Visions of Clair (1977)

Clair (Annette Haven) is a woman of such beauty, she becomes nearly deified by those around her. Painters attempt to capture her beauty only to find ruin. Ron (John Rolling) is driven to drink and, possibly, suicide. Roahne (Susan Bates) falls into a far off trance envisioning "fornicators" and "tormentors" in modern dance void, worshiping Clair. We're shown how people think of Clair, and how they think she thinks of herself, but are never allowed to see or know Clair herself.

I watched Visions twice and still have no idea how to adequately describe it. I jotted down some notes of films it reminded me of: Barbara Broadcast, Sizzle, and Odyssey. The Love Witch, Zardoz, and Lost Highway. The film has a steady uneasiness, amplified by the avant garde and at times atonal score by Ohm's Law.

Most of the hard core appears in cuts to Roahne's fantasy realm and much of it is zoomed in on to the point of abstraction. Even the sense of reality is thrown into question by Roahne's...friend-with-benefits (I guess?), David (Jay Gamble) saying that he'd heard Clair's father had her institutionalized when she was younger, and Clair's lover Daphne (Bonnie Holliday) begging Clair to send Roahne away saying, "She's not real. You've invented her." Does the title refer to others' visions of Clair, or visions created by (of) Clair? The world may never know!

Director (and presumably writer?), Zachary Strong made Visions of Clair in 1974, but was unable to sell the print until 1977 or 1978. I can imagine distributors or theater owners screening the print and asking, "How the hell can anyone jerk off to that?" It's not that the film isn't erotic, just that the way the eroticism is presented has more in common with an art or European film (I'm fully expecting Robert Rimmer to mention "sophistication") than most other adult features.

Speaking of Rimmer, let's see what he had to say about the film:

My interest in watching over 650 adult films during a period of three years was maintained by discovering, within the conventions (and hence limitations) of the genre, a number of classics of adult filmmaking. This is one.

Right-o, Bob! He goes on to give a brief synopsis, but poses some of the same questions I had: Did [Clair] invent Ron-and Roahne? Is it all figurative, symbolic?

I have (and will surely continue) to hope for restored versions of films that this project exposes me to, but to date Visions of Clair has gone to number one with a bullet on my wishlist, and I'd be hard-pressed to think of a film that could knock it out of the number one spot. Exceptional. CC1.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° Jay Gamble has a very Bobby Astyr-like energy.

° The title is very clearly "Clair" but Annette Haven is credited as "Claire". A mere typo, or a deepening mystery?

° If Susan Bates never dated an at least semi-famous rock star, I'll eat my hat.

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On deck:

Dutch Treat (1977)

Dutch Treat is a fun, surface-level, simple fuck film shot in Amsterdam. The Rialto Report has a fascinating article about Dutch Treat producer/writer/director Navred Reef, in which they mention that the film (and it's companion film Playgirls of Munich) were conceived of as "XXX-rated comedy ‘road’ pictures in the tradition of the 1940s films starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope," and as far as "Dutch Treat" is concerned, it's a success. (Playgirls of Munich is also a Rimmer Collector's Choice pick, so depending on the random number generator, it may eventually get its own Pornonomy entry.)

Here, American everymen Chuck (Roger Caine) and Barney (Zebedy Colt) are living it up in Holland with Norman Jackson's Sexy Europe as their guide.

The strength of the film is the believable friendship and natural rapport between Caine and Colt, who each have their own unique charm and charisma. I could never quite pin down how to describe Zebedy Colt as Barney, but Roger Caine came off as a sort of Muppet version of David Letterman.

Chuck has more success with the ladies of Holland, but mostly because he unashamedly cock blocks Barney at every turn. Ultimately, they find their greatest success while posing as film producers, which is objectively ethically repugnant.

Though during one tryst, an "auditioning" actress says to her friend:

So maybe we can believe that most or all of the starlets-to-be, with visions of Hollywood dancing in their heads were actually onto the ruse.

Overall, the hardcore scenes were functional and not particularly noteworthy. The standout was a party/orgy scene which was brief (barely two minutes), but impressively and creatively edited.

Robert Rimmer:

I watched this one after I watched Playgirls in Munich. I have no idea which one was made first but...which one is funnier is difficult to decide. If you got hooked on Playgirls in Munich, you'll want to see this one.

Since I haven't seen Playgirls, I can't speak to which was the funnier film. If it's at least on par with Dutch Treat, though, I'd say both films would be great candidates for the Vinegar Syndrome treatment. Rimmer's only glaring error is calling the guidebook Sex in Europe. If the sex scenes had been more engaging or if a bit more of the film had been treated with the artistic touch of the party scene, Dutch Treat would have rated higher, but as is it still merits very, very good CC25.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° Casa Rosso, the sex club Chuck and Barney patronize, is still open. Well, it's closed until further notice due to COVID-19. Presumably it will reopen eventually.

