When Bela Lugosi in the Universal horror classic The Raven menacingly exhalts the values of "exquisite torture," he might have been presaging the theme of Andrew Blake's "comeback" opus, Captured Beauty.

Mixing a luscious composition of naked beauty and theatrically - driven bondage, Blake's latest (non-hardcore) feature finds a comfortable residing spot both in the specialty and alternative sections of video stores.

Blake happens to be one of the few director/cinematographers who can lens a woman standing next to a sewer pipe and somehow make it look impossibly provocative. Challenge accepted in a stunning opening sequence, but the action soon shifts to the loftier climes of Beverly Hills and the elegance of penthouse living in New York City where S&M appears to be the entertainment equivalent of Seinfeld.

During the course of 18 exotic vignettes, with Celeste being the ring leader in most of the spirited play, witness a cavalcade of body jewelry, lurid games of blind man's buff/bluff in the rear of stretch limos, a woman turning into a human credenza; captors becoming prey and captives becoming captors.

In a segment that could best be titled "I Married a Garden Hose," slave girl Jenteal, looking like a human cobweb of lawn apparel, gets watered down with enough H2O to sustain the entire Burpee See catalogue. In another scene, women are wearing, what, class? Latex, of course, as surgical scissors busy their way like woodchucks through an Oregon log dam, extricating a pussy or two for shaving.

Fashion being the watch word of any Blake testament, bondage accoutrements range from the often-seen to an unfurling of outre item to-be-found in the spring edition of the "Kick the Shit out of Me" Quarterly.

With riding crop in hand, Celeste, as the piano teacher, and Jenteal as the tentative student, appear in a richly rewarding spanking sequence that also incorporates use of an elaborately designed air paddle. If prizes were given for as whippingrestaurant, this textured, rhythmic and sensual experience boasts a drawing room elegance few award-winning scenes can duplicate.

And when hot wax rains in Captured Beauty, it tends to pour in the time it takes to render Dahlia Grey's body the rustic consistency of a table candle in an Italian restuarant.

As the visuals will certainly knock you on your ass, the soundtrack, ranging from New Age funk to what passes for Moroccan prayer chants, likewise serves special notice.

To paraphrase the poetry of rock n' roll, he was gone for such a long time, but now Blake's back and things are just fine.