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.