The Chameleon (1989) / Chameleons (1992)

In a lot of ways, John Leslie could be considered the Jess Franco of hardcore. Although Franco was no stranger to adult films, having dabbled in it himself numerous times, that's not what makes the two auteurs similar. Both were exhaustively prolific directors, often churning out multiple films in one year and like so many filmmakers of the auteurist type, both utilized their regular troupe of actors, crew members and score composers. Most importantly though, what really draws Leslie and Franco together is the way both kept returning to the same type of material, always putting a fresh spin on it with “parallel” films. Franco was particularly adept at making films with storylines that were nearly incidental to films he'd made prior without the new films being sequels. Leslie was very much the same way with many films from his 1988 to 1995 hot streak exploring many of the same ideas such as the loose trilogy of Mad Love (1989), Laying the Ghost (1991) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995) all putting an XXX twist on new homeowners encountering supernatural entities whereas the The Catwoman (1988) and Curse of the Catwoman (1991) center on women discovering their inner feline, metaphorically and literally. Two of Leslie's most bizarrely plotted films, The Chameleon and its companion film Chameleons follow in the same mold, with the later being one of Leslie's finest works all around.

One of Leslie's most outlandish concepts, at the heart of The Chameleon is the love between Diana (Tori Welles) and Marc (Tom Byron), a couple who's relationship has become strained due to Diana's ability to inexplicably morph into the body of anyone she desires, affording her the luxury of endless sexual partners, much to the chagrin of Marc. Like so many of Leslie's features from this period, the one word that best describes The Chameleon is “clever”. For starters, the main concept is ingenious for an adult film in that it gives way to featuring several different performers in various sex scenes while continuing to tell a story. What's more though, the idea of being a “chameleon” gives way to many a metaphor which Leslie ponders on quite a bit. While it's made very clear early on that Dianna does have to ability to literally shape-shift into other people, her desire to become someone else is much more than just out of a purely sexual need as despite the confidence Welles radiates throughout the film, Diana is also filled with self-doubt and loathing and Leslie even peppers the film with scenes of Dianna speaking to a therapist. Leslie is also heavily invested in the dynamics of Dianna and Marc's relationship and it's sure to surprise many just how invested the film is in presenting their relationship, the terrific performances from Welles and Byron easily selling that aspect of the film with everything building to a mind-warping surprise at the end of the film.

Leslie would return to the world of chameleons in 1992 with Chameleons (awkwardly subtitled “Not the Sequel”), this time focusing on a chameleon couple, Claudine (Deidre Holland) and Reynaldo (Rocco Siffredi) who's life is turned upside down after an encounter between Claudine and Casey (Ashlyn Gere) at a swingers club which leads Casey to crave the chameleon experience no matter the cost. A crown jewel in Leslie's filmography, Chameleons greatly expands upon the chameleon mythology established in the earlier film, adding the caveat of the life being drained out of the person who's identity is being assumed. A much more intimate and insular film than the original Chameleon, dealing with a handful of central characters taking place in limited settings, there is a strange claustrophobic and almost sickly atmosphere to the film with the already berserk plot featuring almost zero skepticism from any of the characters regarding their situations, but also with Leslie giving no clear indication as to who is supposed to be a “good” or “bad” character. Most of the characters are presented as looking out for only themselves, with the second half of the film becoming a series of head games between Gere and Holland with both constantly switching the roles of potential villain. The cleverness of the first film is multiplied tenfold with the storyline taking some wonderfully sly directions, a benefit of the small cast, and just like the first Chameleon, the film builds to a brilliantly bewildering final twist that trumps the finale of the original film.

