Memories Within Miss Aggie (Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-Ray Review)

Is Memories Within Miss Aggie Trash or Treasure?

Blu Ray Distributed By: Vinegar Syndrome / April 30, 2019

The only thing missing from Aggie’s life…was Aggie. In the middle of nowhere lives middle aged Aggie, with her wheelchair bound companion Richard. As snow falls outside, Aggie tries desperately to remember the circumstances under which they met. As she plays through in her mind a series of possible scenarios, only to dismiss each as a false past, she inadvertently begins to reveal an increasingly dark portrait of her true self, leading to the unexpected and shocking reality of her relationship with Richard.

A chilling study of loneliness and religiously based sexual repression, Gerard Damiano’s magnum opus, MEMORIES WITHIN MISS AGGIE ranks among the strongest and most unsettling psychological character studies in the history of erotic cinema. Featuring Kim Pope, Mary Stuart, and Darby Lloyd Rains as Aggie’s fictitious past selves, along with supporting performances from Eric Edwards and Harry Reems, underpinned by a haunting screenplay by Ron Wertheim (Through the Looking Glass), Vinegar Syndrome proudly presents this unique and important work of classic erotica on Blu-ray for the first time.

Jamie’s Take (1.5 / 5)

Gerard Damiano, the director of Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones, followed up his two big hits with this bizarre adult mystery that will absolutely shock viewers…because it is so boring. Damiano, a director who wanted so badly to create adult films for the mainstream, fails miserably with this dull mystery of a woman whose going insane or is trying to piece together moments in her life one winter afternoon.

Deborah Ashira (her one film appearance) plays Aggie, a woman probably in her 60’s who lives with her disabled husband Richard in a small house in the middle of the woods. One winter afternoon as she is cleaning up when she begins to have flashbacks of her childhood and remembers some of her sexual encounters that she either looks back at fondly or in horror.

Each memory Aggie has is of herself in various forms, if that makes any sense. Each actress who plays Aggie looks entirely different and each memory contradicts the other so viewers already get a sense that Aggie may be off her rocker.

The first memory is sweet and innocent as Aggie loses her virginity to the boy she loves, Richard (also played by various actors). As Aggie’s parents are away, she and Richard play. Richard goes down on Aggie’s sweet lady V, licking up every morsel of that hoo-haw. Richard’s raging boner also gets cleaned by Aggie’s mouth and soon these two young lovers are making sweet natural fuck until the “climax” when Richard unloads his love liquid into Aggie. Yes, there is no money shot but I get what the director was going for.

Aggie’s second memory isn’t quite so innocent as Aggie is alone in her home but punished by her parents so unable to leave her room. One winter afternoon, a delivery man whose also named Richard (played by the legendary Harry Reams) comes to the home and Aggie invites him up so she can vent about her troubles. Soon, this delivery man is delivering the goods on Aggie’s vent. The sex scene here isn’t strange or bizarre but isn’t as erotic or tender as the first scene. It ends with Richard erupting his Elmer’s glue all over Aggie’s little butt in a doggie-style position.

The third and final memory has Aggie working at a brothel where this Richard comes to see her and pays money to watch her masturbate while talking dirty. Not being able to sit still, Richard pulls out his little Richard and Aggie and him make graphic fuckings. Aggie beats the shit out of this guys dick and sucks the living shit outta it, with Richard ejecting his string of pearls in Aggie’s whore mouth. Aggie beats this poor actor’s prick so bad that I kept wincing in pain as she uses his corn cob as a punching bag practically.

That’s it for the sex but the film continues as Aggie remembers for real how she and Richard met and shockingly the film turns even darker, turning into a cross between Psycho and Deranged (which strangely enough came out the same year). The last five minutes or so basically turn into a horror film that I found interesting and clever, although it was too little too late.

I understand that the film had to maintain a sense of mystery but I was bored and confused as to what was taking place during Memories Within Miss Aggie. I still don’t get why each memory has Aggie in a different lifestyle and looking completely different aside from the fact that these memories are not real and just made up. Plus it would be boring to see the same actress fuck over and over again.

Vinegar Syndrome’s blu ray transfer looks pretty good given this film is over 40 years old. The new 2K scan from the original 16 mm print has very slight damage and aside from the grainy opening credits the film looks decent. The blu ray has very little extras and if there ever was a need for an interview, this was the movie to do it as I would have loved to have heard someone who worked on this movie and hear their thoughts on Memories Within Miss Aggie. Sadly, most of the cast and Damiano himself have since passed away.

I struggled with how I would rate this movie as I was going back and forth between 1.5 to 2 cans. I enjoyed the winter setting, the mood, Deborah Ashira’s performance as Aggie and the dark conclusion. I also appreciated that Damiano tried to do something different (way more different than the comedic stupidity of Deep Throat) but I was lost and bored while watching this and it’s so bleak and depressing to watch, it may be one of the least erotic adult films I have ever seen. And isn’t that the real reason to see these films? Men will be left with a flaccid ding dong and women will be drier than the Mojave Desert after watching Memories Within Miss Aggie.