Porn Valley- Get out your leisure suits, fuzzy pimp hats and afro wigs. It’s not Halloween, but what you’re about to watch is the porn equivalent of a Pam Greer movie. Because of its relative obscurity, Lialeh, from the Arrow Productions catalogue, www.xxxdeepthroat.com, may not pop up on anyone’s immediate top ten adult films list, but its particular claim to fame is being the first black XXX film.
Johnny Keyes had already given it to Marilyn Chambers in Behind the Green Door, so the interracial scene at the end of the film where a white woman takes it from three brothers rates but a footnote.
And another distinction of Lialeh is the fact this it’s a musical. So much for the claims of porn pretenders in the Eighties, Nineties and the new millenium to being the “first” in that category. Jennifer Leigh, who can belt out a pretty mean tune as the situation warrants, plays the title character. Leigh, literally out of a church choir, walks into this live sex cabaret whose entertainment is propelled by a cheesy bass-driven lounge act. The fact that a tune titled Lialeh is their theme song seems rather fortuitous you might think. The sex show is run by Arlo [Lawrence Pertillah] a cocky pimp who walks into sex like fat ladies walk into bakeries.
Arlo, who’s pretty much seen it all and conveys the attitude, flips Lialeh off by telling her he don’t need no bare ass dancers. And her job’s to convince him that what he needs is a bare ass singer. Meanwhile, Arlo encounters the type of situations embraced by a Bob Chinn bad writing class. Arlo needs to see the landlord of the building which houses the cabaret and the blond secretary won’t let him by.
“My hands are deadly weapons,” she tells Arlo.
“Bet you got deadly thighs,” he observes.
“I’m a brown belt,” she replies back, squaring off her fists of fury.
“I’m a black belt,” Arlo informs her.
“You mean you’re not going to rape me?” she asks, disappointedly. Upon which Arlo shoves a hot dog in the secretary’s twat. In another episode, a black woman comes to Arlo’s swank apartment. She’s taking a survey on soul food which of course puts Arlo in the main course category. And, back at the club, one of the members of the troupe confides to Lialeh that he had been in love with a tranny only didn’t find out she had cock and balls until it was too late.
And that pretty much gives you the idea of the offbeat stylings of Lialeh. Although Lialeh’s already given Arlo the goods she wants more of his cock and tells him that. Two female operators are listening in to the call and get so worked up by the tone of the conversation they need to get naked and mutually satisfied.
Lialeh, an otherwise devout church-going woman, [the good reverend in one instance gets it on with the choir] never feels she’s good enough for a stage act, naked, or otherwise. But, damn, she’s a good listener. A strange movie, funny and quite a surprise.
The catchy soundtrack is also available at http://www.lightintheattic.net/releases/lialeh/index.php