Starlight was a line of 16mm peep show loops from the 1960s specializing in individual women displaying themselves. The films rode to the raw edge of what was legal at the time. These later Starlights were absolutely the strongest possible pre-hardcore solo girl loops. Color, well lighted and clear (mastered from original film).The Starlight photographer, whoever he was, had a consistent formula: A woman sits on a large bed wearing lingerie. She looks directly into the camera with a friendly and warmly erotic expression, beckoning the camera to her. She is coy and personable and uncommonly comfortable. With her willing participation the camera explores her partially clothed body as she poses, stretches and luxuriates on the bed. The camera work is smooth and the film is a fairly well edited montage of shots ranging from medium to almost scientific close-up. Tiny fascinating details of her face and figure are explored slowly and deliberately, but with obvious affection – every almost invisible downy hair on her lip or aureole, the texture of her skin as it varies from place to place. Her mouth fills the frame… her eyes, breasts. She strips down to her panties, which are shear to the point of transparency at the crotch. The camera lingers at her pubis as she moves about revealing herself through the gauzy fabric. She pulls the panties tightly up into herself and rolls around, eventually pulling her panties aside to reveal herself more directly. After a few minutes she removes the panties and lies nude on the bed as the survey of her body continues. Everything is detailed at great length in crystalline close-up as she parts her legs and touches herself.
And then precisely the same visual narrative plays out with a different girl… then another, and so on. Sometimes there are two girls. It's all superbly fetishistic film-making. The cameraman/director knew exactly what he (or his customers) wanted, and was a master at setting a pretty tone and eliciting wholesomely sexy expressions. The women range from 18 to 35, from plain to stunning and from brassy strippers to almost virginal girls-next-door.
Each volume is about 110 minutes. This one contains: 1. Carol Mehus • 2. Tinker Fay • 3. Judy Careful & Carol Mehus • 4. Shelly Silvers, Melody Johnson & Kathy De Leon
