Harry Reems
August 27, 1947 — March 19, 2013
Crack-Up
(1969, dir. Michael Findlay)
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"She flew to the sky by the seat of her pants!" Was Harry Reems in this film? If so, then not under that name, as he didn't go by "Harry Reems" until after Deep Throat (1972). But this film, like so many New York exploitation and sexploitation films of the 60s and 70s, was produced or distributed or somehow linked to Distribpix Inc., "the leading sexploitation film house of the east coast" of the timeand on their website they claim that Harry Reems is part of the cast. Seeing how little they actually know about many of their films — they often don't even credit a director, or even credit a wrong director, to their films — they seem hardly to be the definitive source for film credits... But, hell: their posters are always so freaking groovy that we like the excuse to reproduce them here for your visual pleasure. Among other things, co-producer of this film was Jack Bravman went on to direct the sexploitation film Janie (1970), the horror film Zombie Nightmare (1987 / music) and the horror comedy Night of the Dribbler (1990 / trailer). In regard to Crack-Up, as imdb likes to say: "This film is believed lost. Please check your attic." We would tend to think this film was for the raincoat crowd... although, in truth, at this stage in the game the films were probably as much for the raincoat crowd as they were for hipsters and artists: the films should be seen in a light comparable to that given to the underground Comix that flourished at the same time. They, like the "alternative" films of the period such as this one,were pretty heavy on sex and were aimed at breaking down the barriers of the bourgeoisies...
I Wish I Were In Dixie
(1969, writ & dir. Tommy Goetz)
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Aka Dixie. Was Harry Reems in this film? If so, then not under that name, as he didn't go by "Harry Reems" until after Deep Throat (1972). But this film, like so many New York exploitation and sexploitation films of the 60s and 70s, was produced or distributed or somehow linked to Distribpix Inc., and they claim that Harry Reems is part of the cast. Seeing how little they actually know about many of their films — they often don't even credit a director, or even credit a wrong director, to their films — they seem hardly to be the definitive source for film credits... But, hell: their posters are always so freaking groovy that we like the excuse to reproduce them here for your visual pleasure. And the dude on the red poster here to the left does look an awful lot like a moustacheless Reems.The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Film beginnings, 1893-1910 (Vol. 2) explains the plot: "During the Civil War, Dixie (Abigail Clayton), a young and innocent Southern Belle, comes north to find her lover, who has fallen into the hands of the Yankees. Dixie can't find him, however, and takes employment in a brothel, Where one of her regular customers, Freddy, teaches her about sex." Director Tommy Goetz, who died March 20, 1997, made eight (possibly lost) sexploitation films between 1969 and 1970 with catchy titles like A Bride for Brenda (1970) and Around the World in 80 Ways (1969) and then moved on to do art direction on TV.
The Cross and the Switchblade
(1970, dir. Don Murray)
Well, everyone has to start somewhere — and where is a better place for a future porn star to begin his career than as an uncredited extra (as a gang member) in a film like The Cross and the Switchblade? The film is based on the ubiquitous thrift-store book about Paster David Wilkerson's first five years in that city of sin, NYC. The movie also features the screen debut of Erik Estrada as the teen gang member that Pastor David Wilkerson (played by Pat Boone) helps save from a wasted life. The big boss in the sky obviously decided Wilkerson had done enough good work and deserved an early retirement, for the good man died in a car crash east on US Route 175 in Texas on April 27, 2011. Director Murray was actually far more active as a character actor than director and can be found in films such as Radioactive Dreams (1985 / German trailer) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972 / trailer). The soundtrack to the movie:
The Art of Marriage
(1970, dir. Sean S. Cunningham)
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A white coater presented by "the Nevada Institute of Family Studies", otherwise known as Sean S. Cunningham. This time capsule is his directorial début and was made on a budget of $3,500. As Cunningham says in the book Filmmakers on the Fringe, it's the type of film in which "You know, a guy comes out in a white coat and says 'In the interests of better marital harmony we'd like to show you these sleazy people with dirty feet rolling around in bed," then you cut to the sex." A hit when released, Cunningham took half of the profits to produce his next film Together (1971), another white coater that is basically a remake of Marriage as well asthe first movie he made with Wes Craven, which in turn was followed by The Last House on the Left (1972 / trailer)... and film history was written. Across the web, The Art of Marriage is listed as featuring Harry Reems, and who knows, maybe he (or at least his member) does or did appear in it (once), but over at imdb, lor of New York City, who seems to be one of the few to have seen this film (it is not currently available on DVD), insists that Reems is not in it and says of the soft-core film he viewed: "[...] 40 years later it offers nothing at all to the porn fan, amateur film historian or mere curiosity seeker. That's because Marriage is one long cheat, bilking a sex-starved public and failing to deliver the goods." A Wasted Life presents it here primarily because we like the poster... Narrated by "Howard J. Brubaker", the trailer can be seen here at Something Weird.
