The Defiance of Good

The Defiance of Good is a "roughie" of the story lead variety...though it's pretty much your basic 'girl goes to correctional institute, but doesn't really get corrected' kind of story. This film is most definitely a cut above most of the roughie stuff that I've seen (though I can't profess to have seen a great deal) as the production values are high for this sort of thing, and the acting isn't terrible either. Naturally, the most important thing about the film is the hardcore action, and there's no shortage of it - the film features rape, S&M, hints of lesbianism and more. To be honest, lead actress Jean Jennings didn't do much for me, though her performance is decent. The film does feature a foreboding atmosphere, and while the sex in many of these films takes up to much of the running time and often has no actual relevance to the plot; here it's mostly used in a way that benefits the film. The film also features a performance from Fred Lincoln - whom fans of The Last House on the Left will recognise, and director Armand Weston went on to direct one of my favourite seventies trash flicks with The Taking of Christina a year after he made this film. I can't say that I'm a massive fan of The Defiance of Good, but it is good for what it is and I'm sure that fans of this stuff will enjoy it.

I am not a fan of hardcore porn (sure, they supposedly show "real" sex, but if real sex involved being two inches from Ron Jeremy's fat, hairy bunghole and sweaty, pistoning perineum, I would swear off it for life!). I do really like the pre-hardcore "roughie" films though, not because I'm a potential rapist or sexual sadist, but because they were genuine films with genuine drama made by filmmakers and actors who, while certainly low-budget and low-rent, had a modicum of actual talent. Hardcore films, on the other hand, are usually simply tedious documents of people having sex recorded by whatever visual medium happened to be on hand by people who have no talent whatsoever. There is rarely even the basic suspension of disbelief necessary to feel you are watching a real movie.

The best thing I can say about this film then is that if you took away the hardcore sex, it would be a fairly decent "roughie". And if you took away ALL the sex, you might even be able to pass it off as a 50's nd 60's-sytle "J.D." (juvenile delinquent) film (albeit a very short one). I won't re-hash the plot, but suffice it to say, it does actually HAVE one. It is a somewhat disturbing as other reviewers have said, but I think it would actually be more disturbing if it weren't hardcore porn. The long sex scenes actually interrupt the effectively unsettling atmosphere the film manages to create at times.

According to the generally unreliable IMDb dates, this film was practically released on lead actress Jean Jenning's 18th birthday, so there is some question of whether she was "barely legal" or "barely illegal" when she made it. There is no question that she was involved in "adult" films though years ealier when she was definitely underage and sometimes with her male lead here, Fred Lincoln of "Last House on the Left" fame. (And I find it extremely hypocritical that Lincoln has bad-mouthed "Last House" so much over the years, considering that in that film he only PLAYED a FICTIONAL child molester). Anyway, Jennings looks about 25 here and she was definitely a lot older than I was in 1975, so I'm personally not going to worry about that. She is surprisingly good here as a teenage mental patient, as is Lincoln in a non-sex role as her bent doctor. This is not bad for a hardcore porn film.

This starts as if, as the title perhaps suggests, it is a Sadean tract. More than a little nasty too with, for me the unfortunate elements of parents foisting off their young daughter, tears and all. For about twenty minutes we suffer the girl's entry and first weeks in an insane asylum complete with rather ugly if realistic gang rape. There is then a rather good 'Story of O' period complete with shackles and whippings and talk producing a quasi religious feel to the pain/pleasure scenarios. The final section, after our young heroine has learned to love this discipline, instead of being some SM tour de force turns out to be group sex. It has to be said though that this is a tremendous and enthusiastic series of sessions full of seemingly tangible lustfulness and even if it is not where one might have expected this film to go, certainly most enjoyable.

They really don't make them like they used to. This adult feature is the story of Cathy, a young good girl student who gets caught experimenting with drugs so her panicked parents have her committed to an institution. This one plays like a horror thriller at first. The sex is graphic and upsetting to watch frankly, but as Cathy gets swept up and cared for by doctor/Guru Fred Lincoln, her experience becomes more erotic. It's a pretty neat trick to challenge an audience's expectations like that in an adult feature. Weston does a great job keeping this one moving along, and the sex starts to slowly shift as Cathy gets more experience. It makes for a rewarding, challenging feature from the porno chic era.

Armand Weston was no stranger to the domination/degradation styled hardcore genre, directing both "The Taking of Christina" and "A Dirty Western" a short time later, but it was with "The Defiance of Good" that he really put kinky sleaze on the map. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give this film is that much of the terror is provided through psychological torture which is far harder to do competently than yet another cliched "whipping of the ass" scene. (Although the nasty stuff is certainly on display as well!) The performances really sell this aspect as well. Highly recomended. The AVN named this several years ago as "One of the greatest currently unavailable adult titles". I'm inclined to agree!