Poor Lisa Foster (Raines)who is now a 48 year old highly regarded and successful movie writer, technician and producer. She was barely (excuse the pun) 18 when she made this sex romp. She has changed her name and is variously reported as hailing from England or Canada, depending on which source is consulted. No doubt all of this ambiguity is designed to hide the fact that this beautiful, elegant and successful movie producer (see her bio here on IMDb) made this porn film back in 1982 when she was a teenager. And what a gorgeous display, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination, it is! I agree with all of the reviewers who have said what a beautiful form she casts. Cleland's novel calls for a virginal 15 year old girl of nubile proportions and Lisa fits the description perfectly.Where I part company, however, with other reviewers, is the somewhat guilt-ridden insistence of some that this movie is "not pornography", since it is true to the 1790's novel. Hogwash. Cleland's novel is pure pornography, designed solely to titillate the reader. This movie also more than fulfils that singular purpose. She is naked for significant periods of time in the movie precisely because of the erotic purpose. It fulfils no different purpose than a skin magazine. The only difference, of course, is that the viewer is blessed with seeing a beautiful 18 year old woman in her natural glory without any plastic adornments or alterations. Lisa Foster(Raines) regrets this totally. The rest of us do not.

Fanny Hill, Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure first appeared as a book by John Cleland in 1748. For its time, the book contained some explicit, orgiastic sexual episodes. It has since become famous as the greatest work of erotic fiction ever written, heavily censored at various times in various countries, but widely read and constantly in print for over 250 years. Having read the book, I was quite interested to see what this film adaptation of it might offer. Sadly the result is a rather amateurish, tediously repetitive softcore "period porno". Few who value literature or cinema as serious artistic mediums will find a great deal to whet their appetite here.Virginal girl Fanny Hill (Lisa Raines) arrives in 18th century London friendless and virtually penniless. She is soon taken in by a seemingly kind and caring elderly lady named Mrs Brown (Paddy O'Neil), who claims to own one of the best "houses" in London. It takes a while for Fanny to realise it, but she gradually awakens to the fact that she is housed in a brothel and is being groomed to become a woman of pleasure. A handsome stranger named Charles (Jonathan York) is smitten by Fanny and arranges for her to escape from Mrs Brown's establishment. The pair soon fall in love and set up a home, but Charles's father disapproves and arranges for his son to be unwittingly shipped away to the East Indies. Alone and pregnant, Fanny tries to make the best of her lot, stumbling from one doomed love affair to the next. She eventually finds herself turning back to a life of prostitution in the slightly more dignified establishment of Mrs Cole (Shelley Winters). Here Fanny becomes the favourite "woman of pleasure" of a rich old man called Mr Barville (Wilfrid Hyde-White). When Barville dies, he leaves Fanny his entire fortune – enough money for her to live out the rest of her life in comfort. Her happiness is complete when she bumps, by chance, into her former lover Charles, returned from the East Indies and desperate to find his long-lost lover.The whole story centres on Raines as the titular character, and she is actually one of the few things about the film that works. She plays the young, desirable, virginal heroine surprisingly well and does what she can to hold the movie together. The special guest stars (Oliver Reed, Shelley Winters and Wilfrid Hyde-White) are unexpectedly the ones who DON'T do enough to justify their star billing – Reed, especially, seems to act as if he wishes he were elsewhere. The music by Paul Hoffert is distractingly irritating throughout, while many of the sets and costumes merely point up the film's relatively low budget. The narrative itself has little of the book's richness or insight. This film version moves from sex scene to sex scene, barely dwelling on anything other than the bums, tits and pubic hair. Actual character development and motivation is nowhere to be found. Worse still, more than half of the sex scenes are played for laughs, with comical facial expressions and jaunty musical scoring that immediately makes one think of those saucy British comedies of the mid-'70s. All things considered, Fanny Hill is a failed attempt to adapt a literary classic into a worthwhile film.

I for one, had a great time with this raunchy film, ever since i first saw it on video back in 1989 (and uncut, to boot!). It was among the first adult films i saw, and even though i've seen many more since, it remains a favorite. Even though it hardly retains any shock value today, it still rises above many so-called erotic thrillers from Hollywood. Lisa Foster is absolutely gorgeous, and there are many scenes with sex and nudity to please all but the most hardened viewer. Plus, it's all done with humor and tongue firmly in cheek (among other places).Of course, it isn't a perfect film. Some of the comedy seems a bit forced, and there are a few scenes where the direction seems to be too chaste rather than risqué, which is odd for this kind of film (as in Fanny's initial couplings with her prince charming). But the film makes up for it in other scenes.I don't know about the rest of the world, but this was hugely popular over here in the days of VHS. I have been waiting for a DVD release, and finally i see a DVD on Netflix. but since i don't have access to Netflix, i don't know if this is the full uncut version, or if it is pan-and-scan, etc. if someone can tell me for sure, i'd be really grateful.

I can't remember seeing the entire film, or the reason for the rather amusing sexual sounding title, but I do remember that there were a couple of good moments of female nudity and sex. Oliver Reed starred in it somewhere, but he obviously wasn't my concern when I saw it. I only cared about it because of the amusing named title, and the mention of quite a few sexual references. There are no scenes I can really remember that well, but I think there was one where two girls are seeing many people have sex through their above windows. I did not see any of Oliver Reed as far as can remember, but I don't think this is his type of film anyway. Okay!