RSP- visits the Distribpix Archives

If you want to get a quick look at some of the goods in the Distribpix archive, just click the link below and enter the golden age?

Thanks so much RSP!!

BLAST FROM THE PAST-THE WORLD THEATER

Grabbed this business card from one of my fathers file folders. This is after he took over the theater from Bobby Sumner, where his Mature Pictures played some of the best adult films of all time, and booked even more!

The Opening of Misty Beethoven, theatrical sell sheet

Original Sell Sheet For "The Opening of Misty Beethoven"

Naked Came The Hoax…..A Brief History

“Naked Came the Stranger,” Penelope Ashe’s torrid novel of adultery and revenge, exploded onto the literary scene in the summer of 1969. Ashe, a “demure Long Island housewife,” regaled every television and radio show host who would listen to her with tales of how she brought the sultry page-turner to life.

The literary establishment was scandalized, both by the explicit and pervasive sexual content and by the poor quality of the writing itself. The book-buying public didn’t care. “Naked” shot to the top of the bestseller lists, blazing through its initial run of hardcovers in a matter of weeks.

Then on September 1, 1969, the David Frost Show introduced its guest for the evening, “Penelope Ashe.” As the orchestra struck up a rousing rendition of “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody,” nineteen men filed onto stage, single file. The hoax was revealed and a media firestorm ensued.

“Penelope Ashe” did not exist. Hoax-ringleader Mike McGrady’s sister-in-law played the role for the press and a cadre of 24 Newsday writers (19 men and 5 women) had written the book. Each had provided a chapter without any knowledge of what the others had written, under strict orders to avoid character development, plot advancement, and quality writing at all costs. Chapters deemed too high in quality were rewritten. A two sex-scene minimum per chapter was rigidly enforced.

McGrady, incensed that poorly-written sex novels like “Valley of the Dolls” topped the bestseller lists while talented writers languished in obscurity, had set out to prove a point. Choose a sexy title, slap a naked woman onto the front cover, fill the pages with explicit sex, and the novel would sell. Any novel. Even if the writing was terrible, the plot non-existent, and the style a mishmash of two dozen different authors. He made his point in spectacular fashion.

When Radley Metzger brought the story to the screen half a decade later, he kept the title, the character names, the episodic structure, and the basic plot. But he jettisoned the hackneyed dialogue and poorly-written encounters, replacing them with his trademark clever staging and sparkling wit.

It was now the Newsday writers’ turn to be shocked. Metzger invited them to the premiere, and many took up his invitiation, bringing along their wives, blissfully unaware that they were about to watch a hardcore film full of unsimulated sex. “I donít know what they were expecting,” Radley shrugged, “the theater where it played was the most prestigious house of porn in America.”

Nevertheless, the movie was a hit, dethroning “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” to top the New York box office. Radley rode the wave of success to bankroll his next film, the ambitious and remarkable “The Opening of Misty Beethoven.”

For all the sordid details of the “Naked Came the Stranger” hoax, quotes from the participants, the backstory of Radley’s adaptation, and more, check out film historian Benson Hurst’s incredible writeup in the DVD’s 40-page liner notes booklet.

http://www.distribpix.com

Naked Came The Stranger 2012- A Closer Look!!

Radley Metzger’s “Naked Came The Stranger” HD Transfer

Back from the lab and looking awesome! Commentary is also amazing. Some screen captures from the newly transferred, Naked Came The Stranger. Yes, it has never looked this good!!

The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann : 2 Disc Collectors Edition – Unbiased Review !

Softcore Maestro Radley Metzger of Camille 2000 and The Lickerish Quartet fame was to adopt the nom de porn of “Henry Paris” (derived from his middle name and longstanding love for the City of Lights) for a frugal five explicit endeavors, although he had already flirted with the form in bothScore and The Image.  All of those with the exception of the last, 1978′s Maraschino Cherry (which is already available as a double disc Platinum Elite Collector Edition), will be released by Video-X-Pix as part of our Henry Paris Collection for which the legendary filmmaker has graciously made his privately owned prints available to us. Although it was to be his eminently witty spin on Shaw’s Pygmalion, The Opening of Misty Beethoven from 1976, that would predominantly preserve his well-deserved reputation as one of the most artistically accomplished and intelligent filmmakers in all of adult, 1974′s The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann - best described as a sophisticated comedy of bad manners – wowed contemporary critics and audiences alike.  As Distribpix is planning to release the remaining foursome chronologically, it also happens to be the first one out the door in an exhaustive 2 disc collector edition jampacked with jawdropping extras and a real steal at $29.95 and, no, I’m not just saying that because I’m Steven Morowitz’s bitch !  Oh behave !

