Blow-Off!

Blow Off! takes it's noir seriously, and pays homage to the past, while winking a bit at the genre - a form of deconstruction one could say. The script has its share of classic noir-like lines - my favourite being, "He had a personality like a turkey stuffed with sexual indiscretions." Plot is the old detective-paid-to- spy-on-woman-having-sex, with a twist something like in Chuck Vincent's The Voyeur. Who said porn went bad after '85?

This 1984 production, shot on film, is a solid piece of Adult Cinema, placed in the hard-boiled detective genre that has served the industry well. Herschel Savage carries the show and the feature deserved a better release, rather than being dumped 3 years later.

The story is mainly told via Savage's voice-over narration, as he's hired as a private eye by a mysterious Deep Throat character (later revealed) to handle surveilance of Lisa De Leeuw. Political shenanigans and sexual peccadilloes form the core of the story, with some colorful characters introduced en route to a tidying up of loose ends conclusion.

Ginger Lynn becomes the cover girl and selling point for the movie in its Caballero DVD reissue, but she only has a brief lesbian role womping away with Lisa. The other actresses are far more impressive in support, including the memorable Rosemarie (who I idolized at the time via her magazine layouts), and Danica Rae. The opening credits don't match the end credits, with a prominently billed upfront "Susie Dennis" (listed 6th) missing in action.

Title apparently is a lift from Antonioni's classic mystery "Blow-Up", which in turn gave rise to the ultra-ripoff by DePalma as "Blowout".