Punk Rock‘s claim to fame is in its title. Porn schlockmeister Carter Stevens shot a low-budget policier in grimy 1977 New York and released it in hardcore porn theaters to not much notice. However, with the popularity and fame of punk and new wave growing at CBGB’s, Stevens’ distributors felt they had a possible hit on their hands with this movie that had a lot of scenes shot at the rival Max’s Kansas City. So in hopes of reaching a broader audience, they cut out the hardcore scenes, shot some more acts at Max’s, and rereleased the movie in 1978 in mainstream theaters… to not much notice. However, the 1978 softcore version we have here is a trippy (and sometimes silly) relic of an interesting time in New York’s history.
As for the punk rock itself, it isn’t really punk rock. It may be a sort of proto-New Wave, but it’s also kind of misses the mark: The Fast, the Squirrels, or the Spicy Bits, anyone? These aren’t the world-conquering punk acts you’re expecting. The Stillettos are featured, and supposedly they once had Debbie Harry as their lead singer, but not at the time of the movie’s shooting.
And as for the sex, herein lies the problem of movies like this where there’s a hardcore version and a softcore version. Even though there’s a lot of nudity on display (and a surprising number of penises — sometimes in softcore, any number is surprising), the camera will always cut away before anything good gets going.
The same problem applies to the second movie on this disc, Pleasure Palace. This one features a bunch of porn actors in a porn movie that’s also been sliced up for our protection. According to Carter Stevens’ DVD commentary, he had access to a Connecticut whorehouse for a weekend of shooting, so he called up his porn buddies including the ubiquitous Jamie Gillis and concocted a story about mafia at a brothel. A blonde starlet named Serena acquits herself well in her role as a prostitute, but the rest of the movie isn’t enough to make you want to watch. In his commentary, Stevens crows about the fact that the story was so good that people didn’t even notice that there wasn’t any sex in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Err, well, I noticed anyway.
Punk Rock
Starring: Wade Nichols, Elda Gentile
Directed by: Carter Stevens
Year: 1978
IMDb
Pleasure Palace
Starring: Eric Edwards, Jamie Gillis, Serena
Directed by: Carter Stevens
Year: 1979
IMDb
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