Kane Kandid Kamera

‘Kane Kandid Kamera’ is a 1-hour long movie made by George Harrison-Marks (GHM) about 1986.  It was released by Kane International (catalogue number 9) in the UK and a collection of photographs from the movie appears in issue number 31 of Kane magazine.  The movie was also released by CalStar (English Spanking Classics #25) in the US and that release is currently available on several ‘video on demand’ site such as www.hotmovies.com.

This movie is another of GHM’s dives into realism since the story takes places during the filming of a spanking movie.  His later film ‘The Kane Assignment’ follows the same pattern except that it takes place during the course of a spanking photoshoot.  There are advantages to this approach, since anything that happens can occur simply as ‘part of the movie’ which eliminates the need for any of the familiar scenarios (schoolgirl, office, workplace, etc.) that have been done to death.

‘Kane Kandid Kamera’ is also one of only two movies that I know of that features Kane magazine staffer ‘Jenny’ who occasionally wrote a column called ‘Just Jenny’ for the magazine.  The other movie is ‘The Caning Club’ which was featured in issue 37 of the magazine.  The opening cards for ‘The Caning Club’ proclaim that it is Jenny’s first appearance in a film.  This creates something of a dilemma because the photostories in the magazines are one of the clues I use to date the movies and this becomes questionable if Jenny’s first movie was featured in issue 37 while this later movie was featured in issue 31.  I have decided to date all seven movies that are featured in issues 31 through 37 to 1987.  These are ‘Kane Kandid Kamera’ (31), ‘Girls in Trouble’ (32), ‘The Punishment Man’ (33), ‘The Audition’ (34), ‘The Errant Daughter’ (35), ‘The Maid in Tears’ and ‘The Maid Upstairs’ (both 36) and ‘The Caning Club’ (37).

The movie opens with GHM and Jenny in the Kane offices discussing an application of a woman who wants to appear in a movie.  GHM decides he wants to met her so he asks Jenny makes the arrangements.  Before she can do that the door bell rings and Jenny admits Benji, a dark-haired woman who has worked for Kane in the past and Sue, her blonde friend who is looking for a first job.  GHM decides to audition them together and he sends them off to ‘wardrobe’ with Jenny who is never seen again.

Soon Benji, now dressed in a white teddy, walks into the living room where she meets the ‘TV repair man’ (a familiar face who is only called Peter) and she immediately starts aggressively flirting with him.  Before long Sue walks in and catches the two on the floor in front of the fireplace.  They argue and Sue decides to teach Benji a lesson.  Sue takes Benji over her knee with the help of the TV repair man but they barely begin giving her a spanking when GHM’s dog ‘Janus’ (although he is also called by a couple of other names) makes his entrance.   GHM calls cut and it turns out that this has all been part of filming a movie.  They chase the dog out of the room, reset the scene and resume filming the hand spanking, eventually Sue and Peter take turns spanking Benji.  This segment ends at about the 15-minute mark of the movie.

The next segment opens between ‘takes’ with the three actors (and the dog) in a pile on the living room couch then Benji and Sue are joined by two more women (Kathy and Jane) for a few posed photographs.  These two brief scenes.  These two brief and largely uneventful scenes last about 7 minutes in total.

Another scene break and then Sue is siting with GHM (she is dressed as she was during the filming but he is wearing a different shirt) and she tells him about how she became interested in working for Kane.  They also talk about her experience in her first scenes and her only complaint is that she didn’t get a spanking.  GHM is only to happy to correct this oversight and a leisurely 3-minute hand spanking, complete with a few breaks and another visit by Janus, follows.  This scene ends with GHM breaking character and asking the cameraman if ‘he is going to say cut or not’?

After one more break the next scene opens with GHM (in a third shirt) and Peter talking about the days shooting over a drink on the couch.  They start to talk about the plans for the next day when Kathy walks in and tells GHM that Benji is waiting for him downstairs.  Peter and Kathy both leave while Benji joins GHM for a long conversation that includes another short hand spanking and a few more appearances by Janus before it is interrupted by the telephone.  It continues after a black out with another conversation between GHM and Benji about her future with the magazine (I’m not sure if any of the things they discuss ever came to be) that brings this segment of the movie to nearly 10 minutes.

The final segment, set the next day, begins at about the 36-minute mark of the movie.  Kathy, Jane and Peter all return and they start out lounging on a bed while they have a drink with GHM.  After a few false starts they begin the lesbian sequence that GHM included in most of his movies going back to his 8-mm films in the sixties (which I’ve never seen).  That scene begins at around 42 minutes and runs, with a few breaks, through the rest of the movie.  I’m not nearly as much of a fan of girl-on-girl scenes as GHM was so much of the last 18 minutes is lost on me.  There are a couple of short hand spankings but they are nothing special.

‘Kane Kandid Kamera’ is not a great movie but it is one that stands out in my memory, mostly for its novelty.  There must be thousands of spanking movies with 2 or 3 characters and one set that follow a very predictable story line; some misdeed leads to a hand spanking, followed by a strap, a paddle and then the cane.  I’ve seen so many of these over the years that I can’t even remember most of them.  ‘Kane Kandid Kamera’ is very different.  There are 7 actors, several sets (some biographies of GHM say that he filmed many of his movies in his own house in London and this is probably one of those) and a novel story line.  It has the feel of a ‘behind the scenes documentary’ and that is the part that I remember most.  But, if viewed strictly as a spanking movie, it would probably be a disappointment.