As gay porn consumers, we have become used to the ubiquitous presence of specialized "studios" (ever notice how only the queer side of the industry employs this old Hollywood term ?) providing stylistically recognizable and dependable masturbation fodder. Back in the early '70s though, that was a different story, mostly independent producers pouring their personal cash into ventures of considerable risk, not so much because of the genre (hey, sex sells, right ?) but rather of the restricted possibilities of getting their stuff shown at all. Younger adult film fans may not be aware of this but Jaguar Productions, founded by Gorton Hall and Barry Knight in the banner year of 1972, changed all that. The company, pre-dating even the likes of Falcon and Laguna Pacific, offered a safe haven to a group of talented filmmakers of wildly divergent styles to each do their own thing artistically, securing its overall financial benefit by contracts made with various theaters nationwide thereby committed to exhibit the fruits of their labor. They had J. Brian for wall to wall sex with movies like FOUR MORE THAN MONEY and SEVEN IN A BARN. Barry Knight was a professional editor/cinematographer, whose real name was Brian King, with a background in advertising, renowned within those circles for his glossy Salem cigarette commercials, who catered for the budding pretty boy market with ROUNDABOUTS and being a "real world celeb" of sorts frequently acted as producer for his brethren in sin. Gorton Hall may have been the most ambitious of the lot, making movies with a proper Hollywood feel that had both complete and complex story lines that demanded at least some thespian prowess on the part of the men whose euphemistic job description to this very day usually remains limited to that of "models". With his well-received A GHOST OF A CHANCE he had the audacity to adapt Noel Coward's classic farce "Blithe Spirit" to the gay porn format. His other major work, THE EXPERIMENT, appears to be of even greater personal importance to the director, a heartfelt tale of coming out and self-acceptance that has lost little of its power to move and arouse over the intervening three and a half decades.
Growing up in a small community somewhere in the Hollywood hills, young Billy Joe (Mike, not Mark, Stevens) plots with his best buddy Gary Lee (the wonderfully dour-faced Joey Daniels) to get together later that night in the shack out back to do their "experiment", in actuality an attempt to satisfy their sexual curiosity for each other. Their furtive fondling turns into full-blown lovemaking but Billy finds his already troubled feelings sadly confirmed when a drowsy, post-coital Gary (not altogether intentionally) rebuffs his show of affection. Hurt and confused, the boy packs up and leaves with the first passing motorist at the gas station of his widowed father Herm, the latter part played really well by the director himself who looks and sounds an awful lot like Peter Lorre. One tenderly passionate motel romp later, Billy has but little doubt left as to his sexual preferences though another predatory pick-up whose advances he rejects awakens him to the fact that the trajectory of life as a gay young man isn't all hearts and roses. Meanwhile, Gary's pining away for his errant friend and tries in vain to assuage his loneliness with the help of a pushy Hollywood producer who smugly patronizes him all the way through their sexual encounter. A rather under-populated orgy (just four guys, with camera and editing tricks attempting to convince the audience there's more) in the basement of a spoiled and at his tender age already surprisingly jaded director's son sends Billy scurrying back home to dad who sits him down for a man to man talk that contains a great line ("when you hate yourself, pretty soon you start thinking the whole world hates you !") that still rings true for gay men of my generation. The movie ends on a lovely, bittersweet note as Billy Joe and Gary Lee share a beer on a rock near a waterfall, no need for any excuses or explanations between them, their expressions signaling their carefree childhood is now very much a thing of the past.
While the movie cannot help but feel dated, its good intentions coupled with a sense of nostalgia for a – presumably prettified – past have firmly established this as one of the Dirty Movie Devotee's all time favorites. True, some of the stylistic devices (voices echoing inside character's minds, the romantic montage of the bosom buddies cavorting through the hills) and the rather melodramatic acting performance of handsome lead Stevens gave me the impression that I was watching a particularly raunchy after school special at times, an effect further enforced by the exaggerated musical cues straight out of '60s TV shows. Ultimately though, such "deficiencies" prove to be just as much part of the film's charm as the one quality that even die-hard naysayers couldn't possibly find fault with. Knight's lush cinematography is some of the most beautiful you'll ever encounter, and not just in the adult field either. The shimmering light renders the boys' initial coupling absolutely exquisite, making it my personal choice for the most purely erotic encounter between two men ever captured on film.
The Jaguar classics, further including Ignatio Rutkowski's Peter Berlin S&M shocker NIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER, astonishingly weren't released on video until two decades after their theatrical run. This belated availability served as something of a precursor to Knight's resurrection of the company name – though now as a subsidiary line of Delta Productions – as well as his directorial career with such fine features as JOE'S BIG ADVENTURE and THE APPRENTICE.
Growing up in a small community somewhere in the Hollywood hills, young Billy Joe (Mike, not Mark, Stevens) plots with his best buddy Gary Lee (the wonderfully dour-faced Joey Daniels) to get together later that night in the shack out back to do their "experiment", in actuality an attempt to satisfy their sexual curiosity for each other. Their furtive fondling turns into full-blown lovemaking but Billy finds his already troubled feelings sadly confirmed when a drowsy, post-coital Gary (not altogether intentionally) rebuffs his show of affection. Hurt and confused, the boy packs up and leaves with the first passing motorist at the gas station of his widowed father Herm, the latter part played really well by the director himself who looks and sounds an awful lot like Peter Lorre. One tenderly passionate motel romp later, Billy has but little doubt left as to his sexual preferences though another predatory pick-up whose advances he rejects awakens him to the fact that the trajectory of life as a gay young man isn't all hearts and roses. Meanwhile, Gary's pining away for his errant friend and tries in vain to assuage his loneliness with the help of a pushy Hollywood producer who smugly patronizes him all the way through their sexual encounter. A rather under-populated orgy (just four guys, with camera and editing tricks attempting to convince the audience there's more) in the basement of a spoiled and at his tender age already surprisingly jaded director's son sends Billy scurrying back home to dad who sits him down for a man to man talk that contains a great line ("when you hate yourself, pretty soon you start thinking the whole world hates you !") that still rings true for gay men of my generation. The movie ends on a lovely, bittersweet note as Billy Joe and Gary Lee share a beer on a rock near a waterfall, no need for any excuses or explanations between them, their expressions signaling their carefree childhood is now very much a thing of the past.
While the movie cannot help but feel dated, its good intentions coupled with a sense of nostalgia for a – presumably prettified – past have firmly established this as one of the Dirty Movie Devotee's all time favorites. True, some of the stylistic devices (voices echoing inside character's minds, the romantic montage of the bosom buddies cavorting through the hills) and the rather melodramatic acting performance of handsome lead Stevens gave me the impression that I was watching a particularly raunchy after school special at times, an effect further enforced by the exaggerated musical cues straight out of '60s TV shows. Ultimately though, such "deficiencies" prove to be just as much part of the film's charm as the one quality that even die-hard naysayers couldn't possibly find fault with. Knight's lush cinematography is some of the most beautiful you'll ever encounter, and not just in the adult field either. The shimmering light renders the boys' initial coupling absolutely exquisite, making it my personal choice for the most purely erotic encounter between two men ever captured on film.
The Jaguar classics, further including Ignatio Rutkowski's Peter Berlin S&M shocker NIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER, astonishingly weren't released on video until two decades after their theatrical run. This belated availability served as something of a precursor to Knight's resurrection of the company name – though now as a subsidiary line of Delta Productions – as well as his directorial career with such fine features as JOE'S BIG ADVENTURE and THE APPRENTICE.