Behave is one thing Pamela Mann (the radiant Barbara Bourbon, a classically trained legit stage actress convinced to take the porno plunge due to the director’s lofty pedigree) rarely does, outside of polite society she’s very much a part of that is, and her workaholic businessman spouse (hunky Alan Marlow, the despicable womanizer returned to earth in female form from Roberta Findlay’s scathing Angel Number 9) is starting to catch on to her wicked ways.  To cement his suspicions, he hires bumbling albeit supremely self-assured private dick Frank, played to po-faced perfection by Eric Edwards, already something of an industry veteran even at this early stage.  His opening dialogue with character actor extraordinaire Kevin André (who was to provide perhaps his finest turn the following year as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Shaun Costello’s seasonal classic The Passions of Carol, incidentally also available as a sterling Platinum Elite Collector Edition), as they watch Leo and Linda Lovemore enjoy some afternoon delight with considerable confusion as to which of the two’s the adulterer, is absolutely priceless.

Trailing the sexy socialite, Frank uncovers all sorts of escalating naughtiness. Having the idea planted in her pretty little head from a dinner conversation concerning Gerard Damiano’s blow job box office blast Deep Throat, very much the scandal du jour at the time, she wants to go Linda Lovelace one better by performing her “Look, ma, no gag reflex” party trick on a random stranger of, ahem, appropriate proportions.  Enter massively endowed Marc Stevens, picked up by the mischievous Pamela near Sutton Place with Queensborough Bridge towering over them.  For obvious legal reasons, their subsequent sex scene – one of the best orals ever – was shot in the privacy of a film studio, although the potted plants attempt to convince audiences otherwise. She selflessly supplies social rehabilitation services for happy hooker Georgina Spelvin, looking mighty fetching I must add, in one of the all time Sapphic sessions and drags off a moral reformer running for mayor (beefy Sonny Landham, ironically cast in retrospect considering the political upheaval he would cause in later life, disastrously running for Governor of Kentucky) for a fevered quickie mere moments prior to his addressing a women’s group.

The drawn-out garage rape sequence was cut from many prints shortly following theatrical release and was still missing from VCA’s otherwise honorable DVD release.  Coerced into an underground parking lot by a pair of propaganda-spouting revolutionaries, played to the hilt by perennial bad boy Jamie Gillis and the formidable Darby Lloyd Rains, who would rejoin forces with Metzger on his subsequent Naked Came the Stranger, Pamela’s violated at gunpoint.  Such a harrowing situation might seem out of place at first due to its – albeit admittedly cartoonish – brutality, until the director turns the tables by the last act revelation that Pamela’s tormentors are in fact her devoted domestics and part of the whole set-up. The adventurous Manns have constructed these elaborate games to spice up their threatening to go stale marriage, hiring a series of goodlooking detectives (Stevens being revealed as Edwards’ predecessor) to capture their escapades on film, Pamela’s seduction of the investigator – who subsequently refuses all remuneration as he has allegedly “failed” his assignment – forever the final movement of their association.

One of ultimately very few porn movies that actually yield entire new levels of meaning on each viewing, Pamela Mann continues to stimulate the brain as well as the groin. The general motif seems to be appearances, the various roles people will assume in daily life taken to farcically surreal extremes. No one is what he or she pretends to be, certainly not the game-playing Manns or the gumshoes hiding their identities as an occupational requirement, unwittingly ensnared to do the couple’s bidding. These deceptions extend well beyond the main characters. An actor (Levi Richards aka Rick Livermore though billed as “John Ashton” who took part in the memorable Spelvin sandwich with Stevens in Damiano’s Devil in Miss Jones) claims sexual confusion in order to fool the prostitute, just to see whether he could play a gay character on Broadway. She recognizes him anyway but plays along since she has always wanted to have sex with him. Who’s fooling who then ?

