Ed Wood Wednesdays, week 121: 'Love Making U.S.A.' (1971)

The respectable narrator of a not-so-respectable documentary.

I've been seeing the title in Ed Wood filmographies for years, but until very recently, I had not actually sat all the way through director Joe Robertson's 1971 sex documentary Love Making U.S.A. Why? Well, I guess I never found the movie particularly appetizing, since I knew it simply contained recycled footage from Love Feast (1969), an earlier collaboration between Robertson and Wood. But it was always there—an itch begging to be scratched. When I saw that Something Weird Video offered a download of the film for only $5.99, I took the plunge.

My background knowledge of Lovemaking U.S.A. was minimal. Philip R. Frey's The Hunt for Ed Wood referred to it as "a 'documentary' about the porn industry. There are scenes from early porn films, as well as footage of contemporary productions." David C. Hayes' Muddled Mind: The Complete Works of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (2001) had a vivid but somewhat misleading description: "This is a very, very sad period in Wood's life. The film is a XXX hardcore porn that stars John Holmes, Joe Robertson in drag and Ed. Luckily for everyone involved, Ed isn't naked... he just conducts 'sexy' on the street interviews." Neither Frey nor Hayes had claimed to see the film, but both were seeking a print for review.

The plain title card for Love Making U.S.A. 

Then there is Something Weird Video's own description of the film, written by porn blogger Prince Pervo. Since he definitely has seen the movie, Pervo's capsule review is more accurate: "Love Making U.S.A. isn't just another porn film," he writes. The critic explains the grab bag nature of the movie. It contains, among other things: a "prehistoric stag film" called A Free Ride (1915); some behind-the-scenes footage from Tomatoes (1970) (another Robinson film) with Anna Travers; a few minutes of John Holmes making love to the strains of Ravel's Bolero; and a documentary segment shot in Griffith Park at an event called Gay-In III. Pervo notes that director-producer Joe Robertson himself appears in this segment as "a tough gay-basher who turns out to be wearing nylons and high heels." As for the Ed Wood content in Love Making U.S.A., Pervo writes: "Then — surprise! — we watch the infamous Edward D. Wood, Jr. take pictures of smut-star Casey Lorrain [sic]!" 

Viewers will remember actress Casey Larrain from her roles in two Joe Robertson sexploitation flicks, the aforementioned Love Feast (aka The Photographer or Pretty Models All in a Row) and Nympho Cycler (aka Misty) (1971), both of which costarred Ed Wood. Casey is also one of the prostitutes at Madam Penny's Thrill Establishment in Ed Wood's Take It Out in Trade (1970). When she spoke to the authors of The Cinematic Misadventures of Ed Wood (2015), Casey stated that she had only worked with Ed once for "a week and a half to two weeks" and that the footage had been spread out over several films. "I only worked with him the once," she said, "but he apparently cut that footage up and used it in all kinds of different projects."

Reader Rob Huffman shares this anecdote about his meeting with Casey Larrain:

"When I spoke with Ms. Larrain, she thought Take It Out In Trade, Nympho Cycler, and Love Feast were are all one movie. Bear in mind she was thinking back 50+ years ago. She has specific memories of a screening of dailies for Nympho Cycler, though. She said Wood was there and he was indeed the director of the film. She did two hardcore scenes with [John] Holmes before calling it quits. Her whole approach to the films was that she was a hippie who was unashamed of her nudity. She knew she was attractive, and was already modeling. It was just a gig."

I cannot confirm that Love Feast, Nympho Cycler, and Take It Out in Trade were all shot at the same time, but the footage in Love Making U.S.A. is definitely recycled from Love Feast. Those of you who have seen that 1969 sex comedy will remember that Ed Wood portrays Mr. Murphy, a drunken sot who summons young women to his home by pretending to be a fashion photographer. Casey Larrain plays Linda, the very first model to show up at Murphy's doorstep, only to be steered into his bedroom.

Podcast Tuesday: "The Lap of Luxury"

Henry Winkler gets cozy with Morgan Freeman on Happy Days.

