There’s an old axiom that goes, “for a movie to succeed, all it takes is one good scene.” George Lucas got funding for one of the greatest sci-fi franchises ever created by simply showing a mock-up of his Death Star assault scene in Star Wars. Roger Corman turned a profit on Barbarian Queen by having the great Lana Clarkson topless and needle-tortured by a chrome hand suspended above her fabulous breasts. The only part of Head of the Family that anyone remembers is the scene where Jacqueline Lovell is stripped naked and burned at the stake. Even a C-list movie like Dracula: Dirty Old Man is saved by the exploitive use of two women fully naked and helplessly tied to wooden crosses throughout most of the film.

So it is that Elite Pain’s Education, a movie so powerful that it must be seen in two parts, is noteworthy for not one, not two, but three very good scenes. The first involves a beautiful woman chained arms overhead for a lesson in the multi-tail flogger, the second involves a hot, sexually-aroused brunette being used to demonstrate the effects of whipping with a telephone cord, and the third involves nothing more than a blonde slave, three mistresses, and a riding crop to create a very emotionally-powerful scene. Like Kill Bill, you must see both parts to get the full impact of the storyline, though I found Part 2 to be the more entertaining half. More on that in a bit.

To borrow the catch-phrase of the late Don LaFontaine, “In a world where…”, well, in a world where beautiful women sell their bodies for money (which might very well be this one), the Elite Pain Club offers a “royal salary” to young women who are brave enough to sign a one-year labor contract to serve as slaves to the club. The life of a club slave is harsh and requires total obedience. A slave will be subjected to unspeakable terrors and frequent corporal punishment. Her strength will be tested. Those who are strong enough to survive will be rewarded. The others… not so much.

Three new cadets are to receive their training from the club’s leader, Maximilian. Even though the female characters have names, I prefer to use the ones that best describe them in true James Bond-ian fashion, to make it easier to follow the plot. They are Voluptuous Exotic (a larger, dark-eyed woman with raven hair and awesome breasts), Mannish Haunches (who looks just like that nickname), and the slender blonde Svelte Bronco (because the tattoo on her bikini line looks like the helmet logo for the Denver Broncos).

Max explains that each of the women will go through the club’s training program to determine if they are suitable to be mistresses or slaves. To be a mistress, the woman has to be obedient to the members, but also must be strong enough to command obedience from the slaves. The training program is designed to see if the women have the physical and psychological strengths necessary to be a mistress. If they fail, they will be slaves, to be used and abused as the members see fit.

For the first lesson, the three trainees are standing in the dark classroom where two ominous-looking platforms have been positioned. Max enters with two other women who are fully dressed. To help demonstrate the effectiveness of the lesson’s instrument, the two women – slaves of the club – will serve as teaching aids, to receive a violent and painful caning from the trainees under the guidance of Max. He is using real women because he wants the trainees to see the reaction they get with the instrument. No plastic gel-filled mannequins here!

The first slave, whom I'll call “Twist” because of her hairstyle, is an attractive blonde with full, healthy breasts and a body built for lust. She’s forced to strip, and as she does so, Max gives instructions to the three trainees that, when testing the instruments of pain, they are to strike her as hard as they can. If they don't perform well, then Max will whip their palms as punishment (anyone who’s been to a Catholic school should cringe at this), and then whip the slave as well; the idea being that, if the mistress wants to be merciful to the slave, then the mistress should whip her as hard as she can on her first strike to spare the slave from suffering additional blows. That almost makes sense in a weird, sadistic way. If it makes sense to you, then welcome to the Elite Pain Club.

After stripping off her clothes, Twist reluctantly climbs onto one of the platforms and gets on her hands and knees, where she is strapped down by two of the trainees. As she’s secured in place, the other slave, whom I'll call “Sideways” for her hair-style as well, is commanded to strip. When she is also naked, two trainees strap her into place on the other platform, so that the two slaves are presenting their soft unmarked bottoms to the trainees for striking. After a few words of instruction about where to hit, the teacher gives the cane to Svelt Bronco and the lesson begins.

