Back Row, The, 95 min

A must-own set, featuring both Jerry Douglas' original as well as Chi Chi LaRue's stunningly sleazy remake. 2002 GayVN Award Winner: Best Gay DVD Extras 2001 GayVN Award Winner: Best Music, Marketing Campaign, and Packaging Jerry Douglas' The Back Row (1972): As millions flocked to theatres to see The Godfather back in 1972, another landmark film was unspooling in theatres as well. (Sure, they were decidedly smaller and seedier theatres, and had a tendency to reek of bodily fluids, but they were theatres nonetheless.) Garnering nowhere the same amount of press, it was a milestone in its own right. That film is The Back Row. Seen here for the first time in nearly 30 years, this hilarious (and sexy as hell) pre-condom-era rub-your-chub flick is a must for porn fans. Casey Donovan (Boys in the Sand; The Other Side of Aspen Falcon Pac 001) is featured as a dude cruising NYC's all-male smut theatres looking for love (or at least a good hummer); George Payne is the young "guy from Montana" who catches his eye. Shot on location (wait until you see the vintage subway scene), this fabulously sleazy flick offers some of the most terrifyingly dated clothes you'll ever see, a veritable travelogue of now-defunct Times Square porn theatres, truly raunchy tearoom scenarios, a plot-propelling original musical score (whose vocals make Maureen McGovern's sappy ballad "The Morning After" from the same year's The Poseidon Adventure seem like punk rock),s galore (right here, thank-you-very-much) and enough facials to make any cosmetologist wince. Amazingly well shot for the time, this first feature from award-winning director Jerry Douglas stands as a textbook example of gay erotic filmmaking. Watch it alone or with friends; it's loads of fun - pun definitely intended. Chi Chi LaRue's The Back Row (2001): Drag directress extraordinaire Chi Chi LaRue was so bowled over by the original The Back Row (it was one of the first gay porns he ever saw) that he decided to remake it. With Jerry Douglas' blessing (and following the same dialogue-less storyline) Chi Chi's version is an homage to classic gay porn - with a decidedly nastier twist. 8 GayVN nominations, too. Featuring an updated music score by Sharon Kane and Koo Koo Boy, psychedelically-swirled box art from the always-amazing Jefferson, and starring Kyle Kennedy, Ryan Zane, and horse-cocked Chad Hunt, see how Chi Chi dirties up a classic, and makes it his own. (The bathroom blowout near the end is one of the best group scenes Chi Chi has ever done.) Films like this are rare, and the very notion of remaking a classic porn and doing it so damned well are even rarer. Kudos to Chi Chi, Jerry Douglas and Channel 1 Releasing for having the balls to take this project on. A classic saved, a new one born. -- Keeneye Reeves