By JASON WILLIAMS, DEREK McCAW (McFarland & Company, Inc.; 2018)
The pioneering 1974 porno feature FLESH GORDON is a film whose behind-the-scenes drama was arguably more compelling than what ended up onscreen. That was proven quite adequately by the DVD audio commentary by producer/co-director Howard Ziehm, which consists entirely of a chronicle of the calamitous production, and this furiously enjoyable book, which reiterates Ziehm’s claims from the point of the view of Flesh Gordon himself: actor/director Jason Williams.
The pioneering 1974 porno feature FLESH GORDON is a film whose behind-the-scenes drama was arguably more compelling than what ended up onscreen.
This “accidental porno pioneer” emerged from Orange County, CA, where he served as an alter boy and a well liked high school jock. He was drawn to FLESH GORDON by an advertisement in Variety seeking a “Buster Crabbe lookalike.” Crabbe was of course the guy was headlined the iconic FLASH GORDON movie serials, and Williams apparently resembled him closely enough to play a spoof of that character.
Provided is a fairly in-depth day-by-day chronicle of the FLESH GORDON shoot, whose participants included future special effects legends Rick Baker and Dennis Muren (both of whom subsequently tried to deny their involvement) and actor Craig T. Nelson. Williams claims to have been squeamish about having sex onscreen, but was able to grin-and-bear his way through the Los Angeles shoot. The major sticking point was the intercession of the vice squad, who viewed pornography as prostitution and forced the filmmakers into a guerilla shooting style adopted by many 1970s porn features.
Provided is a fairly in-depth day-by-day chronicle of the FLESH GORDON shoot, whose participants included future special effects legends Rick Baker and Dennis Muren (both of whom subsequently tried to deny their involvement) and actor Craig T. Nelson.
Williams later became friendly with the film’s producer Bill Osco, who led him on an exciting tour of LA’s early 1970s la dolce vita. In this way Williams was made privy to FLESH GORDON’s torturous three year road to the screen, with the film being seized—and recut—by police and the special effects crew striking over not being paid, forcing Ziehm into making several more porn films, all of them distributed by future HILLS HAVE EYES producer Peter Locke. The latter was instrumental in getting FLESH GORDON into theaters by creating a William Castle styled stunt in which a guy dressed as the title character (about which Mr. Williams was not happy) performed an elaborate stunt at the film’s NYC opening.
…FLESH GORDON became a sizeable hit and, if this book is to be believed, paved the way for STAR WARS…
From there FLESH GORDON became a sizeable hit and, if this book is to be believed, paved the way for STAR WARS (it having offered early proof that a FLASH GORDON pastiche could be profitable). Williams himself wasn’t as lucky, finding himself an afterthought in the film’s rise to the top, although he did gain success, of a sort, in behind-the-scenes film work, creating the enormously successful X-rated ALICE IN WONDERLAND musical fantasy in 1976, and also the 1982 mummy thriller TIME WALKER. Most inspirational of all, he broke with the sleazy and self-destructive Bill Osco to set out on his own, assuring us that “I owe FLESH GORDON a lot, but I still have a lot more stories to tell…and to live.”