Bacchanale
(1970, dir. & writ. by John Amero & Lem Amero)
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Censored excerpt from Bacchanale:
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Soiled Sinema says "Often regarded as the greatest film ever created by the anomalous auteur-pornographers Amero brothers, Bacchanale is most assuredly one of the most unprecedented and preeminent works in porn film history." The website goes on to explain: "As an individual that is relatively disinterested in pornography as both an 'art form' and a pathetic masturbation aid, I cannot think of a greater hardcore flick than the dreamy celluloid LSD trip Bacchanale directed by John Amero and Lem Amero. A virtual remake and cultural update of the exquisite cult flick Dementia aka Daughter of Horror (1955 / trailer / full film), Bacchanale follows the seductive spirit of a lonely blonde beauty as she meets faceless 'all-knowing' phantoms, revisits the more surly anecdotes of her licentious youth, and engages in phantasmagorical free love with a variety of anthropomorphic beings." At Rovie, Dan Pavlides explains the surreal plot as follows: "This erotic exploitation film uses a dream-fantasy sequence to stage the sex scenes. A woman fantasizes she is the top model and the corpse at a fashion-show/funeral combo. The obligatory lesbian scene involves her going to the cave of a high priestess for some hands-on healing. She also strips in a graveyard and sees the ghost of her brother who was killed in Vietnam. In an unusual move for general-release sex films, this one also contains a substantial amount of male-to-male sex." The Amero Brothers were New-York-based sexploitation filmmakers and contemporaries of the Findlays, Doris Wishman, Joe Sarno and Barry Mahon; Uta Erickson, the star of Bacchanale, was a popular Norwegian actress active in NYC sexploitation and grindhouse art films of the 60s and 70s who disappeared with the advent of hardcore. Herbert Streicher, the man who would become Harry Reems, is an uncredited extra in the film — or at least his slab o' meat is: his weenie is one of the stunt doubles active in the hardcore inserts the Amero Brothers later added to the movie. Over at Vimco, Sam Zimmerman says: "The smattering of pansexual scenes take a back seat to the narrative, following the heroine through a winding dreamscape of low-budget surreal situations. This creative tact was originally designed to provide enough of a veneer of artistic merit to keep the censorship boards at bay. With the passage of time, Bacchanale now can be seen as a piece in full dialog with the cinematic trends of the day, maybe a grimy Seventh Seal (1958 / trailer), a gutter-dwelling Satyricon [sic] (1969 / trailer) or outsiderartist Rosemary's Baby (1968 / trailer). Too kind? You be the judge. Shot in several (but not all) colors, and concerning fashion, dreams, death, discos, calliopes, spiral staircases, water, war, hell, and, of course, sex."
Sexual Freedom in Brooklyn
(1971, dir. Don Walters as "Arlo Shiffen")
Not to be mistaken with The Lords of Flatbush (1975 / trailer), which was originally also entitled Sexual Freedom in Brooklyn so to imply it was a porno film and therefore not have to pay union salaries. "Arlo Shiffen" was an oft-used pseudonym in the late 60s and early 70s in the New York exploitation scene and seems to have been used by Don Walters — whose biggest above-ground credit is as assistant director for The Incredible Melting Man (1977 / trailer) and, as "Howard A. Howard", as associate producer of The Nesting / Massacre Mansion (1981 / trailer) — as well as by Ron Wertheim (The Spy Who Came [1969 / trailer]), among others. No one online seems to have ever seen this movie, but the poster is readily available. Most list this film as having been released in 1975, but logic says that were that so, Reems would've been a big enough name to get some poster credit.
Kiss This Miss
(1971, dir. Unknown)
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Was Harry Reems in this film? If so, then not under that name, as he didn't go by "Harry Reems" until after Deep Throat (1972). But this film, like so many New York exploitation and sexploitation films of the 60s and 70s, was produced or distributed or somehow linked to Distribpix Inc., and they claim that Harry Reems — and Jamie Gillis, for that matter — is part of the cast. Seeing how little Distribpix actually know about many of their films — they often don't even credit a director, or even credit a wrong director, to their films — they seem hardly to be the definitive source for film credits... But, hell: their posters are always so freaking groovy that we like the excuse to reproduce them here for your visual pleasure. And: You may notice, a young and recognizable but facially clean-shaven Harry Reems appears on the poster at least twice. In regard to Kiss This Miss, a film so obscure that it isn't mentioned anywhere other than at Distribpix, as imdb likes to say: "This film is believed lost. Please check your attic." We would tend to think this film was also for the raincoat crowd.
Sex USA
(1971, dir. Gerard Damiano)
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Contrary to what many say, this "documentary" is not simply a re-titled re-release of Damiano's previous "documentary" Changes (1970 / trailer) but is rather a film of its own, another one of countless sex films of the times that masked themselves as documentaries so as to get past the censors by having social relevance. Over at World Cinema, they explain the later video release of the movie: "This documentary-style video captures the porn scene right at its very beginnings. The format is straightforward, with a panel of 'experts' who discuss various issues related to censorship and sex. Their rather dry analysis is then illustrated by a series of searing clips depicting their ideas. And that's where this flick really takes off. The clips feature some of porn's earliest stars, from shapely Tina Russell [who wrote an autobiography once upon a time] to leggy Darby Lloyd Rains. These feverish flower children prove once and for all that there's nothing new under the sun. They do a little bit of everything with sultry smiles on their faces. Fantasy becomes reality in this eye-opening look at hippie-era hi jinx." Harry Reems is one of the working stiffs in the film (alongside Fred J. Lincoln [8 January 1938 – 17 January 2013], second unit director of Terror Night / Bloody Movie [1987 / trailer]), while the talking heads include the director himself as well as the early gay rights activist and Screw Magazine columnist Jack Nichols, and Ron Wertheim (director of The Spy Who Came [1969 / trailer]).
