Dave Thompson is trying to seduce you. And it’s not with restless nymphomaniacs or yielding flesh; it’s with something a lot more potent—nostalgia.
In Black and White and Blue, he laments, “in the stags as much as the real world, it is the relationship between two people that flavors the sex that follows…in latter movies [the lovers] are simply objects on the end of their genitalia.”
Thompson extensively chronicles the evolution of dirty pictures (alternately known as blue movies, stag films, and smokers) from their everyman beginnings (during the birth of the motion picture) into the polished, professional features of the 1970s. This was by no means an easy task—for the majority of the 20th century, obscenity laws necessitated secretive distribution and exhibition. This often involved ridiculous pseudonyms (there are tales of a clueless policeman obtaining arrest warrants for actors “Lotte Jizz” and “Dick Hard”) and destroyed prints. Even with no malice involved, there was little regard for film preservation, particularly when it came to filth flicks.
And yet, Thompson’s work is exceedingly thorough. This is something of a mixed blessing; though the exhaustive descriptions may fascinate film historians, others will find that Black and White and Blue reads like a laundry list. Lascivious and visually minded readers would be well advised to watch the 2002 film The Good Old Naughty Days, (a compilation of twelve silent porn films from the years 1906-1930) in conjunction with the book to see what all the fuss is about.
Nonetheless, the book is effective and moving; Thompson amasses a bevy of historical information to prove that sometimes nostalgia isn’t delusion, it’s necessary mourning. Before there were spraytanned, silicon-breasted, careerist porn stars doing assembly-line moans, there were friends, coworkers, and the girl next door. Black and White and Blue consistently and convincingly argues that sloppy configurations, cameras left running through awkward giggles, and somewhat dumpy casts made for superior pornography—watching intimate, unscripted interactions between two (or three) people is ultimately a lot more interesting than watching sex workers plugging away for a paycheck.
– Kim Velsey
Black and White and Blue: Adult Cinema from the Victorian Age to the VCR
Dave Thompson
Paperback, 301 pages
$19.95, ECW Press