The makers of Happy Days could never have imagined, 40+ years ago, that their lighthearted program would one day be analyzed, dissected, and thoroughly scrutinized on something called the internet. But that's what ended up happening. Each week, my cohost and I review an episode of the nostalgic ABC sitcom on our podcast, These Days Are Ours. This week, for instance, we're talking about the episode "My Fair Fonzie" from November 1977. The plot has Fonzie (Henry Winkler) attempting to woo a snooty society dame named Cynthia (guest star Morgan Fairchild) and subsequently causing chaos at a stuffy yacht club party.

Enjoyable as the episode's main story is, however, I was even more intrigued by a scene at the end of the show in which middle-aged suburbanites Howard and Marion Cunningham (Tom Bosley and Marion Ross) snuggle on the couch. Just as they're about to kiss, their college-age son Richie (Ron Howard) comes bounding through the door with his steady girlfriend Lori Beth (Lynda Goodfiend). Richie and Lori Beth want the couch, but Howard sternly declares, "We were here first, Richard."

What makes the scene so intriguing is that we get a tantalizing glimpse of the Cunninghams' bookshelf. Thanks to some mischievous set decorators, there are some very, uh, intriguing titles in the living room of this supposedly wholesome Midwestern family. Let's see what we have here.

A bookshelf with some very adult titles on Happy Days.

Some Happy Days reading material.

Okay, first of all, this episode is supposedly taking place in 1959, and not one of these books would have been available back then. But that's the least of our concerns. Much more intriguing to me is the fact that the squeaky-clean Cunninghams have at least two, possibly even three copies of Summer in Sodom, a gay porn novel by Edwin Fey from 1964. I also spot at least two copies of Lou Rand's Rough Trade, another gay porn novel from 1964. The cover promises "handsome homosexuals on a rampaging orgy of gay lust." (It was originally published in 1960 as Gay Detective.)

And that's not all! Elsewhere on the bookshelf, we find The Erotic Revolution: An Affirmative View of the New Morality (1965) by Lawrence Lipton. ("With astonishing candor, author, essayist, and poet Lawrence Lipton presents a startling and unique report of sexual morality in America today.") If that's not enough, we have two nonfiction books about the sex industry. Dirty Helen (1966) is an autobiography by ex-madam Helen Worley Cromwell, who is said to have possessed "the dirtiest mouth in Milwaukee." Elsewhere on the shelf is Mr. Madam: Confessions of a Male Madam (1964) by Kevin Marlowe. Since the Cunningham family is depicted as being rather staid, I would imagine that these books were placed there by a naughty crew member.

Not everything is so racy. The Cunninghams also own a copy of John Huston: King Rebel (1965) by William F. Nolan, a biography of the maverick writer-director-actor. Success Is As Easy As ABCC (1968) by M.R. Kopmeyer is a standard self-help book that Howard might need in business. (For the record, "ABCC" stands for "Ask, Believe, Cooperate, Compliment.") The Vietnam-themed short story collection The Weary Falcon (1971) by Tom Mayer would offer Richie and his pals an upsetting glimpse of their own future. The Heron (1970) is the acclaimed final novel by Italian author and activist Giorgio Basani. The Cunninghams even dabble in the supernatural, as suggested by the presence of The World of the Twilight Believers (1970) by Richard M. Garvin and Robert F. Burger.

There's just no telling what you can find in a classic sitcom if you can freeze the frame and zoom in on the image. What else did we find in "My Fair Fonzie"? Listen and find out!

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 13 by Greg Dziawer

Ed Wood hoped to clean up in the adult film business.

Over the last few years, Edward D. Wood, Jr.'s involvement in the porn industry has been increasingly well documented, and more of his adults-only material has come to light. Outside of his pornographic features, such as Necromania (1971) and The Young Marrieds (1972), Ed is most closely associated with the original Swedish Erotica loops that were first released circa 1973. But even Ed's dedicated fans may not know that he continued to work on silent X-rated loops throughout the 1970s, well after that first wave of Swedish Erotica titles.

