The Danish Connection

Porno filmmaker Bob Chinn is the basis for Burt Reynolds' Boogie Nights character, and is responsible for popularising the long-running Johnny Wadd series starring `Big' John Holmes. In one of the earliest Johnny Wadd superdick adventures, Chinn is reduced to an oriental cutout supporting role for director Walt Davis, but The Danish Connection delivers everything Dirk Diggler promised - sh*thouse dialogue from crinkle-cut Holmes delivered with all the charisma of Chuck Norris, and the fighting prowess of a cheese sandwich. An impotent businessman with a yen for his secretary hires Johnny's partner Eric Jensen (Rick Cassidy) to find an elusive hard-on formula from Denmark. But Johnny Wadd, missing and presumed dead in Hawaii, is also on the case! He gets captured by the Chinese, who torture him endlessly with sex for the location of the formula, but Johnny won't budge.

I suspect the film was made earlier than 1974 as 1) The film may date from the earlier pairings of Holmes, director Davis and producer Manuel Conde (1970's Sex Psycho, 1972's Evil Come Evil Go), and 2) The French Connection was released in 1971, and porn producers making parodies don't usually have a good long-term memory. Besides, later Wadds (China Cat, Jade Pussycat) are more porno than action and are nowhere near as hopelessly inspired as this. According to the Ballad of Big Bad John, `he's got a head that he uses, and his meat is Grade A'. Right on, John.

Director Bob Chinn states in an interview on a therialtoreport.com pod-cast that that the law was getting too close for comfort on the West Coast for his pornographic film projects, so he went to Hawaii to film the Johnny Wadd series movie THE TROPIC OF PASSION. Due to airfare and location fees, TROPIC OF PASSION cost more than previous Johnny Wadd movies - Chinn estimates a budget of $3,000. To recoup the money, he sold the outtakes to Manuel Conde, who fashioned them into THE DANISH CONNECTION.

Given Holmes' notoriety, it's pretty safe to assume that Conde made a nice profit from this feature in the '70's, when there were still lots of drive-in theaters running soft-core exploitation films.