Jekyll & Hyde

Ambivalent is my reaction to Paul Thomas's ambitious "Jekyll & Hyde", a Vivid project shot in Hungary that is way out of the legendary auteur's comfort zone. Its faults are myriad, but compared to today's gonzo-strewn Adult Entertainment universe it plays like a breath of fresh air.

As a lifelong film buff I have always been drawn towards International Co-Productions, which had their heyday in the '50s and '60s, generating for America an endless stream of then TV syndication movie packages and some Saturday Afternoon and drive-in fare. In the '90s European porno backers were flush with cash and briefly a vast array of high- quality XXX material was generated from France, Italy, Sweden and Spain.

Now those halcyon days are over and even the leading Euro sources of high-level porn like Marc Dorcel and Private rely increasingly on British or Hollywood filmmakers to provide new releases: P.T. has made several Dorcel features for example in recent years, while the indigenous British labels are either gone (Bluebird) or radically altered (daring! and Harmony) in the face of cut-throat competition from gonzo internet junk.

So Paul traveling to Europe with several key American stars in tow to make a Roger Corman (think his British Poe films) style horror film on location is a big deal, especially when viewed all these years later. For me it is comparable to Morrissey & Warhol's sojourn in Italy to create Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula.

With a solid script base from Raven Touchstone, the film revolves around Dr. Jekyll's daughter, well-played by statuesque Taylor Hayes, not a great actress but a Vivid contract girl, who won awards for her work for Thomas, and whose career, apart from a couple of stinkers for Seymour Butts, virtually ended after the Vivid stint was over.

With contact lenses and mussed up hair her Ms. Hyde transformation is disappointing, and generally this J & H edition holds minimal rewards for curious horror fans. Back story has European mainstay Mike Foster (whose impersonation of Bill Clinton in Damiano's "Sexgate" is well worth catching) as Hayes's infamous daddy, and he at least is given ugly facial makeup FX as Hyde in okay flashbacks.

Though the costumes and lovely locations (with local superstar of the era Anita Rinaldi as production manager deserving plenty of credit) are impressive, Thomas's direction of a mixed cast is not up to par. A key role to omnipresent Euro actor Frank Gunn has the gonzo thespian muffing almost every line of his in English, sometimes blooper- worthy but apparently PT is presenting us with Gunn's best takes. Most of the Hungarian cast of lovely ladies has the luxury of speaking in Hungarian with English subtitles provided, and co-star Kate More, famous from many a Private assignment including "Amanda's Diary", is a pleasure to see once again.

A big casting boner (pun intended this time around) is lead role to Vivid's Julian, a gonzo favorite of mine in many a Red Ezra video but wrong man for the job. He is Taylor's leading man, nearly a goody two-shoes in context, and the big-dicked performer's flat line readings are extremely poor and would not have been tolerated in an arm's-length casting. But since Julian's dick spans that gap of an arm's length, the audience patiently teased for nearly an hour and a half has to let out a sigh of relief (or ejaculation at home, which ever comes first) when Julian is finally given a blow-job and some nice humping by Hayes in the final reel.

In my current viewing and filling in the gaps on PT's illustrious career, "J & H" serves as a fascinating peek toward addressing that central question of mine regarding Adult movies: what would he or she have accomplished had they gotten the chance to truly crossover into the mainstream - the non-porn arena? Here we have PT in Europe filming with a decent budget and all the trappings of a real movie and working in a mainstream genre for a change - the historical horror film. Simple scenes of folks walking around or riding a carriage from place to place, extras milling about, etc., suggest a Grade B or C Italian horror film of the '60s, not up to the Corman level (recall Corman had Nic Roeg on camera for one of his British classics, not Ralph Parfait). When judged against the standards of competitive mainstream movies - a standard I insist upon in my research concerning the continuum in which both "legitimate" and porno films co- exist, Thomas's stab at the horror genre is clearly hack work.

But stimulating hack work and Hayes' undeniable sexiness makes it worth seeing decades since it made its splash in an industry that is built around obsolescence.