These short erotic films still intrigue me. They were produced by Noel Bloom, son of Bernie Bloom, Ed Wood's boss at Pendulum Publishing. Eddie wrote a wide array of magazine texts for Pendulum during the '60s and '70s, and this led directly to him working on Noel's X-rated films.

It's likely that, by the mid-1970s, the erratic, hard-drinking Ed was no longer working on set. However, as I've surmised over and over in previous articles, he continued writing box cover summaries and subtitles for Noel Bloom's loops right up until his passing in 1978. These summaries and subtitles contain textual elements that are highly consistent with Ed's overall writing style. I'm constantly experiencing déjà vu while watching these loops. (And writing these articles, for that matter.)

As an example of what I've been discussing, I transcribed the subtitles from Swedish Erotica loop #92, "Bubble Bath." Did Ed Wood write these lines? I say yes, but draw your own conclusions.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Odyssey, Part 11 by Greg Dziawer

Who's that portraying a Mexican jailer in a '70s porn loop? You know who.

Ed in a sombrero.

Rudolph Grey's 1992 book Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.  alerted the world to Eddie's participation in a 1970s pornographic loop in which he played a Mexican jailer, complete with "a dildo and a big sombrero." That intriguing film, identified by Grey only as The Jailer, seemed to have been lost to time. But readers of this column will remember that I screened and reviewed a copy of the obscure loop under the title Prisoners Lovemaking (aka Prisoner Love Making) back in August of 2017. The video was blurry and black-and-white, but it was an important part of Ed Wood history nevertheless.

If you'd asked me, even a week ago, if an original, full-color 16mm master of Prisoners Lovemaking would ever show up, I would likely have waived my hand at you and scoffed. Not that I am an asshole by nature, but such an event would have seemed immensely unlikely to me.

But then, last Friday night after work, I sat down at my computer, cracked open a beer, and relaxed. No sooner was my butt warm than I went to one of my favorite places, a private Ed Wood forum on Facebook, and saw that a miracle had occurred earlier that afternoon. A new member to the group, a movie fan and collector from Oregon, announced that he'd come into possession of a high-quality 16mm print of Prisoners Lovemaking. But how?

This collector graciously allowed me to share his incredible story here:

I bought this years ago for $1. I watched it once, set it on a shelf, and didn't make the Ed Wood connection until reading a piece by Will Sloan a few months back. Even then, I thought it was such a long shot that I didn't take the film out and give it another look until today. It's fate, I tells ya!

I'd actually already read your article today and loved it. I was a wee bit sad to find that the film had [already] surfaced online, but I felt better when I saw the other print. The copy I have is 16mm, in color and super-crisp. It looks great.

I bought this with a bunch of other films and was really looking more for more tame burlesque things, cheesecake reels, etc. I'd always wondered about the very remote possibility that Ed Wood might have been involved in some of these things, mainly because I believe one of them was put out by [Ed Wood's employer] Pendulum. It was set on an airplane, if I remember correctly. Mainly, I'm blown away by the weirdness of this happening. I mean, this thing had to be found by someone who had some interest in Ed Wood, had to live in Portland, had to have read articles by folks like you, etc., etc. The stars lined up or something.

I live in Portland, OR where we've always had our fair share of strip joints and adult bookstores. The place where I found this has since been demolished, but for most of my time in Portland, there was an especially terrifying porn shop downtown called Cindy's—The Adult Bookstore. So, years ago, maybe in the late '90s or early 2000s, I began to wonder if there was any chance that a store such as Cindy's would have any of its old 8mm stag films lying around. It didn't seem likely, but I was buying/selling a lot on Ebay at the time, and I was up for finding any type of collectible. 

The infamous Cindy's, once a landmark in Portland.

Also, I had bought a few 8mm films from an older gentleman who used to show up at antique shows in town. I'd picked up some older cheesecake/burlesque films from him: one by Russ Meyer, a Bettie Page film. Good stuff at amazing prices. So I knew that some of this stuff was out there.

