“The Mark of the Cane” is a SMAX Video movie that was
released about 1997. My copy runs 44
minutes but, as discussed below, I think the full movie may run a little longer. It features a cast of three: a
student named Melanie played by Barbie Mel, a janitor named Frank played
by a man who is a familiar face in British spanking movies of the nineties and a
teacher played by a man who appears in several SMAX movies; he bears a
resemblance to Christian Fennington but he is heavier. I don’t know where this film can be purchased
at present but bootleg copies appear on chat boards from time to time.
I know very little about SMAX Video.
Most of what I know comes from the short
article in the Spanking Art Wiki which says:
“Smax Videos was a British
spanking video producer active in
the late 1990s and early 2000s. Based in southern England,
it released over 35 M/F
or F/F
films, most of them between 45 and 60 minutes in duration. They were initially
sold privately to members of the OTK Club and Platinum Club.
Smax Videos ran a website in
the years 2001-3, but its products failed to penetrate the wider market to
anything like the extent that Red Stripe
and Moonglow
videos did in this period. A few films have latterly appeared on the internet.”.
I’ve spent some time searching and I found a October 2000
post on a Google Group (http://groups.google.com/g/alt.parenting.spanking.moderated/c/uGebSi0G9NI)
titled “club information and details of our xmas party”.
It is a very long post so I won’t reproduce
all of it but, near the end, is a list of movies that includes the following:
“THE MARK OF CANE This has
been described as a masterpiece, the chemistry between the actors is electric
you will enjoy watching this barbi doll school girl in full uniform being
rulered, spanked, strapped, slippered, paddled, and caned, the finale with her
bent naked over a gym horse and given 18 strokes of the cane is amazing...there
is something special about this film. 55 mins”
What caught my attention was the notation “55 mins” at the
end, the version of ‘The Mark of the Cane that I have is only 44 minutes.
I know
the title cards have been stripped off the copy that I have but they certainly
wouldn’t fill 11 minutes.
The ending is
also rather abrupt and it is possible that some material (possibly previews of
other movies) have been stripped of the end.
However, as I describe below, I think my copy may be missing about 4
minutes from the beginning of the movie.
This together with a few previews at the end
could bring the movie to 55 minutes.
The movie opens with a teacher saying “no, no, that’s not
good enough, you’re in the sixth form …” to a student siting at a desk (it does
seem like there should be something before this).
Then he has her hold out her hand and he
gives her one slap on the hand with a ruler.
He continues asking her questions until, about 1 minute into the movie,
a counter appears on screen that shows 5 minutes have elapsed.
This is a further indication that a few
minutes are missing from this copy of the movie.
A few more questions lead to more errors,
another slap and a warning that the ruler will be used on her bottom in the
future.
Another question, another error and Melanie bends over her
desk for three slaps of the ruler.
He
repeats the question and, while she struggles to think of an answer, he warns
her that he is about to give her ‘one hell of a spanking’.
She can’t come up with the answer so its back
over the desk for a hand spanking and he tells her it will continue until she
has the answer.
Nine slaps, in groups of
three, and then he lifts her skirt.
About 18 slaps follow before she remembers part of the answer.
Then her panties come down for another dozen
and she final remembers the answer.
Through all this the teacher has been warning her that he is going to
call the school janitor to give her a caning if her attitude doesn’t improve.
He has her get dressed and sit back down before he goes on
to another question.
Once again, she
doesn’t know the answer and that leads to more slaps on the hand with the
ruler.
This routine repeats until he
final takes her over his knee for another, much longer, hand spanking.
In the midst of the spanking he warns her that
he is going to take a strap to her bottom if her attitude doesn’t improve.
About 15 minutes into my copy of the movie he
has her stand but he soon has her remove her panties completely and bend
over.
He takes out a leather paddle and
gives her 6 hard slaps at a slow pace.
He decides that this isn’t enough so he leaves to get something else.
He quickly returns with a leather strap which he shows to
her.
He tells her that he has only used
this strap once before and that was just before a student was expelled.
He proceeds to give her a very hard stroke of
the strap.
Another equally hard stroke
follows then he stops to roll up his sleeves.
A few more licks follow before he switches to delivering the licks in
quick flurries.
In total, he gives her
20 strokes; the later strokes aren’t quite as hard as the first few but it was obviously
a very hard punishment.
At the 22-minute mark of the movie the teacher leaves Melanie
to write out the answers to his list of questions, 100 times each, while he
goes to talk to the School Janitor in his workshop in the basement.
The two men spend almost 5 minutes discussing
Melanie’s next punishment and the teacher prominently plays with a running shoe
he is holding throughout.
This scene is
filmed in a very small room that obviously didn’t allow enough room for filming
and some camera accessories are visible in portions of the scene.
Finally, the teacher hands Frank the slipper
and the two men head upstairs to see Melanie.
Cut to the classroom where Melanie is writing out the
answers.
There is a little more chatter,
a bit of it barely audible, then the teacher finally gives Melanie a choice,
accept further punishment from the Janitor or being turned over to the
Headmaster for expulsion.
Of course, she
decides to accept the punishment delivered by the Janitor.
Frank and the teacher rearrange the room so they can move a
vaulting horse (which just happens to be sitting in a classroom with a cane
sitting on top of it) to the front of the room.
There is a short exchange of dialogue between Frank and Melanie which is
hard to understand but it ends with Melanie undressing completely and then she
bends over the horse.
Frank gives her 18
hard slaps with his slipper while the teacher keeps count.
She stands to rub her bottom briefly
afterward while Frank gets the cane for the next phase of her punishment.
Then its back over the horse.
Frank gives her 19 hard strokes of the cane
delivered at a slow pace.
They count
most out loud but I think they may have missed one.
They leave the room after the caning and
Melanie remains naked and bent over the horse when the movie ends.
I think the copy I have contains the final
scenes of the movie itself but it does appear that some material (maybe
previews of other movies) has been cut off.
The posting I found on Google Groups describes this movie as
a ‘masterpiece’.
I’m not sure I would go
quite that far but it is very good, although I wish I had a better copy.
The action is very good, particularly toward
the end.
The technical work is also good
but there are a few sound issues and I don’t like the color palette; it’s too
dark for my taste but it is similar to another SMAX Video (Caned Journalists) that
I have.
The quality of the transfer to
digital could also be better.
I think
the problem is just resolution but it is also possible that the tape had begun to
demagnitize before it was digitized.
One other note, an email address in the posting I found gave
me the name of the company that made SMAX Videos and, with that, I was able to find an
archived copy of their website on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. They made more movies than I had realized so
I will be rewriting my SMAX filmography sometime soon.
