As millions flocked to theatres to see The Godfather back in 1972, another landmark film was unspooling in theatres as well. (Sure, they were decidedly smaller and seedier theatres, and had a tendency to reek of bodily fluids, but they were theatres nonetheless.) Garnering nowhere the same amount of press, it was a milestone in its own right. That film is The Back Row. Seen here for the first time in nearly 30 years, this hilarious (and sexy as hell) pre-condom-era rub-your-chub flick is a must for porn fans.
Casey Donovan (Boys in the Sand, The Other Side of Aspen) is featured as a dude cruising NYC\'s all-male smut theatres looking for love (or at least a good hummer); George Payne is the young \"guy from Montana\" who catches his eye.
Shot on location (wait until you see the vintage subway scene), this fabulously sleazy flick offers some of the most terrifyingly dated clothes you’ll ever see, a veritable travelogue of now-defunct Times Square porn theatres, truly raunchy tearoom scenarios, a plot-propelling original musical score (whose vocals make Maureen McGovern’s sappy ballad \"The Morning After\" from the same year’s The Poseidon Adventure seem like punk rock), poppers galore (right here, thank-you-very-much) and enough facials to make any cosmetologist wince.
Amazingly well shot for the time, this first feature from award-winning director Jerry Douglas stands as a textbook example of gay erotic filmmaking. Watch it alone or with friends; it\'s loads of fun – pun definitely intended.
