Hardcore Redemption: SENSUOUS FLYGIRLS (1976)

Hardcore Redemption is an article exploring how to appreciate the hardcore genre as more than shit to get off to. Pornography is a cultural object that comments on the nature of sexual fantasy and its function in everyday life and should be [where appropriate] interpreted as commentaries on the ever-morphing shadow of human sexuality. Here I shall attempt to redeem my favourite titles of the genre.

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INTRO

It was the 31st of March, earlier this year, during an attempt to seek out torrents for as many hardcore films as I could (pirate forever) as I continued my mission to learn more about the obscure film history of the hardcore genre. [I pinky promise not all of these articles will be on Shaun Costello films, but as I’ve recently read My Mother, Demonology, I remembered my earlier discovery...]

So, I am 97% sure that on that Monday evening in springtime, I found the legendary punk figure of postmodern literature—Kathy Acker—in the title Sensuous Flygirls (Costello’s fifth movie released in 1976). I checked the credits to confirm my finding: no Acker, but instead, a mysterious ‘Dianne Keating’ whose filmography was bare apart from this one adult film.

(see footnotes for further development on the credits of this film)

It’s pretty normal for people to use pseudonyms in the adult movie business. Especially if they’re only doing a few flicks for some cash. Something rang out in my head about the name ‘Dianne Keating’; I wondered if I’d heard it before, perhaps a character in one of her books.

As I couldn’t find any mention of her participation in this film (online at least), I wanted to document this finding here, so there is some record of her toe dipping into the adult movie industry.

THE FLYGIRLS

beginning with a title card and opening credits to some airport lounge jazz, we're then introduced to two suited men in a generic office room. One is the owner of an American airline, Mr Wiser, and the other is Dr Horne, chief psychiatrist of ‘the space administration of the United States government’ -no NASA was not associated with the making of this film- discussing how they’ve interviewed over 100 stewardesses, stressing their dissatisfaction having not quite found what they’re looking for. The whole premise of their search is to rectify the fact that two male astronauts returned to Earth and unboarded the rocket holding hands. The great United States of America does not want the inhabitants of their upcoming Jupiter mission to think of them as a nation of ‘fairies’, so they need a hot, sensuous female stewardess to get their astronauts off, making sure they regularly exercise their heterosexuality. Apparently, 4 years in space is more than enough time to make you a homosexual.

Mr Wiser assures the psychiatrist that this incoming flight from Lisbon has his three best girls on it, one of whom is bound to be the first stewardess in space. The next shot frames three women in stewardess uniforms in a slight panic over being summoned by their big boss Mr Wiser, speculating on which of the naughty things they’ve done on the job could potentially get them all fired.

Here, we get a first look at Kathy, with her fresh bare face and dark-cropped hair, standing between the other two women. This speculation and slight panic continue to the waiting room, where the potential flygirls sit around a coffee table and flick through magazines till they’re called into Mr Wiser’s office by Lisa, the secretary with luscious, long, straight brown hair. First, Miss Jones sits opposite Dr Horne as he explains they're looking for a woman with a lack of inhibitions. To convey what he means, he gets out an old projector, dims the lights and plays a short recording of the two astronauts fucking his secretary, Lisa.

As the film rolls, we see Lisa reclining on a bed in a black dress ever slightly pulled up to expose her ass, playing with herself whilst a psychedelic rendition of Tubular Bells (yes, ‘The Exorcist’ theme tune) plays loudly. Two men in khaki boiler suites enter the room and remove Lisa’s clothes as she fellates one of the astronauts. Every now and again, we get a close-up of Miss Jones’ face between the flickers of the projector light, looking aroused, with Dr Horne noting her reaction. I will say it’s not too often that the first Scene involves a double penetration (DP), but I guess the Doctor needs to set some expectations early on. As the film reel ends, he asks Miss Jones what she thought. She loved it evidently. He then leans in to ask her a very personal question; ‘What was your first sexual experience?’

Miss Jones recounts her days horseback riding with a slightly older local boy, during a flashback to a pastoral scene in which she leads a horse through the woods with this ‘boy’, played by Shaun Costello himself. I love it when a director appears in their own movies, especially when it’s a little more than a cameo but a little less than a central part. They both take the horse into a stable, get comfy on a bale of hay and discuss how she’s not yet ready to leave her hometown for the big wide world without having a good cock from a real man, compared with the boys she’s fooled around with. Taking turns to give each other head on this bale of hay, the scene proceeds in front of a rather disinterested horse (Costello’s dry sense of humour on full display here).

