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"The Dark Side of Porn"
Debbie Does Dallas Uncovered (2005)

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6 comments in total

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24 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Interesting but not entirely accurate, 30 October 2005

Author: MovingPix from Australia

A documentary which looks at the history of the Debbie Does Dallas film. The first interesting thing that I learned from the documentarty is that the x rated flick was filmed in 1978 at an actual school, and that the school authorities were unaware when they agreed to it that a porn film was being made. This documentary attempted to track down many of the performers to see how their lives have turned out. Only one female was willing to take part,while three of the males spoke freely about how their lives had changed. A portion of the documentary attempts to unravel the mystery behind Bambi Woods who played Debbie. The documentary suggests that Debbie disappeared after the film was made. This is not true,as she stayed around for two sequels of which neither were very good. The documentary does not even mention these sequels opting to go for the angle that this was her only film and then she disappeared off the face of the earth. A lot of time is spent looking at the financial backing for the film and the dark side to that, and to be honest was rather boring.

Overall, a fairly interesting documentary, despite the above-mentioned.

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
A lot better than the actual "Debbie Does Dallas", 12 July 2006
Author: lazarillo

Like most recent porno docs, this is a lot more entertaining than the actual movie its about (although I don't suppose people would watch it for quite the same reason). The "curse" is pretty overstated though. It's not too surprising, for instance, that the producer of the movie was mobbed up. The Mob was deep in the porno industry in those days (fortunately things are much better today now that big corporations like the Hilton hotel chain are underwriting the gang-banging and sodomy of 18-year-old girls). It's also not too surprising that one of the actresses O.D.ed.--woman that will have sex for money on film are usually not too emotionally well-adjusted. And though lead actress Bambi Woods has "disappeared" most people interviewed in the documentary agree that it's more likely that she just doesn't want to be found than that something nefarious happened to her. All but one of the the women in the movie seem to have "disappeared" in the sense that they have left the industry and refused to appear in this documentary--and who can blame them? If you're a middle-aged woman with a husband and kids living in the suburb, would you want everyone to know you used to be a porn star?

That leaves only the men to be interviewed, and they also seem to have suffered a "curse" of a kind. They all seem somewhat wistful about how their porno work has ruined their career ambitions and wasted their lives. The most entertaining and candid is Robert Kerman (although I was disappointed he didn't mentioned his Italian cannibal films--but I guess he wasn't too proud of those either). This movie doesn't really show the "dark side" of porno as it purports too, but it is nevertheless a good antidote to recent porno puff pieces like "Family Business" that try to portray the "adult industry" as somehow healthy or normal. The truth is the modern "industry" is a hypocritical, money-making, soul-devouring abomination that almost makes me miss the days of the Mob and 42nd Street and the pimply skanks with visible track marks. Wherever Bambi Woods is I'm sure she's in a better place

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13 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
No new news on the porno front, 21 March 2006

Author: Chung Mo from NYC

What was probably the last "big" news "erotic" film before video took over and the porno industry went where it belongs, on the home VCR, Curse of Debbie Does Dallas could have made an interesting jumping point for a discussion on the porno industry, the country that supports it and the psychology that drives it.

Instead we are given yet another "dregs of humanity" portrait that's been done before. A telling point is that the "moral" voice of the film is given to the FBI agent who tells of his disdain for erotic films several times. Granted that the man spent years chasing the criminals who ran the industry but his position is the easy way out. Actually the story of his exploits, which are very interesting, have been done elsewhere in more detail. A strange point is when he tries to categorized which type of child pornography "really" bothers him. Yes, the porno industry is a sad, sleazy place but we know that already. What we need to know is what drives it, why do people hate it yet spend billions of dollars to get the product. Why is it a shameful place to work for all but a few uninhibited people?