So I convinced a friend to go with me to Cindy's but really expected nothing more than a sketchy experience. We walked in one night to find a crummy, low-rent joint with a grubby floor, too much light, and a scary biker-type guy working the counter. It smelled like Pine-Sol. Completely old school. But to my absolute amazement, sitting on the racks among the modern sex mags and DVDs were rows and rows of 8mm and Super 8 films. And they were priced at $1 each. 

A familiar smell.

I tried to play it cool and not come off as too excited, and I asked the scary biker guy if they were really a dollar each. He said they were. This was mostly your basic stuff—plenty of Swedish Erotica and lesser-known series. The biker guy was actually friendly enough, and when I asked him if they had any more, he said, "We got boxes of 'em in the back. You can look if you want." So why not? If you're invited to go to the back room of a terrifying porn shop, you can't really say no.

He took me and my pal to the back room where there were indeed boxes of old films. I began to go through them and spent maybe 10 minutes digging through and choosing things that looked interesting. I snapped up any burlesque stuff I found—not much—but really grabbed anything that looked interesting or collectible. The cheaply packaged films in white boxes with just a color photo glued onto the front. Super 8 films with sound. One from Pendulum specifically because I knew of the Ed Wood connection. There were just a few 16mm films, so I grabbed some of those, too.

So I took home my big box of films and began screening them, one by one. Nothing against the full-on porn stuff, but I was a little uncomfortable selling it on Ebay. I did sell quite a few of these things, but I just stashed several away and figured I'd sell them or toss them eventually. But one film that stood out just a little was the one set in a prison with a jailer wearing a very tall sombrero. I thought about selling it but just never got around to it, honestly. It sat in a box for years.

Then, just a few months ago, I was reading a little about Ed Wood online. I'd always wondered if he'd directed the Pendulum film I'd found. I didn't find any reference to that, but I did learn how involved he'd been with Swedish Erotica. I'd probably owned and sold films he made without even knowing it. But the bit I read that really caught my attention had to do with a lost film in which Ed played a Mexican jailer. I wondered if there was any chance that it could be the film I had, but considered it an extreme long shot. I figured I'd give it a look at some point, but it was months before I even bothered to take it out and screen it.

So that's the story! As I mentioned before, it's a miracle that this thing didn't end up in a dumpster by the early '80s, and I have no idea why it made its way to an adult bookstore in Portland. I'd bet that companies that made these films just didn't know what to do with their masters after a while other than to sell them off or throw them away.

I did go back to Cindy's a few times, so I made a fairly good haul. But the majority of the films I found were really just the sleazy version of white elephants. There are plenty to go around for collectors, and there seem to be very few of any real historical or monetary value. I knew that some of these were good finds but that most weren't. I also wasn't keen on having boxes of this stuff sitting around my house. And honestly, I did feel a bit unclean about going into Cindy's. Even by scuzzy old porn store standards, it was a scary hellhole of a place.

One of the last times I went there, the terrifying biker guy behind the counter informed me that someone had died there that day—some junkie shooting up in one of the booths. Note that I said it was "one of the last times." A really good find keeps you coming back well beyond the point of reason.

Quite a saga, don't you agree?

Interestingly, this rare loop is extant in two versions, both sourced from 8mm. One is in color, the opening loop in a VHS compilation from 1985, a treasure-trove of Cinema Classics loops very likely directed by Ed Wood. The other was drained of color, almost sepia-toned, and likely from a B&W source, also on a VHS-era comp. The loops were commonly sold in both color—fifty bucks, no drop in the bucket in the early '70s—and a more affordable B&W version. They were originally shot in color 16mm.

The discovery of this 16mm master of Prisoners Lovemaking promises to shine a new light on Woodology, and I'm confident my new friend from Oregon will diligently shepherd the film into accessibility at the highest quality by today's standards. The color and detail we'll see will finally and firmly ensconce Ed Wood in the world of early '70s West Coast porn loops, more vividly than I ever imagined.

Next: We'll delve into the VHS compilations in which Prisoners Lovemaking previously appeared and detail the Pendulum magazine photo feature with text accompaniment by Ed Wood that ran concurrent to the loop's original release. Yes, you read that right.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Magazine Odyssey, Part 17 by Greg Javer

Don't be like Judge Clara here. Reserve those judgments.

