Wakefield Poole

"Boys in the Sand" [Disc No. 1]

"Boys in the Sand II" a.k.a. "Men in the Sand II" [Disc No. 1]

"Bijou" [Disc No. 2]

"Roger" [Disc No. 2]
A DVD Review by Bo Champion [ http://www.ManNet.com ]

*** Highly, Highly Recommended ***

"The Wakefield Poole Collection: 1971-1986"

(Mercury Releasing - TLA Entertainment Group, Inc.)

Web: http://www.WakefieldPoole.com

Director: Wakefield Poole [ http://bjland.ws/directors/poole.html ]

C-A-S-T

"Boys in the Sand" [Disc No. 1]

Casey Donovan [ http://outcyclopedia.0catch.com/caseydonovan.html ]
Peter Fisk
Danny DiCioccio
Tommy Moore

"Boys in the Sand II" a.k.a. "Men in the Sand II" [Disc No. 1]

Casey Donovan [ http://outcyclopedia.0catch.com/caseydonovan.html ]
Pat Allen
Victor Houston
Paul Irish
Dave Connors
Tony Williams

"Bijou" [Disc No. 2]

Bill Harrison a.k.a. Big Bill, William Kennedy Harrison, Ronnie Shark
Cassandra Hart
Tom Bradford
Lydia Black
Robert Lewis
Peter Fisk
Rocco Passalini
Michael Green
Bruce Williams
Cable

"Roger" [Disc No. 2]

Roger [ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JackWranglerAndRoger ]

It's difficult for some of us who saw the "birth of male porn" in various theatres in New York in the 1960s to come to grips with what Wakefield Poole did artistically, and historically, for the genre with the release of "Boys in the Sand" in 1971, and "Bijou" the following year. It is even more astonishing to discover, once again, that 15 years later, with the release of "Boys in the Sand II," he'd shown what a genius he was in simply letting sex between men speak for itself.

For those of you who go back as far as I do, this special commemorative two-disc issue will take your breath away, and will certainly pop the buttons on your 501 jeans, if you can find them around anymore, or fit into them. For those of you who are younger than springtime, this DVD will show you a thing or two about how life was, and how it was really not so different than the life you are either leading, or would like to lead, now. On both counts, it's a must-own, and a masterpiece.

*** "Boys in the Sand" [Disc No. 1] ***

"Boys in the Sand" was marketed as a semi-mainstream male porno flick during a very special time in the evolution of the gay scene in this country. Poole enlisted his lover at the time, Peter Fisk, and three other extraordinary men, one of whom was a last-minute substitute and became by dint of his appearance in this film the first superstar in gay porn. That would be Casey Donovan, a blond, blue-eyed beauty who reminded everyone of Robert Redford, except, perhaps, when he whipped out his big dick (though, how am I to know?). The film turned out to be a paean to both Fire Island, its location, and Casey Donovan, who went on to be a cross-over star Off-Broadway under the name of Cal Culver as well as part of a celebrity couple when he was the lover of movie star and author Tom Tryon. But, you knew that.

What you might not know, or (like me) remember, is that "Boys in the Sand" was introduced as an "event" to the straight world, an artistic display of man love conceived, directed, photographed, edited and scored in an almost auteur fashion and it was sold as such to mainstream critics. It actually opened in a legitimate theatre in New York (which eventually became a male porn house) and it was even reviewed in Variety magazine. While that might all be important from a cultural and historical point of view (and I do not mean to underplay that importance one iota), what is important for our purposes here is that this is one hell of a fuck flick.

It's a fantasy, done without dialogue, spun out with a musical background that ranges from classical to rock to ethnic folk stuff. It begins with Fisk, a tall, slender, hunk with a light beard making his way to the shore where he strips and stares out to sea. Out of the mist rises an extraordinary sight -- the naked Casey, all-American guy with a heavy swinging dick. Casey moves to Fisk, who takes that cock in his mouth and gets down to action. The two move into the pine forest where Casey fucks Fisk, cums in his mouth, then sucks Fisk to super-hard status so that he can plunder Casey's butt and spill his seed into the blond's open mouth. Fisk gets up, runs to the sea and disappears. Casey follows, puts on Fisk's clothes, and takes his place in life.

If that sounds like simple porn, it isn't -- like the rest of the movie, it's filmed with exquisite lighting, shadows falling just right, sunlight catching what it should catch at the right time. That is most clearly shown in the second scene in which Casey, now playing the bored, lonely gay clone on Fire Island, answers an ad in a gay newspaper and hopes for the best. One day he gets an answer -- a box with a pill in it, which he must toss into his pool. After the pop-pop-fizz-fizz, what emerges is Danny DiCioccio, who is exactly what his name would imply -- a dark, super-tanned, white-butted Italian hunk with one thing on his mind -- endless sex with this hot blond stud. They kiss, they suck, and they slobber all over each other, much of the time covered in a tableau of shadows from the leaves on the trees surrounding the pool. While this could be an annoyance, Poole never forgets that the real audience here wants to see it all -- and he gives us a heart-pounding, round-the-pool, suck-and-fuck festival in which both men bottom in creative style before they explode over each other. Even though he is a fantasy, Danny follows Casey into the house, they clean up, and Casey sees him off on the ferry.

