SKIN-FLICKS (1977) Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Director: Gerard Damiano
Vinegar Syndrome

The director of DEEP THROAT gets introspective with the fascinating SKIN-FLICKS, on Blu-ray/DVD combo from Vinegar Syndrome.

Porn filmmaker Harry (Tony Hudson) has producer Max (Beerbohn Tree, ANYONE BUT MY HUSBAND) on his case because he is ten days overdue with the finishing of his latest film because he is dissatisfied with the ending. Even less sympathetic is loan shark Al (director Damiano) who just wants a fuck film. Harry projects his own fantasies onto his performers and has nothing left in his personal life, not even for young Susan (Sharon Mitchell, WATERPOWER) who becomes an overnight sensation once he helps her work through her inhibitions in front of the camera. Susan yearns for Harry even though she feels herself only capable of being a good lay, and Harry is determined to let nothing come between him and his vision. As Susan drifts away from Harry, she becomes vulnerable to the unwelcome attentions of commercial director Norman (Jamie Gillis, THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN) who does not take kindly to rejection.

A downbeat look at pornographic filmmaking from one of its principal figures, SKIN-FLICKS is as despairing as it is intensely romantic and erotic. Apart from the protagonist, the male characters are types while the film takes the time to get to know its female characters before probing their bodies. Opening performer Heather Young (PUSSYCAT RANCH) gets to talk about her personal motivations for doing a porn film as well as being relaxed by partner Herschel Savage (PRETTY PEACHES 2), Beth Anna (INTIMATE DESIRES) discusses her exhibitionist tendencies before having sex in a swing with Tony Mansfield (INSIDE SEKA), and even Gina Harlow gets to make an impression with more than her crotch while auditioning as a dancer for Damiano's Al. The film itself is nonjudgmental about the artistic ambitions of Hudson's filmmaker who does not see just finishing the film and trying something more ambitious with the next one as a viable compromise even as Al makes an example out of payment delinquent Sammy (Robert Kerman, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST), and his passivity in his two sex scenes seems less about the actor's abilities as a performer than the idea that he really does put everything into his filming and only sees actual sex as a form of physical release. If Hudson ultimately seems unrelatable, the film more than compensates with Mitchell who suffers from her apparent inability to give love and is believably terrified at the hands of a razor-wielding Gillis whose lack of character motivation (in this version of the film) makes him no less unnerving. The lack of closure for an imperiled principal character disturbs while the ambiguous ending suggests a growing cynicism of Damiano towards the restrictive nature of porn film production. The recurring use of one romantic orchestral track – including a montage sequence in which Hudson and Mitchell frolic around the city – is enough to ponder whether Damiano heard the track and constructed a film around it.

Released on VHS by VCA and on DVD by Excalibur Films – as well as an unauthorized Alpha Blue Archives triple feature with BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS and FOR RICHER OR POORER – SKIN FLICKS comes to Blu-ray from a 2K scan of 35mm elements. The image is clean and colorful part from a persistent vertical scratch on the right edge of the frame. Although the climax seems clipped, this appears to have been deliberate as the audio interview makes mention of different endings for the hardcore version and unreleased softcore version. The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono track is in good condition with clear dialogue and library music. Optional English SDH subtitles are selectable via remote.

There are no video extras but the film is accompanied by two bonus audio tracks. The first is a feature-length audio interview with actress Sharon Mitchell conducted by Casey Scott in which she describes the film as "Truffaut meets Damiano." She can tell us no more about one-and-done Hudson, not having crossed paths with him in her acting classes or theatrical work. She recalls that versions of the film were made in both hardcore and softcore versions, but that the funders had no interest in the latter even though it contained a more conventional action-oriented ending shot in a different location and cast Gillis' unstable character as a shell-shocked Vietnam vet. She believes that this version never saw release and Scott who learns about it here also states that he has not come across it (although he suggests that it might have made an appearance in Canada where the soft versions of hardcore films from the era were more prevalent). She also discusses working with Gillis who she regarded as one of her "godfathers" along with John Leslie (CANDY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD) as well as Damiano's working methods as a director and how the film offered her more practical experience as an actress than her classes since he treated the film like a mainstream production with two weeks of rehearsals, being attentive to the sets (even shooting scenes again in different locations), and paying the actors when he called her and others back to reshoot.

The second track is an audio commentary by film historians Samm Deighan of Diabolique Magazine and Heather Drain of the site Mondo Heather. They speak warmly of this film and MEMORIES WITHIN MISS AGGIE while lamenting that DEEP THROAT and THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES overshadowed some of Damiano's superior work, works that reveal a romantic character and a sensitivity towards female characters and female pleasure. They cite SKIN-FLICKS specifically as what hardcore filmmaking could have been – as well as a statement about the genre from one of its original key practitioners – while also pondering why Damiano was no accorded the same appreciation as Radley Metzger for his arty hardcore films. While they are understandably in awe of Mitchell, they also make the interesting suggestion that unknown Hudson might have been cast by Damiano in the manner of his desire to work with relative newcomers (usually when it came to female performers). The cover is reversible, with the inside artwork the more stylish choice. (Eric Cotenas)

BACK TO REVIEWS

HOME