4 January 2007

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED

d: Francis Hanly, 2005


An English documentary about one of the more famous adult films of the late 70s, DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED is notable for its interviews with the male stars of the film, all of whom seem honest and matter-of-fact about their porn careers and post-porn lives.

Unfortunately, DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED fails overall to actually document DEBBIE DOES DALLAS. It is noted that DEBBIE made a lot of money for its east coast Mafia producers, and that its star, Bambi Woods, has long since retired from the industry. Not much else is said about DEBBIE DOES DALLAS itself.

It feels like the producers started shooting long before they realized there really wasn't much material about this specific film - and as a result, DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED ends up being a fairly shallow summary of facts about porn production in the late 70s. Much more information is available from better sources online and off.

To the film's credit, it doesn't moralize, but then to its discredit it really doesn't seem to have a point of view at all.

Of course no porn documentary is complete without low-light drive-by shots of neon-lit streets after dark, and DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED offers its required share before getting down to the interviews.

Herschel Savage, Eric Edwards, and R. Bolla all speak on camera about their porn careers. If these aren't familiar names, they are without a doubt familiar faces - all three are still instantly recognizable to any straight male who owned a VCR in the 1980s.

Only one of the female stars, Robin Byrd, consented to be interviewed. The filmmakers and the interviewees all speculate on the reasons for this massive disinterest, and are probably right. No one seems particularly exuberant on the topic of porn in general, although Ms. Byrd - who is still in the business via a cable access show in NYC - comes off as defensively supportive of the industry. R. Bolla, in fact, outright declares his bitterness in having let easy porn money ruin his chances for a legitimate acting career.

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED is one of quite a few documentaries about the porn industry which have come out in the last 10 years. Another of them, DIARY OF A PORN VIRGIN, is included on this disc as an extra, and will be reported on here when I get to it.