As part of the new grand pay-per-view direction (see this month’s feature article), Paul Thomas’ bouncy new film, Veil, proves even professional strippers get the blues. So discovers Victoria Paris, who plays a former Vegas showgirl-hooker and part-time hedonist, who want to get a little more mentally involved about sliding down her panties. As if you’re going to believe this, Paris seeks out a kind of EST practicing strip guru who looks like a dead ringer for comic Dick Smothers. Vicky tells Dick there’s something radically missing in her presentation. That’s like the FBI telling you there’s something missing in the search warrant.

Paris, who gets in a couple of goof emotional licks with her manager Randy Spears —because with those tits she’s spending good money to go to a strip counselor— ain’t alone in the boat, apparently. This, judging from a whole babe sub-culture that comes in off the street, (Diedre Holland, Cameo, Jacqueline, Stacey Lords and Ariel Knight) willing to play PBS documentary by talking to the camera and showing off their buns. Newcomer Cameo (who bears an eerie physical resemblance to Barbara Dare-at least in these scenes) gets so in tune with the program, she’s bee-bopping all over the place, teasing the hell out of Cal Jammer, who’s apparently getting all the pool cleaner roles bequeathed to him by Peter North. Do you think these babes all going through this whole leg warmer, Flashdance-thing for nothing? There’s viewer payoff, of course.

We must especially like the Holland sidebar in all this because she plays it real bashful and wants to please her husband (Jon Dough, as if you couldn’t guess) who goes around saying things like “aw Diedre” and “gee whiz” like a sex klutz.

Veil is such a radical departure, I feel it will set landmark standards in what we’re going to expect from adult product. It has a mainstream look, for sure. The actresses, even though we’ve seen them a zillion times before, have an exciting, magically reincarnated freshness about them. The sex, shot in conveniently setup angles for cable editing, is, without hesitancy to say on my part, the best stuff I’ve seen. The way Holland begs dough to feel the firmness of her thigh or the way Jammer/Cameo play spontaneously in real time, this is the way people have sex. Thanks to well built-up tease, we get a chance to truly ache for sex. This is what it’s all about. Technically superior, with a vibrant, film look, do not, under nay circumstances, miss Veil. This is the feature we’ve been pining for.