Questions that come up are ignored so the film can focus on the shame and misery and exploitation of the performers. The documentary spends time on "all" the performers who died, implying that they either overdosed or committed suicide while giving no real statistical evidence that the rates are higher then in the general population. Possibly it is but we need to see some real evidence not anecdotal comments from the interviewees. "R. Bolla" seems like a sad case until you check out how many porno films he has done. How can someone do dozens of porno films over the span of a decade and then wonder why the "normal" entertainment industry doesn't want anything to do with him. Why are people bigoted against him and why is he unaware of the position he put himself into? More questions unasked. When the only actress interviewed, Robin Byrd, says that she has nothing to be ashamed of, the statement is just left there. Most of the other interviews are interesting on their own but don't add up in the film. It would have been interesting to explore why some of the female performers are so ashamed of their participation in the film that they refused to be interviewed yet the men have no qualms. The difference between the late 1970's and now could have been interesting. And the similarities.

You're better off renting "Boogie Nights". It's a fictional story yet has more real answers.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Debbie Does Dallas but Did Someone Do Debbie?, 1 September 2006
Author: berry-steven from United States

I think Debbie Does Dallas was a terrific adult movie that delivered the goods with great humor and hot sex. The fact that these folks managed to tick off the City of Dallas, The Dallas Cowboys football team and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders for the not so subtle similarity in Debbies exploits and the naughty exploits by the real Dallas Cheerleaders makes this movie even better.According to the F.B.I Debbie may have earned in excess of 1 Billion dollars in revenue which makes it the most successful movie of all time. When was the last time any Hollywood flick even made it's nut let alone a profit? I always thought the porn actors, both male and female, were never given enough credit for doing what they do as well as they do.The mystery of what ever happened to Bambi Woods after filming the original and also the follow up D.D D. pt 2, isn't a mystery at all. A private detective hired to find her all but said that after her brief x career she went home to some small mid western town and wished to put that part of her life behind her. Anyway for those who haven't seen it, see it. It is porn the way I liked it..sexy and funny. Plus, the actors and actresses actually looked like they were enjoying each other while the hypocrites called them everything but what they should have been called; movie stars.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
this film could use a lot more research, 11 May 2006
Author: jim-sunzi from United States

It is interesting how films like this tend to rely on rehashed information without, in my opinion, bringing real facts to light. The filming of the original DDD is assumed to have been filmed without the awareness of the faculty. Yet no interviews with any of the staff or faculty have ever been published except in newspaper accounts of the day. Filming in 35mm is not a secretive affair. Especially in that time period. There would have been a crew of at least 30 plus actors and catering and such. It would be interesting to know how this was done without permission on a high profile campus such as Prett. Was there a student or faculty conspiracy? The film itself is indeed recognized as important in its genre and deserves study. This film fails in providing us with any substance and instead relies on simple, unproven hearsay and tepid sensationalism to push out yet more useless information to add to the glut on the market. I was terribly disappointed with the film.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A Well-Done, Non-Judgemental Look into the Murky World of Porn, 19 July 2007

Author: peachy2 from United States

Some might say it's not unexpected that I'd have good things to say about this production . . . I was a consultant/researcher for the end product. Contacted by the production company early-on because I wrote DOROTHY FROM KANSAS MEETS THE WIZARD OF X, a book on Eric Edwards, aka Rob Everett, the male lead in "Debbie Does Dallas" & far-too-many-to-list other adult titles, I had a good view of the evolving documentary -- why it ended up angled as it did, "finding" some of those ladies who were willing to talk, but not if they were named, & getting Eric Edwards to become a vital player in the finished work.

If you would like a "mystery story" look into the inner workings of the porn world, & specifically the making of a little X-rated film that never was meant to become an icon of the industry, "Debbie Does Dallas," this is a good piece of historical detail for you to see.

I was pleased that it came to much the same conclusion I came to when I wrote the book on Eric Edwards: People ARE just people. Just because they are the big fish in an industry shunned by most anyone who wants to be seen as "proper," porn insiders are as human--& some are as kind-hearted & complex as all other human beings--as are you & me.

Is "Debbie" still out there, or has she gone on to the big "video" in the sky? Hmmmm. . . . That's a question that's still open for discussion.

Linda Alexander www.lindajalexander.net due out 2008 - RELUCTANT WITNESS: ROBERT TAYLOR, Hollywood, & COMMUNISM

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