TABOO AMERICAN STYLE (A 4 Part Mini Series) (1985) approximately
80 Minutes per segment including recaps and previews.
ep – St. Peter, p – James George, d – Henri Pachard. Cast: Raven, Gloria Leonard, Paul
Thomas, Tom Byron, Taija Rae, Carol Cross, Sharon Kane, Joey Silvera, Kelly Nichols,
R. Bolla, Sarah Bernard, Frank Serrone, Jose Duvall, Jeanne Silver, Steven Lockwood,
Missy Tiger and St. Peter as C.B. Meyer.
This East Coast 4 part series shattered the concept of Taboo films and was voted the
best film of the year by the AFAA, CAFA and the X-Rated Critics Organization. The critics
vote solely on eroticism and before casting my ballot, I watched each of the nominated films
a second time on tape. The one thing that stood out about TABOO AMERICAN STYLE was
that while it was riddled with minor production problems, it sizzles with heat.
The saga centers on the Sutherland family — father Harding (Paul Thomas), mother Emily
(Gloria Leonard), clean cut son Tom (Byron) and daughter Nina, played by Raven in the
finest performance of her career, the only time she ever approached ‘acting.’ She plays a
positively evil child who seduces her father, then corrupts her entire family and friends to
her strange ways as she strives for film stardom. Gloria, in her first appearance in 5 years,
was so perfect as the matriarch turned confused mess that she swept the outstanding
actress awards. Watch the whole series and you can get as caught up as theatergoers did.
The essential difference between this and other similar theme films is that they show incest
as just another sex scene between two pretty performers, while Pachard’s mini-series rips
the soul and conscience of America — this stuff seems real, not staged. It is not Gloria and
Tom but mother and son.
In segments, one is the building block, two heats up, three is the hottest of any and the
one to own if that’s all you want, and four is the downer end. A fitting tribute to the late Herb
Nitke, the executive producer of Nibo Films, who actually appears in part four as producer
C. B. Meyer. For the first time ever, adult films captured the mentality of DALLAS or DYNASTY and tapped into it as television never could.