Naked Came the Stranger (1975)

Naked Came the Stranger was one of the hardcore movies made by Radley Metzger under the name Henry Paris. In these films Metzger was trying to make hardcore porn movies that were also good movies. That was challenging enough, but he made things even more difficult for himself by trying to do them as sex comedies.

The literary story behind the film is quite fascinating. Naked Came the Stranger was a massive bestseller purportedly written by a woman named Penelope Ash. It was later revealed to be a hoax. The book was written by twenty-four newspaper reporters and was intended as a satire on the kinds of trashy novels that enjoyed such huge success at the time. As it turned out the joke was on the newspapermen - after the hoax was revealed the book’s sales skyrocketed.

The fact that the novel was essentially a series of disconnected vignettes made it ideal for Metzger’s purposes.

Gilly (Darby Lloyd Rains) and Billy (Levi Richards) are a husband-and-wife team who do a daily radio interview show from their home (such programs were quite a big thing in radio at the time). Their marriage has hit a bit of a rough spot and Billy is having an affair with their production assistant Phyllis (Mary Stuart). Gilly decides that the best way to save her marriage is to start having affairs herself (it was the 70s and people really did believe such stuff back then). She decides to start seducing all her male friends and acquaintances. With somewhat mixed success.

Metzger wasn’t just adding a few gags to a sex movie. He was very serious about making this film work as a comedy. That led him to take some big risks, just as playing many of the sex scenes almost entirely for laughs. The danger of course is that the scenes will lose their erotic intensity, and that is indeed what happens. There is for example a scene in which Gilly tries to give a waiter a blow job but fails utterly. It would be difficult to think of anything more unerotic than an attempted blow job that ends in embarrassing failure. In story terms and comedic terms the scene works brilliantly but as a sex scene it’s pretty limp.

The blow job on the bus scene is more successful and still manages to be very funny. It’s a remarkable scene, actually shot on a double-decker bus driving through the streets of Manhattan, and it does effectively combine eroticism and comedy.

Gilly’s attempt at a little S&M action with another male acquaintance really is screamingly funny.

As the story progresses the mood changes a little, becomes a little more serious, and the sex scenes start to be a bit more emotionally intense. This is a comedy but there’s also a love story here. There’s also a message that might be a little surprising for a 1970s hardcore porn movie, the message being that sex is much better when you’re emotionally involved and it’s even better when you’re married.

Metzger shot his Henry Paris movies in Super 16mm and he is at pains to point out that there is a world of difference been ordinary 16mm and Super 16. Super 16 offers quality that is only marginally inferior to 35mm but with enormous advantages in cost and in the lightness of the equipment. Super 16 is the reason Metzger was able to make these movies with production values that are vastly superior to what you expect in hardcore movies.

This movie gave Metzger the opportunity to do something he’d always wanted to do - a lengthy sequence shot silent and in black-and-white. It works superbly, especially with the wonderful vast almost empty rooms with just one item of furniture in each (a table and a bed). The sequence is a sexual encounter but it’s also rather romantic. This sequence was shot in a huge ballroom in a New York hotel and it’s an absolutely superb setting.

Mention should also be made of the dancing in the empty swimming pool scene, a genuinely rather poignant moment.

In a Radley Metzger hardcore porn movie you actually have to talk about the acting because the performers really do have to act. And they do a pretty decent job of it. Darby Lloyd Rains is not your typical porn star by any means but she is funny and she is likeable. The other cast members are all at the very least competent and usually more than competent.

Metzger’s hardcore movies bear no resemblance whatsoever to any other hardcore films. It’s partly that they represent a radically different aesthetic. Metzger had definite artistic pretensions. What made him unique in the adult film business is that he actually had the talent to get away with such pretensions. He was not the only adult film-maker to try to mix sex and comedy but Metzger’s approach to comedy was sophisticated and witty. Metzger’s Henry Paris movies remain a unique and fascinating experiment. Naked Came the Stranger can be considered to be a successful experiment and was a definite step forward after the first Henry Paris film, The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann. It paved the way for Metzger’s masterpiece, the delightful The Opening of Misty Beethoven. Recommended.

Distribpix's DVD presentation offers an excellent transfer and includes a director's commentary track and a host of other extras.