Sweet Savior
(1971, dir. Robert L. Roberts)
Aka The Love Thrill Murders. The plot, as given by All Movie: "This film exploits the more unpleasant features of the Sharon Tate tragedy. In an interesting bit of casting, the charismatic cult leader Moon is played by Troy Donahue in what is clearly an attempt to 'broaden' his wholesome image. In the story, a pregnant starlet has called upon the hippyish cult/family led by Moon to organize an orgy in her home. With the help of lots of drugs, they do this with gusto, rounding off their evening by brutally killing all the rich guests, whom they think to be 'pigs.' The most notable difference between the circumstances of this story and the Tate/LaBianca killings is the location; this film is set in a suburb of New York City." Reems appears, uncredited, as one of the cult members — as does Lloyd Kaufman. Trailer:
Dark Dreams
(1971, dir. Roger Guermantes)
Trailer:
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The plot, according to Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings: "Two newlyweds have a flat tire while on their way to their honeymoon. They stop at a house for help, unaware that the old woman is a witch. She drugs their tea, and then...well, it is an adult film." (In regard to this film, Frank Henenlotter, the director of many a great film including Basket Case [1982] says: "And the point of all this? Virginity is dangerous. Put a stop to it now.") Perhaps the first porn film in which Herbert Streicher/Harry Reems gets screen credit — as "Tim Long", doubtlessly a play upon the physical qualities that eventually formed the basis of his career, he plays one of the leads, the (facially) clean-shaven Jack. The other half of the young couple is played by the now mostly forgotten (and dead) but once very popular porn star Tina Russell (born Linda Marie Mintzer in Williamsport, PA), seen in both screen shots above, who died at the age of 33 from "a combination of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Pancreatitis, Renal Failure and Alcoholic Liver Disease" at the Tri-City hospital in Vista, CA, on May 18, 1981. Over at imdb, lor of NYC describes the movie as "Sort of Police Academy (1984) meets Satanic Porn — not a very good idea. [...] This is sloppy filmmaking, with scenes and portions of scenes assembled randomly and even repeated (uh-oh, the stretch/loop/padding of the '80s videos is just around the corner) ad nauseum. Russell is beautiful as ever but it is impossible to buy her playing a virgin bride, as the film builds towards a Rosemary's Baby (1968) climax. False ending is poorly done and trite in the extreme." Director "Roger Guermantes" seems never to have made another film.Azziza by John Berberian, which was used in Dark Dreams:
Vice or Versa!
(1971, dir. Michael Findlay)
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Aka Vice Versa! A mid-career film from the Findleys, who made the infamous roughie with Yoko Ono, Satan's Bed (1965 / trailer), directed by Michael Findlay, who went on the make the infamous flick Snuff (1976 / trailer) and eventually lost his head on 16 May 1977, during a helicopter accident on the roof of the Pan Am Building in New York. Vice or Versa, as is said at imdb, "This film is believed lost. Please check your attic." The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures says: "No information about the precise nature of this film has been found, but press material indicates that it contains scenes of sexual intercourse, lesbianism, and troilism." Below, a trailer to another earlier film by Findlay that has nothing to do with Vice or Versa.
Trailer to Findlay's 1966 roughie Honey:
The Weirdos and the Oddballs
(1971, writ & dir. Eduardo Cemano)
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Aka Zora Knows Best. Director Cemano (a pseudonym for Ed Seeman) was an associate of John Cassavettes who, according to Robert Cetti (in his book Eduardo Cemano & Birth of the NYC One-Day Wonder), had "a cultural background in Borscht Belt comedy [and] developed a reputation as a pornographer's answer to Woody Allan." The movie, financed by the legendary Doris Wishman, was supposedly shot in one day with a budget of $3,000; Reems is there as "Peter Long" to play the part of David, who seeks help with his wife for premature ejaculation. Wider Screenings says: "Cemano was fascinated by the possibilities of including explicit sexual imagery into a narrative feature — or, more specifically, introducing plot and character into an explicit sex film — and when approached [...] to make some original one-day wonders in New York to compete with the material sent over from California, Cemano eagerly directed two of the first porno feature films to emerge from New York: Millie's Homecoming aka Lady Zazu's Daughter (1971) and The Weirdos and the Oddballs aka Zora Knows Best. [...] With the zest expected of genuine screwball comedy, The Weirdos and the Oddballs is an immoral satire. Here director Cemano actually takes a complex theme — sexual liberation and sex therapy — and exposes the ambivalent morality he sees underlying it. The couples who contact the bogus sexologists (Fred J. Lincoln and Dolly Sharp) are undeniably exploited, their vulnerabilities plundered by Sharp in her nymphomaniacal desire for sexual fulfillment. But they are also liberated by this exploitation." The less intellectually inclined website SexGoreMutants says: "It's all up-close camera zooms, smelly-looking cast members, and people pulling ridiculous faces — the whole event seems to have been pulled off just for kicks. [...] Both films benefit from candid camera-style voyeurism that at times achieves levels of minor delirium. The acting equals this, ranging from the comical to the manic. While never contrived, there's no mistaking that all of this is very stylized. Cemano had a distinctive vision, pushing for something more than run-of-the-mill. The sex scenes are not too well shot in terms of explicit detail, but they do evoke humor and warmth — two things you won't find in your typical Vivid production. This is human sex — all the sucking and fucking is enjoyed by real people (not plastic), totally into each other (not themselves), while Cemano's camera simply observes the intricacies with clumsy verve." Aside from his porno work, Ed Seeman (Cemano), who now lives in Florida with his wife Amy, was a successful painter, experimentalfilm-maker, animator and glamour photographer — a regular Renaissance Man, in other words. His production company Gryphon Productions also produced a slew of TV commercials, some of which are found below.