(top) Swedish Erotica (bottom) Ed Wood, 1978.

Inevitably, every few months, I find myself revisiting the many creative outlets that Edward D. Wood, Jr. pursued throughout his life. First and foremost are his early feature films, allegedly the "worst" of their kind ever made (i.e. Plan 9 from Outer Space, Bride of the Monster, and the like). Then there are Eddie's later X-rated flicks, first softcore and later hardcore. His writing career for adult magazines—including short stories, articles, editorials, photo captions, and pictorial texts—followed the same basic trajectory as his film career, with his work becoming more graphic and less personal over time. Once hardcore pornography achieved mainstream popularity circa 1972, Ed spent his remaining years producing sexually explicit material for that market.

Since I inherited this series three years ago, I have been loathe to make any unfounded Ed-tributions of my own. And yet, increasingly, I find myself scratching my head and wondering, "Could Ed Wood have written this? It sounds like him. Just how ubiquitous was this guy? I know he was insanely prolific, but just how prolific?" 

By the latter half of the 1970s, hardcore magazines had largely dropped any pretense of respectability and were simply publishing gynecological photos in close-up. Such publications had obsolesced earlier, more traditional adult magazines, which still copied the appearance of more orthodox periodicals with their mix of stories, articles, photos, texts, and ads.

By 1978, the year Ed Wood died, the multimedia Swedish Erotica brand for which he often worked had established itself as one of the most recognizable forces in the adult industry. It wasn't a Swedish company, of course; its roots were strictly in Hollywood, stretching back to the late 1960s. Eddie started writing for a Los Angeles-based company called Pendulum Publishers when it launched in 1968. Pendulum operated under a variety of imprints throughout the early 1970s, including Calga, Gallery Press, and Edusex. Under the banner of Cinema Classics, the company diversified into films, making occasional features like 1972's The Young Marrieds, written and directed by Ed Wood, and hundreds upon hundreds of silent 8mm porn loops. Many of these loops had subtitles written by Ed, and the extent of his likely participation in multiple creative functions on these films is not yet fully known.

Circa 1972, the company launched the Swedish Erotica series of loops that would become the flagship of the enterprise. By 1978, entries in this seemingly endless series often served a dual purpose, with images from the loops and other on-set stills filling the pages of glossy color magazines. One such publication, a Swedish Erotica "film review magazine," caught my eye recently. While it's undated, certain details within it lead me to conjecture that it was published in 1979. Ed Wood had recently passed by then, of course, but we now know that Eddie was cashing checks signed by Art Publishers, Inc—the company name under which Swedish Erotica was doing business—as late as 1978.

Swedish Erotica Film Review Magazine, Vol. 11 includes a pro-pornography editorial that, against my better inclinations, I surmise was written by Edward D. Wood, Jr. An "Ed-itorial," if you will. The tolerant tone of the article was, by the late 1970s, old hat. Overall, it reflects the "judge ye not" philosophy from Ed's 1953 film, Glen or Glenda, that foundational stone of Woodology for all us obsessives. The article's heavy use of ellipses is certainly characteristic of Ed Wood's writing.

Is this editorial an Ed-itorial? Read for yourself!

Compare the above to the disclaimer at the beginning of Glen or Glenda. Note the numerous, oddly placed pauses and the slightly stilted tone.

A disclaimer from Glen or Glenda.

Connie and her scarf.

The rest of the issue consists of images culled from numerous Swedish Erotica loops, accompanied by occasional text. The first article is a lengthy feature with images culled from Swedish Erotica loop #1115, "Hot, Black Soul." The action centers around an interracial threesome, consisting of two male "blacks," dubbed Captain and Taxes, and a white female identified as Connie. This is Connie Peterson, then a porn starlet. Notably, she's donning a pink neck-scarf, a staple of the Swedish Erotica brand.

The text reeks of Ed Wood in his latter years. It's thick with graphic sexual detail, while also evincing Eddie's self-imploding syntax and peculiar stream of consciousness, somehow stuttering and breathless at the same time. The text also includes some of the highly unique keywords that turn up often in Ed's adult texts, such as "jollies" and "stabbing."

