Monday, June 10, 2002



Nova Films. Late 1970's into the mid 80's, they first started off with the traditional "loops" - 15 minutes, usually young guys - then, by I think 1983, with Brian's Boys (later changed to Brian's Men) tried it's hand at full-length features which included a fully synchronized soundtrack (i.e. their mouths movements actually match what you hear). Once videotapes were becoming big (1982ish) many companies like Falcon, Colt, and Nova transferred their old films onto tape, and Colt and Nova generally put 3 to 5 or 6 "loops" onto one videocassette. Several of the Nova titles had the "brother" theme - His Little Brother (later called My Guy), Oh Brother! , Big Brother Is Watching You, and of course Little Brother's Coming Out. These seem harder to find, I guess the incest theme perhaps got them into some hot water later in the 80's, so maybe I should hold onto the couple that I have for, um, posterity's sake. I have noticed that MIDNIGHT MEN seem to have the current rights to many of the titles, and in the mid/late 80's a company called L A Video seemed to have the rights - both company's quality varies quite a bit (that slightly blurry, orangey tinge), and I have noticed that Midnight Men sometimes has a shorter version of the original film. But if you are lucky to have a gold-label "ADI" video cassette, chances are you have an older, better-quality videotape and should hang on to it. Sadly, as some of these older films are making their way onto DVD, too often the poorer quality tapes (rather than original films, or even the better quality earlier videocassettes) are used.