Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Tempting though it may be to read this film as some sort of prescient "roman à clef" as to the tragic fate that befell its lovely leading lady at the behest of her wicked spouse, as the '70s dawned the Russells were easily hardcore's most harmonious couple, free-spirited love children without a care in the world. The quintessential hot hippie chick, Tina quickly rose to the top of the heap with Jason seeming the supportive husband, neither missing a beat when expressing limitless devotion in press or public. Their fairy tale ground to a halt when Jason laid eyes on then underage Jean Jennings while producing Armand Weston's S&M flavored DEFIANCE in 1974. This alienation of affection drove Tina to drink, contributing to her untimely death from stomach cancer at age 32, as Jason would now put her down with equal passion previously reserved for securing stardom. Substance abuse reducing her to unemployment, looks sadly dwindling, she was to suffer the ultimate humiliation as her former mate acquired her services as make up person for his current paramour, a job she was in no position to turn down.
Bearing in mind this downward spiral makes for mighty uncomfortable viewing indeed, cynically charting the disintegration of a happy couple, strapped for cash, through their involvement in the world of porn and the easy money it brings. Director "Sidney Knight" a/k/a Simon Nuchtern was no stranger to the sordid and downbeat, his disillusioned disenchantment with human nature someday surely gaining him the long overdue status of an early adult "auteur". Straddling the fence between soft-core simulation and hardcore penetration as befitting this transitional stage, he would soon pass on the sexploitation silliness of fledgling endeavors for the topical treatment of the Vietnam war and its ugly psychological side effects on the men fighting it, the ramifications of which were just trickling down in public consciousness, in his 1971 THE SOLDIER'S WIFE with a couple turning to rape as the cure for the husband's shell shock induced impotence ! Under his real name, Nuchtern sought to up the ante with his self-produced impassioned anti war plea entitled COWARDS, sold the film to notorious dirty movie distributor William Mishkin to recoup the costs who spliced this earnest effort into LOVE-IN '72, routinely attributed to "Knight" and Karl Hansen a/k/a porn purveyor "Kemal Horulu".
Although never explicitly stated, the Vietnam trauma hovers ominously over DEBAUCHERS inasmuch as it testifies to a country's loss of innocence when the flower power mantra of peace and love got trampled underfoot by the bloodshed taking place overseas. Functioning almost as an allegory, DEBAUCHERS pits jaded cynical wealth against penniless naiveté with no chance of a happy ending. Making out while skimming through the job offers, dirt poor May and Jack Carey only want to score $1,000 to buy a stock car as their pathetic pipe dream meal ticket when coming across an ad requesting open-minded models for "experimental art films". May agrees to "read" for the proposed part which promises to pay $250 a day for a single week shoot, provided she stay on the premises presided over by manipulative millionaire Tom Waters (an awe-inspiring performance by alleged one shot Claude Rube), euphemistically described as "peculiar" by his in house shrink Doctor Clayton, played by paunchy middle-aged "Knight" regular Daniel Harin. Ordering May to strip and pleasure herself, Rube breathlessly berates the credibly terrified Tina for not giving him what he wants. Unable to leave, that night she's on the phone tearfully pleading Jack to come to her rescue. When he turns up, Waters just throws money at him, literally, changing his mind at a moment's notice.
Contrary to "roughie" expectations, the injustice inflicted on May's character turns out to be way more sophisticated and morally bankrupt than mere physical subordination. When May cries rape in the wake of her remunerated if still reluctant sexual performance with her husband, this should be interpreted metaphorically as Jack's betrayal of their love as the pure antidote to the materialism that preoccupies and poisons surrounding society. Even though abuse is constant, it's verbally threatening rather than physical. As May falls apart, Tina's acting - tentative at first, as befitting an early performance - improves no end, assuring audiences are firmly on her side.
Giving it up to the doctor, who claims to be just as much of a captive due to incriminating evidence Waters has on him, May learns what the demented director meant by "experimental" as he plans to pay Jack to snuff her out in the film's final scene, proving that everyone has his price to perform even the most unspeakable perversion. Departing from formula that was yet to take root in 1971, she seeks solace from the less than forthcoming domestic only as a means to secure a huge kitchen knife rather than the expected girl/girl scenario. As Jack attempts to drown her in the outdoor swimming pool, May stabs him with Waters indifferent as to who winds up dead, only affirming that she has now "given him what he wanted"...
