Through the Looking Glass

This psychedelic 70's porn movie is stylish and oddly compelling, but still I can't bring myself to be as enthusiast as my fellow reviewers around here. Maybe I just anticipated a little more horror-elements or maybe I got a too upset because director Jonas Middleton presents a beautiful package but can't really hide the fact that there's very little in it. "Through the Looking Glass" is definitely the most ambitious porno movie of the overall rancid 70's offer, as it introduces a high social class family of three, living in a secluded mansion with a house staff. It seems like Catherine has it all made, including youthful beauty and wealth, but sexually speaking she's an extremely frustrated and unsatisfied woman. During her long and lonely days (and nights) alone in the house, Catherine goes to the attic to masturbate in front of the ancient mirror that reminds her of the childhood years with her father. Whether imaginary or supernaturally, the mirror 'sucks' Catherine into a dreamy dimension where she encounters the weirdest and most perverted sexual situations. There aren't any taboos on the other side of the possessed mirror, as Catherine descents in a world of lesbian sex, outrageous Roman-like orgies and even incestuous reunions with her horny father. As the title implies, this film is indeed an adult variation on the world famous story "Alice in Wonderland", but not nearly as demented or extreme as I had hoped. Sure Middleton hints at all the controversial themes, but there are never any genuinely shocking images on screen. The film does, however, feature some dared camera-work and several ingenious shots, like for example extreme close ups of female genitalia and even a journey into the lower body of the main starlet. Although elegantly photographed, the hardcore scenes quickly get tedious and, sadly enough, Catherine Burgess is the ONLY lady attractive enough to sexually arouse the male viewers. The other women look very random and their emotionless performances are a huge turn-off. The music is fantastic alas underused.

The 1970s "porno chic" must've truly been a "Golden Age of Porn;" 1976 alone witnessed two such features partially inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice books, and they're both preferable to some of the smut that passed for mainstream adaptations of the children's literature during the same period. Sure, there's no pornographic sex in the books, but neither are there bubbly characters breaking into mostly dull song and dance numbers every few minutes. The other Alice porno of 1976, "Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical" contains both and, thus, is something of a perverse Disney-esque production. "Through the Looking Glass," on the other hand, is actually rather intelligent--so is even some of the hardcore sex. Although it takes its title from the second Alice book, this film isn't an explicit Carrollian adaptation, with themes of incest, a Dantean Inferno, and old-dark-house tropes that have nothing to do with Alice. Yet, all of this is engaged through the mirror, along with other hints of references to Carroll's texts, and manages to interpret the books in one of the usual more competent ways, as a parable for growing up.

In this case, initiation to adulthood is mixed up with fatherly molestation and rape, but other than that it's not an inept interpretation of the text. Plus, this patriarchal system is congruent with the picture's aestheticizing of the male gaze (as theoreticized by the likes of Laura Mulvey). It reminds me of another Alice-adjacent film from the same period, Claude Chabrol's "Alice or the Last Escapade" (1977), which also features a female protagonist who thoroughly internalizes the male gaze, goes through glass (in Chabrol's case, a broken car window) and occupies a haunted house with a locked door to the supernatural in what is, overall, an exploitative, if not misogynist, exercise in filmmaking. The door and key business here, along with the mirror, recalls the Alice books. And, to underscore, the importance of the architecture in this one, the husband is an architect, and the protagonist Catherine is haunted from growing up in the house--retreating to the attic behind the door to relive those memories beside the mirror and other objects of her upbringing.

Besides the door and key, as well as a clock motif, another possible subtle callback to the first book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," takes place at the beginning, where Catharine's chauffeur informs her that she's running late--in this case, for her and hubby's dinner date with another couple. On their way home, too, we see her daughter, Jennifer, running beside the car. Wearing blue-and-white dresses throughout most of the proceedings, Jennifer here is the new dream-child, the Alice. Catherine even mentions that Jennifer is starring in a school play in the same role she once occupied--perhaps, it's the role of Alice in a staging of Carroll's books.

As for the male gaze, it's arguably even more the traditional foundation of pornography than it is mainstream or Hollywood cinema, with a camera's gaze based on the presumed male spectator for looking upon the female body. Here, we get the mirror, which is already strongly associative with movies, of reflecting ghosts upon a surface. This mirror that Catherine masturbates in front of--or, "looking-glass vagina," to borrow Nina Auerbach's phrasing (as cited in "Alice in Pornoland: Hardcore Encounters with the Victorian Gothic" by Laura Helen Marks)--is not associated with her narcissism so much as it is with her dead father's gaze. Speaking of a "phallic camera," one of the most apt coitus encounters here begins with a focus on the father's penis, including in the form of a tracking shot, as he exits the mirror to attack his daughter. Aside from the graphic nudity and sex, with the monster threatening the heroine and a storm outside blowing through the attic's open window, it's the kind of filmmaking one would expect from classical cinema.