Both films feature typically excellent scores from Bill Heid, Leslie's right hand man for music during this period, the soundtrack for the first Chameleon being one of Heid's very best for Leslie done in Heid's signature jazz style with a touch of lounge. Chameleons was the third collaboration between Leslie and Ashlyn Gere who had previously appeared in Leslie's excellent The Tease (1990) and later in Bad (1992). Excellent as the entire cast of Chameleons is, with Siffredi and Holland doing some of their finest work, all ultimately end up in the shadow of the force of nature that is Gere who owns the entire film with her forceful performance and imposing presence. It's also interesting to see Siffredi in a role that required quite a bit of sensitivity considering some of the things he would become known for later in his career. Siffredi was also becoming a Leslie regular around this time having already appeared in Curse of the Catwoman (1991) and would feature again in Leslie's fourth wall breaking The Rehearsal (1993). Chameleons is also notable for having been one of three Leslie features lensed on 35mm film which was becoming more of a rarity for adult films during this era, though it's a distinction the film deserves as it along with the first Chameleon feature, like so many of Leslie titles, represent adult filmmaking at its most original and unique.

Mad Love (1989) / Laying the Ghost (1991)

Whether or not certain fans of each medium would like to admit it, horror and adult films do share a certain kinship. Despite the massive popularity of both genres, both are still maligned and ghettoized by many in the more mainstream sectors of the entertainment industry, horror even sometimes dismissed as mere pornography by the more imbecilicly inclined (which of course leads to idiotic terms like “torture porn” and “gorno”) and both have many conventions dedicated solely to each respective genre attended by millions of loyal fans worldwide. The two are often paired together for the purposes of parody but when both genres cross-pollinate in a more serious manner the results can be masterful with the right people involved. Films like Though the Looking Glass (1976) and Stephen Sayadian's Nightdreams (1981) are prime examples of hybrids from the golden age or “porno chic” era and on the more European side of things Jess Franco's hardcore take on his Female Vampire (1973) scenario Doriana Gray (1976) and Jean Rollin's Phantasmes (1975) took the adult film into more fantastique directions. After turning his attention to directing in the late 80's, John Leslie quickly solidified himself as a genre specialist and would constantly fuse hardcore with more oddball, oftentimes horror based material which he did for the first time with Mad Love and again with Laying the Ghost, two very strange forays into the pornographic paranormal.

Taking a fairly typical haunted house set-up, 1989's Mad Love quickly reveals itself to be far from typical after married couple Jeff and Elizabeth Reynolds move into a large San Francisco mansion to house sit while the mysterious elderly owner is away. Their first night in the house, Elizabeth is awoken and startled by two copulating strangers, though she dismisses it as a dream, however the next day she realizes it was no dream as she finds herself visited all though the house by it's long departed past guests determined to initiate her into their postmortem ceremonies. Again, not exactly a typical haunted house affair and Leslie does a few clever things to toss even more curve balls along the way, particularity the way in which the opening scene, which at the outset seems to have nothing to do with anything, eventually comes full circle making the film seem as if the story is taking place in some sort of cursed time loop. The way Leslie reintroduces the owner of the house late in the film is brilliant as well making the narrative all the more elliptical. The film was Leslie's first real chance to show off his unorthodox approach to hardcore, firstly with the look of the house itself which is full of odd decorations but working within the realm of a ghost story allowed Leslie to play around with dream logic, the final third of the film having the excellent lead actress Kendal Marx tossed into a web of sexual delirium.

Similarly plotted is 1991's Laying the Ghost which once again focuses on new inhabitants of a house, Stanley (Joey Silvera) and Kate along with Kate's sister Mandy (Savannah) who have their bedrooms visited by two ghostly figures (Peter North and T.T. Boy) on their first night in their new home. Determined to put an end to their visits, they enlist the services of paranormal expert Dr. Laura Rhodes and her assistant Andrew who inform them that their visitors are the spirits of Captain Johnathan Parker and his brother, two pirates who died in a shipwreck near the house hundreds of years ago who return to the site of their deaths in search of their true loves. An exceptionally strange film even by the standards Leslie set for himself, Laying the Ghost is Leslie at his most eccentric. Whereas Mad Love was played entirely straight, Leslie's approach with Laying the Ghost is one of frivolity which renders the film even more bizarre than Mad Love. In a lot of ways, Leslie treats the film like sitcom, even going so far as to adding canned audience laughter whenever North and Boy appear on screen. Silvera has a habit of shouting his dialogue at the top of his lungs throughout the entire film and Tom Byron, in the role of Dr. Rhodes assistant Andrew, sports a hilariously exaggerated surfer accent. Despite all the absurdity on display, Leslie once again manages to tie everything together nicely and even has Bryon and Savanna develop a rather endearing romance.

