Name: Playboy Video Playmate Review
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1 h 25 min
Rating: 7.8
Cast: Vicki Lasseter, Kelly Tough, Shannon Tweed

Billed as the first annual "Playboy's Playmate Review" is an effective though repetitive moving picture adaptation of the 30-year-old magazine's centerfold concept.

With pleasant middle-of-the-road and pop songs soundtrack (in Dolby stereo) the feature-length cassette fleshes out the girls' family backgrounds, using interview material with parents and voiceover by the subjects themselves. Well-lensed travelog footage ranging from Vancouver to Hawaii complements the central nud posing footage.

Girls on view range from the extremely zoftig Playboy prototypes (such as Italian-descent Patti Farinelli and stunning Texas blonde Kim Mcarthur) to the more girl-next-door look of country girl Linda Vaughn. The one name actress in the bunch, Shannon Tweed, is shown filming a "Falcon Crest" tv episode but is otherwise not emphasized.

Repetition here occurs due to the need to provide (albeit tasteful) visual material for voyeurs: the women are filmed during Playmate still-photo sessions, stripping, applying body lotions, taking showers and even exercising and dancing in the nude. Tame (pic would probably garner an R rating if submitted to the MPAA) by current standards of vidcassette material, the nude segments cumulatively emphasize the model's narcissistic tendencies (real or imaginary) and counter the otherwise credible naturalness of this film's presentation of women in their family, or business situation.

Redundant first-person comments about the importance of Playmate exposure to one's career and personal growth should be eliminated or de-emphasized in future compilations. Tech credits are fine, with film rather than video lensing used to good effect.

My review was written in September 1983 after viewing the CBS Fox video cassette.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

Dziga Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

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Playboy Video Playmate Review

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