The man behind the trailblazing Mona: The Virgin Nymph, and the wildly successful Flesh Gordon, may wink teasingly towards Star Wars here, but beneath its space-set veneer there’s far more to sink your fangs into.

The name Linus Gator needs little research as to its pseudonym-orientated origins, although a peek behind the façade reveals a quite pivotal character in the Golden Age of Pornography – one Howard Ziehm.

Indeed, Ziehm has been widely credited as the megaphone holder for Mona: The Virgin Nymph, the first pornographic film depicting explicit sex to receive a wide theatrical release in the United States. Paving the way for a dizzying plethora of hardcore erotica, his debut feature was also noted for its influence on key features that followed, with the insightful tome Sex in Cinema writing how “The storyline [of Mona] was borrowed, to some degree, by Gerard Damiano’s Deep Throat”.

Ziehm, who had his biggest success with the acclaimed Flesh Gordon, fits into that frequently used bracket of adult movie auteurs whose off-screen antics were often more compelling than what they put onscreen. If you spend a little time listening to a ninety minute Rialto Report special on the director, you discover the story of a man who originally intended on being a theoretical physicist, who worked as a nude male model, and who orchestrated a drug running scheme importing marijuana across the US / Mexico border. And he also made STAR VIRGIN.

The appearance and subsequent success of Star Wars in 1977 was certainly felt in the porn industry. Even today, as viewers of Anal Lightsaber can attest, themed parodies of George Lucas’ sci-fi behemoth are relentless enough to warrant even the insertion of an expected Han Solo pun. Thankfully, as the seventies drew to a close, most adult-orientated fare that tipped its hat to Death Star hijinks did so with decidedly more subtlety than today.

With Star Virgin, the space-set shenanigans are merely used as a way to tie together a completely unhinged and unrelated foursome of shorts. The titular character is the last remaining member of the human race, living out her life alongside her British “cor blimey!” robot companion Mentor (think R2D2 done for a kids fancy dress party), who out of curiosity she pesters into teaching her about the origins of life and sex. As Mentor reluctantly begins sharing his stories of lust, Star Virgin becomes less and less able to control her desires!

It’s a distinctly uneven, yet highly ambitious tetrad of tales, beginning with a bizarre fifties riff on Adam and Eve as we follow two nubile cuties into the Garden of Eden who soon engage in a little peach-orientated decadence, about which the man from Del Monte would undoubtedly say “Yes”. A high school football match is the setting for another tale, while the final segment is hosted in a strip joint that prides itself on the talents of a quite unique flame-extinguishing vagina.

For me, the undoubted highlight is the second vignette; shot in black and white with a Transylvanian setting it features two very Brad and Janet-esque characters who find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. A nearby castle offers temporary refuge complete with a frosty welcome in the form of a silent bellboy adorning a Richard Nixon mask, as the naïve twosome are escorted into this menacing abode to engage in salacious acts of depravity at the hands of Count Dracula.

This is as deranged as they come, but with its monochrome look and medieval setting, it’s a truly berserk and joyously insane piece of filmmaking. The sight of a chiselled Prince of Darkness, complete with quite magnificent penis having sex with a barely conscious woman, while his Tricky Dicky clad assistant – in a somewhat homoerotic manoeuvre – straddles her face, is something I’ll never unsee. I’m quite cool with that though.

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:85.1, and newly scanned and restored in 2k from 35mm vault elements, Vinegar Syndrome’s DVD release of Star Virgin looks as good as it’s likely to get. Originally shot on 16mm, there’s plenty of print damage here and there, but it rarely detracts from the movie, and the likelihood that your jaw will remain open throughout the entire running time remains a distinct possibility. Extras come in the form of a fascinating commentary with director Ziehm, moderated by VS’s very own Joe Rubin. Although his memory is at times a little patchy, it’s still choc-full of anecdotes and titbits to marvel at.

STAR VIRGIN is available now on Region Free DVD direct from Vinegar Syndrome

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