Dave tackles the second in a pair of Calvista/Gary Graver/Stephen Sayadian pornos that unexpectedly carry all the hallmarks of the Golden Age, just as the industry was switching en masse to video.

Change is inevitable – and by 1986 the famed Golden Age of Pornography was two years dead. Thankfully, and against all odds, Calvista producer Sidney Niekerk (who was now crediting himself as ‘Bernardo Spinelli’) was still hiring Gary Graver to shoot films in 35mm and have them play theatrically [1].

Even in a period as volatile as the mid-’80s, there’s a synergy to be found in much of Graver’s work, particularly in the way he managed to seamlessly fuse both the old and new talent of the business. CRAZY WITH THE HEAT is a good example of this, uniting genre icon Eric Edwards with an actress who started out over a decade later, Joanna Storm.

Edwards and Storm are Bill and Laura Welton: a happily married couple who – as is often the case – are exhibiting a little sexual dysfunction. Laura is a brainiac computer developer on the cusp of signing a lucrative commission at a swanky dinner party, when she’s suddenly overcome with an uncontrollable attack of carnal desire. “I wanna go to cock heaven,” she screams – and lo and behold she’s in the right place. The contract that she’s about to ink is with Franklin (John Alderman) and Ramona (Tamara Longley) Delmar, proprietors of The Delmar Sexual Asylum for the Very, Very Horny. Here, she falls under the rehabilitation instruction of Miss Veltine (Tantala Ray, harnessing her innermost Karen Black) and her ‘satisfaction control’: a crude but compelling implement that shoots out a fornication beam that renders the recipient lusting after an immediate orgasm.

Of the two Graver XXXrs scripted by Stephen Sayadian (Peeping Tom (1986) is the other), Crazy With the Heat is by far the best. Perfectly in tune with the absurdist wit that Sayadian showcased so brilliantly in Cafe Flesh (1982), it’s an absolute riot of surrealism and slapstick (“You heard about electric shocks? Well now you’ll hear about electric cock!”). The real star, though, is Joanna Storm. The San Diego born actress had been in the Graver fold since Private Teacher (1983), and by 1986 they’d truly found their creative groove together, culminating in the appropriately titled Joanna Storm on Fire (1986). Storm experienced more volatility in her teens than most of us experience in a lifetime. By thirteen she’d left home, and found herself making angel dust, selling cannabis to sailors, and transporting machine guns across the Mexican border. Quite how she got through it all and ended up with three impeccably raised kids and a job in a public school in New Mexico is testament to her strength of character.

All the usual Graverisms are present. It’s shot and lit with style, and it unfurls with gusto in a lavish location which, given the dwindling budgets of the era, is something to rejoice over. There are plenty of familiar faces too, with standout turns from Ron Jeremy (unfortunately) who cameos as a wild-haired, self-sucker obsessed with masturbation, and, of course, the legendary Alderman. Franklin would be his final role, shot mere months before his death at the criminally young age of fifty-four.  

Alderman’s working relationship with Graver spanned seventeen years and over two dozen pictures. Every film that the New Yorker graced benefitted from him being in it, none more so than Graver’s. From regular roles like in the impeccable And When She Was Bad… (1973), to guesting under his porn pseudonym of ‘Frank Hollowell’ in movies such as The Ecstasy Girls (1979) – there was no one quite like him.

“They were drinking buddies,” porn legend Veronica Hart told me recently. “John was such an interesting guy. A fine actor, and very caustic and sarcastic – but funny as hell.  I can see why you liked him so much.  He was one of Ted’s [producer Harold Lime’s] favourite straight actors.”

Alderman’s departure left a huge void in Graver’s XXX odyssey – but what a great movie for him to go out on.

USA ● 1986 ● Adult, Comedy ● 78mins

Joanna Storm, Tamara Longley, Tantala Ray, Kristara Barrington, Eric Edwards, Ron Jeremy, John Alderman ● Dir. Gary Graver (as ‘Robert McCallum’) ● Wri. Stephen Sayadian

[1] Crazy With the Heat is first recorded as playing for a few weeks at the Pussycat in San Bernardino before showing at the Midtown Twin in Tulsa the following month.