The Dark Side of Porn

Readers should be aware that this is NOT a pornographic series! The Dark Side of Porn is a documentary strand commissioned by Channel 4, in the UK.

A number of individual documentaries, made by a number of producers, were commissioned for the strand.

Each film centered around a subject connected with the porn industry, such as the 'who-dun-it' documentary Death of a Pornstar, by Rapido Documentary, which told the story of the murder of Lolo Ferrari, the girl with the biggest breasts in the world.

The editors of IMDb should look carefully at this because either the person who entered it did so incorrectly, OR the IMDb database is not sufficiently flexible to allow the entry of a Strand.

The pages imply there is a production containing all the above named cast etc. This couldn't possibly be more inaccurate! They are simply a collection of individual documentaries, connected only by a similarity of subject matter.

HOPEFULLY, SOMEONE HAS THE ABILITY TO CORRECT THIS!

An episode of The dark Side of Porn has been repackaged as a separate documentary called Debbie Does Dallas Uncovered. This is supposed to be the behind the scenes look at the most controversial porn movie ever made. Instead it's a poorly constructed shamble. Only the DVD extras keep this from being a total waste.

The "documentary" portion tries to tell the story of Debbie Does Dallas, the 70's spoof porn that exploded into the general social consciousness and is now a classic. The main problem with this film is that it is not about the movie so much as it is about the people who starred in it. Almost all the male leads are interviewed and went onto considerable fame in the porn industry. Almost none of the female actors are interview (not for lack of trying). This makes for a sad and one-sided viewpoint.

DDD is famous for Bambi Woods, the girl next door starlet who played Debbie. Nobody seems to know her real name or where she went after filming only 4 porno movies. This film tries in vain to make the disappearance seem interesting, but they don't try hard enough. A real documentary film crew would have worked until they solved the mystery of Bambi Woods.

The rest of this mess deals with FBI investigations and shady underworld porn mongers. It is all cut and pasted together in confusing fashion. Trying to be all things at once we end up not caring about any of it. This film is mismarketed and hopefully Netflix will put a disclaimer of some sort. Warning: This "movie" is just a poorly done TV documentary that goes nowhere.

There is a DVD extra called "Diary of a Porn Virgin" that is quite good. It follows 2 women as they enter the porn business. It really sheds light on the male dominated sleazy world of porn. Things turn out badly for one woman and the other is a potential star. This added extra to ten times better than the feature documentary, and almost makes the whole thing worth watching.