The Altar of Lust
(1971, writ. & dir. Roberta Findlay)
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This time around "Stan Freemont" (aka Harry Reems) plays the part of Don in this film from Roberta Findlay, the female half of the infamous Findlays; among her many films is the horror film The Oracle (1985). In an interview she gave in 1978, Ms Findlay said that this film here is the first one she made alone and without the collaboration of her (then ex-) husband Michael Findlay. One Sheet Index demurely explains the basic set-up: "Viveca Hansen [Erotica Lantern, dubbed by Findlay] is a young, beautiful German girl living in. Europe. Her mother has died and she is forced to live on her stepfather's luxurious country estate in the mountains of Austria. As the film opens we see young Viveca troubled and distraught, lying on a psychiatrist's couch. This is no ordinary psychiatrist [no, it's porn mainstay Fred J. Lincoln, who gets his weenie bit off in the original version of Last House on the Left (1972 / trailer)]. He is the darling of the young, rich society girls that frequent analysts in this country...." Over at Amazon, they use a different vocabulary to explain things: "A woman's session with a psychiatrist leads her to recall her past sexual experiences — being raped as a teen by her father, moving to swinging New York and having sex with a man in the woods, joining him in a ménage-a-trios with another gal, and realizing her lesbian desires." The trailer to The Altar of Lust can be found here at Something Weird.
A Time to Love
(1971, dir. Harold Kovner)
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Aka Hard Stuff. The plot, according to the BFI: "Two university friends, meeting at a party for the first time in ten years, reminisce about their sexual experiences since their college days." One of the friends, John, is played by "Herb Stryker", aka Harry Reems. Golden Sin Palace praises the film: "Time to Love is a film with a story, of course it is not the most complex ever written [...]. The story begins with a meeting of former university students where Ned (Howard Blakey) and John, two good friends, remember their past. John is a steady man with a wife (Tina Russell) and two young children, while Ned taking advantage of the many trips he made for his journalist job collects the female conquests. These trips are illustrated with an abundance of stock footage giving an impression of movement. It is interesting to note that this movie uses almost no cum shot (there is one) and some scenes are very quick. [...] This film is a perfect example of the early Golden Age productions with an ambience more erotic than pornographic, just wait for the love scene between the couple played by Reems and Russell and you will understand. We even have a pro-ecology speech at the end (the good old socially redeeming value) and you can also recognize the theme song from Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)."![]()
Has nothing to do with Reems,but here's the trailer to Doris Wishman'sBad Girls Go to Hell:
All About Sex of All Nations
(1971, dir. Kemal Horulu)
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All About Sex of All Nations appears to be a lost film, for like its filmmaker but unlike Kemal Horulu's other films, little can be found about it on the web. In general, people assume it to be a white coater, though its tagline might indicate more mondo approach than the average Dr. Greased Palm film: "For two years they filmed sex acts around the World. The normal, the abnormal, the forbidden, the primitive. A world of sex you have never seen." According to DVD Drive-in director Kemal Horulu "was responsible for some of the most pretentious adult films of the Golden Age, namely because he was so occupied with soap opera dramatics that not only did the sex suffer, but the films themselves simply bit off way more than they could chew. One had to hand it to Horulu, the man did try to make real films and break free from the restraints of the porno genre." All About Sex of All Nations seems to have been an exception in his oeuvre, which started off with roughies like ![]()
Some Like it Violent (1968) and ended with triple-X melodramas like When She Was Bad (1985), the latter of which featured among its many penises that of Robert Kerman, the star of the classic non-porn Cannibal Holocaust (1980). While no on-line source offers a date or location of death, more than one claims that Kemal Horulu was actually the pseudonym of Karl Hansen, the credited director of the white-coater Sex Practices of Sweden (1970), among other films. Other sources claim he is retired and living in Pasadena, CA. According to imdb, Harry Reems appears in All About Sex of All Nations as "Himself", but which "himself" they do not say — he still had a year to before being christened "Harry Reems".
