Tuesday, December 08, 2009

PASSING STRANGERS

director: Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. (1974)

Starring: Robert Adams and Robert Carnagey; Bob Middleton (Robert's voice), Edward Guthman (Tom's voice), A. J. Bressan, Jr. (projectionist), Jerry Johnson (projectionist's voice), Robert Jerome (TV announcer); on Polk Street: Grant Ditzler, Patrick Lee, Leon McGraw, Darrell Mascall; at the baths: Richard Locke and Eddie Cadena; bubble sequence: David Dehr, Terry Hunter, Chuck Feil, John Thompson, Richard Klingerman, Ralph Osborn, and Wayne Woodcock.

You really shouldn't call this a porno film; sure, it has gay sex in it, but there was no other way to sell a film with gay sex in it 35 years ago, except in a porno theater. Check out the clip, and while you might be interested in seeing it, I doubt you'll be looking forward to whacking off to it. It's about a man who places a personal ad in the paper (stumped for what to say, he uses a Walt Whitman poem), and an 18-year-old boy who lives at home with his parents responds. Much of the film is narrated by the correspondence between the two, but they do finally meet. Fantastic footage of early 1970's San Francisco, including the Gay Freedom Day March. Loneliness, coming out, and other themes are touched upon, most notably the theme of younger/older male couplings (but only 10 years separates the two); he revisits that theme again in his 1976 film Forbidden Letters, and to critical acclaim in his non-porn Abuse (which also explores other controversial themes).

Click one of the pics to view the movie trailer (you know that if you view the clip in the browser, you can "right click" and view it FULL SCREEN, right?), or here if you want to download and save for later.