Here are some choice excerpts from "Hot, Black Soul." The satisfied "Ummmmmmmmm" that emanates from Connie is a direct quote from the subtitles of the original loop. In that sixth and final clipping on the right, meanwhile, you'll find both "jollies" and "stabbing."

Excerpts from "Hot, Black Soul."

The magazine concludes with three brief photo features promoting three other Swedish Erotica loops. The accompanying capsule texts here are also suggestive of Ed's voice, but this is admittedly a stretch. If they are Eddie's work, however, they could be of great historical significance. Could these have been among the last published words by Edward D. Wood, Jr., perhaps printed shortly after his passing?

Did Ed Wood write this capsule summary?

What do you think?

For those who want to explore this subject further, the entire issue of Swedish Erotica Film Review Magazine, Vol. 11 is here.

Ed Wood Wednesdays: The Wood Loop Orbit, Part Eight by Greg Dziawer

John Holmes and a buddy in the 1974 loop Pier Passion.

The essential shape of Edward D. Wood Jr’s involvement in the murky world of 8mm porn loops of the 1970’s runs as follows:

- Ed wrote subtitles, per anecdote in Rudolph Grey’s Nightmare of Ecstasy, for 8mm porn loops produced by Noel Bloom, son of Ed’s boss in his work as a magazine staffer. For a variety of imprints run by Bernie Bloom from the late ‘60s through the mid-'70s and beyond, Ed wrote short stories, texts accompanying pictorials, articles, editorials, photo captions. Any and everything, and he wrote at a pace equaling the total output of the other three or four writers on staff at any given time.

Beyond subtitling the loops, I believe Ed also wrote box-cover summaries (aggregated into catalog inserts included with individual loops). The general consensus among Woodologists remains that Ed “made” the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops. Those quotes are mine, loosely Ed-tributing to him the status as creative principle (i.e. director/writer/editor/cinematographer?) of those loops, and by reasonable inference, hundreds of others across dozens of other loop series. 

- Ed worked for Bernie and Noel Bloom for the better part of the last decade of his life, right up until the summer before he passed, in December of 1978. He left behind a hand-written resume which listed over 700 “short picture subjects” from 1971 through 1973. Some pages list a total number of minutes in the upper corner, and those totals correspond to the number of loops listed for that year times eight, as in eight minutes (the approximate length of the typical loop). 

- Ed worked in the field of loops, in other words, without a doubt. But in what capacity? That remains uncertain. In the hopes that the truth will reveal itself to me, I continue transcribing the subtitles of Bloom-family loops. As the pair comes close on the heels of the fabled first 19 Swedish Erotica loops, we’re focusing this week on the two-parter Pier Passion, starring none other than John Holmes. 

PIER PASSION

Swedish Erotica Loop #20 circa 1974

Credits: 

Art Director: Hilary Louis

Set Decorator: Davis Marsh

Script Supervisor: Carl Albert

Technical Coordinator: Jamie Wright

Casting: Stephanie George

Produced and Directed by Don A. Sweet and M.P. Ronaldo 

Two blondes on the pier, walking into and away from the camera as the credits conclude.

Blonde 1 (in tight black shorts and top): LET’S PLAY SOME GAMES…

John Holmes happens to be walking the pier, with his buddy. 

John: HEY, LOOK AT THAT!

He’s referring to the girls, who are playing a game, and they know it. 

Blonde 1: THESE TWO GUYS ARE WATCHING US. 

The girls approach the guys. 

John: HI, THERE!

The couples immediately pair off, John’s buddy walking off with Blonde 1, the two never to be seen again in this pair of loops. It’s a shame, as she’s played by the awesome Saundra/Brigitte, who appeared in a small number of Bloom-family loops for a short period of time circa 1973-1974.  

John: SEE YOU LATER.

John and his girl walk into the camera, as we dissolve to an overhead shot of a mattress lying right on the floor, on a shag rug. The foot of the bed is adorned with a fuzzy red blanket, and the back wall of the room behind the bed is entirely curtained. No, we are not watching Twin Peaks. We’re on a highly characteristic set, familiar in its essentials from hundreds of other Bloom-family loops. 

