The Mark of the Cane

“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.