Brimming with subtle visual and aural jokes, film’s funniest conceit might be the presence of the female poll taker (“Lola LaGarce”, whose real identity is finally revealed) who regularly pops up to ask Pamela the most ridiculously long winded political and sociological questions – invariably answered by a brisk ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – and who explains her role at film’s end as providing socially redeeming value ! Rarely has a pornographer thumbed his nose quite so elegantly at morally upright naysayers. Beautifully photographed and meticulously edited by pseudonymous professionals at long last identified by esteemed hardcore historian Benson Hurst in the characteristically thorough liner notes, Pamela‘s one conceivable caveat might be its comparative lack of heart because of all the pretending going on. The audience intentionally never gets a proper grip on any of the characters, robbing the film somewhat of the warmth that Metzger’s other explicit works possess.

The presentation of this landmark in adult cinema artistry can quite simply not be overpraised.  Aside from a few brief blemishes to an otherwise pristinely preserved camera negative, the movie looks every bit as good as past DVD restoration jobs on legitimate Hollywood classics.  The image positively sparkles and sound’s not far behind, with English subtitles provided for viewers who don’t want to miss out on a single word of possibly the wittiest repartee the genre has ever witnessed.  A Metzger commentary track, moderated by Benson Hurst, predictably provides a wealth of background information, much of which even I was unaware of.  Lively talkers both, they expertly avoid the ennui that makes too many commentaries one shot listening at best.  The original theatrical trailer is included, along with an expansive photo gallery of stills and behind the scenes shots, including several of the demure director himself.  There’s a separate gallery on disc 2 of “ephemera”, meaning posters, pressbooks and contemporary reviews.

Spread out over both platters are mirroring featurettes on two of Pamela’s brightest stars, Georgina Spelvin and Eric Edwards, each running a hefty if in actuality all too brief 40 minutes apiece.  Since both were around at theatrical porn’s infancy as it were, they have tons of stories to tell, shedding light on their lives before and after adult.  Spelvin’s still a live wire at a sprightly 75 while Edwards, her junior by about a decade, proves the perfect gentleman he so often seemed on screen, thankfully having successfully battled cancer a few years back even though it has left hem visibly bruised and worn.  With so much information to impart, and somewhat pressed for time, both only briefly touch upon the film at hand but that’s a distinctly minor quibble well-compensated by the director’s commentary.

This would already have been a well-stuffed extras package as is, but there’s much much more, making Mr Morowitz and his creative team perhaps the hardest working people in porn.  Disc 2 kicks off with the softcore cut of the film, running about 10 minutes shorter and prepared when the movie threatened to get into legal hot water in the state of New York although ultimately barely screened.  Barbara Bourbon shot an extended monologue that had her holding court at considerable length about censorship, free speech and hypocrisy (quite appropriate themes considering the narrative), portions of which literally pop up as pictures in picture to cover up any “offending” bits !  There’s two separate featurettes on locations, one specifically on Pamela’s both then and now and the other more generally related to all of Metzger’s movies.  The promotional 2011 trailer which played on Youtube, and thus devoid of sex or nudity, is present and accounted for with nearly 10 minutes of deleted footage – including an extra sex scene with the Lovemores, barely glimpsed in the finished film – finally rounds out the package.

Or does it ?  There’s a glossy photo postcard of the beautiful Bourbon cuddling a pet tiger and extensive liner note booklet that houses not only Hurst’s historical account of how the movie came to pass but an amazingly thorough essay on Metzger’s employment of library tracks with identification of most of them (a feature that can also be accessed as a separate text track on the DVD, surely a first !) by Ian Culmell and a scholarly analysis of the film by the esteemed Lawrence Cohen.  All of these goodies combine to make the current Video-X-Pix release of Radley Metzger’s The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann the instant benchmark by which all future adult DVD releases will be judged…and found wanting ?  Not if Steve Morowitz has his say about it !

