Porn Noir at its finest: a classic Evil Angel feature!
Continuing our gala celebration of the mighty Evil Angel’s 20th anniversary, I’ve dug into my moldering files for another example of just how big an impact the label has had on the porn genre over the years.
DOG WALKER was a milestone in a string of John Leslie milestones, in an era before not only our porn but our overall culture had succumbed to repetitious blandness, which has become the religion of digital age “content” – I guess when all your entertainment boils down to “1”s and “0”s, that’s where the bar gets set …
Reprinted below is my original review of John Leslie’s amazing 1994 porn noir from the June 6, 1994 edition of SCREW magazine – if you’ve somehow overlooked this early E.A. masterpiece, read on, then check it out on Evil Angel VOD or perhaps even via that quaint collector’s format, DVD …
-DAC
“HEAVY PETTING”
DOG WALKER. Starring Steven St. Croix, Krysti Lynn, Isis Lynn, Joey Silvera, Jamie Gillis, Jon Dough, Michael Jones, Tom Byron, Gerry Pike and Alex Sanders. Written, produced and directed by John Leslie.
There is hope for porn.
John Leslie’s first independent production is the best explicit movie we’ve seen in years. Shot on film with visual flash to spare, DOG WALKER is heavy on story, heavy on dramatics and heavy on the raunchiest, most dizzying sexual tableaus since MISTY BEETHOVEN. A perfect marriage of the sensual and the intellectual, DOG WALKER resounds with a stunning dark beauty that pushes smut to a new frontier.
Shot on film—16mm, which is what everybody really shoots on, whether they’re claiming 35mm productions or not—DOG WALKER strikes hardly a false note, showcasing performances of uncommon power and authenticity from a carefully picked crew of what we’ve come to think of as the same old faces (an attitude we are now forced to reassess). Working under Leslie’s vision, these professional fuckers prove that they’re more than just a collection of working cocks and cunts.
Steven St. Croix is quietly riveting as a small-time crook who dares go against the all-powerful syndicate when one of its lieutenants (a blandly evil Jon Dough) jerks his chain. For daring to claim his rightful due, St. Croix is beaten and tormented by evil crime-lord Jamie Gillis (still one of porn’s all-time great actors, after all these years), who sadistically strips away every possession, every dignity to which St. Croix lays claim – including his wife, Alex Sanders, who gleefully submits to a torrid three-way with Dough and fellow thug Julian St. Jox, right in front of a helpless St. Croix’s eyes, in his own home.
The plot and chilly mise-en-scene are lifted from classic hard-boiled fiction, reminiscent of both Jim Thompson and David Goodis, while the frisky visual style and unfolding puzzle of a story structure pay homage to such purely cinematic artists as Nick Roeg and Ken Russell. St. Croix’s various daydreams and nightmares are interrupted with a deadpan surreality that interlocks seamlessly with the phantasmagorical alien surfaces of his unfortunate, downwardly spiraling reality.
Despite the bravura fractured narrative, this is no mere hardcore perfume commercial. Where other recent attempts at “serious” porn such as BLACK ORCHID, VIRTUAL SEX and the increasingly generic Andrew Blake efforts fall flat on their faces when it comes to character development or any sense of real involvement – carnal or emotional – DOG WALKER nevers puts its considerable style above its substance … there are only a few minor instances of slo-mo abuse.
Leslie’s headlong script is replete with sharply delivered catchphrases that fans are sure to be repeating for months, from Joey Silvera’s semi-apologetic “Last chance for sex” invitation to St. Croix before plunging into a sleazy, riveting three-way with a blonde and an oriental doll with a strap-on to Dough’s sneering “Stick around and watch us fuck your wife up the ass,” crooned to a bruised and broken St. Croix moments before he makes good on his word.
Floating through the proceedings is a mysterious woman who first shows up to watch St. Croix threatened in an alleyway by the director himself, reminding us in a succinct cameo just what the porn screen lost when John Leslie retired to life behind the camera. With a snarling Doberman at her side, Krysti Lynn stands silhouetted at the entrance to the alleyway like some kind of angel – whether of redemption or damnation, St. Croix won’t find out until he’s descended several circles down toward hell.
This is a relatively rough film by modern porn standards; although the explicit violence is much less than in your average Hollywood thriller, Leslie manages to imbue the proceedings with a constant state of menace, an overriding danger to both body and soul that recalls the best 1940s-‘50s Hollywood noir. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why DOG WALKER is not from Leslie’s usual home, VCA, but instead is the first release from John Leslie Productions, distributed by Evil Angel Video, the relatively small-scale company run by a handful of porn’s most creative directors and devoted to releasing quality smut by same – John Stagliano, Parker Schurman, Patrick Collins and Bruce Seven.
Whatever the off-screen politics, take our advice: DOG WALKER is not just the porn film of 1994, it’s the best porn film so far of the ‘90s. Trot your own doggies down to the video store now and buy this exuberant masterpiece. Once you’ve been entertained – nay, devastated – by the story structure of the film, you’ll spend many happy hours rewinding and enjoying the apocalyptic sex scenes. Put this one on the classics shelf, and loan it out at your own risk.
