1974: claire james and tessie lynn in “fantasy girls”

title: fantasy girls, scene 4

performers: claire james, tessie lynn
production credits: alex derenzy (dir., scr.), bill westwick (ed.), sam hall (strk.)
studio: good times productions | running time: 8:53
release date: 1974 | purchase

claire james, tessie lynn

the perfect pleasantness of fantasy girls has been disappointing for some alex derenzy fans who were expecting the satirical outrageousness of his most famous work, but there's a sly utopian quality to it that rewards attention. the basic premise is that it follows the female staff of a sensual massage parlor in san francisco as they satisfy their clientele both on location and on house calls. of course all the massage is, as is ubiquitous in porn, merely a prelude to sex, but i would not have guessed the genre started so early. following the humdrum, workaday life of sex workers, as everyone but the most naive clients assumes them to be, is quietly revolutionary for 1974, a year in which most porn was still being sold on scandal, shock and deviancy.

the scene we're concerned with here is even sweeter still: not a masseuse/client scene, but two masseuses spending the night together. claire james plays the head of the parlor, and tessie lynn is one of her employees. both women have very few other credits (san francisco's day as a porn mecca was short-lived), but they're both extremely appealing in an unstudied way (tessie refering to herself as a "filipino love kitten," though patently scripted, is adorably delivered). their easy chemistry as they banter about tessie's astrological foresight and gossip about their co-workers while swimming (with a full face of makeup) after work is, though brief, enough of a foundation for the surprisingly hardcore sex, which almost exclusively involves a double-ended dildo.

but it's the brief post-sex sequence, in which they walk down the steps of union square towards geary and powell, that really completes the scene for me; casual conversation, a public kiss goodbye, and they go their separate ways. even in san francisco, two women kissing on the street was still unusual enough to be daring in 1974, but in derenzy's liberated utopia all is well.

the only other girl/girl scene in the movie also includes claire, as she accepts a female client who had mistaken the business for an ordinary massage parlor and was about to be shown the door: a young bonnie holiday's tremulous initiation into manual love is just as winning and certainly more sensual than the claire–tessie hook-up, but my usual standard of giving precedence to women of color applies here. tessie lynn is listed as "caucasian" in several porn databases (it's the default listing, apparently), but at a glance she was evidently some combination of black, (south)east asian, and/or pacific islander; and her place among the masseuses makes the san francisco setting slightly more authentic than an all-white cast would.

it's a shame that the only commercially (and otherwise, as far as i can tell) available transfer of fantasy girls is so crummy; so many major seventies porn directors' works have been reissued in beautifully restored editions, that there's a faint hope some neglected cannisters of an untouched print is out there somewhere to rejoice the sweet-and-simple porn lover's heart. until then, this shoddy vhs-era hatchet job will have to do.

1974 runners up:

barbara bourbon and georgina spelvin in the private afternoons of pamela mann, scene 5

hudson valley (dir. henry paris), 12:21

georgina, barbara

it wasn't just wanting to avoid naming a georgina spelvin scene two years in a row that kept this in the runners up, but i won't lie: it was a consideration. radley metzger's hardcore debut under the henry paris moniker, the private afternoons of pamela mann is an exemplary story-driven porn movie, full of wit both verbal and visual, and even genuine plot twists. spelvin plays a bohemian sex worker visited by the titular wife of a wealthy man being spied on for him: barbara bourbon, who just about keeps up with her. their ratatat dialog before initiating sex would be a highlight of any year, but the sex itself is also world-class.

heather ellis and jean jennings in defiance of good, scene 4

s.p.s.c. productions (dir. armand weston), 18:24

heather, jean

about as far from the sweet, witty, vivacious work of derenzy and paris as you could get, defiance is a creepy, nasty little piece of work that nevertheless does its job well. jean jennings plays a young woman institutionalized by her parents for drug use; fred j. lincoln (better known as a director) in a nonsex role is the psychiatrist (and sex cult leader) who claims he will make her better. heather ellis is his right-hand woman, who flogs jennings for insubordination one day and tenderly coerces her to eat her out the next; in between, jennings masturbates for lincoln in a deeply psychologically unsettling sequence that still manages to achieve heat. armand weston was a second-tier director in the golden age, but he made grimly effective pulp.

andrea true, lynn stevens and mary stuart in the chambermaids, scene 4

eros (dir. joey lambert), 9:38

mary, andrea

a breezy, light come-down from that intensity, the chambermaids is that rarest of all porn genres, an actual farce. mistaken identity, wrong bedrooms, and blithely unrealistic dialog add up to an enjoyable romp from veteran andrea true in a barbra streisand role as a hotel guest mistaken for a maid who goes along with it and the ingenues mary (actually a maid) and lynn (another guest, on her honeymoon) that she offandedly seduces because, as she tells lynn, she might get bored of her husband, so why not try women? this might be true's best performance in my girl/girl world: it's certainly one of her brightest.

also noteworthy:

scenes

• darby lloyd rains and day jason in angel on fire, scene 6 | monarch (roberta findlay)
• jenny lane and maureen anderson in barbie's fantasy, scene 2 | sombrero (claude goddard)
• georgina spelvin and tina russell in birds and beads, scene 4 | unique (the superstar)
• annette haven and pamela yen in china girl, scene 5 | variety (edwin durrell)
• kristen steen and shawn harris in sometime sweet susan, scene 3 | variety (fred donaldson)
• andrea true and lynn stevens in sorceress, scene 5 | blue (leon gucci)