While Mad Love, like most of Leslie's films from this period, was scored by Leslie's go-to collaborator Bill Heid, Laying the Ghost differs in that it was scored by Double Vision, who's name should be familiar to fans of this type of film as they worked with the previously mentioned Stephen Sayadian, AKA Rinse Dream the same year providing memorable scores for Nightdreams 2 and 3 (1991) and Party Doll a Go-Go! (1991), the later being their finest work. The score for Laying the Ghost might not be on the same level as their work with Sayadian, but it's nevertheless interesting to see Leslie working with someone other than Heid around this time. 1991 was also the same year Savannah worked with Gregory Dark, another outside the box trailblazer in the adult realm appearing in New Wave Hookers 2. She only worked with Leslie one more time in Angels (1992), Leslie's twist on an It's a Wonderful Life (1946) type of story. Of course, her tragic suicide at the age of 24 is well documented. Leslie would return to the super natural once again years later with perhaps his most avant-garde work, Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995), even bringing back the canned laughter and new house set-up, making a perfect triple bill with Mad Love and Laying the Ghost, the two earlier films showcasing Leslie's penchant for well crafted and increasingly peculiar narratives.

The Catwoman (1988) / Curse of the Catwoman (1991)

Reviews of narrative based adult films are always interesting in that it's inevitable the long cliché descriptor “porno with a plot” is bound to come up. What's interesting is exactly how that term is used. More often than it, it seems as if there's a condescending nature to describing an adult film focused on telling a story as such, almost as if an adult film has no business trying to be “legitimate” and should always be of a plotless, all sex nature. While it's true that a good chuck of the adult video product does consist of sex only content, especially in the current internet dominated marketplace, XXX films with an emphasis on narrative were what ushered in the golden age of the genre or the so called “porno chic” era. After home video took over in the 80's, there were still a handful of filmmakers determined to give their work much more to offer, one of which was John Leslie. After making the transition from actor to director in the late 80's, Leslie became responsible for some of the finest plot based films in the adult medium. Much like Stephen Sayadian and Gregory Dark, Leslie's storylines were often bizarre and outlandish, crossing over at times into surreal, horror-esque territory, with one of his earliest efforts, The Catwoman, and its companion Curse of the Catwoman being two shining examples of Leslie's narrative eccentricities.

Leslie himself plays a big part in The Catwoman in one of his last roles as a performer. Leslie is Chris, a Svengali of sorts who, after a chance encounter with Jennifer (Kathleen Gentry), a photographer frustrated with her unreliable boyfriend Steffan (Joey Silvera), convinces Jennifer that she's no ordinary woman, but in fact a cat who's inner animal is begging to be untamed. Although skeptical, Jennifer puts herself under Chris' tutelage as he introduces her to his realm of the cats as the man-eater in her becomes unleashed. For an adult film, The Catwoman is uniquely ambiguous in that it never really answers the question as to whether or not it's supposed to be taken literally or metaphorically with there being many things about the film that leads to both options being equally plausible. If Leslie intended the later, the film is successful just based on how clever the writing is, using the idea of having an inner animal to tell the story of a frustrated woman getting one over on her deadbeat boyfriend. The film also plays around with the idea of the dating world being a jungle, even having its own terminology, hilariously referring to overtly zealous men in bars as “hyenas”. On the other hand, given Leslie's knack for the strange, it wouldn't be a stretch to take the film at face value with Gentry and Leslie's characters literally being half-cat given some of the make-up seen late in the film worn by the inhabitants of Leslie's “cat lair”.

