Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Joe D'Amato Porn Investigation Crew #1 - TARZAN and the Shame of Jane

So, have you ever had one of those moments when you just say to yourself "what's next in my trash explorations?"  I have them all the time really, and then I realized that I had never really given the later career of Joe D'Amato it's due.  When the films were being imported into the US on VHS (and later DVD), I tried a few of them and found them somewhat intriguing.  You can say what you want about him, but Joe D'Amato was a trashfilm icon for lots of reasons. He could, and would, try anything and succeed at some of it with glee. I see the name Filmirage and I give it a try!

It isn't that D'Amato had not done porn before, and lots of it--there are different cuts of many of his films of varying degrees of explicitness, but the 90s had him slapping leather and ass in a whole different way!  These are full throttle porn films with the added bonus of D'Amato knowing his way around doing some cheap versions of the classic genres, almost as if to amuse himself and fill a void in the expanding video shot porn market--some are epic (sort of) like Tarzan X-Shame of Jane and others aren't (Cop Sucker 2?)-but they are all different.

As with the Italian Action boom, porn seemed a pretty good genre for our favorite Italians to dip in to, but Joltin' Joe didn't rub, he double penetrated the market--even winning an AVN achievement award!!  There are dozens of porn features with his name attached-and of many many many types. If it was a Eurotrash Subgenre, he went right back at it. There are Porn Peplum, Porn WIP tales, Porn Nazisploitation, Porn Pulp and Porn Dramas galore!  And you know what, I want to see what I can see.  From a casual dip through the films seem to be unified by Joe's willingness to go to the relative extremes and feature very beautiful European women taking a whole lot of challenging positions.  The usual sequences are all there...singles, girl / girl, group--but I never thought I'd see a Samson porn film in the 90s. From Italy.  From Joe D'Amato.
I'll be posting images and the like from each film, but I don't think they will be incredibly plungingly deep or anything. I'm sure anatomy of all types will be on show, but nothing terribly hardcore.  Still, it will get the point across!

So, I have a bunch of films to look at, and I'll let you know what I find...first up, TARZAN X-SHAME OF JANE.


Tarzan-X: Shame of Jane seems to be available in two versions, this full throttle edition in Spanish and a truncated edition as TARZHARD-THE RETURN.  I'd seen it as Tarzan X (Jungle Heat) years ago as well.  The spanish edition features some great dubbing where Tarzan is called HOMBRE MONO (monkey man!!) and our hero is played by Rocco Siffredi.  For those that aren't familiar with Rocco's work, the man has a club of a penis, the face of a movie star and the attitude of one nasty bastard when it comes to his films.  Rocco is rough and while he seems to not do that in every film, that reputation always precedes him (sort of like his dong into a room) and you just never know what is going to happen when he is around.  He actually tries to play his role rather straight here, and gets put through not only the porn paces, but even has a few straight ahead dramatic sequences.  He worries about the jungle. He wonders if banging a few extra "civilized women" will upset Jane.  Hell, he even gets a shave.  But most of all, he gets Jane.
Here is a rather sensitive bit...

Oh...Hombre Mono likes this lady!! She is HOT (really..seriously hot)

Tarzan loves BOOBS...Has boobs too! 

This is not boobs. This is jungle vine!!  Jane seems a bit wary of it.

For me? Really..OK...why not try every orifice out before we go to civilization Hombre Mono??


But you know, the pair just can't be left to run about the jungle-talking to the monkeys and fucking like it's going out of style. Oh no, Jane is-as the story goes, a lady of means and it's time to take good old Lord G-Spot back to civilization.  But first...
Jane's thighs were beginning to chafe oh Jungle Man!

Jane laughs as Tarzan's dong smashes his ass as they run.

Oh no...we got bad guys!!
All the civilized world offers Tarzan is uncomfortable dining, three way sex with hot women (can't argue with that) and jealousy with Jane. So...away he goes. Back to nature.  After more sex.  Lots more.

Me Tarzan...screw Jane.  I'm going in...DEEP!

Sorry...but this much Jungle Heat can only be contained in the wild...but thank you.
The movie is actually kind of fun, and boy did it ever piss of the Burroughs estate as detailed in this article from the UK paper THE INDEPENDENT.  I doubt they got one penny from D'Amato, but it was probably good advertising and the reason the second, trimmed down TARZHARD edition was created.  The sex, as it goes, is good and the women are beautiful. Special note goes to Rosa Caracciolo, who is Siffredi's real life wife--hubba hubba just doesn't cut it.  If I had to run around in the jungle and pinch my nipples to get laid, I'd do it for her in a second!!  
Is it close to Tarzan?  Sort of...kind of...he goes AAAAAAWAHWAHWAHooooooooOOO!  I guess it counts.
Not a bad place to start!  Here are a couple of shots of the softer edition!


7 comments:

SPAM Alternative said...

You won't believe where can you find movies like this one here hahha I came across a DVD version of the original film, plus part 2 on a Blockbuster store!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though I'm not a huge fan of porn, Io thought it was kinda funny and I downloaded the films to give them a look before buying the DVDs.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

David A. Zuzelo said...

Tooooo funny! Was the softcore version at Blockbuster "Jungle Heat" and part two TARZHARD?

They were everywhere!

Wes said...

Great post David, funnily enough, I've started a Video Nasties series on my blog, which kicked off with D'Amato's Absurd and Antropophagous - and I was thinking that I should track down one or two of his latter day hardcore features - Tarzan seems a good place to start...

David A. Zuzelo said...

That is cool Wes, I love those Anthro flicks. Tarzan is a good one I'd think, there are some gladiator and even a Caligula one as well. It's going to be a lot of fun digging through them!

SPAM Alternative said...

the DVDs I found on Blockbuster were titled as "Tarzan X" and "El Regreso de Tarzán X 2" they were both dubbed in Spanish, and the cover art was also in Spanish.

Running time for both was something like 94 minutes.

DOC TERROR said...

You know what they say... diversify? Watching D'Amato Films can be like watching the monkeys "do it" at the zoo. I guess it's better than watching the monkey's rip each other apart and each other (ala Antropophagous). If you can't eat them, bone 'em.

Peter said...

Tarzan X is indeed a good place to start, it's standard D'Amato, including stock footage and all!
I've read a great interview with Joe, where he compares his (porn)actors to cattle, calls them dumb, explaines why Rocco is a freak of nature and why all men must swallow 6 eggwhites before any shoot...