Not everything works, though. The incestuously complementary subplot of the brother-and-sister servants isn't developed any further than needed to establish another fellatio scene. The fantasy sequence resembling a pornographic mad tea party (although, it's really more of a banquet or picnic serving as an excuse for an orgy), while it includes a doppelgänger, is otherwise weighed down by the orgic excess. One shot that looks to be from a colonoscopy-like medical camera is arguably too obscene of a double entendre of Alice and the "rabbit hole" even for a porno. But, then, there are scenes such as the adroit combination of sex scene and old-dark-house, stormy-night imagery aforementioned; or some decent cutting for Catherine's conversation with herself, internalizing her father's gaze in front of the looking-glass; and, to top it off, that Dantean finale that is as good a horror-film nightmare as can be found in much of cinema in general.

"Through the Looking Glass" tells the story of a very rich lady named Catherine who has it all:a beautiful villa,a nice husband,a cute little daughter,but sexually she is unfulfilled.As she spends another evening naked in front of her mirror,she discovers its a gateway to another dimension. In this new world she gets to live all her sexual desires but ends up in a kind of hell she can't get back out of."Through the Looking Glass" is a classic piece of hard core porn.It's superbly acted,lovingly decadent and features plenty of hot porno sequences.The blow job scene between Catherine's Maid and chauffeur is especially notable as is the first encounter between demon and Catherine.Catherine's hallucination of her younger self and her Father is a taboo-breaking but wonderfully erotic sequence where she slowly undresses for her Father,before the same ornate mirror,while he teachers her to masturbate before finally ejaculating into her mouth.The perverse climax,which takes place in desert Hell,truly has to be seen to be believed.Overall,"Through the Looking Class" is a treat for fans of surreal and bizarre cinema.It's also one of the most powerful porno films I have ever seen.10 out of 10.I can't praise it enough.

It would seem that there is more to porn flicks than merely sex, as many of the best examples of the genre blend in other themes, and the resulting film is often more erotic. Through the Looking Glass is surely one of the best 'themed' porno movies from the seventies, and this film manages to blend in a strong fantasy undercurrent with hardcore pornography, and while there still isn't a great deal of substance; director Jonas Middleton does well in creating a fantasy atmosphere that holds intrigue while there isn't any sex going on; and not every porn film has that going for it. The main inspiration seems to be 'Alice in Wonderland', and we follow a rich socialite named Catherine as she is shown a world rich with wanton sex. She's devastated after the death of her father, and decides to console herself by masturbating in front of a mirror in the attic. This summons the ghost of her father, who quickly goes awry, and ends up taking her through the mirror. The land beyond the mirror is an alternate reality where sex rules and nobody really cares about anything else...

The main standout of this movie, for me at least, actually wasn't the sex; but rather the beautiful dreamy visuals that Jonas Middleton delights in portraying. The fact that the classic story of Alice in Wonderland was an influence is always evident, as Middleton creates his own 'wonderland', although here there's far more perversion. Naturally, there's a heavy amount of sex and the film doesn't exactly hold back, as we get full on nudity from both genders. The sex is, perhaps, not as dirty as that seen in some other smut films from the same period; but I'm pretty sure that it will satisfy any fan of hardcore porn. You can't expect great acting from a film like this, but the performances here are actually a cut above most porn films. Catherine Burgess suffices both as an actress and a beautiful woman, and makes a good lead for the film for both reasons. She is joined by prolific porn star Jamie Gillis, and they get on well with the rest of the cast. Overall, this is not merely another trashy seventies porn movie. Jonas Middleton's film is a cut above most porn and therefore comes highly recommended!

Gothic-horror fantasy in which wealthy but inhibited heiress Burgess finds a portal into a nether world where her repressed desire to escape an insipid marriage is inveigled by perverted temptations she's drawn to experience, but may suffer double jeopardy from which there's no return.

There's always a question as to whether it's hardcore-horror or vice versa (like the typical refrain is J-Lo a singing actress or an acting singer), and this nightmarish, slightly surreal tale probably could be toned down for a mainstream release and likely wouldn't be diminished in a redacted format (although the ending might arguably lose its lurid impact).

Except for not looking old enough to have teenage progeny, Burgess virtually satisfies the physical requirements of the role, her acting on the other hand isn't quite as outstanding; Gillis too fulfils his primary function (multiple times) without this rare dramatic performance belying his regular sweaty day job at which he was still obviously at the top of his game when this was made in '75.

Memorable/ uncomfortable moments include the garishly wild Mad Hatter's tea party which descends into a bawdy body buffet of debauchery, and then later on Gillis and Steen's characters practicing sordid Jack 'n Jill manoeuvres should temporarily ruffle one's moral fibres. That grubby little dream sequence is approx two-thirds in (no pun intended) and so if you don't like what's unfolding, there's still time to punch-out before things get really hectic. Forewarned is forearmed.

Memorable as those moments are, they're really mere support acts though to the film's piece-de-resistance, and Burgess's final foray through the looking glass, discovering what it really means to give into temptation, proving perhaps the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Stylish sets, costumes, soundtrack and cinematography make all the difference but by no means do those elements articulate a masterpiece. Coherent and captivating it may be, it's still a hardcore-horror (whichever way you choose to view it) and so being both forewarned and open-minded is a necessity to hopefully be entertained and not disappointed by this unique movie experience.