The final scene is the one which, given it was 1971, sent the shock waves flying in the mainstream -- though gays were thrilled, no doubt, that a tall, sinewy, handsome black man named Tommy Moore came on the screen in the character of a telephone lineman. Glancing out his window, Casey lets his mind take off, like a rocket, into a fantasy of sexual abandonment with this stunning, and, yes, big-dicked, babe, imagining what it would be like to fuck and be fucked (using poppers to accentuate his fantasy), in a brilliantly and sharply edited sequence. This eventually leads to what may, or may not, be Tommy coming into the house and donning Casey on for size -- with deep kissing and mutual sucking before the fucking starts. It's a sensational sequence with Casey first teasing a prone Tommy, whose ass keeps thrusting upward in a "Fuck-me! Fuck-me!" plea with a background balalaika streaming out hot Moroccan music before Casey plunges his beautiful cock into that ass. He fucks Tommy flat, missionary and in a sit-fuck before Tommy spins out of it, goes down on Casey's cock then shoves his own rod into Casey's ass missionary, then sit, then doggy, in a brilliant against-the-wall fucking which ends in an explosion of cum and a bye-bye, see-you-next-time wink. End of movie. A classic, simply a classic.

*** "Boys in the Sand II" a.k.a. "Men in the Sand II" [Disc No. 1] ***

But this doesn't detract at all from its sequel, which was made 13 years later and not released until two years after that, in 1986, right in the middle of the Reagan-era AIDS crisis. Still, "Boys in the Sand II," originally released as "Men in the Sand II," not only stands on its own as a film for its time, for condoms are sometimes used (though cum is eaten) it also succeeds brilliantly as both a film and porn. Indeed, I think it's a better porn flick than the original, though it may lack just a bit of the style of the first one.

The flick begins with Casey in the "Meat Rack," the wooded area on Fire Island where he teamed up with Peter Fisk in kicking off the series. This time he's sucking and being sucked by Victor Houston, a fuzzy-chested, balding ball of sexual energy who soon has Casey's unbelievably beautiful, totally white butt pushed up against his loins in a doggy-fuck filled with sounds of sex and grunts from both. Casey shows a bit of paunch here, just a bit, and is a little light in the face, but he still is a great sexual presence, egging Houston on until he cums all over Casey's butt, then plunges that cum-covered cock back into Casey's hole before helping Casey jack off all over him. They leave the woods and shake hands good-bye as Casey heads home, gets his mail, and opens an invitation that says, "Bayside, Tomorrow, Six O'Clock."

Next day, Casey finds his way to the exact spot on the shore where he came out of the bay 13 years prior to greet and exchange places with Peter Fisk. This time, the tables are turned, and now enters Pat Allen, who is actually playing the part in this flick that Casey played in the original -- a blond, toned sexbomb with an all-American face -- and cock to die for. Somewhat more Midwest in the face (Casey was from Philadelphia and looked somewhat Waspy), Pat offers his appreciable cock to Casey and we begin a re-run. They suck and fuck each other, Casey cums on Pat's tongue before Pat spurts an enormous load, and then Casey runs off into the bay, leaving Pat to carry on the tradition.

Pat goes back to Casey's house, moves in, and fucks around -- cruising, shopping and basically looking for that special guy to come along. One night, he hears something out at the pool, and wanders in. There he finds an apparition which turns all too real when he reaches out to touch its naked chest and kiss its beautiful lips and face. This is the diminutive, extremely compact, and beautiful Paul Irish (cross between the "West Wing's" Rob Lowe and "Queer as Folk's" Fabrizio Filippo), who never made another film but should have -- he is spectacular and carries this sequence as though he was starved for sex for a month. His acrobatics inspire Pat to respond like a madman, throwing his face into the smaller man's beautiful ass before plunging his hot cock into the tan-lined bubble-butt and pounding away missionary as they both moan, talk and gasp through a variety of other positions, kissing along the way until Paul goes back to giving some head and then helps Pat get off in one of the great cum-shots in history (production notes say he hadn't cum in four days and never did it again like this time), streams and streams of semen spilling all over Paul's chest and face until Paul wiggles up to take some of it in his mouth and then plunges onto the still-drooling cock with his mouth and deep-throats it clean. (The production notes say they spent at least the night together after that.)

Pat is on the beach the next day when Dave Connors wanders by with Tony Williams. Connors, whose appearances were few but brilliant (best of which was Surge's "One in a Billion") glances back at Pat as if to say, "use your imagination," which is what Pat does. Connors, whose Marine look disguised a hefty appetite for cock, is next seen being serviced in their living room by Tony, an adorable, gymnast-swimmer blond who just adores Connors' huge cock. But when Connors reaches up to grab and swing from a gym ring, into whose mouth does his cock come down but Pat's. We watch this suckfest for a while until a switch in positions gives us Connors sucking on Tony -- who has a massive piece for such a lithe guy. We then go back to Pat getting fucked doggy by Connors and segue into Tony getting porked missionary by him, and cumming while he's being impaled. Connors then cums, and sticks his still-dripping cock back into Tony's hole. The movie ends with Connors going to the beach, meeting up with Pat, shaking his hand, and walking off into the sunset arm in arm. Unreal, dude.

