Burning Down the House

Mona Wales delights her fans and literally dominates in this offbeat Missa X vignette released through her APOVStory label.

Growing up, the name "Mona" instantly conjured up the Bo Diddley song by that title, which mesmerized me the teenager listening to its Rolling Stones version on their debut U. S. LP. Disk jockey Tom Clay would play the track back to back sometimes a dozen times on his CKLW radio show late at night and it had a hypnotic effect.

Now Mona Wales' acting performances (in porn, a deserved crossover to Mainstream not yet materializing for her) are similarly commanding, especially here where her monologues written by Missa work their magic.

She is the atypical Adult actress, not beautiful, not voluptuous, but bringing an acting ability to the job that cannot be denied, in the tradition that made Georgina Spelvin porn's first Acting superstar in 1973 when "Devil in Miss Jones" was released.

She portrays the mother-in-law to Tobias, played by Chad Alva as a nearly mute stud, staying over at Mona's house anent his divorce from her daughter, who literally burned down his house. Missa X has developed several differing formats for her vast series of POV-camera vignettes, and this one suffers from an awkward hybrid format. The camera is generally pointed first-person at Mona, from the point-of-view of Tobias, but his voice is only heard on the soundtrack a couple of times.

The rest of Tobias's dialogue is intentionally omitted, with Mona speaking with pauses where we can only infer what Tobias has said to her, based on her responses. It's similar to watching a phone conversation in which only the person holding the phone's words are audible.

This vignette is quite different in its punch line scene, a carefully developed and planted surprise ending which I won't spoil. It provides a satisfying plot twist.