The Dirty Picture Show

"The Dirty Picture Show" is an interesting little gay adult film for its time. First of all, it was shot during the pre-video (and what would later become known as the pre-condom) days, at a time when most gay film loops were usually set in cheesy hotel rooms, badly decorated bedrooms, and pool decks. Yet this film is shot inside the now historic Vista Theatre in Hollywood/Los Feliz -- with opening and closing scenes shot outside the building itself.

Additionally, this film becomes a film-within-a-film as the main character watches two all-male adult films in the auditorium (while having sex with various patrons of the theatre). The action alternates between the films on the screen, sometimes seen through a haze of cigarette smoke (back when you apparently could still smoke in theatres), and the action happening between the main character and his anonymous tricks. You even get to see the titles of the films he is watching... though I am not certain if they were ever released individually or filmed for the purpose of using as the backdrop for this film.

At any rate, "The Dirty Picture Show" is technically advanced for its day and genre, also using a lot of actual sound for the "live" action, including the set-ups for the different scenes (many adult gay films of the period were filmed without sound only to have the moans and groans dubbed in later by the production team). The over-the-shoulder views of the screen, cut to the actual "films" themselves, cut to the "live" action in the auditorium comes off as much more professional and thought out than most adult films of the time. And while the films on the screen have cheesy set ups (an aspiring photo model gets seduced by his photographer; a young man seduces his pool-cleaning guy), the "live" scenes come off as more natural and spontaneous and thereby more realistic.

Any theatre historian interested in the Vista Theatre may find the settings interesting, as it shows parts of the theatre lobby, auditorium, and (supposedly) the men's room as they appeared during the theatre's run as an X-rated entertainment house in the 70's. However these aspects are incidental to the action, so if you want to watch it for historical purpose you may have to deal with the very graphic gay sex action as well.

This bit of very '70s male film does one thing for anyone doing archaeological digs in the field of adult films of this particular bent- it gives a look into what the Vista Theater once was in the day when it showed movies such as the very one as it is shown within this one. The last shot of Jim Battaglia retorting to the cashier who had asked him about the movies seen as he leaves the place: "What movies?" Go have yourself a Margaret Mead moment. As we all know, today (2006) the Vista is one of the best venues to see first-run major releases in its now refurbished and expansive seating arrangement. Local talent, such as Sam, who was a bartender at the now-defunct Detour (just down the street on Sunset), are featured.