One of the fantasies of my early life was believing, against all hope, that Bob Mizer, the founder and driving force behind Athletic Model Guild, had actually made some secret hardcore movies with the fabulous models he filmed in G-strings and semi-innocent scenes. Nah, none ever turned up -- until long after Mizer died in 1992 when Dennis Bell purchased the AMG inventory and discovered a secret cache of films that he has now let loose on an unsuspecting porn audience eager for nostalgia. Ah, fantasy cum true!
"Hardcore Film Classics: 1968-1973" contains some truly hot work, and some duds among its 10 short features -- the trailer even includes a short hetero scene. But if you want to know what happened behind the scenes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when gay porn was just coming out of the closet publicly in the Park Theatre in Los Angeles and the Park-Miller in New York City (plus a peek into the 1940s) then you cannot afford to miss this one. Grab it for your collection, because it will tell you a strong moral tale -- it WAS like that in the "old days," and these guys knew how to "do it." Have fun!
"Vito and The Love Bandit" (July, 1971): 11:09 minutes -- With a voiceover soundtrack with Mizer playing both roles that is as descriptive as it is hilarious, this is the best as well as lead-off film in the pack. Dark-haired, swarthy Vito is lying half-naked on his couch jerking off to a porn magazine when a tall, masked bandit bursts in waving a gun and demanding money. The bandit looks delicious even though his mask is straight out of "The Merry Widow," and when he trips and drops the gun, Vito turns the table on him and demands a blowjob. Already horned-up, Vito blows a load all over the bandit's face within a minute, and encouraged by what he has already tasted, the cute bandit eats all the cum up. Vito then offers him a towel to wipe his face, and takes off his mask, and the kid is revealed to be just as hunky as a farm boy-come-to-the-city can be. Soon enough Vito's mouth has found the guy's cock in his period striped jeans, and after getting it hard and very big invites the bandit into his ass. Though the penetration shot is muffed, the actual bareback fuck is well shot from beneath and between the bandit's legs. He cums in Vito's ass and just to prove it when he pulls out Vito's hairy hole is dripping. After wiping the cum from Vito's ass with a towel, our bandito gives us some excellent cinema verité by leaning over to take Vito's half-limp cock back in his mouth and with no edits takes it to full erection with a loving, knowing blowjob. Vito shoots a massive load all over his chest and the bandit licks it all up, closing the video in a hug and a kiss.
"Pass the Soap" (1970): Chuck and Skip, 8:29 minutes -- Two handsome, well-built dark-haired guys are in the gym shower soaping each other up when one thing leads to another, including kisses and a cock in the mouth of the thinner guy, who soon has his friend's tongue, then cock, up his butt. His buddy then returns the favor with a nice blowjob, and then the thinner guy stands and dumps a load on his buddy's back and ass.
"Ky and the Nazi" (1972): 15:49 minutes -- Nazi role-playing was always big in gay porn through the 1970s, and in this flick a blond, beautiful Nazi is seduced by Ky, a dark-haired Joe Buck-type in tight jeans and pinto-hide jacket. Once naked, Ky shows us that those jeans were not a cover-up -- he has an extraordinary ass, as well as a great body, and the Nazi (who is swimmer-built) is mesmerized, rubbing and kissing and then, as they lay down, taking Ky's cock gently then more hungrily in his mouth. Ky flips over into a 69 and though the lighting isn't that terrific, it is enough to show us it's for real -- especially when Ky brings the blond to a climax, with hips writhing and rising and cock stiffening as he blows his load into Ky's mouth. Ky keeps sucking until a close-up reveals that it's all gone. They shake hands, wave to the viewer and then kiss.
"Jailhouse Fun" (1973): Bernie, Steve and Jim Walker, 10:25 minutes -- Two prisoners are in an intense 69 on a cell bunk, and of course a guard busts in on them and demands to be serviced. They suck him and rim him, and then he shoves his cock into the mouth of one of them who is reclined on the bunk. The other one fucks the guard and then the guard blows a load in the mouth of the guy on his back -- who promptly lets it all ooze out. The film is dark and somewhat inconclusive in its money-shots and it ends with the three of them shaking hands and the two prisoners exchanging a cummy kiss as the guard sucks one off to no avail.
"Sailor and the Singing Cowboy" (1968): Fred and Dan, 8:21 minutes -- The sailor here looks like the bandit in the first flick and he's in a dive with other sailors watching a tall, skinny cowboy (who also resembles the sailor) stroke his guitar while the sailor strokes his dick. Silent words are exchanged, the sailor challenges the cowboy to a fight, and they strip each other and wrestle until they are engaged in a hot lip-lock. It's dark and it looks like both of them get fucked -- a lay-down doggy in each case -- and it also looks as though one guy cums in the other's ass while stroking the bottom off.
"Sailors and the Hippie" (1972): 14:57 minutes -- Two cute sailors (they look like the guys in "Pass the Soap" are stroking their dicks and (in subtitles) one of them says to the other that he had a friend Joe who had sex with a hippie. So, we fade to those two -- a stunning curly-haired hunk (Joe) and a shaggy haired hippie -- who give us a short suck and then the hippie fucks Joe, cums in his ass, and we get taken back to the sailors who are thinking of having some sex. Then we go back for a quickie of Joe licking the hippie's cock clean of cum. One of the sailors wishes that Joe was with them, and of course he appears for a wild three-way. Joe sucks one of them while the other fucks Joe and helps him polish the other's knob. There are excellent close-ups here of squishy penetration and hot lips on slimy cock, and three stand alone cum-shots complete the deal.
"Boy Games" (1971): 11:09 minutes -- This one starts out like one of those standard AMG teases -- five guys engaged in some mild torture, with one of them, a blond Joe College type, taking the brunt. But it quickly turns into a sex fest with very little heat. It moves into a duo that is not well done, either. It's interesting, but that's it.
"Prisoner's Promise" (1969): Joe Markham and Steve Ahearn, 1:37 minutes -- Markham would go on to be one of male porn's first major superstars, and this quickie shows his huge cock off to disadvantage! That's because Ahearn, a cute college type, has an enormous wonker -- it's so long that when he gets hard, it can't get all that stiff. He gets briefly fucked then Joe dumps a load over him and Ahearn takes his own load into his mouth. Whew!
"Shore Leave" (circa 1945): 4:49 minutes -- Yes, you read right -- 1945! Three good-looking guys suck dick in sailor uniforms in a small cheap hotel room. The action is non-stop, the quality of the film poor, but the great thing is to see that what we do now they did then -- and with just as much, or more, enthusiasm.
"Cum Shot Review" (1970s): 8:19 minutes -- Just as it says -- solos, mutual jerk-offs, cum.
DVD features: Chapters; an extensive behind-the-scenes slide-show which has some excellent and very clear stills, trailers from these movies and others; and no regional coding (playable worldwide).
A DVD Review by Bo Champion