When you live in Detroit and love exploitation movies, this is where the action's at.
Caught this dubious double at the NORTHGATE, my Saturday afternoon hangout in the years I spent in the Motor City. I couldn't get enough of the NORTHGATE's sticky floors, shitty projection, and unbeatable double bills.
The first saw I saw an uncut XXX-rated flick at a theater was in Detroit. The venue was the KRIM (Woodward and 6 Mile), a sleazy dive in a sleazy part of town. That place was a trip, and I patronized it at least twice a month. Manhattan Mistress was a solid sex flick shot on film.
Melbourne, my home town, had many adult theaters, but in my heady teen years when I was 'forced' to sneak into these churches of ill repute, all the movies had their hardcore scenes scissored.
Great cast, pretty decent film. Caught this at the ADAMS in Downtown Detroit.
Not sure why I didn't see it at the NORTHGATE, which was closer to where I was living at the time, but that's life.
The good stuff also played at the famous BEL AIR DRIVE-IN, another preferred haunt of mine at the time.
More KRIM excellence. It was always tricky parking in a safe place in this area. I never did get broken into, but I often worried about it while enjoying these feasts of flesh.
Eventually, I began attending the CAPRI on Gratiot for my XXX-rated needs.
NORTHGATE for this one. Not a bad waste of time. I never liked Leon Isaac Kennedy much. Found him kind of wimpy. Still, Penitentiary II was good stuff, and I remember getting into a conversation with some black dude about what I, an Australian, was doing watching this movie at the NORTHGATE in Detroit. It was a long story.
Dallas School Girls: not so hot. Centerfold Fever: fantastic. Another fine Saturday afternoon at the KRIM.
The ONLY place to see this was the ADAMS. Saw it on its opening Friday night and loved every trashy minute. A couple weeks later, I saw it again at the NORTHGATE.
Super hot flick starring the beautiful Kandi Barbour. According to my diary, caught this on a Wednesday night at the KRIM. Not sure what I was doing in that part of town on a Wednesday night. Looking for a pimp job?
NORTHGATE again. How I loved that place! I remember Satan's Mistress being plodding, but I didn't leave disappointed because The Slumber Party Massacre was decent stuff.
Caught at the ADAMS. Tried convincing wife of the moment to join me, but she'd have none of it. Not a damn morsel. So, off I went to spend the evening with the lovely Jayne Kennedy and her husband Leon Isaac. This Cirio D. Santiago flick is a fun actioner with Leon as a bad guy. Very good stuff.
I don't know why I still have a soft spot for John Russo's Midnight; it's a bit of mess, really, but it boasts a sleazy, nihilistic tone that always rubs me the right way. It has Larry Tierney, too. Catching it at the NORTHGATE made it ten times better, I suppose. That joint had atmosphere to spare. The audience was mostly black and they loved it. Heaps of really young kids in the audience, too.
Naturally, I stayed for William Fruet's Funeral Home, which was OK, and licked up a second screening of Midnight. I got so much into Midnight, I even bought the LP, which was fuckin horrible "...you're all alone, you're on your own, and midnight's at your door..."
I worked for Orion Pictures in Detroit in the '81-'83 period, and once met the guy who programmed the NORTHGATE and a basket of other hardtops . His name was Bill Brown. I struck up a pleasant conversation with Bill, and he expressed some shock that I wanted to see ANYTHING at the NORTHGATE when there were much better theaters around. I had to point out to him that it was the movies I cared about , not the theaters. Bill, a pretty conservative guy, didn't quite understand that.
Come to think of it, the THEATERS were a consideration, especially when they were fleapits.
Even though this rotten pile of shit played at the ADAMS and NORTHGATE, I saw it at the SHOWCASE STERLING HEIGHTS for some goddamn reason. Looking now at the venues it played at, I'm shocked, and must conclude that somebody behind this had some major influence with the local bookers. Unbelievable that this played so many quality theaters; it even played the ABBEY, which was only a mile or two from the SHOWCASE. Today, a flick like this would be lucky to get a DVD release.
The late Gary Graver (aka Robert MacCallum) directed and produced. His porn flicks were much more interesting.
It was a toss-up between the ADAMS and the BEL AIR for this one. Like a good boy, I went with the ADAMS.
It turned out to be a slice of badly choreographed Godfrey Ho nonsense. I drove home in a depressed state through sleet and snow and questioned the direction my life was taking.
That lasted for about six hours; I was back at the NORTHGATE for another putrid outrage a day later.
