The Defiance of Good

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.

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.

When watching a film like this I don't expect much, pretty much just filth and maybe bad taste chuckles. The Defiance of Good therefore really wrong footed me by being an ultimately upbeat and pleasurable outing, although to be fair it does spend some time in the gutter. It tells of the unfortunate Cathy (Jean Jennings) who gets busted by her mom on her first time trying cocaine, which proves so traumatic to dear mama that she simply has to send her daughter to a mental asylum for observation. As one might expect, said asylum isn't exactly a place of peace and understanding so young Cathy leaps at the chance to recuperate at the facility of a pleasant seeming Dr Gabriel. She should have paid more attention though, as this Dr. Gabriel happens to be played by Fred "Weasel" Lincoln (its the same stupidity of anyone inviting David Hess to a house party), so things still ain't exactly roses. But in an unconventional way things all wind up on the bright side. The message seems to be a clear one, systems of control as represented by middle class paranoia and medical institutions are a grim and needless restriction upon those that they intend to protect, and only by accepting, even revelling in that which is forbidden can one be truly free. Which is not, it has to be said, a philosophically sound message, but here it works as a means of cutting through some basic absurdities and social ills that are clearly recognisable as such. Plus its always sweet to see a lovely young lady embracing the dark side, gotta love that dark side. Message aside, this is mostly just plain cool stuff. Director Armand Weston shows a real flair for the sinister in scenes involving Cathy and her fellow inmates, scenes of sexual violence (particularly a gang rape) are enhanced by rocking guitar and there's some very funny dialogue including the gem of a post rape exchange "Why didn't you tell the nurse you needed a Tampax?" "Because that's not menstrual blood!". Jean Jennings alternates between convincing and amusingly hammy but makes up for any lapses with sheer beauty, Day Jason is equally easy on the eye as her friend, while Fred Lincoln is a pleasure as unconventional psychiatrist cum sex guru Dr. Gabriel, a wise authoritarian perv who somehow made me think of a high monk from an old school kung fu flick. His chief assistant deserves a mention too, can't act worth a damn but she wields a whip like a goddess. I could have done with a lot more disciplinary action in the second half (no geometry sweeter than welts on a pure young ass) but things move at such a blissful clip that I wasn't too irritated. And the sex is all pretty hot, which counts for a lot. Overall this is well worth a look for genre fans, good sexy and seamy stuff even though it ain't earth shattering or anything.

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.