Three Day Pass

Primarily working as a cinematographer in gay XXX, Nick Eliot only delivered a handful of directorial credits of his own. Judging by THREE DAY PASS, it's a shame he didn't take the helm more often.

The film opens with sailor JW King earning three days' shore leave by putting on a solo performance for his commanding officer. We join him already in progress after two climaxes, with his captain (gay porn paterfamilias Fred Halsted) demanding a third. Despite claiming exhaustion, King eventually delivers, and soon finds himself ashore with a buddy, as well as a new recruit, Richie (Shaun Victors), that the two are charged with keeping an eye on.

Adventure begins by the beach, where Richie is forced to orally service a rude military guy he bumps into in a public restroom. Walking in on things, King and his compatriot turn the tables, forcing the military guy to service all three of them in a rough, degrading, and very hot scene.

Back outside, the three men bump into a guy who invites them to a house party in Venice. Hoping to score some easy action from the local women, the three make their way down but are disheartened to find an empty house under construction. Wandering around the job-site, they stumble upon a couple guys making love, and each ends up imagining his own erotic encounter in the house thereafter.

Back on the beach, Richie strips out of his uniform and down to his swim trunks, where he catches the eye of a guy (David Simons) wandering the shore. Eager to get his hands on Richie, Simons absconds with his clothes and draws Richie down into a tunnel off the beach. There, the two have a bout of passionate lovemaking that goes well beyond Richie earning back his blues.

Back on base, things close as they began, though it's Richie this time who's auditioning for shore leave, with Halsted doing a even more thorough job putting him through his paces…

Like a lot of gay porn from the golden age, THREE DAY PASS doesn't so much feature a plot as a succession of events evocative of a progression or transition. In this case, it's the fairly typical scenario of the young initiate being drawn into the world of forbidden (gay) pleasures by his more experienced peers. While all three sailors are coded as heterosexual at the outset, it's clear that their sexuality remains fluid, with Richie's compatriots easily adapting to circumstances when it comes time to administer payback for his rape by the military guy (a scene sure to raise PC heckles today, though arguably more realistic when one considers rape a crime of power rather than passion). By the film's end, Richie has further explored his sexuality both through fantasy (the Venice house encounter) as well as practically (the second session on the beach), and he concludes the film by symbolically taking the place of forebear JW King, now proving himself the experienced sexual being ready to usher in the next generation of recruits.

All theorizing aside, the make-or-break for films like this is generally the sex, and in this regard THREE DAY PASS more than satisfies. Encounters are well shot and lit throughout, and evince the same type of technical skill that made Eliot's work such an asset on productions like Joe Gage's KANSAS CITY TRUCKING CO. and EL PASO WRECKING CORP. While nothing else in the film comes close to the nasty frisson delivered by the early beach-side bathroom encounter, all the scenes in the movie are solid, with attractive and engaged participants and a professional sense of editing and flow. In this age of endlessly grinding video, capable of both recording and playing back nearly nonstop, it's easy to forget the skill and artistry needed to deliver a well-photographed and -edited sexual encounter on film. THREE DAY PASS serves as a potent and sexy reminder.

While it's a shame he didn't deliver more from the director's seat (IMDB credits only two other features), Nick Eliot still manages to satisfy on the basis of this outing, a near-perfect blend of playful storytelling and white-hot sexual chemistry. Well worth seeking out for both genre historians the lay porn fans alike, THREE DAY PASS is a sexy and skillfully directed sex flick that should satisfy all comers. Big props go to Eliot for delivering the goods - particularly with such effortlessly skillful style.