A Gay Guide to Cruising
- 1983
- 59m
YOUR RATING
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Naked Eye: Sex and the Mondo Film (2023)
Featured review
Early gay white-coater
One of the more consistently dependable presences in early gay hardcore, Tom DeSimone didn't make every film a winner, but he had a higher batting average than most, at least generally seeming to be enjoying what he was doing. GAY GUIDE TO CRUISING is a great example. Adopting a pseudo-doc format, the film was probably produced in the very early '70s, when the genre was popular, and before DeSimone settled into a more listless routine grinding out interchangeable "Lancer Brooks" titles like ASSAULT, SWAP MEAT and BLACK HEAT.
Film opens with 10 minutes' worth of documentary set-up before getting down to business, and it's (surprisingly) legitimately funny. Headlining David Quinte, also of DeSimone's indescribably worse HIGHWAY HUSTLER, the film opens with funny LAUGH-IN-style lessons - mostly acted out on a barely-dressed soundstage - of how to pick up guys. The film has instructions on whom to avoid (prissy, well-dressed guys; drug addicts; and "stupid gays"), how to come up with a more inventive pickup line, and how to get things going once you get back to your (or his!) place. Just as I was beginning to wonder if the film was ever going to go hard, around the 10-minute mark it finally gets to business, and might more aptly have been titled A GAY GUIDE TO SEX from then on.
Film features a bevy of handsome, boyish models, and cycles through them as they demonstrate different sexual techniques, in a matter not dissimilar to Matt Cimber's early straight white coater MAN & WIFE (though without that film's obsession with near-endless positional iterations). Fellatio, mutual masturbation, and even kissing are demonstrated (the latter surprisingly one of the film's hottest scenes, revealing in a romantic passion missing from most modern-day porn). Another key indicator this is an early production: most of the scenes don't finish in ejaculations, that particular element of porn grammar apparently not having been set in stone yet. Film concludes with a demonstration of anal intercourse (another hot scene, with two handsome blond guys), and a sad attempt at S&M that seems to be shooting for SCORPIO RISING but lands more in the area of Meatloaf in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
In all honesty, as a sex film, this is a mess - most of the actors have persistent wood problems, and frequently seem ill-at-ease in front of the camera. Nevertheless, there's something so nice about seeing the kind of wholesome, boy-next-door types the film captures from the dawn of the gay rights era, that in the light of historical perspective, all is forgiven. That DeSimone manages a bit of actual humor and intelligence in his documentary segments is just icing on the cake - more proof that even at this early stage in the career, he was one of the best in the game.
Film opens with 10 minutes' worth of documentary set-up before getting down to business, and it's (surprisingly) legitimately funny. Headlining David Quinte, also of DeSimone's indescribably worse HIGHWAY HUSTLER, the film opens with funny LAUGH-IN-style lessons - mostly acted out on a barely-dressed soundstage - of how to pick up guys. The film has instructions on whom to avoid (prissy, well-dressed guys; drug addicts; and "stupid gays"), how to come up with a more inventive pickup line, and how to get things going once you get back to your (or his!) place. Just as I was beginning to wonder if the film was ever going to go hard, around the 10-minute mark it finally gets to business, and might more aptly have been titled A GAY GUIDE TO SEX from then on.
Film features a bevy of handsome, boyish models, and cycles through them as they demonstrate different sexual techniques, in a matter not dissimilar to Matt Cimber's early straight white coater MAN & WIFE (though without that film's obsession with near-endless positional iterations). Fellatio, mutual masturbation, and even kissing are demonstrated (the latter surprisingly one of the film's hottest scenes, revealing in a romantic passion missing from most modern-day porn). Another key indicator this is an early production: most of the scenes don't finish in ejaculations, that particular element of porn grammar apparently not having been set in stone yet. Film concludes with a demonstration of anal intercourse (another hot scene, with two handsome blond guys), and a sad attempt at S&M that seems to be shooting for SCORPIO RISING but lands more in the area of Meatloaf in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
In all honesty, as a sex film, this is a mess - most of the actors have persistent wood problems, and frequently seem ill-at-ease in front of the camera. Nevertheless, there's something so nice about seeing the kind of wholesome, boy-next-door types the film captures from the dawn of the gay rights era, that in the light of historical perspective, all is forgiven. That DeSimone manages a bit of actual humor and intelligence in his documentary segments is just icing on the cake - more proof that even at this early stage in the career, he was one of the best in the game.
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was A Gay Guide to Cruising (1983) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer