Golden Age XXX Poster Art Exhibit and Film Festival in LA on May 15!

11218572_876769842364698_4928693633728767523_o

On Friday, May 15th, Lethal Amounts Gallery in downtown LA (1226 West 7th Street, 90017 to be exact) will be hosting “THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND” – a classic exploitation movie arts show.

Movie arts show?  Huh?

They’re going to be displaying awesome posters from the classic age of porn – when porn posters were painted by artists with paint, meant to be displayed 3 feet high by 2 feet wide; not just on a VHS boxcover or DVD insert.

Included in the show will be a large group of fully restored, linen-backed posters in pristine condition.

The show is being curated by The Westgate Gallery, an online original movie poster boutique specializing in “rare and outrageous Classic, Cult, Exploitation, Giallo (Italian thrillers), Golden Age XXX and Horror.”  They have a significant collection of painted/illustrated porno one-sheets and Italian subway posters.

Lethal Amounts is a “cutting-edge Pop-Art gallery renowned for its quirky, rock-n-roll aesthetic.”

There will also be a Silent Auction along with a signed posters auction to support The Compton Junior Posse (“Keeping kids on horses and off the streets.”) and Unafatti Foundation which provides food, shelter and education to the underprivileged children of Nepal.

There will also be some special guests on hand to sign the posters – they include Mink Stole, Long Jeanne Silver, Serena, Annie Sprinkle, Bill Margold, Kitten Natividad and Holly Woodlawn.

Tonight, May 14, Cinefamily is kicking off a “Peep Show” week-long festival highlighting the movies behind the posters. Tonight’s show is “Desperate Living”, starting at 7:30, hosted by John Waters regular, Mink Stole (whom I saw in the early-90s doing Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You in New Hope, PA (not at the Bucks County Playhouse; the  other one up the hill, next to El Taco Loco)

https://vimeo.com/126835203

On May 15 at 7:30, they’re showing a selection of shorts called “Sexperiments” followed by a 35mm screening of Through the Looking Glass; there’s a dress code of “Evening Attire Only!” for this one.

On May 16 at 3:30 PM, Serena (performer) and Bill Margold (performer, co-writer) and producer Darryl Marshak will screen Dracula Sucks (aka Lust at First Bite).  the movie has been cut and recut a million times under a bunch of different titles. I discussed the movie a few years back on Spice Radio; it’s pretty great.  You should go see it.

Details on the rest of the line up can be found at the Cinefamily event page.

There’s some great pix over at the DistribPix Blog about the event, and Steven will be out there, so say hello for us. :-)

You can follow Westgate Gallery on:

 

 

Today on Spice Radio: Lust at First Bite (1979)

Today on Spice Radio’s You Porn (SiriusXM 103 at 11:30 Pacific / 2:30 Eastern) we’ll be talking about Lust at First Bite, a movie featuring today’s guests, Seka and Bill Margold.  Margold appears in the movie, and he co-wrote it as well.

The title is an obvious wink of the George Hamilton Dracula spoof, Love at First Bite, and it’s also a Dracula story, with Jamie Gillis taking on the iconic role.

The movie wastes no time, and as soon as the credits stop, we see Jamie eating out Mina (the exquisite Annette Haven). They’re in a field outside of a castle, and her alabaster skin contrasts nicely with the otherwise dark elements of the scenes (Drac’s cape; the stone slab she’s on…)  She moves to stroking his cock and then she’s on her knees blowing him and he fucks her face a bit.  The scene ends with a voiceover: “When do dreams stop and reality begin?”

The voiceover has us listening to a man and a woman who are driving up to a castle in an old Model A taxi.  He’s complainng about having a hard on and terrible dreams.  We come to the castle is a sanitarium, and it’s run by Dr. Seward (John Leslie) and his sister Sybil (Kay Parker.)  (Happy birthday, Kay who turned 68 years young yesterday!)   The man is none other than Renfield (Richard Bulick, credited as McGoogle Schlepper) and his sister Irene (Pat Manning) is bringing him to the hospital to help stop his nightmares.
The movie is also a light touch featuring PA announcements reminiscent of those on M*A*S*H* – the first of which is “Attention! The first annual Seward Sanitarium rubber raft race is cancelled due to an outbreak of crabs in Ward A.”

Seward speaks to his apple-toting orderly, Henry (Bill Margold),  and dispatches him to see Mrs. Renfeld.  He gripes about his job (“Seward giving me orders, like he owns this place!”) and he comes in to Irene’s room and she’s having a bit of a breakdown and complaining about having nightmares and needing help, and we cut to an exterior shot of the castle as we hear Margold say “You need help?  You want help?!” and he rapes her doggie style.  “You like that, help!” she moans “No, no” and cries throughout most of their encounter. He giggles “How do you like them apples, bitch?” and he crushes an apple in his hand, as we crosscut to him jerking himself off onto her ass. This isn’t something you’d see in modern porn.  Modern porn might start with protestations, but generally the lead to the girl becoming a willing participant. (probably a worse series of events to portray than her crying through the whole thing…)  This is not a long scene — in fact none of them in the movie are, really — one position and out.

Seward walks through the asylum with Dr. Van Helsing (mainstream B- actor Reggie Nalder, here credited as Detlef van Berg) and when he’s introduced to a patient (George Lee) who dresses like a cowboy, sings songs on the guitar and “fornicates with anything — holes in walls, etc.” and happily, we catch him getting blown by, then doggie fucking Nancy Hoffman.  He’s in chaps and she’s bent over a saddle as strains of the William Tell Overture (the Lone Ranger theme) swells on the soundtrack, and he pulls out and cums on her ass. Other patients are introduced, one who dresses like Hitler, and all of them are suffering from lesions of some sort.

(Nalder was reported to be embarrassed by his work in LAFB, but it’s nothing to be particularly ashamed of.  He hit his marks and didn’t bump into the furniture, to paraphrase Spencer Tracy; but I assume his mere presence in an adult movie was enough to cause him some discomfort.)
Next up, Dr. Bradley (Mike Ranger) and a Lucy Webster (Serena) are walking the grounds and he proclaims his love for her. They sit, and she kneels before him.  We then cut to Jonathan Harker (Paul Thomas) sitting at the piano with Mina and the taxi driver (David Lee Bynum) and the taxi driver (or is he the butler?) asks Harker if he knows “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which they begin to sing, and in an odder moment, we’re cross cutting between them and the Serena / Mike Ranger BJ.  Once Swing Low end,s, we bring in Ravel’s Bolero as Serne stops sucking and jerks Ranger off onto her hand.

In the lab at the sanitarium, Van Helsing explains that Renfield is suffering under the spell of Nosferatu and he escapes from his cell and find Dracula’s coffin and with a cry of “Master, I’m here!” he lifts the lid to the strains of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.  Jamie lays it on thick when he utters the immortal words: “I am Dracula; I bid you welcome! Listen to them… children of the night… what music they make! Mr. Renfield…”

Then a voice from nowhere: “Where are all the fags you promised?!!”

The next morning, Renfield shows up on the sanitium steps, ranting like a lunatic.  (Over the PA: “Paging Dr. Stoker – unruly patient in the violent ward..”)

There’s more plot and hammy acting, but it’s a pretty straight ahead vampire story.  Renfield is dragged out as he threatens Ms. Mina’s safety.

We cut to a coffin as a hand lifts the lid to the strains of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance.  Two of Dracula’s sexy maidens (Slavica and Renee Andre) emerge, and Slavica grabs a random patient (Mitch Morrill) and blows him and then rides him, but it’s not satisfying as she complains “I’ve been waiting 200 years for this?!?  Make it bigger!!”  We intercut some bunnies fucking too  and she pulls his dick out as he cums on her as and his pants.

Dracula shows up and Renfield makes a few puns about wanting to see Dracula come and then Dracula introduces himself as Dr. Seward’s new neighbor. Meanwhile, Irene is worried that Dr. Stoker (John Holmes) is too busy fucking the maid (Irene Best) on the pool table in the game room.  JH eats her out a little then starts to fuck her.  There’s some plot done away with in voiceover, and then Seward introduces Dracula to all of the other major characters.  Then we go back to the pool table where JH is fucking the maid doggie style and there’s some distinct “moist fucking” sounds on the soundtrack.  They seem to have mic’d this scene very well, or the foley guy had a field day with a melon…

Mozart fills the soundtrack and Serena challenges Dracula with a toast “To cry for the next to die” and he opines that there are worse things awaiting man than death.

