LUSTFUL ADDICTION

1969 Version

Written and Directed by Nick Phillips

2002 Version

Produced by Michael Beck
Written and Directed by Misty Mundae
Photographed and Edited by Johnny Crash

When the last girl who dumped me gave me the long kiss goodbye, she called me a flat-out square. No danger. No risk. Not a bad boy bone in my body. My how things have changed in 5 years. Back in the day in the day I'd like to think I had it in me to make something as anti-establishment as Nick Phillips' LUSTFUL ADDICTION. Seeing Misty Mundae's updated take I've come to realize I am indeed a square.

I'm turning 30 next month. I'll just blame my anger-free state of complacency on old age.

There's a short documentary on the LUSTFUL ADDICTION DVD where grindhouse historian "42nd Street" Pete admits to turning 50. He looks back on the movies of Nick Phillips with nostalgia and reflects on his own youth and the impact Phillips' movies had on him. Being so much younger than Pete, I view Phillip's work with a different sort of nostalgia, a longing for the times when these films were made. They are the reflection of their times and represent the very point of view of the beat/hippie culture, something glorified and distorted by today's Hollywood.

Phillip's original film follows Jean, a smack addict who isn't above screwing her pusher to secure a discount. The movie follows her final days as she flirts with true love found in the form of fellow square, Tad. Unfortunately, the selfish nature of her addiction only pulls her newfound boyfriend down her turbulent road of self-destruction.

LUSTFUL ADDICTION is very "film school" in execution. There's no sync sound; the only audio is a psychedelic score and a god-like narrator who spouts pseudo-poetic drivel and comes across sounding like Ed Wood attempting hard to wax Kerouac. The narration is decidedly one-sided in equating all addictions to sin and the devil. This is pretty surprising do to the liberal nature of grindhouse cinema and the often anti-establishment counter culture that made the pictures.

The look of Phillips' movie is far from erotic. Filmed in a documentary-like hand-held style, LUSTFUL ADDICTION is ugly and bleak. It wallows in its seedy nature and treats the sordid acts like everyday routines as opposed to vice-like slavery which the narration would allow us to believe. Adding to the documentary feel is a lack of beginning or ending credits.

With the modern re-interpretation directed by Seduction Cinema contract player Misty Mundae, the basic essentials of Phillip's story are left intact. Ruby, played by Ruby LaRocca, is just as strung out as the original's Jean and also screws her pusher in hopes of a friendly discount. Given Seduction Cinema's formula for lesbian erotica, it's not surprising that Ruby finds love with another woman.

Unlike the omnipotent narration of the original, Mundae's version is told completely from LaRocca's point of view. To Mundae and LaRocca's credit, they do a much better job at conveying despair and desperation without the need to resort to insipid hyperbole. The impact hits home much harder than the original and the overall tone of the piece comes across uglier.

The primary difference between the two films is the portrayal of the heroine. Jean comes across as a sympathetic and beautiful fallen angel while Ruby has that been-around-the-block sexiness that says she's right at home wherever the pills might lead her. Reinforcing Mundae's dispirit take on the material, any sympathy that could be lent to the Ruby character is thrown out the window. She a paranoid junkie who actually deserves her fate because she has no aspirations to rise above them.

With this 30th birthday quickly approaching, I have to ask myself if I'm too old to even review movies like this anymore. I'm so out of touch with the youth scene that I'm left empty and depressed just thinking about what goes on out there even though I was apart of it all just a few years back. If we are able to rise above our surroundings, is it natural to forget where you come from?

Christ, who would have thought that a Seduction Cinema title would have me contemplating my own place in the universe?

I can't see anyone wanting to watch either the Nick Phillips original or the Misty Mundae reworking for some sort of erotic pleasure. The movies are just too depressing, and consequently hard to recommend to the casual Seduction fan, but anyone looking for something with a bit of dark depth might be pleased.

If you can, pick up the limited edition 2-disc set. The second disc is a soundtrack to both remakes of LUSTFUL ADDICTION and ROXANNA, and features all the cool swankness that helped push those movies over the edge. The disc hasn't left my cd player all day and is worth the price alone.

www.mistymundae.com
www.seductioncinema.com