REEL UNDERGROUND
FILM REVIEWS
AND CALENDAR
BY ANDREA HELM
Resurrected '70s Porn Film is Sure
To Shake the Establishment
"Let's go somewhere and do something or something." It should come as a relief to many Seattle transplants that not much has changed in the past 20 years in the biggest little town in America.
What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about a film titled The Last Bath that played at the Pike Street Cinema Nov. 26-Dec. 2. Cinema owner Dennis Nyback said he's been trying for years to locate a print, but the film's star (actually heir to one of the biggest family fortunes in the Pacific Northwest) bought up most of the prints to keep anyone from knowing he had been in a porn film.
Filmed in 1973 with the financial backing of a "local theater owner," [The Apple Theater] it was shot over a period of 10 days in Seattle, using recognizable locations. The director was already an established filmmaker at the time and has made many more films. The editing and special effects were done by a guy who's now a regular contributor to a "major Seattle daily paper," and it ain't the P-I. Music and sound effects were done by Rich Riggins, who is still active in the Seattle music scene, the only person who will own up to his part in its production. Riggins was present for the film's Pike Street debut and threw an enjoyable post-party for theatergoers.
The film, originally titled Dark Dreams, is perhaps even more enjoyable because of the web of intrigue and mystery surrounding its participants. Just who are these other people trying to keep such a low profile? An assistant director is now the "head of a major theater chain." One of the two female leads was, at the time, the wife of a University of Washington professor. Another girl in the film wasn't quite 16 at the time she was getting close-up cum shots. She got it on with anything in pants, the gossip goes, and everyone knew she was under age.
There's more. Allegedly, the wealthy son's parents arrived on opening night at The Apple Theater in limos. Allegedly, the executive producer (former Apple Theater owner) absconded with all the profits so that none of the people who worked on the film ever received a dime. The film's star did not return my phone calls.
If it were up to me, I'd name names in a minute, but I have to respect Nybeck's wishes and keep it to myself. Besides, wealthy, connected people tend to sue over stuff like that. But I believe in giving credit where credit is due, don't you? This film is incredible. Amazing psychedelic sex scenes. And the music ... oh, the music and background sound. It's sampling before sampling was even being done. And it was all done by hand.
As pornography, the film failed because it's just too darned arty for its own good. The sex is kinda just sex, no kink or groups or anything that porn usually has going for it (or against it). Straight guy-on-top kinda stuff and lots of unprotected oral-sex cum shots. Hey, it was 1973; there was no AIDS. But there's "Snappin' Crisp" Freshie potato-chip ads and 72-cent Double Dag burger signs and sunflowers and clouds and rain and platform shoes and bell-bottoms and Aurora Avenue and the most garoovey fire-engine-red-and-chrome Metro buses you could, like, ever imagine, man. Pedestrian cross-walk buttons, even. And a nurse who says the people she works with are so square, "I just have to come to work high by myself."
So, if you want to see it, the only thing I can suggest you do is run, not walk, to the telephone and call Nyback at Pike Street Cinema and beg that he run it again sometime. I believe the film is also available for private parties.
And for those who decry the resurrection of Seattle's pornographic, seedy side: I say never forget the saving grace of a cock in the crack of an ass.
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Contents on this page were published in the December/Jan, 1994 edition of the Washington Free
Press.
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Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.
