The once beloved word Grindhouse has been so overused as of late when it comes to cult film that it is all but meaningless.Does it refer to the time period of the seventies before the mandatory “R” rating of all modern day film, where nasty hyper-sexualized violent movies played in double and triple features in small filthy theatres or small town drive-ins? Does it refer to the Planet Terror/Death-Proof double feature by Rodriquez and Tarantino, which sought to reclaim the authentic feel of a double feature from long ago by using stressed film, fake trailers, and a finished hardcore product which still packaged the same tame lame MANDATORY R-rated viewing experience that might as well have been filmed on digital all along? Whatever the true, “according to Hoyle” meaning of grindhouse, Full Moon has recently released a ten-volume series of movies which, hopefully, will reintroduce this overused phrase to a whole new generation of moviegoers, most of whom won’t remember when it actually meant something. With a name like FAMOUS T & A it is really challenging to try and talk about what this film is about with any sense of slyness or wit whatsoever. Essentially a collection of love scenes from R rated movies of the day, starring women who were at the well-oiled peaks of their career. Sybil Danning, (cult films second most infamous leggy butch cult villainess of all time) narrates this, giving a brief bio of the starlets about to be shown naked as well as the film it was pulled from.  Far from a detached narrator Sybil Danning reads all her lines with the slow methodical “sexy” diction of a phone sex operator, occasionally posing suggestively between clips in a golden suit of Roman gladiator armor. Yet, considering the subject matter of this compilation I suppose this is almost as fitting garb for the narrator to wear as Alistair Cooke’s suit from Masterpiece Theatre.

As any plotless/topless clip show pressed to disk this must be judged on the compilations themselves and the starlets who bared much. So here they are in, order.

Phyllis Davis - Terminal Island, Sweet Sugar.

Ornella Muti - Summer Affair

Ursula Andress - Slave of The Cannibal God

Bridgette Bardot - Ms.Don Juan

Claudia Jennings - Single Girls, Truck Stop Woman

Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) - The Working Girls

Jaqueline Bisset - Secrets

Idy Tripoldi - Auditions

Edy Williams - Dr Minx

Cara Burgess - The Manhandlers

Uschi Digard - Truck Stop Women

Barbara Lee - Terminal Island

Joan Prather - Single Girls

Angela Aames - Fairytales

Phyllis Davis - Sweet Sugar

Laura Gemser - Emmanuelle Around The World

Tanya’s Island - Vanity

Victoria Johnson, Laurie Walters - The Harrad Experiment

Yet it should be known that many of the better scenes on this DVD have been done before in not just another Full Moon DVD release but also one from this exact same ten volume GRINDHOUSE series which I reviewed here, and absolutely loved. Because of the overlap of some of the better scenes I can’t imagine you will need a copy of FAMOUS T & A if you already own THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE unless of course you are a completest.  Moreover, the world has changed much since this film was released on VHS in 1983, with the advent of internet celebrity skin websites this isn’t quite the draw it probably was when it was released thirty years ago where any potential naked celebrity is only a Google Image search away. As a film with naked breasts some full frontal and no plot whatsoever this is a perfect textbook example of what I think a two skull film should look like; however those who adore voluptuous natural looking females expressing awesome onscreen appetites may add a skull here. 

Extras Include Charles Band explaining to us (finally) what the word Grindhouse actually means. Also includes trailers from other Full Moon features. Get it here!