The Detention Room

‘The Detention Room’ was the last movie produced by Blushes.  The release was announced in a 6-page spread in Blushes 12 which was published in September 1984 (shown at the bottom of this post).  The announcement describes ‘The Detention Room’ as a 1-1/2 hour movie but my copy is 1 hour and 20 minutes.  ‘Detention Room’ (without ‘The’) was released in the US by CalStar in 1986 but that version is only 59-minutes.  That version is currently available on CalStar Direct video-on-sites like www.hotmovies.com.

‘The Detention Room’ was directed by Alan Bell and written by John Hotten who play ‘Mr. Fordyce’ and ‘Mr. Elliott’ respectively.  The cast also features 2 women that I haven’t been able to identify, they play students ‘Penny’, a brunette, and ‘Jane’, a blonde.

The announcement of the release of ‘The Detention Room’ reads in part “… forthcoming legislation in respect of official censorship of all new videos may make it impractical to market videos of certain types after September …”.  This remark refers to the Video Recordings Act 1984 which received Royal Assent on July 12, 1984 but, as it turned out, didn’t actually come into force in the United Kingdom until September 1, 1988.  This Act prohibited publicly offering videos for sale or rent in the UK unless they had been rated by the British Board of Film Classification and the BBFC refused to rate any material that offended public decency.  Some producers were able to circumvent the Act by creating foreign subsidiaries (SfP sold movies from an office in Holland) or by only selling to members of a ‘private club’.  Despite the statement in the announcement, there are several movies that are frequently described as Blushes videos that weren’t released until after ‘The Detention Room’ so I have yet to convince myself that this movie is, in fact, the last.  More about that in future posts.

The Blushes release of ‘The Detention Room’ opens with a title card of a woman sleeping in bed which seems unrelated to the rest of the movie.  This title card is missing from the CalStar release which opens with two girls siting in a classroom while the teacher tells them to put their pens down.  Mr. Elliott, a representative of the school’s Board of Directors, tells them that he is very concerned about their behaviour in detention and that their Headmaster has been authorized to take whatever action he feels is necessary.  Mr. Fordyce, the Headmaster, tells the girls that he has already made some arrangements and he has them take a four safety pins and a drawing pin (aka a thumb pin) out of their desks.  He shows them how they will pin up their short uniform skirts each time they fail in a task.  In turn, he asks girl a question and if she answers incorrectly, as she always does, he pins up a corner of her skirt, until both skirts are fully pinned up and the girls’ panties are on full display.  Then, when the girls fail to answer a final question, he has them remove their panties, climb up on a stool, and tack their panties to the top of the blackboard.  This introductory segment lasts about 20 minutes.

Once both girls are bottomless, the punishments begin.  Mr. Fordyce asks a question and, when they fail to answer correctly, they are punished.  In the first round they both bend over their desk for a hand spanking.  Various other spankings at their desks and over the stool result from later failed questions. The two men take turns working on the two bare bottoms until detention is over.   A camera at the rear of the room shows the two girls seated at their desks between punishments.  Eventually, the punishments are replaced by marks on the blackboard but the meaning of these marks doesn’t become clear until later.  This portion of the movie lasts nearly 20 minutes.

Eventually the two men decide that further questions are pointless and they decide it’s time for the cane.  As usual, Jane is first and Penny follows.  Both receive one firm stroke of the cane for each mark on the blackboard.  Now it’s time for a written essay.  They are given 15 minutes but, fortunately, we don’t have to wait that long.  The scene fades to black and then resumes with a flickering scene (with no sound) of Jane kneeling on the stool for another few strokes of the cane.  I’m not sure if this was an editing problem in the original tape or of something has been cut.  There is a sudden jump to a scene with the two girls bent over the desks and simultaneously being spanked by the two men.  This makes it clear that something has gone wrong with the tape.  Then, after nearly 7 minutes there is another break, the flickering stops and the scene returns to the two girls finishing their essays. 

The two men read the essays and find them to be unsatisfactory (are you surprised).  Now the serious canings begin.  Penny is first this time and she kneels on the stool at the front of the room for about 30 strokes.  Jane follows and she kneels on the stool for about 10 strokes and then bends over it for another quick ten.  Another cut follows and suddenly Penny is bent over the stool again, the flicker has returned and the sound is out of synchronization with the video.  This sequence lasts about 6 minutes and some of it clearly belongs earlier in the movie but when it ends the two girls back at their desks and we see some of the same material that we just watched, only now without the flicker and with proper sound.  Penny receives more strokes of the cane and she has to keep track of them on the blackboard.  Finally, the movie fades out with no real ending.

Obviously, there is something wrong with the version of the movie that I have and I don’t believe the copy I have is the original.  I have never seen the 59-minute CalStar version but I wonder if it has been edited to remove the ‘damaged’ portions and I suspect that would be a better movie.  However, I still don’t think ‘Detention Room’ would be as good as the earlier Blushes movies.  It would be unfortunate if the last Blushes movie was also the poorest Blushes movie.

That brings me back to the question ‘is this really the last Blushes movie’?  Several sources, including the Spanking Art Wiki and SpankingFilmReview.com, list a number of other Blushes movies.  I’m still trying to determine whether or not these other movies really are Blushes movies.  For me, definitive proof would be finding an announcement of the release in a Blushes magazine but I only have access to very few copies of Blushes but I’m hoping to find more.  I’ll post a Blushes filmography when I’m confident of the information I’m posting.