Not to
be confused with the 1943 comedy The
Devil and Miss Jones, this was a series of mostly unrelated films that were
quite important in the porn world of the 70s and 80s and also achieved a significant
degree of pop culture awareness in that same era.
Art and
porn, when placed on extreme ends, are easy to tell apart. No one is going to
confuse Michelangelo’s David with
porn any more than they would confuse Buttslammers
with art. However, the closer to the center you get, the harder it is tell the
two apart. Many big budget Hollywood films have centered on sex and brought in
huge audiences. Often the only difference between art and porn is visible
penetration and even that line gets blurred with certain films featuring what
is colloquially known as “unsimulated sex”.
In the
70s and 80s many exploitation films featured nudity and sex in gratuitous
proportions and were available to one and all. Some of these films were even
released in multiple versions with penetrative sex in the versions marketed for
certain audiences. Jess Franco’s career features several examples of this.
There
was also a pop culture interest in porn that really doesn’t exist today, even
though porn is more easily accessible and consumed by millions more people. These
films were made before digital downloads and the internet, before every house
had cable and before home movie libraries were common. Especially in the case
of the first film, the only way to see it was to go to a theatre. I suppose its
rarity generated interest.
The
Devil in Miss Jones 1 and 2 were pretty big budget films, relatively speaking,
featuring production values that were on par with any of Hollywood’s better
B-movies. The first installment was particularly successful. The 3rd
and 4th films, while not as influential on pop culture, were
influential on porn culture. Other
installments, both sequels and reboots, would come along several years later,
but none were as important as the first 4 and none have maintained people’s
interests.
Probably the best
endorsement for the importance of these films is that they are still easy to
find. You see, porn is typically a first run business. Porn is all about the
next new thing; the next hot girl, the next hot trend, the next new fetish etc.
Unlike Disney which puts its films “in the vault” and re-releases them every few
years, in porn, movies are done, released and forgotten about once the next new
thing comes alone. All four of these films have stayed in print over the years,
transitioning from the porn theatres to VHS cassettes to DVD.
The
Devil in Miss Jones
1973
Director- Gerard Damiano
Cast- Georgina Spelvin, John Clemens, Harry Reems, Judith
Hamilton
This was
an insanely popular film when it came out, being one of the highest grossing
films of the year. Not highest grossing porno films, mind you, highest grossing
period. People were turning out in droves to see this on the big screen.
Justine
Jones is a lonely, middle aged, virgin. Suffering from depression, she takes
her own life. Even though she has led an upstanding virtuous life, her sin of
suicide condemns her to Hell. She repents her life well lived seeing that
despite it, she is still condemned. She postulates that an eternity in Hell
wouldn’t be so bad if she had done something to deserve it. She vows that if
she is given a second chance she will be consumed by lust and depravity so as
to at least warrant her punishment.
She is
granted her request and what follows is an hour of some surprisingly dirty sex.
I say surprisingly, because the porn world had become a little tamer by the 80s
and not until the 90s “gonzo” era did it start to ramp up the nastiness again. Justine
begins her journey shy and afraid, but with each encounter is more lustful and
greedy. She becomes a hardened sex addict, and by the time she finally reaches
the Inferno, she is little more than a fiend, looking for her next fix.
The
scene where Justine commits suicide, cutting her wrists in the bathtub, puts
the viewer in a conundrum. The scene is well done with a real feeling of
hopelessness. However, Justine is completely naked. As the viewer, can you be
empathetic and feel sad while at the same time feeling aroused? I don’t think
modern porn, which has sought (wisely) to distance itself from anything illegal
like snuff, would take the chance of a scene like this.
The sex
scenes run the gamut and hit all of the basic perversions, and come up with a few
new ones (most disturbingly when she performs fellatio on the head of a live
snake, no thanks!). Folks who’ve only been exposed to 21st century
porn may find the scenes boring or at least quaint. Modern porn with its
muscled, Viagra enhanced studs and immaculate, surgically sculpted vixens give
the viewer a fantasy that has no chance of existing in the real world. Porn of
the 70s featured people that were, in many ways, unremarkable except for their
willingness to have sex on camera. And of course, the sheer amount of body hair
takes some getting used to as well.
