House of Sleeping Beauties 3

A true masterwork, Paul Thomas's "House of Sleeping Beauties 3" is a moving, sensitive Adult movie that manages to take an odd fetish/form of prostitution that I've seen handled poorly in mainstream films (sleeping non-sex with a sleeping girl who's paid, depicted in 2011 Australian film "Sleeping Beauty" starring Emily Browning) and turning it into a sensitive story that combines romance, nostalgia and memory into a unique movie. This stand-alone feature film makes up for the lousy "tease" PT made as House of Sleeping Beauties Parts 1&2 several years earlier as a misguided vehicle for Savannah.

Central character is a NonSex role: aged ex-G. I. George, given to playing chess outdoors with three other buddies, including his old nemesis Arthur -a crusty guy who likes to tell dirty jokes. They were rivals during the war for the same girl Rose (Vivid superstar Taylor Hayes) and still hold a grudge.

Arthur nastily suggests that George should go pay for a girl to sleep with at a brothel run by Madame Jade (the great Chloe, terrific as always), and George, begrudgingly out of loneliness takes him up on it.

What follows, accompanied by an engaging classical music score, is a strange and mesmerizing movie with Melody (Lexus -a true beauty), a prostitute earning $50 an hour for merely sleeping (a special incense to put the girls under) next to old male customers who are allowed to fondle but no penetration sex of any sort with the girls. George develops a platonic romance with Lexus and even starts caring for her, mainly to help her escape from a horrible codependent relationship with her brutish, no-goodnik lover Jon Dough (giving a one-note hissable performance).

Black and white flashbacks show George back in the 1940s with his fellow soldiers and prostitutes, with these scenes turning into color (typical porn technique) once the XXX sex begins.

Arthur is also a customer at Madame Jade's, he preferring to sleep with Carla (Alyssa Love). A nice plot twist involves Arthur's revelation that he once slept to next to Melody when Carla wasn't available -a fact that drives George off the deep end.

It's impossible not to identify with (especially for a senior-age porn enthusiast like me) George. He's portrayed by Stephen Scolfield, a character actor with a couple of mainstream neo-noir roles listed in IMDb, and he gives an understated, moving performance. Lexus is at her very best, and the treatment of the unusual "sleeping prostitute" theme is handled by Paul Thomas with amazing skill and taste, as is the treatment of old age. A fabulous touch occurs at the very end as the credits role, giving a grace note to George's story.

Sexual content is quite different (though the story is the same) comparing the 1999 VHS release version with the 2003 DVD, reflecting Vivid's frequent practice of altering (or shortening) its movies for DVD reissue. I describe the changes in IMDb's Alternate Versions entry.