Eroticon
(1971, writ & dir. Richard Franklin)
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Harry Reems shows up as "himself" in another "documentary", this time directed by Richard Franklin as "Richard Lacey" and produced by Bernard L Sackett, who plays the husband in Wishman's craptastic classic Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965). At Rovi, Clarke Fountain says: "It is difficult to tell whether the tail is wagging the dog or not in this pornographic documentary which is also a documentary about pornography and what is considered to be obscene. In addition to its sado-masochistic and other hardcore footage, which is a small proportion of the whole, this film features a number of interesting interviews. Dr. Albert Ellis discusses his ideas on puritanism and guilt. Cartoonist Tommi Ungerer is interviewed about his 'sex machine' drawings, and there are humorous interviews with Screw Magazine editor Al Goldstein, and publisher James Buckley." Over at One Sheet Index, they supply the text to two radio ads for Eroticon, the first of which goes as follows: 1. "There is no word in the English language to describe this motion picture so we made our own. Eroticon... This extraordinary film is a powerful expose on this country's sexual morality, hang-ups, beliefs, customs and strange behaviors. Eroticon... Unlike any other motion picture you will see. The people in Eroticon are as real as your right to know the truth... And then to decide for yourself. Eroticon... One step beyond experience. In Eastmancolor."![]()
Selling It
(1972, dir. "Arlo Shiffen", aka Don Walters)
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Aka Prostitution Around the World. To once again use the popular phrase at imdb: "This film is believed lost. Please check your attic." Written by "Ron Wertheim", whom we personally think could maybe also Don Walters, who in turn supposedly produced this film as "Don Walters". (Walters also made Sexual Freedom in Brooklyn [1971].) Laura Cannon, "the first porno star to appear in Playboy" and supposedly an ex-girlfriend of co-star Harry Reems, is the headlining (and only) name on the poster. One Sheet Index says: "Selling It is a completely fresh look at an old line of work — Prostitution. Told from the viewpoint of a former hooker. This film digs deep into the motivation, technique and practice of the women make a living Selling It. It's all there, the 'Johns' just begging to be taken, the fast talkers and slow payers, the goons with the very weird hang-ups ... and most of all, the girls. Watch the working girls at work. There's no cheaper way to get an intimate first hand view of a pro when she is Selling It." Under whatever name he was (or was not) credited, Reems appear in the film not as "John" but as a john.
The Abductors
(1972, writ. & dir. by Don Schain)
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Harry Reems, credited as "Herb Stryker" — of no relation to Jeff Stryker, who has less body hair and is both shorter and longer — appears a cop in this, the second of Don Schain's classic exploitation trilogy from the early 1970s built around the female James-Bond-like crimefighter named Ginger. The three films — Ginger (1971 / trailer), The Abductors (1972) and Girls Are for Loving (1973) — all stared Cheri Caffaro in the title role of Ginger McAlister. Schain not only later married Caffaro (for a short time), but also featured her in his equally trashy grindhouse products A Place Called Today (1972 / scene) and Too Hot to Handle (1977 / scene). Schain now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and mostly produces crap for Disney. The Illustrated Journal of Cinematic Diversions says: "The Abductors: 8 out of 10: Let us face it, some bad movies age better than others. From the wonderfully horrible fashion and hair worn by the leads; to decor including shag carpets (that they actually shag on) and chintzy coconuts holding push-pins (in the bank presidents office no less); The Abductors is simply filled with seventies kitsch. The Abductors also has an attitude towards woman so politically incorrect they would burn down the theater today. [...] Like any good exploitation film, there is a ton of nubile flesh on display. [...] In addition, the girls are silicone free, with tan lines to boot [...]." Robert Firsching at Rovi offers the following plot synopsis: "Don Schain directed this second instalment in the Ginger series starring Cheri Caffaro as the blond heroine. In this episode, Ginger must rescue three cheerleaders who have been forced into white slavery. The usual sexual and violent escapades ensue. Cult-film devotees will recognize one of the cheerleaders as Jeramie Rain, then-wife of Richard Dreyfuss and star of Last House on the Left (1972)."![]()
Cheri Caffaro dances in The Abductors:
Deep Throat
(1972, writ. & dir. Gerard Damiano)
Love Is Strange from Deep Throat:
The film that, back when we were all of 15 years old, introduced us to one of our favorite songs, Love Is Strange. In any event, Deep Throat: the film, the legend — 61 minutes of bad puns and massive meats swallowed until the pubes tickle the inner-depths of Linda Lovelace's nostrils. Reems was originally hired as one of the film crew, but when the actor hired to play Dr Young didn't show up he sprang in as the replacement, playing the doctor that finds out that Linda Lovelace's clitoris is in her throat and not between her legs. Lovelace née Linda Susan Boreman (10 January 1949 – 22 April 2002) was rather vocal in her later years (unlike what she wrote in her first two biographies) that she had been forced to make the film by her abusive then-husband Chuck Traynor, but as bad as her acting is in the movie, one would be hard pressed to say that she comes across as either unwilling or as having a bad time. (That Traynor was a woman-beating asshole, however, cannot be doubted.)