Holmes is still banging the maid, making this one of the longer sequences in the movie, and it’s a sight to behold – his giant member plowing into her.  She’s got small tits with great nipples, and he takes great pleasure in dicking her slowly and we cut away to Mina in bed having girl talk with Lucy as Drac watches in through the window.  Lucy goes to the bathroom to have some water and pee and Drac enters the bathroom and puts Lucy under his spell.  He takes her nightgown off her left breast, and we cut away to Mina asleep.  (Also skipped via this cutaway, a golden shower where Drac pees on Lucy; when we cut back she’s clearly soaked with urine)  Drac jerks himself off onto her breast and then leaves her with a bloody bite on her tit.

Back to Holmes fucking the maid.  Man, Dr. Stoker just keeps on going!  He finally pulls out of her, she takes as much as she can in her mouth and her jerks off on her face leaving a nice facial.

The chauffeur goes into the stable and sees the coffins.  He lifts the lid on one and see Lucy in it. He yells for help and Swing Low is heard again as Dr. Bradley arrives at the casket ready to stab the beast within but instead starts to kiss Lucy’s dead body.  Kissing leads to cunnilingus with leads to fucking… Another modern no-no — necrophelia.  We briefly flashback to their garden tryst and he cums on her belly.

Nurse Lawson (Seka) finds Harker feeling sorry for himself at the cab, so she takes him inside and blows him. The chauffeur is fixing the car, so he’s stunned to find the car is a rockin and he looks in wide-eyed to see the action.  They manage to work through a few positions, missionary, reverse cowgirl and doggie.  There’s no pop shot; but there is more squishy sounds.

Meanwhile, Baby Jane (Nancy Hoffman) dressed and acting like an 8 year old girl runs away and into the arms of Slavica who says “Baby Jane, I want your clit!” and proceeds to eat her out for a bit, and end with some kissing.  More modern no-no — the intimation of underage sexing (even tho all participants are of legal age).

Dr. Seward watches their tryst out the window and discusses his worries about losing the sanitarium due to this vampire outbreak, so she calms him down by leading him down the road into no-no land again with some incest!  Kay strips down  and gently asks “Remember how you liked this?”  She purrs through this whole scene, and it’s probably the best scene in the movie. Its get weird when Seward says “This could have been your cock, but mother gave it to me.” and she whispers “You want to put it in me, Arthur?  You’d like to do that, wouldn’t you?” and then she’s blowing him.  God, Kay Parker is awesome.  She sucks for a while, then they go at it doggie and he jerks off all over his sister’s breasts as Leslie treats us to some of his famous dirty talk.

Dracula shows back up to give blood to help poor Mina for a visit, and Seward introduces him to Van Helsing.  This takes Drac back a little, “Van Helsing!  A name we know even in Transylvania.”   Sybil takes Drac to the blood taking room, and he confesses to being squeamish about giving blood, so he gazes into her eyes and she collapses on the table, allowing him to lift up her dress and dive in for a businessman’s lunch.  “When the Red Red Robin Comes Bobbin Along” plays on the soundtrack as he jerks off over her face, cumming on her tits.  (There was another pissing scene here, as she’s soaked, but we don’t see it; merely the aftermath.)

Seward yells at Nurse Lawson and Henry to go see Dr. Stoker who has also been bitten, on the cock.  He sweet talks her into letting him out and he grabs her and bites her neck and then forcibly takes rips her panties off and starts eating her out  as Renfield giggles manically from his cel. (We also hear patient Hitler and the cowboy singing during this scene.)  Blood covers Seka’s belly and JH starts fucking her as she screams, no so much in delight. He’s able to fuck her balls deep, and he gets a hand around her throat as he looks maniacally around. He rolls her over and takes her doggie style, and she doesn’t look very happy about it and the scene ends with some serious screaming as Beethoven’s Ninth plays under the scene.  It’s hard to look at this scene as arousing, but Seka’s tits look pretty great swaying around.  JH leaps off her and shoves his cock into her mouth, and he finally cums, painting a line of cum down her forehead, over her nose and down around her mouth.  Being a gentleman, he wipes away the bit that gathered in her eye.  She cleans him off for a while after, her breasts covered in blood.

