“The Erotic Films Of Peter De Rome”
Directed by Peter De Rome
Hand In Hand Films (Bijou Video)
1972

From 1969 to 1972, amateur filmmaker Peter De Rome crafted eight highly stylized 8mm sex films, mainly for his own amusement. A friend convinced him to submit one of the shorts, “Hot Pants,” to the 1971 Wet Dream Film Festival in Amsterdam. The film took first prize.

The win generated a lot of buzz, and Hand In Hand Films offered to distribute the lot to gay moviehouses across the country. Thirty-five years later, “The Erotic Films Of Peter De Rome” remains one of the most highly regarded gay art films of its day.

A few highlights:

“Hot Pants” (1971, New York)—A naked black man gyrates to a jazz soundtrack, then masturbates to climax. The camera stays fixed on his bouncing genitals, abstracting them from the whole man, for an effect that is both funny and slightly hypnotic.

“The Second Coming” (1970, London, Paris, Malaga)—A naked man bound Christ-like on a cross is presented in various states of arousal. His hands are restrained and he cannot touch his penis, the “punishment” for his desire.

“Underground” (1972, New York)—The most daring film in the collection. Two men on a New York subway car cruise, strip and have sex. DeRome shot this film on an in-service moving train, creating a real fear of discovery that radiates off the men.

“Mumbo Jumbo” (1972, London and New York)—A sardonic little piece. De Rome uses crass advertising imagery and jargon to objectify a man’s naked body.

Bijou Video released the collection on DVD in 2007. It was screened at last year’s Reeling Film Festival here in Chicago and at gay film fests in Australia and Germany.

“Oliver Twink”
PZP Productions
Directed by Peter Z Pan
Starring Dillon Samuels, Jarett Fox, Brad Star, Kyros Christian
2007

“Please, Sir, I want some more.”

“More??!!”

“Uhh, yeah. Did I stutter?”

The cheeky bastards at PZP Productions—whose catalogue includes porn parodies “The DaVinci Load” and “BeTwinked”—take aim this time at a cinema classic with “Oliver Twink,” a low-budget, snarky satire that draws as much on bad 1980s television as on the beloved 1948 film.

Forget Dickens’ 19th-century London slum—this Oliver lives at the Kathie Lee Gifford Workhouse For Orphaned Waifs, located in a industrial waste dump in the Everglades. The movie opens with the famous gruel scene: when Oliver dares to ask for a second helping of slop, the cook flips him over for a spanking that turns into a hard ride. Recognizing the street value of his pert little ass, Ollie flees to Miami to seek out Fagin The Jew—in this version he’s a pimp—and join his band of underfed rent boys.

Long bitchy dialogue segments are offset by some well-shot and refreshingly unpretentious screwing. The sex here isn’t the sort of choreographed acrobatics you get from some of the bigger studios; the young models here just climb into position and cut loose.

Dillon Samuels in the title role is the quintessential twink: tousled, frosted blond ’do; a hairless, muppet-soft body; lips curled into a permanent pout; and a whiny voice that seems to bring out the abusive top in all his co-stars.

The Artful Dodger is played by skin-and-bones newcomer Kyros Christian. PVP touts the mop-haired brunet as the next big twink, but Kyros doesn’t really deliver. Granted, he looks cute as hell in a dog collar, but he performs with only about half as much slutty gusto as Dillon does. PZP regular Jarrett Fox, with his famous blond locks now shorn, gives a workmanlike performance as Fagin the pimp. This is really Dillon’s show.

The script has a few chuckle-worthy moments, but this one is mostly geared for diehard fans of jailbait.