Blue money

Today's flick was 1972's Blue Money , a movie about a porno movie director who's about to be forced to go out of business due to a police investigation aimed at shutting down every porno movie studio in L.A.


So the story presents us Jim (Alain Patrick) who seems to have accomplished everything a man could ask for  he's married to the beautiful and supportive Lisa (Barbara Mills), has a healthy cute baby, and works a cool gig as the director of hardcore porno fare. Jim's seemingly perfect life starts to fall apart when he has an extramarital fling with yummy blonde Ingrid (Inga Maria) and the local Los Angeles vice cops close in to make a bust. 




Director Patrick and screenwriter Nick Boretz offer a fascinatingly stark, gritty and seamy behind-the-scenes peek at the funky early 70's smut cinema trade. 


Although this movie delivers a fair amount of nudity and soft-core sex, it's surprisingly not that trashy or exploitative. In fact, Patrick and Beretz handle the sordid subject matter in an admirably casual, nonjudgmental and matter-of-fact way. Patrick and Mills give engagingly natural performances in the lead roles; they receive sound support from Jeff Gall as shrewd sleazeball producer Mike, Oliver Aubrey as smarmy investor Fatman, Steve Roberson as nervous theater owner Freddie, and Gary Kent as a browbeating vice cop. 70's skinflick starlets Sandy Dempsey, Maria Arnold, Eve Orlon, and Suzanne Fields pop up as various actresses who do what they do in Jim's dirty pictures. R. Michael Stringer's crisp cinematography does the trick. The neatly varied score alternates between melodic acoustic folk and groovy prog-rock. Executive produced by noted adult filmmaker Bob Chinn (he made the famous Johnny Wadd features starring the legendary John Holmes), this offbeat and intriguing unsung sleeper overall sizes up as a more accurate and authentic small scale version of "Boogie Nights."