Lulled into a faux feeling of familiarity by its mock Warhol type early stages, seeming more like a series of improvised acting class exercises leaving poor Tina apparently (and deliberately) out of her depth, viewers are drawn almost unnoticeable towards the narrative's darker development and a shock ending that, while telegraphed in advance, still freezes the blood. Hall of mirrors turnaround film within a film conclusion may very well have influenced Paul Thomas's lauded labyrinthine FADE TO BLACK and its equally convoluted sequel three decades later, making this unheralded achievement all the more impressive as there was precious little to compare with at the time. Hand-held camera work by regular collaborator Robert Morgenstern provides the material with well- judged, often literally in-your-face urgency.
Bearing in mind this downward spiral makes for mighty uncomfortable viewing indeed, cynically charting the disintegration of a happy couple, strapped for cash, through their involvement in the world of porn and the easy money it brings. Director "Sidney Knight" a/k/a Simon Nuchtern was no stranger to the sordid and downbeat, his disillusioned disenchantment with human nature someday surely gaining him the long overdue status of an early adult "auteur". Straddling the fence between soft-core simulation and hardcore penetration as befitting this transitional stage, he would soon pass on the sexploitation silliness of fledgling endeavors for the topical treatment of the Vietnam war and its ugly psychological side effects on the men fighting it, the ramifications of which were just trickling down in public consciousness, in his 1971 THE SOLDIER'S WIFE with a couple turning to rape as the cure for the husband's shell shock induced impotence ! Under his real name, Nuchtern sought to up the ante with his self-produced impassioned anti war plea entitled COWARDS, sold the film to notorious dirty movie distributor William Mishkin to recoup the costs who spliced this earnest effort into LOVE-IN '72, routinely attributed to "Knight" and Karl Hansen a/k/a porn purveyor "Kemal Horulu".
Although never explicitly stated, the Vietnam trauma hovers ominously over DEBAUCHERS inasmuch as it testifies to a country's loss of innocence when the flower power mantra of peace and love got trampled underfoot by the bloodshed taking place overseas. Functioning almost as an allegory, DEBAUCHERS pits jaded cynical wealth against penniless naiveté with no chance of a happy ending. Making out while skimming through the job offers, dirt poor May and Jack Carey only want to score $1,000 to buy a stock car as their pathetic pipe dream meal ticket when coming across an ad requesting open-minded models for "experimental art films". May agrees to "read" for the proposed part which promises to pay $250 a day for a single week shoot, provided she stay on the premises presided over by manipulative millionaire Tom Waters (an awe-inspiring performance by alleged one shot Claude Rube), euphemistically described as "peculiar" by his in house shrink Doctor Clayton, played by paunchy middle-aged "Knight" regular Daniel Harin. Ordering May to strip and pleasure herself, Rube breathlessly berates the credibly terrified Tina for not giving him what he wants. Unable to leave, that night she's on the phone tearfully pleading Jack to come to her rescue. When he turns up, Waters just throws money at him, literally, changing his mind at a moment's notice.
Contrary to "roughie" expectations, the injustice inflicted on May's character turns out to be way more sophisticated and morally bankrupt than mere physical subordination. When May cries rape in the wake of her remunerated if still reluctant sexual performance with her husband, this should be interpreted metaphorically as Jack's betrayal of their love as the pure antidote to the materialism that preoccupies and poisons surrounding society. Even though abuse is constant, it's verbally threatening rather than physical. As May falls apart, Tina's acting - tentative at first, as befitting an early performance - improves no end, assuring audiences are firmly on her side.
Giving it up to the doctor, who claims to be just as much of a captive due to incriminating evidence Waters has on him, May learns what the demented director meant by "experimental" as he plans to pay Jack to snuff her out in the film's final scene, proving that everyone has his price to perform even the most unspeakable perversion. Departing from formula that was yet to take root in 1971, she seeks solace from the less than forthcoming domestic only as a means to secure a huge kitchen knife rather than the expected girl/girl scenario. As Jack attempts to drown her in the outdoor swimming pool, May stabs him with Waters indifferent as to who winds up dead, only affirming that she has now "given him what he wanted"...
Lulled into a faux feeling of familiarity by its mock Warhol type early stages, seeming more like a series of improvised acting class exercises leaving poor Tina apparently (and deliberately) out of her depth, viewers are drawn almost unnoticeable towards the narrative's darker development and a shock ending that, while telegraphed in advance, still freezes the blood. Hall of mirrors turnaround film within a film conclusion may very well have influenced Paul Thomas's lauded labyrinthine FADE TO BLACK and its equally convoluted sequel three decades later, making this unheralded achievement all the more impressive as there was precious little to compare with at the time. Hand-held camera work by regular collaborator Robert Morgenstern provides the material with well- judged, often literally in-your-face urgency.