John and Blonde 2 enter the set.

John: WILD BODY!

John undresses her down to a white bra and black panties, stockings and garter. Once again, John Holmes seems to be in possession of some sort of magical power. In this case, we don’t even get a sinlge line of dialogue devoted to a come-on. It’s not needed, of course, in the purest sense of this sort of male porn fantasy. 

Blonde 2: OHH!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHH!!!!

Foreplay. John goes down, and she returns the favor. 

Blonde 2: UMMM!!!

Dissolve edits as she services John orally, in close-ups. She wears an elaborate necklace. We have not yet arrived at the colored chiffon neckscarf, perhaps the signature of the endless Swedish Erotica series. 

John: Let’s do 69!

And so they do, now five minutes into the loop and still engaged in foreplay. 

Blonde 2: UMMM!!!

John: I’M BIG. LET ME GREASE YOU UP!

A ubiquitous prop in the Bloom-family of loops, John breaks out a large jar of Vaseline and scoops his fingers into it. (See also Swedish Erotica loop #7 Park Lovers for same.)

Blonde 2: OH, THAT FEELS SOO WARM!

Guess what happens next?

Blonde 2: PUT IT IN, BUT BE GENTLE!

Blonde 2: OH!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHH! FUCK ME! FUCK ME!

The first part of Pier Passion ends without a climax (in the version reviewed here), the sex entirely vaginal, setting the stage for the follow-up all-anal finale. 

The onscreen title, as with other Holmes two-parters early on in the Swedish Erotica series:

PIER PASSION (CONTINUED FROM PART I)

Swedish Erotica loop #21 circa 1974

Although there are no credits on the version I reviewed, being a continuation of the sex scene from the first ensures it was made by the same folks. Unlike the first loop, which has an inordinate amount of narrative and sexual buildup, we begin here with a quick montage derived from the first loop, and then immediately fall into anal sex. 

Blonde 2: BE CAREFUL, IT IS GOING TO HURT.

Blonde 2: AHHH! TAKE IT OUT. 

Blonde 2: IT HURTS! IT HURTS!

This is very characteristic territory in the larger realm of Bloom-family loops. (See again Park Lovers, for near verbatim lines.)

Blonde 2: OHH!!!  

The inevitable - and in this case near-immediate - turnabout (i.e. the warped male rape-fantasy, a staple of porn then, before and since).

Blonde 2: OH, IT HURTS SOOO GOOD!

Blonde 2: PUT IT IN!

Dissolve edits…graphic anal sex close-ups. 

Blonde 2: OH, DEEPER! DEEPER!

John: ON YOUR KNEES.

Blonde 2: FUCK MY ASS!!!!

Blonde 2: AHHHH!!!

Blonde 2: OH, THAT’S GOOD!!!

The remainder consists of anal sex, John coaxing his massive tool deeper into Blonde’s 2’s ass, as she claws at the blanket in cutaways. 

Blonde 2: FUCK MY MOUTH.

John: EAT IT UP.

We finally get the money shot we were denied in part one. 

John: LET ME WASH IT OFF.

Holmes. Always the gentleman….

Don A. Sweet and M.P. Ronaldo are credited as the producer/director of numerous Swedish Erotica loops of this era (including another two-parter, Horny Dreams, Swedish Erotica loops #30 and #31). 

John Holmes’ hair is starting to get frizzy, and his body starting to mature past it’s gawky stage. This is circa 1974, Pier Passion running concurrent to series including Blazing Films and John’s Girls. The artistic tropes, the set decorations, the editing, the performers…all of it is highly consistent across these and many other series, and the credits here (though likely pseudonyms) are clues to the creative principles responsible for the larger body of loops produced by Noel Bloom.  

It is evident though – in both Holmes’ appearance and the set decorations in those loops that correspond with decorations in the Wood-directed-and-written features Necromania and The Young Marrieds – that the first 19 Swedish Erotica loops were made perhaps a year or so prior to Pier Passion. (A fellow Woodologolist has an 8mm copy of the first loop in the series, The Virgin Next Door, carrying a 1973 copyright.)