Costello always has great music in his films. Though the choices may seem random, it’s never a case of having to listen to a shit song whilst people fuck. this scene continues with the extended version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, which I’m pretty sure also appears in the hardcore ‘Sorceress’ by Louis Alexander. Costello notes on his blog how, because films of this nature were made half illegally and funded by organised crime families, you could get away with not asking for a music license. meaning lots of music avoided a battle against copyright.

Here we have our set up; one of the women goes into the doctor’s office and proceeds to display their inhibition through a flashback to their youth. A lot of adult movies have a particular, semi-repetitive framework that is used to segway into what Linda Williams calls the ‘sexual numbers’(ii). Making a direct comparison to how musical numbers are included in musical narrative forms. Though this is not always the case, the exposition in Sensuous Flygirls is repeated so that if you walk into this already playing at one of the porno cinemas on 42nd Street, there’s potential to catch up on what the film is ‘about’ other than its penetration numbers.

So, as Miss Jones returns to the waiting room to a bombardment of questions from the other girls, she says, ‘You’re never gonna believe me! You’ll just have to see for yourselves.’

Next, Miss Strkyer is called into Dr Horne’s office. Unsurprisingly, he asks her to recall her first sexual experience to gauge how inhibited she is. She begins a story of how her first boyfriend eventually saves for an old VW to fuck her in, away from any parental interruptions. They both go for a ride into the countryside together. ‘Please let me show you that I love you’ he says as they drive into the green. Pulling up in a field somewhere, the scene begins; first, a bit of cunnilingus, some fellatio, reverse cowgirl on a picnic blanket, then finishing up with doggy style. Susan says, ‘Don't cum inside me!’ so he pulls it out, and the money shot is all over her back.

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         SIDE NOTE: THE MONEY SHOT

In her book Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the 'Frenzy of the Visible", Linda Williams talks about the mechanics of identification within the pervading, climactic frame of the 'money shot', in which male ejaculation is made visible to the camera by pulling out of mouth, vagina, ass etc to provide visual evidence of (male) sexual pleasure. In the first chapter, she proposes that the emergence of hardcore pornography is the drive for knowledge taking place "through voyeurism constructed as a cognitive urge." It is an 'erotic organisation of visibility' that seeks to get to some truth about bodily pleasure. The money shot within the hardcore genre provides a confession and reassurance of this previously obscured (secret) pleasure. Whilst the female orgasm remains invisible, or harder to capture through a visual image, the money shot provides identification for the male viewers who're expected to be the audience for this kind of movie.

it also helps close a scene, which is a popular formula within the genre; this visual climax helps to nicely conclude a sexual number so the film may continue.

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Back to the office tower: Dr Horne informs Miss Stryker that they’ll be in touch later about whether she has the job. You get the just.

Last but certainly not least is Miss Worth, our Kathy, who’s been nervously waiting outside and seems a little more anxious than the girls who had their earlier turn. To that, Dr Horne suggests an exercise to divert from the previous interview format that’ll loosen her up. “What would you say Miss Worth, if I got up right now and got out my cock, and ask you to suck it?’ His red-eyed secretary Lisa (stoned as hell) gets on her knees and calmly reassures her, ‘Don't worry, Miss Worth, let me show you how.’ And what follows is the noteworthy scene of this movie; an FFM threesome which begins with our Kathy attentively watching as Lisa sucks the doctor’s cock, leaning right in to watch her lips pull back and forth before asking, ‘Could I have a try?’. Leaning all the way in, Miss Worth grabs the doctor's cock with her chipped nail-varnished fingertips and silver hoop showing. As both the women run their tongues over the erect phallus, the Dr suggests they kiss each other.

Though visually/narratively, this is a number in which two women pleasure a man, orally directing from outside the frame. Because we don’t see his face and reaction, I find myself as a viewer, identifying more with the participation of the women who are engaging in this act together. For me, it’s about this stoned hippy woman next to Kathy’s punk head of grown-out buzzcut, how they share this cock together with a hint of bisexuality, happening behind the immediate and apparent phallic worship of this staged scene involving two mouths and one cock.

