Second Skin (1989)

Along with being two of the most legendary figures and best actors from the golden age of the adult industry, having appeared together in films like Fiona on Fire (1978), Dracula Sucks (1978), and The Ecstasy Girls (1979), John Leslie and Jamie Gillis were also the best of friends. As wonderfully documented by The Rialto Report, Leslie and Gillis had a friendship of well over 30 years with Leslie's annual Easter egg hunt at his home being one of Gillis' favorite times of year. The two also had a great working relationship and not long after Leslie made the transition from acting to directing, Gillis would serve as the assistant director on many Leslie's features including some of his best like Chameleons (1992), Anything That Moves (1992), Bad Habits (1994), Dog Walker (1994) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995). Gillis would make appearances in a few of those titles as well such as during the memorable opening scene of Curse of the Catwoman (1991) and his role in the aforementioned Dog Walker is rather substantial. Excellent casting was always one of the defining characteristics of Leslie's films and for 1989's Second Skin, one his earliest directorial efforts not to mention one of his most brilliantly crafted works, Leslie tagged his best friend Gillis for the leading role in what would become one of his finest and most villainous, yet strangely underseen performances.

While attending a dinner party at his friend Ross' house, Allen and his wife Suzanne are introduced to Vincent Dante (Gillis), an old colleague of Ross' along with Veronica (Ona Zee), Vincent's girlfriend and Johnny (Joey Silvera) and Gabe, two of Vincent's associates. Already a somewhat tense evening due to Johnny and Gabe's belligerent attitudes, things quickly take a turn for the worse during dinner when Allen takes issue with a snide comment from Johnny regarding Allen's chosen profession with Johnny pulling a gun on Allen in response, forcing Vincent to admit that he, along with Johnny and Gabe are diamond smugglers and that Ross previously worked for him and agreed to let Vincent hide out for the night. Vincent proceeds to hold the entire household hostage while various tensions, sexual and others, arise throughout the night.

With its crime scenario, enclosed setting, mounting sense of dread, smoldering eroticism and jazz score, Second Skin feels very much like a hardcore variation of one of José Bénazéraf's early black and white films, in particular La nuit la plus longue (1965) or Sexus. Whether it was intentional or not, Leslie channels Bénazéraf in more ways than one throughout Second Skin, especially as it relates to the characters. While Gillis and his two goons are clearly the defined villains, very few of the other characters could be described as classically “likable” making the hostage situation all the more tense and interesting with Leslie sustaining the moodiness throughout, ala Bénazéraf. Much like Goin' Down Slow (1988), Leslie's second feature, there are long stretches in Second Skin where Leslie seems to eschew the demands of the medium in which he's working, setting aside the sex to focus solely on the characters, Gillis of course taking center stage. Vincent Dante is certainty one of the more despicable personalities Gillis ever portrayed, yet because it's Gillis in the role there's an undeniable charm to Vincent even while he's gleefully tormenting the entire household. While Gillis is the biggest selling point of the film, the supporting cast are all terrific, Ona Zee especially as Vincent's long suffering alcoholic mistress who really delivers in the one of the films more uncomfortable moments. The film is also notable for the bizarre way Leslie wraps the film up, with a surreal twist that feels out of left field even for Leslie.

It's interesting that Gillis stars in a film such as Second Skin, a 1989 plot-driven feature as that was the same year Gillis revolutionized the adult industry with one of the first videos in what would become known as the “gonzo” genre, On the Prowl (1989). As Gillis related to AVN “I'd been in the business already for many years and I just said oh my god, they're so boring, these stupid movies with their stupid scripts. So I said let's just take a girl and bring her out and find somebody who wants to fuck her and is excited about it. I literally brought girls out to the public, and whoever came along, that's what we shot. Now that to me was fun because it meant that we didn't know exactly what was going to happen. I always liked reality. I hated the old moans and groans type of porn.” Interestingly enough, Leslie too would eventually bow out of narrative features after 1995 and focus almost entirely on plotless gonzo features as the economics of the adult industry dictated. Perhaps Gillis found the script for Second Skin at a much higher quality than most, which it most certainty is and the same could be said for all of Leslie's features from this period. Second Skin though stands out a bit more, a masterfully realized work from two of the industry's heaviest hitters.