The New York City that "Tough Guys" (1982) narrator Eric Ryan wants to show off no longer exists, stolen by Rudy Giuliani and Disney. Gone are the ramshackle piers and seedy adult arcades, replaced by "The Lion King" and family-friendly eateries. It's nice to reminisce, and aside from J.W. King ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.W._King ), I can't think of a humpier tour guide to take me through the back alleys of gay sex in the early 1980s.
The opening shots of Times Square, its billboards, garbage, subway graffiti and pedestrian traffic, are wistful ones. Ryan's sturdy baritone guides us, setting up the first sex scene which we get in flashback. Even in his early days, director Joe Gage was an expert at creating tension, here between a corporate, mustachioed bigwig and a beefy janitor. The mutually jack off, keeping a safe distance until they finally decide to come together. Boss man eventually sucks and gets fucked by his subordinate, right on top of the desk. Unfortunately, without the benefit of good lighting, the resulting film suffers a bit.
In the second vignette, Eric finally mixes it up with an uptown swanky gentleman in a newly renovated condo. Again, Gage deliberately builds tension, having Eric strip down slowly while the two men eye one another. Sensing a window of opportunity, Eric sidles up alongside his new stroke buddy and feeds him cock. It's electric when they move to the floor, Eric squatting over the guy's face and smothering him with dick. The fuck is no-nonsense. The guy grips onto a bookcase and weathers the storm. Every sinew in Eric's torso and ass comes to full attention while he fucks. This is one gorgeous man! And when he's done fucking, Eric's partner does the smart thing and cleans up Eric's sticky cock, doing so with a smile.
I'd forgotten how much TV sets used to weigh. In the next scene, a stereotypical gay clone is playing the Atari version of Pac-Man, watching the game unfold on a TV set that has to weigh 100 pounds. It takes some time before his tall, thin friend -- who bears a strange resemblance to porn star Michael Brandon ( http://xxxMichaelBrandon.com )-- is able to get him away from the game, but he does manage to lure him by slipping into a little auto-fellatio. They end having a tête-à-tête, quite literally. They roll onto their shoulder blades and jerk their dicks off into their own open mouths, heads crushed together on the overstuffed sofa.
The final sequence features guys very much like the steel-edged, mysterious leather types in the gay slasher flick "Cruising" (1980). In fact, the warehouse that provides the backdrop here looks very much like the abandoned piers on the Hudson River, probably somewhere near New York's Meatpacking District. Disco music jangles loudly overtop of the sex obscuring any natural sounds. No matter -- it doesn't seem as if these tough guys had much to say to one another, getting an obvious thrill by maintaining some distance and keeping their sunglasses on. After Eric Ryan blows a second load with a group of men, he says goodbye from a fire escape perched high above the city streets, probably unaware that this raunchy era of free and heady love is quickly coming to a close.
DVD features: Chapters; vintage trailer reel (The old moviehouse porno trailers are as good as or better than the feature itself. The trailers even include the '70s circus barker-style voiceover which is borderline comic. The trailers included are mostly for films Gage either directed or that Jack Wrangler starred in, like "Navy Blue," "Killing Me Softly," "Jr. Cadets," "Dynamite," "Red Ball Express," "In the Name of Leather," "Oil Rig #99," "Numbers" and "Hot on the Trail"); and no regional coding (playable worldwide).
A DVD Review by Rick Forrent