With Curse of the Catwoman, Leslie takes whatever ambiguity the first film had and dispenses with it entirely in favor of a story fully rooted in the fantastique. Raquel (Selena Steele), the estranged sister of Veronica (Raven) arrives at her sisters house after learning that she and her sister are descendants of cat people and their destinies dictates one will eventually become the leader of the cats. Along with Veronica's two cat packmates Michael (Rocco Siffredi) and Tanya (Patrica Kennedy), Raquel is inducted into the ways of the cat, though a power struggle ensues when Veronica places the title of supreme cat on herself. Rivaling Laying the Ghost (1991) which was shot around the same time in terms of head-scratching oddness, Curse of the Catwoman is one of Leslie's most berserk efforts with it being pretty blatant that the characters are indeed werecats. A live panther even makes a few brief appearances and Leslie has the cast maneuver and acting like actual cats, making the already peculiar performances all the more unconventional. Though Leslie expands the mythology of the first film a bit, Curse is a fairly insular film, with a good chunk of the film taking place in a nightclub where the cats congregate (the hyena's from the first film return as well with their own “pit” in the nightclub) or in the bizarre house of the main cats looking as if it's in the middle of renovation, though both sets are highly stylized making Curse one of Leslie's sharpest looking films.

Like most of Leslie's features from this period, both films feature excellent scores from Bill Heid, Leslie's main musical collaborator. For these two films, which both feature the same soundtrack, Heid eschews the usual jazz/blues flavored scores he provided for Leslie in favor of eerie synths and pulsating tribal drums used to great effect. The original film even features an infectious snythpop styled theme song for the closing credits. Curse also happens to feature the legendary Jamie Gillis, one of Leslie's best friends, during the films memorable opening scenes. Gillis also acted as the films assistant director, a job he would hold for several other Leslie films. 1991 was a pretty fruitful year for offbeat adult fare. Along with Curse and Leslie's previously mentioned Laying the Ghost, 1991 was the year that Stephen Sayadian (AKA Rinse Dream) returned to the medium with the second and third Nightdreams films and Party Doll a Go-Go!, the later sharing several cast members with Curse including Raven, Patricia Kennedy as well as Tom Byron and Randy Spears. 1991 was also the year that Gregory Dark delivered New Wave Hookers 2, the sequel to his groundbreaking classic (starring Gillis), which also happens to feature Kennedy. Much like those films, Leslie's Catwoman features are indicative of a type of off-center adult filmmaking that only a few select directors seemed interested in exploring. Both essential titles in the Leslie cannon. 

Goin' Down Slow (1988)

The actor-to-director transition is always a curious thing for the obvious interest in seeing how experience in the former field translates to the later. In the adult film industry, it's a common practice for veteran performers to make their way behind the camera after an extensive career as performers and one of the very first to do so was John Leslie. A gifted actor, musician, painter, all around renaissance man, Leslie was already a living legend by the time he sat in the directors chair, having appeared in several golden age or “porno chic” titles like Fiona on Fire (1978), Dracula Sucks (1978) and Insatiable (1981) among many others and quickly became recognized for his charm and legitimate acting talent. By all accounts, Leslie was loved and respected by virtually everyone in the industry all the way up to his passing in 2010. As Leslie himself opined in the documentary After Porn Ends (2012), near the end of the 80's he was becoming weary of being a performer and while standing in line at the airport waiting to travel to Europe for work, he made the decision to focus solely on directing. Leslie's debut feature as a director was Nightshift Nurses (1988), a light comedic affair but it was his second feature Goin' Down Slow that really solidified him as a director and set in motion one of the hottest directorial streaks imaginable.