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Title sequence (SFW):
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The plot, as explained in Wikipedia: "A sexually frustrated woman (Linda Lovelace, credited as playing herself) asks her friend Helen (Dolly Sharp) for advice on how to achieve an orgasm. After a sex party provides no help, Helen recommends that Linda visit a doctor (Harry Reems). The doctor discovers that Linda's clitoris is located in her throat, and after helping her develop her oral sex skills the infatuated Linda asks him to marry her. He informs her that she can settle for a job as his therapist, performing her particular oral technique — thereafter known as 'deep throat' — on various men, until she finds the one to marry. Meanwhile, the doctor documents her exploits while repeatedly having sex with his nurse (Carol Connors). The movie ends with the line 'The End. And Deep Throat to you all'." (Want that? Go here to learn how.) Herbert Streicher only found out after the fact that he was credited as "Harry Reems", but he kept the name from that day on — even after he found God and retired from the business. Carol Connors, the nurse seen briefly in the scene below, in case you don't already know, is the mother of actress Thora Birch — pulchritude seems to run in the family. One of our favorite lines of the movie: "Do you mind if I smoke while you eat?" And we found the twist at the end pretty funny, too, but we can't remember the exact wording of how much could be cut off.![]()
Edit of the scene in which her clitoris is discovered:
Forbidden Under Censorship of the King
(1972, writ & dir. Barry R. Kerr)
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At Rovi, Clarke Fountain supplies the plot outline that everyone on the web uses: "Forbidden under the Censorship of the King is a softcore porn sex comedy which makes fun of necrophilia, among other things." Aka The Flasher, the original name is a play on a certain Latin word that never goes out of popularity: Forbidden under Censorship of the King. Little seems to be known about the film, which was described as a "spoof of pornographic movies" in Vol. 8 of the Sound Engineering Magazine (1974) and was called "a satire on abnormal sexuality" by the director himself in Billboard (12 Aug 1972). The basic plot, from what we could find out, concerns a college student who, while studying the abnormal sexual behavior of those around him, gradually becomes more and more abnormal himself. The film, according to vol. 6 of Filmmaker's Newsletter (1972), is narrated by an animated character, Spencer the Sperm, while the now supposedly popular cult soundtrack by "Pooh-Pah, a New York rock group" — released under the film's aka title, The Flasher— was produced by Michael Wright and arranged and conducted by Rupert Holmes. Prior to this film Barry R. Kerr made The Deviates, a lost "documentary" for which, according to Wikipedia, Eduardo Cemano (see The Weirdos and the Oddballs above) pulled in Harry Reems / Herb Streicher to be the stunt penis when hardcore inserts were added ("a body painting sex scene that Herb later described as his most painful sex experience since the tempera paint used began to dry and crack"). Director Barry R. Kerr seems to have disappeared after The Flasher, not to return until 2009, when — assuming it's the same "Barry R. Kerr" — he helped produce the independent romantic comedy Love Conquers Paul (trailer). Imdb credits Harry Reems as playing "Mervin Continually" in the movie, but no one else — not even half-way contemporary publications like John Willis's Screen World (1974) — does so. Still, he gets main credit on the poster above, so it is safe to assume he must be somewhere in the movie. Over at Delirious Music, which credits Reems as "the narrator" (vs. "Billy Arrington" as "the voice" in Screen World and on the LP back cover), they praise the film's music: "Pool-Pah — The Flasher an obscure sexploitation score from 1973 taken from an X-rated gonzo flick [...] set around a bearded, Jesus-looking pervert flashing people in NYC and features some tasty orgiastic sex scenes with all kinds of food involved. Weird, weird, weird … and so is its soundtrack released on the tiny Green Bottle label and performed by the unknown US band Pool-Pah with assistance from the group Ralph and their ARP synthesizer." The cast is interesting: No one less than the future ABC/NBC news correspondent Herbert Kaplow plays the student, while Marshall Anker, the plump sheriff in the original Last House on the Left (1972 / full film) appears as a flasher and the ever-present Jamie Gillis is also on hand.![]()
Pool-Pah — Sour Soul:
So Sweet, So Dead
(1972, dir. Roberto Bianchi Montero)![]()
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We looked at So Sweet, So Dead— aka Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile, Bad Girls, Penetration and The Slasher is the Sex Maniac— in the career review of Farley Granger. Director Roberto Bianchi Montero is an unsung master of eurotrash in the midst of rediscovery whose directorial career goes back to the 40s; he even directed Boris Karloff (in the abysmal Island Monster / Il mostro dell'isola [1954]). Other credits of note, among many, include Le calde notti di Caligola aka Caligula Erotica (1977 / opening credits), the westerns Durango Is Coming, Pay or Die (1971 / trailer) and Two Faces of the Dollar (1967 / scene), numerous the mondo documentaries, including Mondo Balordo (1964 / trailer) and Africa Sexy (1963), and numerous violent giallo and crime films. So Sweet, So Dead is an exploitive and misogynistic giallo slasher with a lot of naked babes — do we want them any other way? Plot: Inspector Capuana (Granger), who is investigated a series of killings in which unfaithful wives are murdered and mutilated by an unknown man wearing (surprise!) a black fedora, gloves, and trench coat. When So Sweet, So Dead finally reached the USA during the heyday of Porno Chic, the film obviously wasn't considered sleazy enough because it was re-edited with inserted hardcore footage featuring Harry Reems and Tina Russell and released as a porno flick entitled Penetration "featuring" Farley Granger. Granger got the film pulled from the US, but supposedly the version is still available in Europe — if so, it ain't on the shelves at the local DVD store. The normally easy-to-please blogspot Ninja Dixon is not too enamored by the original cut, saying "The Slasher is the Sex Maniac isn't the most original giallo ever made. Actually the total opposite. It feels quite cheap and is packed with nudity and sleaze, and less gore and violence. The American cut, they say, had inserts of hardcore. I don't know if that's true, but it would fit the cheap style and flat cinematography. The story itself isn't bad, it's just very unimaginative. What makes it interesting is the kinda unexpected ending, who [sic] has an extra dark twist in it. Which is also the best thing with this giallo. In the end it might be only for us, the fanatics, but give it a try if you feel bored and need Farley Granger to spice up your boring evening."![]()
Altered trailer to Bad Girls:
Cherry Blossom
(1972, writ. & dir. Jonas Middleton)
