I Am Furious

Alain Patrick is known for his many roles as a handsome leading man in soft porn features as well as also directing the interesting industry expose BLUE MONEY. But this lost in time 1969 feature I AM FURIOUS proves to be a terrific artifact of the genre, thankfully resurrected via a pristine 16mm print transferred to DVD by Alpha Blue Archives.

Why it was lost seems obvious: the title is a takeoff on the trailblazing Vilgot Sjoman Swedish import I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW), which singlehandedly opened the floodgates for public exhibition of porn in the U.S. after being cleared in a key Supreme Court obscenity decision. It also carried the stigma of fake credits being in French, but upon examination 45 years later even that ruse is justified (somewhat) by the director being French-Canadian, hence dual language is natural and even mandated back home. So the opening title is also listed as JE SUIS FURIEUX.

Picture, shot MOS with some minimal dialog added in English with French accents, vaguely resembles the contemporaneous output of Nick Millard, now famous for his endless stream of lesbian-themed, heavily-narrated hour-long sex exercises, the best of which starred Uschi Digard and Lynn Harris (as well as Suzanne Fields). But FURIOUS is far superior to Nick's assembly-line porn, not the least because it eschews the annoying narration entirely.

Beautifully shot by Ed Hunt, it is closer to the underground/experimental cinema of the '60s than to grind-house porn. Plot and action are minimal: instead we have femme masturbation or lesbian scenes spotlighting the extreme beauty of Antoinette Maynard and Suzanne Fields, latter credited under her pseudonym Cindy Hopkins. Maynard wins the battle of the beautiful breasts in this porn summit meeting, and she subsequently starred in Patrick's THE AFFAIRS OF APHRODITE, a film still lost which I definitely would love to see sometime.

The languorous pace and dreamy atmosphere will probably not appeal to (soft) porn fans who like their entertainment rough, but rarely has an admiring gaze at the nude female form been as pretty as that achieved here by Patrick and Hunt. The 1969 penchant for split-beaver visuals is evident but does not overwhelm the viewer as is the case with solo gynecological styled loops from the era.

Pic opens with Fields masturbating as Janine (also calls herself Jeanie), eventually interrupted by the arrival of gal pal Maynard whose character goes unnamed. Their sensual and highly stimulating lesbian scene climaxes cornily (or effectively, take your pick) when Maynard's foot squishes a Coppertone tube lying near their bed, causing it to ooze its suggestive white contents. That's as close as comic relief coming from Patrick in this oh-so-serious exercise in eroticism. For good measure, after this soft equivalent of a money shot Fields suggests "Let's take a bath", and the gals lather up together exquisitely.

Neighbor Henri Frigson (identified as Alain Edmon, a pseudonym for an actor who vaguely resembles porn star Buddy Boone) knocks on the door as next-door neighbor, identifying himself as a photographer for porn magazines who specializes in beaver shots. He definitely came to the right place. Fields agrees to posing for him for $50 for half a day's work, but it is Maynard who does the posing. The gals tire of this and tie Henri to a chair where nude Maynard sits on his nude lap (his genitals are not shown) to tantalize him, Fields taking snapshots of the pair all the while. The domination and bondage aspects are played up as he looks pained and Maynard lightly slaps him around a bit. After he leaves the gals go back to more lesbian action until the inevitable "FIN" end title appears.

That's all there is, but Fields and especially Maynard fans will have to see this minor opus not once but repeatedly. I only went to adult films sporadically in 1969, mainly Russ Meyer features, but every weekend attended midnight showings of Underground short films circulating on the Cinema 16 circuit, mainly experimental films from the West Coast or Ann Arbor (Emshwiller, Brakhage, etc.). Distributed by Canyon Distributing Co., this film might well have played at the same "art houses" I attended, but earlier in the evening, and I'm very sorry I missed it.

Alpha Blue Archives team informs me that the excellent small group guitar score is by the great Gabor Szabo, but I could not identify it (merely from blindfold-test listening) as such, so we'll have to take their word for it. If it's an original Szabo score (rather than the usual piracy) that would be amazing; stranger things have happened as I just saw an old porn film featuring an original song written by the great jazz pianist Freddie Redd and actually credited to him on screen!