This further look at
Roger Watkins' HER
NAME WAS
LISA is the darkest and most disturbing, as
Lisa meets the final person in her life who will gleefully lead her down the path of destruction:
Carmen, played to the hilt by
Vanessa Del Rio in what may be her first chance to shine as an ACTRESS as well as a sexpot of the highest caliber.
Mr.
Sweet has done the unthinkable, setting Lisa up on a "date" with two of his friends,
Randy West and
Bobby Astyr, who proceed to rape her as Sweet watches; Lisa screaming for help throughout. She finds comfort in the arms of Carmen, who figures into a revenge plot involving a drugged drink and a vicious table turning with the business end of a strap-on! However, Carmen changes her tune when the two ladies begin living together, and our protagonist is soon addicted to the hard stuff, heroin, spiraling down the toilet and, in a scenario not unlike that of Mr. Sweet, pimped out by Carmen to a swinging couple played by future cable access sensation
Robin Byrd and unsung sex machine Ron Hudd!
I defy any viewer not to love Carmen's entrance, to the booming percussion and laughing vocals of Kongas' "Africanism" (a dance version of
The Spencer Davis Group's "
Gimme Some Lovin'" which can be found on iTunes in its full 13-minute glory!) Vanessa Del Rio, a towering giant of overflowing hair and sizzling sexuality, her gorgeous red lips snarling to reveal a set of dagger-like teeth intent on devouring her prey, decked out in a peek-a-boo leather outfit and brandishing a whip for visual effect, is a force to be reckoned with.
It's such a powerful entrance that the sex scene following can't help but feel less powerful
...
The countrified song heard during Lisa's first heroin trip, featuring some very passionate vocals, is in fact an original composition written and sung by director Watkins himself! One wonders if the recording still exists in his belongings.
LISA's thematic structure revolves around distrust, a motif that Watkins would continue using throughout his career and obviously a personal philosophy affected by his film industry experiences.
And special mention must be made of
Samantha Fox's performance here. She's not given much credit for it, and it's not on the level of her later success in
Chuck Vincent's ROOMMATES, but her transition from self-assured model to broken drug addict is beautifully done. Watkins obviously loved working with both Fox and
Del Rio; the three would reunite on two subsequent films.
For the finale of LISA, please go to my channel page and go to the very last page of videos, where you can see the 3-minute conclusion to the film.
- published: 28 Sep 2008
- views: 77044