Dries Vermeulen

www.distribpix.com

The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann- sell sheet

‘The House of Adrian’…a piece of porn history

Before I left for my LA trip, I had gotten in touch with 80′s adult star and male dancer Alan Adrian(real name is John Mozzer),to let him know that I was going to be in town. I had recently seen Alan posting on some film forums and we had gotten in touch through facebook, so I really wanted to take advantage of my time in LA, and see if we can get some face time together.

So,after my visit with Georgina Spelvin in the Hollywood Hills, which was absolutely riveting, I returned my crew to Pasadena and then headed back to Burbank for a quick shower. I then hopped in my rental car and headed about 5 miles into Atwater Village, to visit the condo of one of the most unsung and under celebrated stars of 80′s adult cinema, the one and only Alan Adrian. Now for future reference, I have nicknamed his home the “ADRIAN ARCHIVES”.

As I walked to the door, I had some jitters, as I have never met him before. He greeted me with a very enthusiastic welcome and we gave each other a warm handshake and half a hug. From the second I walked into his place I was instantly impressed with the organization of his home. He had stocked bookshelves, a neat computer area, and lots of ephemera. Before long, I was literally scrounging through his scrapbooks from back in the day, literally dozens of them. They contained a day by day account of Alan’s activity through his tenure in adult films and male dancing. I was instantly obsessed by the amount of details contained in these books, I was familiar with the names in the book and was even able to relate to him and his past on many levels, mainly because of my recent dedication to preserving the Distribpix archives. But I knew I was in the presence of what I would call rare artifacts and an untold piece of history and culture. I continued to pour through the pages of his daily memoirs from the past, and he educated me and filled in the blanks.

My brutal assault on John’s memory caused my blood sugar to decrease rapidly, due to ultimate excitement, and his as well, so we headed to Casita del Campo restaurant in Silver Lake for some authentic Mexican cuisine. We shared a wonderful meal and headed back to the Adrian Archives. After our time together it was obvious that John and I both share the same passion for preserving this long lost era, which is unfortunately becoming more extinct everyday. It was at this point that John took me into a spare bedroom which he had turned into an office/storage room, for his incredibly well kept records, photos and correspondence from his days in the biz. John was so proud to show me some of the photo albums, in which he had very neatly mounted just about every single piece of photo ephemera that he had. There were stacks of albums. I was in a state of shock, that all of this existed. I have seen the collections of Jamie Gillis, which is also sort of incredible, and there are many other guys and gals of yesteryear that have kept all of their mementos, but the way in which John has organized his archives, rivals even the Distribpix archives. I think he was a bit flattered with my comment, but it was true. The only other time that I have ever seen such organization with elements from the golden age of adult cinema is inside my archive, and it was such a pleasure to see that there is someone else out there, that understands the value of this material. I mean the stuff I saw, has probable never been seen.

He showed my some awesome pics from back in the day. One album in particular, was of him and Marc Stevens. Marc is another icon from the golden age and John told me many stories about Marc, just great stuff. In fact, he alluded that Marc was a good friend of his and always invited him to his parties, and helped him find work as a male dancer, back in the 80′s. He spoke very highly of his cohorts and did not have too many negative things to say, except that fact that Ron Jeremy would take all of his roles…..LOL!!!( all in good fun). After talking for about a half hour, I had to head back for a 9pm engagement that I could not get out of. I wanted to stay there all night, I mean I was in heaven. Before I left we did continue to discuss aspects of preservation, such as scanning materials and reviving some old fanzines he had connections with. It was a very wonderful time. I assured Alan that I would take the time to update his profile on Distribpix.com and that is currently under way. It will have much more information about Alan’s filmography, and other details.

I wanted to record/film our time together for preservation purposes,but we decided to take a rain check, so we can re-fresh our memories……as I know that I  will be back to the ‘House of Adrian’.

Now I took a few shots with my cell phone, because I love to take pics!! The quality is not that great, but it shows what a great time we had.

Alan Adrian ( John Mozzer) and Distribpix Man

Alan Adrian ( John Mozzer) flipping through his memoirs

Marc Stevens and Alan Adrian....who is the girl in the middle??

Another AFAA Award from the early 80′s