Part of an interesting 3-fer "behind the scenes" themed XXX movies issued by After Hours Cinema, HARD LUCK PAL had potential but instead settled for clichés. This look at the lowest rung of filmmaking proves unenlightening.

Michael Stearns, one of the few porn actors to have launched a fully legitimate TV career after starting literally at the bottom, plays film director Dan. Curious structure has almost an identical version of the opening scene, down to tiny details repeated at the end of the film in a different take to serve as bookends.

After a soft-core opening scene with fake blow job and no money shot Dan meets his friend Bill Good (soft porn veteran William Howard, familiar from Uschi Digard movies) at Hardon Productions headquarters. He's filming a hardcore movie and we see various XXX scenes shot, including a well-done Casey Larrain lesbian bondage exercise.

What we see is standard stuff, and the movie tries to be amusing by having a big shot (supposedly named Ruff Deal) in the screening room constantly complaining "Gotta have more sex!", with Dan obliging by shooting more footage for him.

As Dan's secretary and all-around sex object Fanny, Heather Starr gives the movie's best performance and certainly deserved better than her string of nothing roles in nothing porn films.