Martin Collins, a writer who pens an advice column under the nom de plume “Madame Rona” discovers through his very own column that his wife Ellen is having an affair. When confronting her about it, the argument turns physical, resulting in Ellen being knocked to the ground and struck on the head by a falling statue, killing her. After trying to pass it off as a home invasion, Martin is thrown for a loop when Ron Stevens, a photographer working for the same magazine, is found at the scene of the crime and charged with the murder. Despite seemingly being in the clear, Martin's troubles are just beginning when more stones are overturned that eventually involve his boss George Anton (Leslie) and lonely neighbor Miss Palmer.

Misleadingly advertised as a whodunit, Goin' Down Slow is the type of film that features all the essential components of a murder mystery yet scrambles the order typical mystery films normally sequence them. By having all the seemingly crucial questions answered within the first half hour, the films focus quickly shifts to other revelations made about the lives of everyone involved in the case which is where the film really becomes interesting. It's a fine line to walk which Leslie does brilliantly, and what's especially incredible is how there is essentially no real protagonist, with the majority of characters being unlikable for the most part, giving the film a downbeat, drastically different type of tone when compared to most adult features. Above all else, the film is incredibly clever, particularly the way Leslie weaves Collins' job into the murder plot. Of course, the nature of Collins' column also gives Leslie the opening to smoothly segue into some of the sex scenes and surprisingly there are long stretches of the film where there are none, Leslie seemingly becoming so focused on the narrative it's as if he forgets the demands of the the medium he's working in. It's another example of just how air tight the plot of the film really is, only becoming more engrossing as it goes along, especially late in the film where Leslie himself gets to shine as Collins' boss and the reemergence of a character introduced in the beginning of the film making way for a rather ingenious twist.

Produced and distributed by VCA who would be Leslie's distributor until 1994, Goin' Down Slow features the participation of many that would go on to become regular players for Leslie, Joey Silvera especially who plays the role of Ron Stevens, would be given fairly prominent and memorable roles by Leslie in subsequent films like The Catwoman (1989), The Chameleon (1989), Laying the Ghost (1991), Dog Walker (1994) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995). Kathleen Gentry who plays Collins' secretary would go on to play the titular role in the aforementioned Catwoman and Tom Byron and Peter North who both appear in a sequence inspired by Collins' “Madame Rona” column appear in several future Leslie titles, Byron even co-headlining The Chameleon. Perhaps the most important contribution however would be that of composer Bill Heid, who's jazz/blues score added greatly to the films noirish atmosphere. Heid would become Leslie's right hand man when it came to the soundtracks for his films with the two developing an incredibly fruitful and rewarding director/composer relationship on par with the likes of Lynch/Badalamenti or Ferrara/Delia with Heid's scores, mostly in the jazz/blues realm, always being one of the strongest aspects of Leslie's work. Although made early in his directorial career, Goin' Down Slow is a remarkably assured film proving Leslie's directorial chops and the man would only get better, and at times progressively stranger, from here on out.

Under Capricorn (1949)

Its hardly surprising that a director with the stature of Alfred Hitchcock would have his own production company in his day. What is surprising however, is the fact that said production company would only last for two films. Hitchcock, along with British business mogul Baron Sidney Bernstein formed Transatlantic Pictures in 1945. The two had previously collaborated on a holocaust documentary that was ultimately shelved before finally seeing the light of day in 1985 entitled Memory of the Camps. The first film Hitchcock would helm under his Transatlantic banner was Rope (1948), now famous for its revolutionary long take shooting technique, with the cuts slyly disguised to give the impression that the entire film was taking place in real time. As brilliant as Rope was, the film proved to be controversial with its fairly blatant homosexual overtones (the film was based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case) and didn't do great business in the US. For a follow-up, Hitchcock would once again fly the Transatlantic flag and would shoot the project in a similar long take fashion but he took an interesting left turn with the material. The result was 1949's Under Capricorn, a lush period melodrama that would unfortunately fly over a lot of audiences heads at the time but stands as yet another film often considered to be “lesser” Hitchcock that is in fact an extraordinary piece of work.