1982
Director- Henri Pachard
Cast- Georgina Spelvin, Jack Wrangler, Robert Kerman, Jacqueline
Lorians, Joanna Storm, Anna Ventura, Samantha Fox, Ron Jeremy, Sharon Kane,
Sharon Mitchell
This
sequel, which brings back Georgina Spelvin as Justine, takes a very different
approach than the original, being very much a satire and not to be taken
seriously. They must have also expected
a pretty literate audience given that it make references to Cyrano de Bergerac
(who receives a “nose job”), the Marquis de Sade and Dorian Gray.
The
story picks up with Justine in Hell where you can have all the sex you want but
no one is allowed to orgasm. Justine, however, makes a deal with the Devil that
if she can bring him to climax he’ll set her free.
Of
course Justine wins the bet and she is released from Hell and put in the body
of a high priced escort played by the young, voluptuous, Jacqueline Lorians.
She makes good use of the body and Satan gets jealous, especially when she has
sex with a schmuck in a devil costume.
In an effort to get revenge,
Satan puts her in another body, this time an Army private (Joanna Storm), who
marches her way straight to the men’s barracks for a predictable outcome. Satan
tries one more time, putting her into the body of a Tupperware seller (Ava
Ventura) who quickly converts from plastic bowls to sex toys.
Satan can’t stand it anymore
and sticks Justine in the body of a nun (Samantha Fox). This upsets the Man
Upstairs who intervenes and Justine ends up back in the beautiful Jacqueline
Lorians. She takes the body for another spin with a very young Joey Silvera (before he grew his trademark mustache.)
As a lust inducing film, it’s a little lacking. It’s
mainly concerned with interesting visuals, like the devil shooting fire out of
his penis, for instance. There are lots of interesting costumes in hell
including some rather silly penis-headed guards. All of these bizarre visuals, while memorable, get in the way of the eroticism. On the other hand, I
don’t think the point of this movie was necessarily to be as nasty as possible
as it was to be interesting and funny.
The
Devil in Miss Jones 3:A New Beginning
1986
Director- Gregory Dark
Cast- Lois Ayres, Jack Baker, Paul Thomas, Amber Lynn,
Vanessa Del Rio, Tom Byron, Careena Collins, Kari Foxx, Marc Wallace, Jennifer
Noxt, Chanel Price
The
Devil in Miss Jones 4: The Final Outrage
1986
Director- Gregory Dark
Cast- Lois Ayres, Jack Baker, Paul Thomas Erica Boyer,
Krista Lane ,Kristarra Barrington, Tom Byron, Ron Jeremy
Parts 3
and 4 were a reboot of the franchise and filmed together to form one story.
Justine is played by Lois Ayres who, rather than a virginal spinster is a sexy
vixen whose pissed off at her cheating boyfriend. She dies in a freak accident
during rebound sex and ends up in Hell. Rather than meeting Virgil as her guide
she gets Jack Baker, playing every jive talking stereotype you’ve ever seen all
rolled into one.
She travels a road through hell, trying to find the exit.
Along the way, like Dante, she witnesses the punishments of various sinners. A
reoccurring theme throughout the film was race and racism. Jack Baker plays a black
stereotype, racism is discussed as a topic as well as the taboo of inter-racial
sex. I’m not sure if this was Gregory Dark’s attempt at making a statement or
if he was just trying to be provocative. Justine’s journey comes to an end when
she sees the final sinner, herself, and witnesses herself having sex with her
own father!
The
production levels of this saga are not as high as the first two, being on the
level of a Troma film. The sex is certainly more erotic than part 2. Gregory
Dark was never a prolific director (by porn standards) but most of his films were in high demand
and several became classics, starting with New
Wave Hookers. The cast of the 2 films is like a who’s who of 80s porn
stars.
The main
attraction of course is Lois Ayres. Unfortunately, she doesn’t star in every
scene like Georgina did in the first film. Lois stars in only 2 scenes in each
film, typical for the time, which is a shame because she could carry a movie.
Although she had a long career, she never achieved the ranks of Tier 1 status
like Ginger Lynn or Jenna Jameson. Girls of that level always have a broad
appeal and Lois was always unique. Looking more like a character from Liquid Sky, Lois had a punk rock
sensibility with her shock of platinum hair, torn mesh top, fingerless gloves
and most especially her attitude. She was not the demure type at all. Lois
seemed like she would have been just as at home at a Sex Pistols concert as a porn
set. Lois Ayres pre-figured later girls with the same vibe like Madison Stone and
Bonnie Rotten. Had her career taken place a decade later, she probably would
have found a larger audience.
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