° The first film I saw Roger Caine in was the fucking bleak Taking of Christina. He was so effective as a psychopath I still have a hard time seeing him as a protagonist.

° The recorded date on this film is all over the place. IAFD says 1975, Rimmer says 1974, and The Rialto Report says 1977 (for the filming, at least). I'm inclined to go with 1977, though, since Ashley West and April Hall are thorough researchers and Sexy Europe was published in 1976.

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Coming soon:

Pornonomy Reviews: The Jade Pussycat and China Cat

The Jade Pussycat (1977)

Directed by:
Bob Chinn

Starring:
Bonnie Holiday
Paula Wain
Georgina Spelvin
Jessica Temple-Smith
Linda Wong
Yvonne Green
Jimi Lee
John Holmes
Jon Martin

China Cat (1978)

Directed by:
Bob Chinn

Starring:
Paula Wain
Desiree Cousteau
Eileen Wells
Jennifer Richards
Kyoto Sun
Cris Cassidy
John Holmes
John Seeman

The Jade Pussycat and its sequel, China Cat, find private investigator Johnny Wadd drawn into the world of illicit artifact trade by way of the mysterious and valuable Jade Pussycat. The statue is of great value as it was made of a piece of jade imbued with power...or something. In the first film, the statue is coveted by a German collector, in the second, by a Japanese man who was in possession of the statue until it was stolen from him during World War II. In order to recover the statue, the man enlists the aid of a group of beautiful women (the Devils) instructed by a faceless man named Charlie. (So, "Charlie's Devils" for those not particularly quick on the uptake.)

The interesting thing about watching the Wadd films more or less in order is seeing the artistic development of Bob Chinn. The progress between Tropic of Passion and Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here is nothing compared to the technical leap between TTJWiH and The Jade Pussycat (which, in turn, is surpassed by the skill of China Cat; in full disclosure, I haven't yet seen Liquid Lips, the bridge between Tell Them and Jade, although with LL apparently made immediately after Tell Them, I'd imagine they are pretty similar, formally).

Voiceovers are a staple of the Wadd series, but while in earlier films the exist largely as expository development between scenes, in China Cat, they're placed within the scenes and flesh out the story in a much more organic fashion. Additionally, China Cat featured a sex scene that was cut against the scheming Devils lending the hardcore scenes a degree of integration far beyond those earlier in the series.

The Jade Pussycat successfully created the feel of the seedy "Oriental" underbelly of San Francisco - in my opinion, a better use of location shooting than Tropic of Passion's Hawaii or Tell Them's Mexico - and utilized the crossing and double-crossing you'd expect from a genre picture of its era. China Cat built on the cliffhanger nature of its predecessor's ending, foregoing the sense of place and balancing a simpler narrative (Wadd vs. the Devils) with a higher degree of technical craftsmanship.

The grading of the films brings up an interesting challenge. Viewed together, I'd give the first a B+, the second an A-, however the second's grade is largely based on having had the first as a narrative lead in, so.... Ah, fuck it, B+ and A-.

Pornonomy Reviews: Pizza Girls

Pizza Girls (1977)

Directed by:
Bob Chinn

Starring:
Candida Royalle
Christine DeShaffer
Desiree Cousteau
Laurien Dominique
Vicky Lindsay
Carl Regal
John Holmes
John Seeman
Richard Pacheco
Paul Thomas
Spender Travis

Chalk up another one for Bob Chinn. Pizza Girls has a ton going for it: it's got a silly, simple premise, and is filled with roles that the actors can knock out of the park.

San Francisco is a chicken town, but pizzeria proprietors John and Bob (Holmes and Chinn) are trying to break Country Girl Pizza on the map, much to the chagrin of the shadowy chicken syndicate and their mysterious enforcer, the San Francisco Night Chicken, as well as being spied on by Inspector Blackie (Seeman).

Part of the allure of Country Girl Pizza is their use of codes in the order that will have the female delivery skateboarders - Gino (Royalle), Shakey (Dominique), Celeste (DeShaffer), and Ann Chovy (Cousteau) - delivering more than just pizzas, if you catch my drift. (And that drift should be pretty obvious considering this is uh-duh a porn flick.)

For much of the film, everything about Pizza Girls is pitch-perfect. The one curiosity - or, considered another way, aspect that elevates it from just a fun little porno - is the fact that the Night Chickens method of intimidation is snatching the girls off the skateboard and raping them. It would be weird for an otherwise light film to treat the subject with abject horror, it feels a little...off...that its mentioned almost nonchalantly. Without getting into spoilers, the resolution of the Night Chicken and closing shot lends the film an oddly - albeit slightly - darker tone than the preceding 68 minutes.

Still, juxtaposed with Skintight, if you're going to have a twist like that, this is the way to do it. A