Not long after arriving in Australia in hopes of making his fortune, Charles Adare, an Irishman and cousin of the new governor, quickly befriends Samson Flusky (Joseph Cotten), a rich man with a shady criminal past. Much to the chagrin of his cousin, Charles has dinner at Flusky's house where he meets Flusky's wife Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman), a former childhood friend of Charles' sister in Ireland who's now an alcoholic, spending most of her days perpetually drunk in her bedroom. After making a scene, Charles kindly helps Henrietta back to her room, prompting Flusky to plead with Charles to help get Henrietta back to her old self. Charles agrees, though in the process invoking the jealousy of Flusky's nefarious housekeeper Millie and in turn Flusky himself which shines new light on an old scandal involving Flusky and Henrietta's past.

On paper, Under Capricorn might not seem very Hitchcockian but the film gradually reveals itself to be rife with many of Hitchcock's key obsessions. What separates it from other Hitchcock films is the way in which said obsessions reveal themselves, the manner employed by Hitchcock being rather sly. The idea of a high society scandal is one of the more obvious Hitchcock themes to make itself known fairly quickly, but as the story progresses and it becomes known that a murder has been hanging over the heads of certain characters for several years, perhaps Hitchcock's favorite theme of all comes into play, that being a wrong man scenario and again, Hitchcock explores the familiar idea in a different way then audiences at the time were used to. There is also of course the character of Millie, who, although not as overtly sinister as Mrs. Danvers in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), the most infamous of all evil housekeepers, she is nevertheless cut from the same cloth and makes for a wonderful antagonist. The central story of Henrietta's plight carries a lot of emotional weight thanks to Bergman's sympathetic performance and the story poses an interesting question in regards to how much self-sacrifice is the idea of love worth. Hitchcock's technical brilliance is on full display with the long takes and despite being set in Australia, the films visuals share many qualities of an American southern gothic aesthetic and the film even tips over into full-on horror territory thanks to the starling appearances of shrunken heads.

Along with not being very popular with audiences and critics at the time who were both expecting a typical Hitchcock thriller, the film was even maligned by its creators with Hitchcock believing it to have been a “disaster” and Joseph Cotten referring to it as “Under Corny Crap” in his autobiography Vanity Will Get You Somewhere. French critics however loved the film as was par for the course when it came to many of Hitchcock films that were underrated elsewhere, particularly in America upon their initial releases. Cahiers du Cinema even named Under Capricorn one of the greatest films of all time in 1958. Despite the box office failure of Under Capricorn and Rope before it, Hitchcock did intend to keep Transatlantic going, with Hitchcock follow-up Stage Fright (1950) originally intended to be a Transatlantic production, the company eventually dissolving after a plethora of issues got in the way of what was to be an adaptation of The Bramble Bush, a novel by American writer David Duncan, with several of Hitchcock subsequent films being released by Warner Bros. Despite having virtually everything working against it and with respect to Hitchcock and Cotten's opinions of the film, Under Capricorn is certainly a film Hitchcock enthusiasts who've yet to make its acquaintance would be wise to sit down with and an interesting look at Hitchcock taking a different approach to some of his favorite topics.

The Skin Game (1931)

One of the greatest ironies regarding the filmography of Alfred Hitchcock is that thanks to the copyright laws of the United States, so many of Hitchcock's early British films have been widely available for years, often grouped together in budget DVD sets, yet so many of the films are still under-discussed. Of Hitchcock's silent features, of course The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) is the clear standout, rightfully considered one of Hitchcock's finest and most important films but other silent titles like The Ring (1927), Downhill (1927), The Farmer's Wife (1928), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928) and The Manxman (1929), while obviously never going to be viewed with the same esteem as the likes of Vertigo (1958) or Psycho (1960), are nevertheless interesting watches as they present of the mediums greatest talents gradually honing his craft. The same could be said of Hitchcock's early sound films, with several going on to prominence like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1936) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) while some other, more obscure films get lost in the cracks. One such early Hitchcock talkie to get lost in the shuffle is 1931's The Skin Game, a curious little film that, while different from a lot of the films Hitchcock was doing at the time, would actually show a few signs of things to come from Hitchcock in the future.

