Bigtown

Probably figuring nobody would notice (at least not in the long run), porn auteur Anthony Spinelli experimented with the style and content of BIG TOWN. It still exists on DVD and is worth seeing, though I doubt if anyone other than myself is still interested.

It's a showcase for Jon Dough, more subtle in his acting than usual. He plays a bum, lying around in the alley of Big Town, and observing the seedier side of life. Clearly inspired by enduring classics like Maxim Gorky's THE LOWER DEPTHS, this video could easily be dismissed as just another porn package, but I was moved by the feeling and message, even though skeptical during most of the short feature.

Basically Dough, who also narrates, keeps waking up to find prostitutes (male and female), corrupt cops and other ne'er-do-wells in and around his alley home base, and like the porn audience, he is the voyeur fascinated with their behavior. This is no Margaret Mead documentary, but rather Spinelli has cast some hot XXX performers who deliver the goods.

Video opens with Dough fighting with a blonde hooker (who resembles Jennifer Jaon Leigh) over a bottle of wine. The scene turns comedic and then ends with anal sex as Dough gets to hump her. Next up he spies through a window on glamorous couple Celeste and Woody Long making love, with Spinelli using interesting camera angles and literally filling up the screen with Celeste's big breasts. Vignette ends with Woody sticking a dildo up Celeste's posterior, so it is clear that BIG TOWN is an anal-fest.

Another anal scene follows as cop Steve Hatcher humps another hooker in the alley. Comic relief is provided as Dough cannot stay awake when the hooker starts telling him her tale of woe.

Steven St. Croix as a male hooker humps Heather Lere and Dough is so bored that he sleeps through this scene (though I certainly didn't). Switch is that there is no anal even though the fabulous Latina Ms. Lere was a specialist in back-door action back in the '90s.

Beautiful blonde Tina Tyler shows up as Marilyn Monroe in the alley singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President", seemingly a figment of Dough's imagination (or are they in Hell?).. Dough sympathizes with her tragic fate and the video turns quite serious as he lapses into self-pity over his own wasted life. Poignant acting here by Tina trying to inspire him, culminates in them making love in the sordid surroundings. After Jon's money shot, fade up to him all alone again, chugging wine and looking forlorn.

That downbeat ending for a seemingly assembly-line porn programmer justifies my quest for little nuggets of quality in the endless morass of what is laughingly called "Adult Entertainment". I attended an Annette Insdorf lecture in which she used several classic film clip examples of movies whose introductory scene or shots encapsulate artistically the entire film and its themes: THE GRADUATE, FIGHT CLUB, American BEAUTY and THE SHIPPING NEWS. It was fascinating and quite enlightening, and I have found it useful in analysis, especially applied to the ending scenes of superior (or at least ambitious) porn films & videos.