The vampire story wraps itself up inside while Harker and Mina get it on in the garden.  As Harker is fingering Mina, a bat flies around and entrances her.  Finally Dracula appears on the scene and Harker realizes he’s fucked.  Dracula pulls Harker into his cape and we don’t see what happens, but it’s safe to assume he pisses on him, turning him into a creature of the night as well.  After Dracula vanquishes Harker, he makes sweet, sweet love to Mina in the conclusion to the scene we saw at the top of the movie.

There’s voiceover at the end that tells us that “Dracula has his new queen; she’s found eternal sexual passion with her master.. As for the rest of us mere  mortals, we must be content with our one night stands, c’est la vie.

Well, then!

Now, that’s a movie!  It had a strong plot, faithful to its inspiration (Dracula, not George Hamilton) and it had little funny bits interspersed (Pat Manning’s voiceovers, the PA announcements) and it had some “chills” in the sense that the old Universal horror movies had chills.

IMDB lists some trivia about the many many different versions this movie has been released in:

  • Softcore version eliminates shots of sexual penetration while the hardcore version does not include close-ups of the count biting female breasts and blood spurting from vampire mouths.
  • The 1980 UK cinema release ran 73 mins and was heavily cut to remove sexual footage. The 1986 Electric Video ran 72 mins and featured a pre-cut print (minus over 7 mins) which was then cut by a further 2 mins 26 secs by the BBFC. Among the cuts was a heavy edit to a sex scene which was performed during a Bela Lugosi radio broadcast of “The Doctor Prescribed Death”.
  • The film was re-cut and re-released in 1979 under the title Dracula Sucks(this is also the title the film was released under in Britain.
  • Original version was entitled “Dracula’s Bride” and ran 108 minutes long.
  • Released on video by VCS as Lust At First Bite, cut to 81 minutes.
  • Re-released in 1980 as Lust At First Bite, cut to 91 minutes.
  • Re-released in 1979 as Dracula Sucks,running 88 minutes,and re-edited.
  • Released in 1978 as Dracula’s Bride, running 110 minutes.

On the air, I gave the film an 8 or 9 out of 10 — but not necessarily for the sex.  This is a fun, silly Dracula movie in the vein of the old Universal movies by way of Hammer with some sex thrown in.  I don’t know if there’s any one scene that will make you want to whip it out outside of the context of this movie (my vote was the John Leslie / Kay Parker pairing) but I think this is a movie you can sit down with your favorite someone and watch and have it lead to some other stuff afterwards.

UPDATE 8/31/12: After listening to Seka’s segment on YouPorn, she set me straight – this was not her first movie (thanks, After Porn Ends!), but it was one of her first features, and she refers to the movie as “Dracula Sucks” tho it is nowadays known as LAFB.  As you can see from the IMDB alternate versions above, there’s been a shitload of titles, versions and cuts of this movie.  AVManiacs.com mentions it a little bit.

 

EVENT: Club 90 – Golden Girls of Porn

For those of you in NYC, you might be interested to learn of a panel happening tonight (June 12 at 6pm) over at the Museum of Sex featuring Gloria Leonard, Veronica Hart, Veronica Vera, Candida Royalle, and Annie Sprinkle.

The promo reads:

Five adult film stars from the “Golden Age of Porn”: Veronica Hart, Gloria Leonard, Candida Royalle, Veronica Vera and Annie Sprinkle were the original “Sex and the City” girls. Turning to one another for the support they needed to navigate their way through life in blue movies, these dynamic women created “Club 90” in 1983, forming a bond that would continue for thirty years. They went on to pursue their personal goals, and in the process, blazed new trails in the fields of human sexuality, women’s empowerment, erotic expression, and free speech. Come get a taste of the good old days when NYC was America’s sex film capital, movies were shot on 35mm film, and Times Square was x-rated! Most of all, come share the laughs, the drama and the intimate stories of this controversial support group. This rare reunion promises to be candid, informative and electric!

I’m heading into the city tonight to catch it; I do like panel discussions where people just sit around telling stories.  Tickets are $25.  The museum is located at 233 5th Ave, between 27th and 28th.

If you go, say hello — I’ll be in the iafd.com shirt.

AVN Awards 2011: Best Classic Release

Best Classic Release