Mr. Hornblower, a formally working class, now rich entrepreneur, evicts the Jackman's, an elderly couple of tenant farmers from his land, much to the chagrin of Jack Hillcrist, the head of an aristocratic family whom sold Hornblower the land under the condition that no tenants would be evicted after the land was sold. Brushing off Hillcrist's protests, Hornblower reveals his plans to purchase a large area of land near the Hillcrist's property to build more factories, the prospect of which disgusts the Hillcrist's. After a plan to outbid Hornblower for the land goes array, Mrs. Hillcrist discovers a scandalous secret about the past of Hornblower's daughter-in-law Chloe, a revelation that takes the two feuding families rivalry into disastrous territory.

The Skin Game is the type of film that would lead many to classify it as an “atypical” Hitchcock film which would be unfair for a few reasons. While the film was a bit of a departure from the types of films Hitchcock had made leading up to it, he really hadn't quite become synonymous with the types of suspense thrillers that would eventually become his calling card and again, the film does contain numerous things that Hitchcock would gradually refine in future films. On its own, The Skin Game is a great early example of Hitchcock's approach to melodrama with an engaging family feud at its core. What's most interesting regarding the story is the way Hitchcock's presents both families, and in a brilliant early example of Hitchcock mastery of audience manipulation, the way Hitchcock constantly seems to be shifting sympathies, with both the Hornblower's and the Hillcrist's eventually coming across as just as bad as the other, and with the story eventually heading into almost Shakespearean tragedy territory near its conclusion, its clear that in Hitchcock's view, in this skin game, there are no winners. The film also makes for a fascinating time capsule with the scandal involving Hornblower's daughter-in-law being very much a product of its day, and the idea of a scandal threatening to bring social harm to an upper class family is a theme that Hitchcock would return to again in another film often seen as atypical, Under Capricorn (1949), which also touches upon the idea of class.

Another example of the film showing signs of things to come, the film does feature some early, slightly primitive though nonetheless effective “floating head” optical effects that are reminiscent of some of the more surreal imagery that would feature in Spellbound (1945) and Vertigo. It's also worth noting that the film was based on a play written by English writer John Galsworthy in 1920. As was often the case when it came to writers, Hitchcock and Galsworthy often butted heads over the script, although during the films pre-production stages Hitchcock and Galsworthy got along swimmingly with Hitchcock already being a big fan of Galsworthy's. Hitchcock considered Galsworthy one of the most cultured individuals he'd ever conversed with, the dinners at Galsworthy's house being some of Hitchcock's favorites, Hitchcock describing Galsworthy acting as “a chivalrous feudal lord mandating every new topic of conversation” and ultimately Galsworthy had to give his final approval of everything in the script. Again, due to the strange world that is copyright law, The Skin Game, like the majority of Hitchcock's early output has floated around in the public domain in America resulting in several home video editions either on its own or in a set with other early Hitchcock's so its a very easily attainable film and while its not likely to be considered an “essential” title, The Skin Game is very much worth seeing for any Hitchcock enthusiast. 