The next shot is looking ahead as Lisa hovers over Miss Worth’s flickering tongue, Love by George Duke playing in the background. The women 69 whilst the Dr penetrates Miss Worth. Again, I like this scene because here the Doctor is literally just a hard penis: not much in any shot other than his pubic area. This the one scene feels way more focused on what is happening between the two women.

The scene continues with the women on top of each other, bouncing from the back shot to the close-up of Lisa and Miss Worth's bush, as the Dr finishes on it with Lisa attempting to clean it up with her tongue.

Next, we cut to Dr Horne, Lisa and Mr Wiser sitting on a coach together, fully clothed. Mr Wiser wants to know which of the girls the Dr thinks is up for the job. - - The sincerity with which these actors deliver the lines that Costello has written is all part of the comedy.  It's not at all ironic, or wanting to be too aware of itself like a lot of contemporary cinema is. The Dr lists the different reasons for liking each of the girls, but ultimately feels it’s a decision the astronauts shall have to make themselves.

So the girls are called into another office room with a mattress on the floor between a load of potted plants whilst the Dr explains what’s happening next. Once the astronauts arrive, they’re introduced to each other.

Miss Worth and Miss Stryker get to work on each other astronauts whilst Miss Jones strips for the 3 on the couch. This is the final orgy of fun, the big, climatic closing number.

Midway through the orgy, they get a phone call from Mr President who asks to be put through to Mr Horne, you can hear everyone moaning in the background as the Dr repeats ‘What’s that Sir? The Jupiter probe has been cancelled?!” Oh dear. After all that.

Dr Horne unravels his tie and suggests they join in with the fun. What proceeds are mostly messy, close-up shots of penetration in various positions, with it being difficult at times to distinguish who is who as a mass of bodies tesselated on this double mattress. There is one wide-angle shot to watch everyone writhing in pleasure before the last bit of music starts playing, and we see Kathy mounting one of the men. Rinse and repeat. A few money shots. Until the film cuts to THE END.

OUTRO

Sensuous Flygirls is not a particularly amazing movie by any stretch. It's messy and less choreographed compared to more significant titles in the genre, but it is a bit of fun. Even with the slightly cliched way sex within the narrative is used to reinforce heterosexuality by way of having women in laborious roles of pleasuring the male astronauts. But I think it's good to recognise an element of this is also what I’d call ‘pornographic humour’, in which storylines like this are played with a layer of comedy because they propose a problem that can be solved through the visibility of penetrative sex which can never be wholly true.

That’s where Kathy Acker’s presence is interesting, bringing a subtle bisexuality to her scene, which is initiated when she kisses the long-haired hippy lady over the cock of Dr Horne.  The following 3some scene, as detailed above, appears to have a bit more agency on their side compared to the other numbers in which each woman is there to simply provide pleasure. There is a discreet element of enjoyment in both their participation and performance, through an identification with each other.

why I think it's Kathy: it must be, unless she has a doppelganger. The short-cropped hair, the one dangly earring, fucking with loads of silver rings on, a scratch across her hand, her voice, her slightly turned out ears... she has a roughness and explicit bisexuality about her onscreen presence. Also, at this time in the 70s, she was on the New York scene

along with Shaun Costello. She definitely did porn at some point, as well as other types of sex work, which she mentions in various interviews, but I cannot find mention of any titles. If anyone has links to any further documentation of Kathy's fling with hardcore, I'd love to see them.

Thank you Vinegar Syndrome, for making this available again x

User review left on Sensuous Flygirls IMDB page by Shaun Costello

Footnotes:

(i) I checked the credits on Letterboxd before writing this. I later see there's a different list of names on the poster: Mary Stewart, Baby Darlin and Lynn Bodice.

The IMDB credits further confuse my quest to confirm the identity of the lady who plays Miss Worth as it lists a 'Holly Wainwright' as one of the 3 main women. Holly Wainwright has been mentioned on the page of Margery Stewart, who i believe is the same person as Mary Stuart - identified as playing Susan Stryker in this film.

Not quite sure where the name Holly Wainwright has come from on both the IAFD and IMDB credits. The name has also really recently appeared on Letterboxd since writing this article, despite not confirming which character she plays.

IAFD does credit Dianne Keating, but using the picture of the secretary, Lisa, who appears on the poster above as Bobby Charles. Again, can't confirm where a few of these names have come from and whether people are just copying unconfirmed information from one site to the next.

(ii) Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" (1999) by Linda Williams