's Outrageous is a rock solid piece of early 80s porn, glossy, fun, hot, full of beautiful people. But it never really gets genuinely outrageous. So, lots of good stuff, and yet also at times a feeling of missed opportunities - why no pay-offs scene showing Gillis in his much-desired threesome with Natasha and Lomay? The masque ball looks like it was undoubtedly a huge amount of fun, so why do we get to see so little of it, and so little action within it?"