What's more confusing: the plot of this movie, or the fact that someone thought it was a good idea to make a softcore flick with hardly any sex or nudity?

"Victim of Desire" is a mid-nineties softcore thriller made by legendary b-director Jim Wynorski, and starring the queen of soft porn herself, Shannon Tweed. It also features Penthouse Pet and fellow b-girl Julie Strain, and legendary exploitation actor/filmmaker Wings Hauser.

It also has a guy who kind of looks and sounds like a less charismatic Kevin Bacon playing the role Bacon would have played if they could have afforded him, ie. a cop. I think that's Marc Singer - known to cult movie fans from "Beastmaster".

I found it hard to follow the plot developments at the beginning of the movie. You get that Strain is, as always, typecast as the bad girl, as she always was in all those Andy Sidaris movies. Was that because she had dark hair?

According to Wikipedia, even Wynorski and his producer had trouble understanding the script, but they were told to film it anyway. "Victim of Desire" is a movie he is said to regret making.

Strain is apparently two timing an overweight, computer geek type guy, while scheming to get his money.

I guess that Tweed, being blonde, is the good guy. But the Kevin Bacon-lite character, apparently a cop, bugs her apartment while she undresses in a different room. Then he and a slovenly partner put her under what seems to be very obvious surveillance, and Tweed proudly undresses for his binoculars, looking right at him. Are we to surmise that she is aware of the bugs he planted, as well?

The movie seriously wanders when its main romantic entanglement begins. It becomes impossible to focus on.

For a supposed softcore flick, the movie actually doesn't have that much sex or nudity. It's tempting to say it has too much plot, but that doesn't feel right. The actors are like flies buzzing around a corpse that has already been picked clean. They probably had no more idea of what was going on in the movie than Wynorski did.

No better or worse than most of Shannon Tweed's straight-to-video films. The final twist is pretty clever and you probably won't see it coming, but the plot moves at about 5 miles per hour, and it's filled with stupid, bumbling characters that hurt its credibility (notice the scene where the hero practically hands over a gun to a potential murderess; or how about the scene where the killer has a perfectly good opportunity to shoot the hero but delays unnecessarily). Tweed is gorgeous as always, but not sexy in this movie (yes, there is a difference). Julie Strain, who is arguably even more beautiful, is mainly kept offscreen. (**)

I wasn't expecting much from a "B" thriller, but it was surprisingly good. It is about an investigator who is trying to track down millions in embezzled money, and the evidence is pointing to Wings Hauser... who is soon killed off. The investigator becomes involved with his sultry wife (not a stretch for Shannon Tweed)when the trail leads to her. Worth the rental.