Dave dives into the resume of producer-director Edward Holzman again – even if the man himself is reluctant to reminisce…

“No interest, sorry – but I wish you all the best with the project.”

Not everyone wants to talk about what they were doing thirty years ago.

Edward Holzman is one of those people.

The producer and director of countless sexy dramas and thrillers, Holzman’s resume – which includes Friend of the Family (1995) and Web of Seduction (1999) – bulges with a wealth of high-end erotica that bucks the trend of diminishing quality found when the softcore market began to dwindle.

SINFUL INTRIGUE is such a picture – and from a historical point of view it marks the sole lead role of the late Beckie Mullen.

The world first clapped eyes on Mullen back in 1986, dressed in cut-off jeans and a crop top, under the guise of Sally the Farmer’s daughter on the debut season of G.L.O.W – Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the first women’s professional wrestling show. Well, let’s use the term professional in its loosest sense. For the most part, G.L.O.W was inhabited by actresses and models with no prior grappling experience. Chosen from over five hundred auditionees, Mullen played an unforgettable role in two of the first three seasons – although her true calling was to be found in acting.

Her first job of note was sparring with a then unknown Pamela Anderson in a dream sequence during season five of Married with Children. Eye-catching turns in music videos followed (Up All Night for Slaughter and Poundcake for Van Halen) as well as a cameo in Andy Sidaris’ Hard Hunted (1993).

It was 1995 when Holzman picked up the phone, offering Mullen a brief but noteworthy gig as Linda in the recommendable Forbidden Games (1995). In fact, if a pair of thematically and creatively connected killer-on-the-loose erotics is what you’re after, Forbidden Games and Sinful Intrigue would fit together snugly. The former opening for the latter, if only to see Mullen – and, for that matter, her co-star Griffin Drew – grow from bit-part players to co-leads with an assured confidence. Holzman directs both features with a lean vigour, and cinematographer Harris Done captures everything with a glidingly restless camera. For Done – fresh off a quartet of PM Entertainment movies – his time with Holzman was an important learning experience:

“They were pretty small crews,” recalls the Sand Trap (1997) director. “They were all eight to ten day shoots and shot on 16mm too. I imagine they were in the $100 to $200k range in terms of budget. Ed was a great guy and a terrific director who really knew how to block and stage love scenes. A lot of time was spent making those sequences look great, though some of the basic expositional scenes tended to be just ‘one-ers’.  It was early in my career: those projects meant that I got to light and shoot a lot of scenes and expose a lot of film that helped hone my DP skills.”

Mullen is Steph Dorsey: an interior designer who’s having some problems with the roving eye of her husband, Adam (Bobby Johnston). To complicate matters further, Steph is living with the fear of a masked attacker who seems to be targeting her social circle. The comfort of family friend Jake Flynn (Mark Zuelke) is a real boon in such a worrying time – but as far as the police are concerned, the PTSD-suffering former veteran is the number one suspect…

John Nelson’s well-structured narrative is present in only the most sporadic of ways, but nevertheless it is there, which prevents Sinful Intrigue from being less of a scantily clad clip show and more of a two-star titillator that resolutely retains your interest. The supporting cast helps, with honourable mentions to Pia Reyes as a seductive sexpot who runs a carnally curious finishing school, and the aforementioned Drew, who gets all the best lines as the sexually voracious Cindy (“His mind only goes towards the end of his dick, and you of all people should know it’s not that far”).

Special mention, though, should go to Mullen. Attractive, charming, and with unmistakable screen presence, Sinful Intrigue is the peak of a criminally short acting career that yielded only one other feature: Michael Goi’s impressive Voyeur (1999) (which, incidentally, also stars Holzman regular Shauna O’Brien).

Sadly, Mullen passed away in 2020 following a battle with colon and liver cancer. She was fifty-six.

USA ● 1995 ● Erotic Thriller ● 88mins

Beckie Mullen, Bobby Johnston, Mark Zuelke, Griffin Drew, Pia Reyes ● Dir. Edward Holzman ● Wri. John Nelson