And this is just Disc No. 1, which also features a great production stills gallery, a voiceover from Poole about how he did certain things in each film (with the scenes pointing the way), and a stunning 15-minute video made as a birthday gift to commemorate the first retrospective of his dear friend Andy Warhol's career [ http://Warhol.org ]. It also features a never-before-seen scene -- the original opening scene with Peter Fisk and "Dino," a hairy beast who was the original choice to play the part that Casey got. Seems that "Dino" decided after the scene was filmed that he didn't want to be seen all over the world having sex on screen, so he made exorbitant demands and was replaced by Casey Donovan. Quite frankly, I think that was the luckiest day in Wakefield Poole's life.

*** "Bijou" [Disc No. 2] ***

Disc No. 2 is the other side of Poole, so to speak, the real cinematic artist. Here we have "Bijou" -- a dark, moody, somewhat cynical look at gay sex on the run and in the backrooms, 1972-style. It follows Bill Harrison, a lanky, big-dicked construction worker who looks distinctly like the 1970s TV star Frank Converse (look him up, he's gorgeous). Bill sees an auto accident in downtown Manhattan -- a car hits a woman, and instead of helping out, Bill bends over and takes the woman's wallet and walks nonchalantly away. He goes back to his flat, opens the wallet, and finds nothing of value except an invitation to "Bijou," a private club. How would the allegedly straight Bill know it's a private all-male sex club? He undresses, takes a shower, jerks off his massive meat, cums, dries off, puts on fresh jeans and heads out to Bijou.

Then it gets a bit surreal. He goes up a stairway in an industrial loft, hands his ticket to a costumed female ticket-taker, and sees a flashing sign: "Remove Shoes," which he does and moves on. "Remove Clothes," is the next marquee, and being a good guest, he does. He enters a mirrored hallway and maze and is not quite sure if he's alone, and soon discovers he is not. A naked, beautiful male is before him, spread-eagled on his stomach, and Bill takes the hint, plunging his cock into the waiting hole. The scene is dark, highlighted only in reds and golds and ends as Bill obviously cums in the hunk's ass, rolls off and watches as the long-haired dude strolls away.

Next, Bill's in a room where a four-way split-screen presentation of men stripping and the woman from whom he stole the wallet is projected on a screen. It ends before it really begins and Bill is on his back, naked, in another room, where another man approaches and begins to suck his cock. Another comes in and begins to lick and kiss his chest. Soon, Bill is in the middle and the object of a languid, dark and extremely erotic orgy which is much more erotic on a big screen, in my opinion, but has its moments, chief among which is the appearance that Bill is being fucked in a surreptitious missionary position while he is in a 69 with someone else. Eventually everyone else in the room cums on Bill, without great fanfare, with strains of French horns, violins and trumpets heralding a new dawn for a hot man who went into the wrong place because he stole an injured woman's purse. Very philosophical, if not extraordinary porn, but a ground-breaking, super movie nonetheless -- and, please, don't miss the final freeze before the credits. Simply one of the more priceless "fins" you will ever see.

*** "Roger" [Disc No. 2] ***

This disc also has the Poole voiceover narrative as a separate feature, a short documentary on the Gay Parade in San Francisco in 1974, an interview with Poole by Jerry Douglas, and a 10-minute solo by Roger, the 1970s porn star who simply looked at the camera and gave everyone a hardon. There are also trailers for other films, including "Fluffer" [ http://Fluffer.com ] and "Circuit" [ http://CircuitMovie.com ]. Every once in a while, a package like this comes along that must be in everyone's film library. We are fortunate that this package not only features three great films, but also is so brilliantly organized and expanded with so much historical and aesthetic goodies. For those of us who were there at the beginning, it's astonishing. For those who were not as fortunate, it's essential. You will never see anything better.

DVD features (two-disc set): Dolby digital stereo; no regional coding (playable worldwide); original theatrical trailers; deleted scenes; audio commentary (by director Wakefield Poole); documentary (director Jerry Douglas interviews Wakefield Poole); digitally remastered (DVD-9, dual-layered, single-sided discs); direct chapter indexing; movie gallery (stills from the various scenes); a model gallery (featuring never-before-seen photos of Casey Donovan); and five additional short films.

A DVD Review by Bo Champion [ http://www.ManNet.com ]

*** Highly, Highly Recommended ***

To order -- DVD: "The Wakefield Poole Collection: 1971-1986" -- contact:

TLA Entertainment Group, Inc.
234 Market Street - 5th Floor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 U.S.A.

Web: http://www.WakefieldPoole.com
Web: http://www.TLAvideo.com
Web: http://www.TLAreleasing.com
E-mail: Info@TLAvideo.com
Phone: (215) 733-0608 - (800) 333-8521
FAX: (215) 733-0637

REVIEW - DVD: "The Wakefield Poole Collection: 1971-1986" - REVIEW

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Butch Harris, Publisher
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