I won't go into blow-by-blow details about the action, but suffice to say that the scene is a very good introduction to what lays ahead. Each of the trainees takes their fair share of swings, and the slaves take their fair share of abuse. The pacing is good, the length is good, and both Twist and Sideways are very attractive and turn in good performances. You can tell that the beatings are real, the pain is real, and the agony is real, yet each of the slaves deals with the shock of their beating differently. Twist tries to bear up, but obviously has a lower threshold than Sideways. Twist is delightful to watch as she cries out and writhes against the platform’s bonds. Sideways’ struggle to maintain her composure gives the scene a strong psychological aspect, which really picks up in Part 2. As the lesson continues, Svelt Bronco’s resolve begins to weaken and she shows sympathy for her victims as she proves that caning a slave is a test of strength on both ends of the rod. When she makes mistakes, she is forced to strip as humiliating punishment for her errors. When this fails to correct her, she’s told to bend over between the two slaves, and she receives a caning as punishment.

After the lesson is completed, the trainees are dismissed. So ends Day 1 of the curriculum.

The next day, Twist is brought into the instruction room by the three trainees, who tell her that she’s been selected to be the test subject for them again. Twist is apprehensive. As the trainees strip her, she begs for mercy. She pleads with them to be easy on her; to strike softly but she will cry out loudly, to fool Max (who isn't in the room yet) into thinking that the trainees are doing their job well. The trainees laugh. She is a slave to be used for education, nothing more. Even Svelt Bronco laughs, trying to keep up her pretense of being strong enough to be a mistress. Then Twist appeals to the trainees as fellow women, trying to gain their sympathy as her wrists are shackled and locked to a chain and her arms are tugged up over her head, leaving her helplessly stretched out in the dark room, vulnerable to the instruments they are going to use on her. But it is no use. She is a slave and gets no sympathy.

Max enters the room and calls the trainees to attention. He goes over the instructions - this lesson will be in the use of both the multi-tailed flogger and the riding crop. Twist, helplessly strung up, can only listen and wait for the pain she knows will come. This, friends, builds dramatic tension and really makes this scene work.

Max gives instructions on how the multi-tailed flogger can best be used to its full effectiveness. As he explains its devilish niceties, Twist becomes more and more anxious. Then, to demonstrate what he’s describing, Max strikes Twist right on her Mound of Venus, causing her to scream and nearly double over in pain. The trainees are suitably shocked at the effect. Then Max hands the whip over to the trainees so that they can practice on the helpless captive. Frightened by the effect of the whip on the poor, helpless slave, but more afraid of what Max would do if they disobey, each trainee takes a swing at the specimen strung up for their benefit.

Emotionally distraught, Svelt Bronco is having difficulty swinging the instrument of torture she’s been given, and is frequently punished for her poor performance. Mannish Haunches also has to receive punishment and instruction from Max, though not as often as Svelt. Then there’s Voluptuous Exotic, who, despite being on the larger end of the female form, has a face that could launch an entire Navy (that’s a compliment). If I ever need a plus-size model, I'm calling her. She’s good to look at and her size actually works to her advantage as a dominatrix. Plus, she has the hand-eye coordination for handling the whip, flogger, and crop. With some practice, she could be the Elite Pain Club’s next big star. But she’s not a pro yet and she finds herself getting her palm smacked for mistakes. And she’s not alone. Twist continues to suffer for the trainees’ mistakes as well.

After Twist is beaten mercilessly with the multi-tailed flogger, screaming and crying and thrashing, it’s time for the next lesson – the use of the riding crop. Poor Twist, still weeping from the flogger, is the test bed again. Again, I won't go into details, but I will provide a few screen caps of the trainees receiving instruction, to give you some idea of how things unfold.

After the lesson is over, Voluptuous Exotic meets with Max alone in his office, to inform him that the other two trainees are conspiring with the slaves to deceive him into thinking that they are beating the slaves harder than they really are. Max orders Voluptuous to strip and he strokes her body to test whether she is loyal to him or not. When her body responds to his caresses, he is convinced that she is telling the truth and promises to reward her after she has finished her training.

This officially ends Part 1 of the storyline, but the producers included some behind-the-scenes stuff that I found to be entertaining. I normally avoid such things as I don't want to ruin my “suspension of disbelief”, but in this case the out-takes actually reinforce what’s going on in the storyline. Worth a watch if you have any interest.

At any rate, this portion of the two-part series has its merits, particularly because we get to see the lovely Twist as she’s put through the paces of being flogged and cropped. She’s the only slave that has any real speaking lines and she does them well, or at least well enough to move the storyline along. I'd have loved to see her in more scenes, but unfortunately, we won't see her in Part 2. Hopefully there will be someday be a Part 3 and she'll be in it. I may just be inspired to write the script myself!