New Rose Hotel (1998)

Given the rapid advancements in technology since the 1990's, it's inevitable that the massive technological achievements made in the 90's are bound to be seen as somewhat primitive when looked back upon with modern eyes, yet its nevertheless fascinating seeing how the tech revelations of the 90's shape the current tech climate. Naturally the science fiction genre was in no short supply of inspiration given the ever-evolving realm of technology and several films with concepts that at the time were thought of as futuristic seem terrifyingly prophetic. Considering the prevalence of drones, self-preserving bots, radically advanced virtual reality and immersive RPG's, films like Hardware (1990), Total Recall (1990) and eXistenz (1999), just to name a few, don't seem all that far-fetched. With the ever-increasing popularity of the internet in the 90's, the cyberpunk subgenre was particularly fruitful and one of the most surprising and overlooked films to come out of the wave of high tech features was New Rose Hotel, Abel Ferrara's adaptation of the story by William Gibson, largely considered the forefather of cyberpunk. Ferrara might not seem like the first choise to direct a cyberpunk film, however he was no stranger to science fiction having helmed the underrated Body Snatchers (1993) earlier in the decade and much like that film, New Rose Hotel presents a highly singular approach to genre, resulting in one of Ferrara's most curious yet brilliantly realized works.

Fox (Christopher Walken) and X (Willem Dafoe), two independent contractors specializing in luring big money players away from their current employers in favor of their competitors set their sights on Hiroshi, a brilliant scientist who recently developed a way to synthesize viruses. Currently working for the Maas corporation, Fox and X concoct a plan to coerce Hiroshi to join Hosaka, Maas' main competition, utilizing the charms of the beautiful Sandii (Asia Argento), who's tasked with seducing Hiroshi into falling in love, eventually leaving his wife and job. The seemingly foolproof plan is quickly put to the test however when X develops feelings for Sandii, his jealously potentially complicating matters as well as the danger of Maas uncovering Fox and X's plan to steal their star employee.

Much like The Driller Killer (1979), Ms. 45 (1981), Body Snatchers and The Addiction (1995) before it, New Rose Hotel is yet another case study in Ferrara taking genre based material and reshaping it in a forward thinking manner. What's especially interesting regarding New Rose Hotel is the way Ferrara essentially takes the story's genre trappings and uses them as a backdrop more than anything else. To be sure, the sci-fi tone is ever present, with Ferrara constantly giving off the aura of the story taking place in a futuristic, almost dystopian environment entirely controlled by mega conglomerates and technology tracing the move of every citizen. Despite the original story being written in the 80's and the film in the late 90's, the current state of affairs as it relates to surveillance is a staple of the film, with several scenes showing various characters through video capture, and most fascinatingly and perhaps entirely appropriate, Hiroshi himself is seen exclusively via surveillance camera footage. By and large though, its the nature of the relationship between Fox, X and Sandii that Ferrara is most concerned with, the drama that develops along with X's affections for Sandii giving the film an extra layer of intrigue which becomes more pronounced during the films final third. Presenting everything through flashbacks to previous scenes with slightly altered dialogue and sound and editing that takes the film into an almost Lynchian territory, Ferrara toys around with perceptions of how the story unfolded, ending the film on a hauntingly ambiguous note.

During a 2012 interview, Ferrara spoke at length about New Rose Hotel and was rather candid (as if he ever isn't) about the bad state several key players were in during filming which led to a turbulent production and belligerent crew, some of which Ferrara admitted to firing during the shoot. Hilariously he also states that Argento basically swooped in much like her character in the film and claimed ownership of her role. Argento also shot a short behind the scenes documentary, Abel/Asia (1998) during production. The film also marked the first collaboration between Ferrara and Willem Dafoe who would go on to star in Ferrara's Go Go Tales (2007), 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011) and Pasolini (2014). The film is also to date the final collaboration between Ferrara and Christopher Walken after memorable turns in King of New York (1990), The Addiction and The Funeral (1996). In the same previously mentioned interview, Ferrara makes some interesting statements regarding technology, specifically the internet saying “The information highway is leading straight to Hell” and described the rather dubious nature of a lot of online journalism as “an echo of a rumor”. Again, the film may have been shot in 1998 and its cyberpunk footing making it very much of its time, it's the sentiments found in those quotes from Ferrara that made Gibson's story and Ferrara's film very much ahead of their time.