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What a groovy poster! Possibly a lost film, the only plot description of Cherry Blossom that we could find was on one of those illegal downloading sites that do nothing but fill your computer with trojans and worms: "Cherry (Cindy West) lives with her aunt Sena and uncle George. When they separate, Sena starts to examine new ways to fulfill her sexual needs, together with Cherry." On the other hand, in 2009 Distribpix, the original distributors of Cherry Blossom and untold East Coast sexploitation, exploitation and porn classics and non-classics of the Golden Age and pre-Golden Age announced that the original soft-core version of Cherry Blossom would be released in HD with Jonas Middleton's acknowledged arty hard-core classic Through the Looking Glass (1976) — but since then, nothing seems to have happened in this regard. Harry Reems is somewhere in the film, but who knows where... "Jonas Middleton", by the way, was born "Joseph Middleton" but gained his pseudonym when an interviewer incorrectly referred to him by the name of the production company he shared back then with one Chris Jonas. Middleton, who currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, left filmmaking some time after writing his only non-porn film, the cult backwoods killer slasher starring George Kennedy, Just Before Dawn (1981). Currently he runs his own entertainment company, Mid Carolina Media, which specializes in instructional videos and video games. Under his real name Middleton has recently begun once again to dabble in no-budget films: aside from directing the direct-to-DVD Teen-Aged (2008 / trailer), a teen dramedy written by and starring his son Lane Middleton and featuring Mrs. America 2009 Maureen MacDonald as a "busty nurse", he has also co-produced the direct-to-DVD Forbidden Woods (2010 / trailer). Just Before Dawn (written by Jonas Middleton):
Meatball
(1972, writ & dir. Gerard Damiano)
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Edited trailer on YouTube:
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Meatball was Gerard Damiano's follow up to Deep Throat, though the direction was credited to one "D. Furred"— which none of the actors, male or female, were. Harry Reams and his body fur and appendage are there again playing the character of Dr. Schmock; other participants of note include Andrea True (credited as "Singe Low"), Tina Russell (playing "Miss Carridge"), her husband Jason Russell (credited as "G.I. Kann"), and the almost forgotten porn legend Marc "10½" Stevens (credited as "Al Packer"). Other credited names include "Lotta Semen", "Les Hassel" and "Hadda Climax". The plot, to paraphrase an on-line porno site: "In this slap-happy film, a zany mad scientist accidentally discovers 'Preparation X', a formula that can make an ordinary hamburger swell to twice its normal size. But whenever a guy eats it, it also has a similar effect on his weenie! The good doctor tests his discovery and ends up with an erection that even his sexiest assistants can't get down. Not that he's going to stop them from trying! A goofy, fun-filled porn film that never takes itself too seriously..." Over in the UK, ninjaalexs says the film is "funny but not great", adding: "The film is clearly based on old sci-fi/horror movies like Frankenstein (1931 / trailer). ![]()
Harry Reems gives an eccentric but quality performance. The supporting actresses also put on equally over-the-top but decent performances. The best thing about the film is the humour; like Deep Throat the film features ridiculous but funny lines. The tacky props also add to the humour. The film looks cheap compared to Damianos' other works like The Devil in Miss Jones and Deep Throat. The film also appears to take place in one location. The cinematography is good featuring nice camera-work but it is conventional and lacks creativity. [...]" In case you don't know: Reems's co-star Andrea True (July 26, 1943 – November 7, 2011) followed her successful career as a name porno star to become a disco singer, her biggest hit being the eternally popular song More, More, More.
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Andrea True Connection — More, More, More (extended version):
Deep Sleep
(1972, dir. Alfred Sole)
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The début film of Alfred Sole, who went on to direct three more memorable (non-porno) films — the excellent Hitchcockian horror Alice Sweet Alice (1976), aka Holy Terror, the infamous soft-core zoorastic turkey Tanya's Island (1980 / trailer) and the "horror" comedy Pandemonium (1982 / trailer) — before becoming a successful and in-demand production designer. The title of Deep Sleep, Sole freely admits, was inspired by Deep Throat, and much like Deep Throat got Harry Reems busted in Tennessee on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines, Alfred Sole eventually faced the same charges in Oklahoma and Jersey; Hollywood came to the rescue of Reems, Hugh Hefner came to that of Soles — but the film nevertheless got him excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Deep Sleep seems to be a lost film as a whole; there is a 30-minute version (in German) and a 58-minute fuckfest floating around, but the original final cut was actually around 74 minutes long. There is a great interview of Alfred Soles done by Joseph Stargensky over at Cult Movies which reveals, among other things, that Soles literally financed his almost guerilla-made film from (but not by winning) poker games and that he basically had everyone from his home town of Patterson, NJ, in the movie ("I had the mayor's wife in it. I had my mother in it. All my relatives were in it"). The movie became a comedy because: "I went to all these X-rated movies, and I got really depressed. Then I decided, [...] I was going to make the prettiest X-rated movie ever made. And the funniest. I decided it should be a comedy. So, I made it." According to word of mouth, a black comedy of questionable taste — as might be expected when a film includes sex scenes in a mortuary. The plot concerns a man, Uncle Harry Black, who can no longer get it up (Viagra wasn't around yet, after all). So first he kills his niece (Kim Pope of The Amazing Transplant [1970 / NSFW trailer]) and her lover Rick (Anthony Dema) before seeing Dr Harvey, who sends him to a maharishi and, and, and... Well, we really don't know. Does Harry Reems appear in the movie? Who knows for sure. Imdb says he's credited, but he doesn't show up in the versions circulating (for that, the omnipresent Jamie Gillis [as Gary Paris] and Marc "10½" Stevens do). Nevertheless, Sole admits that when writing the movie he "interviewed all these X-rated movie people like Harry Reems" and later, when the distributor insisted on more sex scenes, he added inserts ("You'll notice the pubic hairs change a lot. It would go from blonde to brown on all the actors"). Thus, it is possible that Reems was there, if only as a stunt pylon.The trailer to Sole's follow-up film,
Alice Sweet Alice / Holy Terror (1976):
(Spoilers.) Also known as Until Death, this film is occasionally touted as an unofficial sequel to the popular Canuck horror film of 1980, The Changeling (trailer), which was directed by the facile Peter Medak (the man behind the much-maligned trashspectacle, Species II [1988 / trailer]). In form and substance, however, Per Sempre owes little to that slow but affective and effective ghost story.
