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Two recent Caballero DVD releases -

Secret Passions has Jamie Gillis on the back, but is Das Haus der geheimen L?ste.

Brief Affair has pictures and crdits for the Annette Haven movie of that name, but is in fact the softcore French film of 1974, directed by Claude Pierson and starring Paola Senatore, released in the USA as Affair, with the original title Un amour comme le notre. At least orgazmik noticed this -

Well Alec, I don't know whether you are expressing surprise or disappointment at such a development. Video distributors have been doing this for years, some are more "devious" and skilful than others.
For some it is a question of smoke and mirrors and to recycle some unworthy film unto an unsuspecting public. For some others, it may be lack of proper artwork when re-releasing an older film.
If you look here at the Excalibur Films site, you will find the original US VHS video box cover of the German SECRET PASSIONS (the girl on the cover is facing one way, and the new boxcer has her facing the other way, an apparent reversal of photo. In the original box cover her undergarments are black, while in the new they are red).


Unfortunately I have no clue what the content is of the new release video. Let us assume it is THE classic German movie, and if it is so, this means Caballero had trouble trying to cobble proper art-work to fill in the back cover. Proably they no longer had access to the original art work, so they put up that inapprorpiate Jamie Gillis foto as well as other photos showing close-up body parts.

With regards to the German AFFAIR, all the information at the Orgazmik site points to the 1974 soft-core Euro film, but front box cover definitely is of Annette Haven from the original BRIEF AFFAIR, which can be viewed here:


As we all know, Caballero is only a shadow of what it once used to be, and such misleading packaging can only either be inept marketing skills or dishonest ruse on their part. Either way, it does not make them look very professional.

I'm expressing neither surprise nor disappointment, just giving information so that those who wish to own either or both of these European films know where they can get them. The question of identifying European films in recent American DVD releases has been discussed before, a few months ago. Secret Passions was one of those discussed, inconclusively at the time.

I do know the contents of both DVDs as I own both DVDs. Otherwise I wouldn't have made the post. The contents are as I stated.

Agreed in the case of Secret Passions it was a question of lack of artwork. In the case of (Brief) Affair, it was a case of incompetence.

The confusion, amateurism and devilmaycarism is one of the causes of my fascination with porn. And also what keeps this forum going.

> If you look here at the Excalibur Films site, you will find the
> original US VHS video box cover of the German SECRET PASSIONS
> (the girl on the cover is facing one way, and the new boxcer
> has her facing the other way, an apparent reversal of photo. In
> the original box cover her undergarments are black, while in
> the new they are red).
>
>


To me they look exactly alike. Uh?

mark shanon wrote:

> The confusion, amateurism and devilmaycarism is one of the
> causes of my fascination with porn.

Understandable from an Italian perspective, with all those stolen credits, obscure retitlings, etc. - but this is not equally common elsewhere.
In Germany, it does exist as well but is mostly confined to Mike Hunter - and he is still at it, with these recent 4h-compilations that actually consist of three fully-fledged movies.

In the UK, this was prevalent with the video releases of all sorts of exploitation films of the 1970s. You could buy an obscure title, with a random semi-clad (or naked) girl on the cover, hardly any info on the back cover and what would you get?

Perhaps a soft version of American shot-on-video porn, or a sexy comedy with Edwige Fenech, or some British housewives undressing in their living room, or a French sex & crime thriller, or an obscure American sexploiter with Uschi Digart, and quite possibly it would be a movie you had already purchased under a different title, from a different label. It surely made the purchase of these vids a bit of an exciting gamble, but I rather had payed more for a bit more professionalism and honesty.

It was supposed to be links to front and back video box cover of the film from the Excaliburfilms site, but the two links are for the front cover.
I have difficulty in getting back covers from the site, sometimes they work, sometimes you get a request to subscribe, and so on... Sorry.

While I am aware of the misleading way old films are re-packaged and retitled in Europe (due to my research in preparation of filmografies) I can say that this "dishonest" (and I don't know what else to call it) practice is to a lesser extent common in the USA.
The majority of video producers and distributors in the USA do make a good effort in properly titling their films.
Leisure Time has probably one of the worst reputation (placing new artwork on box cover, sometimes changing the movie title and adding a scene or removing a scene here and there). I have heard complaints about how Vivid cuts films when re-releasing their older titles.
It is unfortunate now that such a company like Caballero (which was a force to be reckoned with in the 1980's) has to stoop so low in repackaging their old titles.