Saundra/Brigitte, although she quickly disappears from Pier Passion at the outset of the first loop, connects together a clutch of loops. She is listed on box-cover summaries or in loop subtitles under these two names, but beyond her handful of appearances in the Bloom-family loops, nothing seems to be known of her. Although they are dressed differently, and it is in no way meant to be a continuation from Pier Passion, Saundra/Brigitte does feature in a loop with the same man as here playing John’s buddy. In BLAZING FILMS loop #8 Turning Him On (also released overseas by Color Climax as Exciting Film No 936, Housewife Pranks). Saundra/Brigitte makes a glass of orange juice, and her boyfriend comes over. They retire briefly to the same curtained room as the one in Pier Passion, although the rest of the set is entirely redressed, before heading back downstairs to have sex. Subtitled sex, repeating verbatim lines from scads of other Bloom-family loops. The Color Climax version from 1977 has no subs, and is dubbed into German. 

Back to Pier Passion. It, too, would turn up in 1977 in an interesting variant. Color Climax of Copenhagen was one of the world’s largest distributors of loops, and Noel Bloom would often release Color Climax films in stateside versions (yes, Ed subtitled silent Color Climax loops). On their Expo Films label, Color Climax released Pier Passion in a re-edit, and possibly containing some new footage. The re-editing consists of paring the meeting at the pier at the start down to bare essentials, then cutting right into the sex scene. The second part of Pier Passion as released by Swedish Erotica kicks in less than halfway thru Big Backdoor Boy (Expo Film No. 82), fitting (or perhaps barely or not), given the title.  

It has been shorn of subtitles, and the audio consists of dubbed German. It’s fascinating to see a film shot silent turn dubbed into another language, especially one released silent with subtitles in its original tongue. Most intriguing, the final subtitle of the second part of Pier Passion in the 8mm subtitled Swedish Erotica release version takes on a very different meaning. The version I reviewed of part two of the Swedish Erotica loop ends with John pulling his partner up off of the bed and we fade to black. In the foreign release-version, we cut to a shower, the girl on her knees in front of John, who pees into her mouth. The camera cuts close in on her, over the course of a mere twelve seconds, and THE END graphic appears (in a characteristic font for the US Swedish Erotica loops) as we fade to black, John “washing it off” per the subtitled version. 

So what’s going on here? This kinky twist at the end would not have been all that shocking circa 1974 in a hardcore loop. In all likelihood, I surmise (especially given the style of THE END graphic) that the version of part two that I reviewed was cut somewhere along the way. (Source: Blue Vanities Peepshow Loops 1970’s Vol 15, released on VHS in 1988.) 

The credits of Pier Passion remain a mystery. I have numerous speculations about a few of the creative principles likely involved, but it would run against my loathing of reckless mis-Ed-tributions to start making claims of collaboration without at least a reasonable inference. Allow me, though, this one stretch: I know more than a few devoted Woodologists who feel strongly that Ed Wood was involved in the set decoration of Necromania and The Young Marrieds, and by reasonable inference, the myriad Bloom-family loops across dozens of series. I increasingly agree with this viewpoint. The set decorator credited on Pier Passion is Davis Marsh. Davis, of course, is Ed’s middle name. I told you it was a stretch. 

By 1974, the Bloom-family of loops were beginning to crystallize into what would remain the flagship label of the Caballero Control Corp enterprise, one of the first and most durable porn behemoths. It’s intriguing to know Ed was there, working prolifically in various capacities, but the exact nature of his work in loops still remains elusive. 

We will overview the mysterious Saundra in a future Ed Wood Wednesday, a collaborator of Ed’s in that every line of dialogue she ever “spoke” on screen may very well have been written by Ed. We’ll delve deeper into the Bloom/Color Climax collaboration. And we’ll return to the Swedish Erotica series of loops. Subtitled 8mm versions of the loops continued past the first hundred and fifty loops, all betraying the same hand of authorship. 

Edward D. Wood, Jr.