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HEART OF STONE
Mary Sanders (Angie Everhart) is the atypical, drop dead gorgeous housewife. Unfortunately, her professor husband Ken (Peter J. Lucas) has little time in the romantic department. At a party for their daughter April (Tracy Ovist), Mary is introduced to Steve Sterns (James Wilder). Although, he's dating an old friend of Mary's - And by old I mean old - the bleach blonde, pancake fifty-eight year old who makes herself feel younger by dating the twenty eight year old hunk.
Produced Tony DiDio
Directed by Marty Pistone and Dale Trevillion
Written by Emilio Ferrari
Edited by Annamaria SzantoAngie Everhart - Mary Sanders
James Wilder - Steve Sterns
Tracy Ovist - April Sanders
Peter J. Lucas - Ken Sanders
John Duerler - Frank Sanders
Denice Duff - Karen Sanders
Gregory Doers - Detective Mullioned
Steve has immediate eyes for Mary and is putting some serious moves on her. Eventually, she succumbs to Steve's sleazy charms and it isn't long before they're doing the bumping of uglies. She realizes that she has made a mistake while Steve realizes he has found the woman of his dreams.
Mary comes to find out that Steve is a loony. He may also be a serial killer who is killing and screwing women all over the city. And since Mary is refusing Steve's charms he has no choice but to go after her beautiful, college bound daughter, April.
HEART OF STONE falls directly into the realm of erotic thriller. To be more specific, it's the type where we get the actress who used to be a big deal in tinseltown. In this case, Ms. Everhart. who is washed up, but still not willing to get naked for movies. Then she is thrust into a cookie cutter plot that was culled from a combination of the three thousand erotic thrillers made in the last ten years.
The director makes sure that we get plenty of T&A, none of it Ms. Everhart's. Don't get me wrong the woman looks great in a tank top and the tightest jeans on the planet, but you kinda want more. and if you're used to her dramatic turn in TALES FROM THE CRYPT: BORDELLO OF BLOOD. It's kind of unbelievable to watch her play the weak willed whiny Mary Sanders. Which leads to another question. Why does it take an entire movie before the heroine remembers that all men have testicles and if you kick us in them very hard...hell, just kinda hard...then we will leave you alone. Probably forever.
The rest of the cast does their job. Her husband Ken is believably bored with the sexual demands of his wife. That would have to take some acting considering how good Angie looks in this movie. Her daughter seems more like her best friend than a daughter. It doesn't seems like there are enough years between them to make it work. James Wilder does the sweaty, sleazy thing pretty good. It looks like a part he's probably portrayed before. I found it hard to believe that Full Moon regular Denice Duff was wasted as Mary's sister-in-law, Karen. With all the horrid flicks she's done for Charles Band she could have really brought something to the film. As it is, she's wasted in this miniscule part. What, was the director's girlfriend busy?
And then there's Detective Mullroney. That's Irish, right? Well Mr. Toerzs is about as far removed from Irish as I am from Martian. His accent is a little off for the entire film and sometimes makes him hard to understand. If it's his natural accent then it's just my American ears. If he's doing it on purpose. Knock it off, it's annoying.
The movie itself is competent. The acting works except for Angie. It's beautifully shot and edited. we've all seen this before and really there is no reason to watch this if you've ever seen an erotic thriller before. HEART OF STONE is just a rehash that should live a long healthy life on late night Cinemax.
Bio Info for Douglas Waltz
In the spare time afforded him between a full time job for the local phone company, Douglas is happily married with five, that's right five, children. He is a staff writer for the Print magazine Cult Cuts and does work for the webzine (www.cultcuts.net). He also publishes his own small press zine called X-Ploitation. In addition to that he's working on an annual publication of short stories from various writers called On The Night Highways. And if that wasn't enough he's about to shoot his first short film, Phone Sex, sometime this summer.