The third of four Italian TV movies originally broadcast as a segment of the horror series Brivido giallo (1986–87), to which the other Lamberto Bava DVD release Graveyard Disturbance (1987) also belongs, the central driver of the plot of Per Sempre owes a far more noticeable nod to The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 / trailer or 1981 / trailer) than The Changeling, though in Lamberto Bava's film the postman — or fate — never even rings once, let alone twice; instead, the slowly crumbling, murder-overshadowed relationship is confronted with a far more tangible if supernatural entity. At which point, in truth, the film also begins to owe aspects of its plot to Mario Bava's last film before he died of a heart attack in 1980, the 1977 Italian horror flick Shock, aka Beyond the Door II (trailer); in that film, as in Per Sempre, a couple disintegrates when faced by the revengeful ghost of the woman's murdered husband. In Lambert's film, however, the ghost is oddly if unexplainably corporal. 
Per Sempre opens with a scene that initially could be misconstrued as a strained rainy night rush to get the pregger wife to the hospital on time, but this trite concept is quickly cast aside when it becomes clear that a corpse lies wrapped up in the back of the van. No, the pregnant Linda (Gioia Scola of Conquest [1983 / trailer] and Raiders of Atlantis [1983 / trailer]) and her handyman lover Carlo (David Brandon of The Emperor Caligula: The Untold Story [1982 / trailer] and StageFright: Aquarius [1987]) are on their way to do away with the body of the inconvenient husband Luca (Roberto Pedicini). A short time later, the film jumps forward roughly a half-decade and we find Linda and Carlo are now a squabbling couple running the locally popular waterside restaurant and boat rental that Linda took over after her husband "left for up north"; 
Carlo, a paranoid wreck who is convinced that everyone suspects them, lacks all fatherly feelings for her sensitive son Alex (Marco Vivio of Demons 2 [1986 / trailer]), while Linda's enjoyment of the relationship seems both forced and confined to Carlo's exceptional bedroom technique — though they seem to always need an argument as foreplay. Into this fragile constellation a hunky stranger arrives from "up north," the good-looking Marco (Urbano Barberini of Demons [1985 / trailer]), who has a soft spot for Alex and seems to know more about the house and the couple than should be... 
The version of Per Sempre we saw was, regrettably, obviously gone at with a hacksaw despite the DVD box claim that it was "the full version"; thus we missed such important scenes — some of which are found in the trailer above — as that of the "dead" Luca regaining consciousness long enough to grab Linda's earring (a trinket that plays an important part later in the film), and also suffered some odd gaps in continuity (one important death goes from bottle-over-the-head-but-conscious to corpse-on-the-floor, while an earlier scene infers a scissor-stabbing never shown), 
but though these and other obvious cuts do dampen the viewer's enjoyment or cause occasional momentary perplexity, they in no way hamper the effective mood and mostly excellent acting that infuse what is almost a chamber play consisting of four main actors (five if you count the occasional appearance of the policeman [Giuseppe Stefano De Sando]) and one primary location.
The hunky Urbano Barberini is oddly charming while simultaneously unnerving as Marco, and David Brandon's Carlo is a convincingly macho and dislikeable asshole struggling to maintain control of things even as he falls apart; the most accolades, however, are due Gioia Scola, who plays Linda as an oddly slippery figure: both motherly and at times slutty, Linda, whether decked in sexy skimpies or dirty work clothes, remains both likeable and a figure of identification throughout the film despite, in the end, basically being just as much of a murderer as Carlo — and, in the long run, a far more cooler-headed one. If she is redeemed at all in the end, it is only due to the fact that her motherly love and instincts are greater than her own ego... 
Per Sempre does leave a few glaring questions unanswered by the time it draws to a close, the smallest of which being why it took more than a half-decade for the revengeful ghost to return and seek retribution. No, the biggest questions never answered are the what and why and how of his appearance as Marco and why, if his goal is to destroy the murderous pair, he doesn't just do it instead of dragging things out and even terrorizing his innocent son (initially in his dreams and, towards the end, in reality). But then, were he not to do so, the film would have very little to build its (effective) suspense and aura of guilt and disintegration upon — so let's ignore those nagging inconsistencies and enjoy the movie for what it is: a tight, creepy and effective supernatural thriller that, unlike so many of Bava's films we've seen, eschews all unnecessary and mood-destroying comedy.
