Tuesday 31 May 2022

Arabian Knights (1979)

 


Made at the tail end of George Harrison Marks' involvement in hardcore pornography, Arabian Knights was one of a number of short films Marks was commissioned to make in 1978/79 which centred around busty model Nicky Stanton. Bra Wars, Bustman's Holiday and Busty Ravers were all softcore loops financed by the big bust fetish magazine 'Peaches'.  Arabian Knights, Cockpit Cunts, Busty Baller and Big N' Busty were hardcore shorts, with the money for those coming from the euro loop company Color Climax. Nicky had the makings of an all time great Marks model, with a Pamela Green like ability to look entirely different by merely flipping on a new wig. Nicky also had the physical requirements that Marks generally looked for in his models...which is the polite way of saying she had massive tits. Unfortunately the Stanton films caught Marks at a low ebb, creatively. "George was going through a fairly quiet period at that point and seemed to enjoy most of his spare time lounging around the flat, playing with his cats and drinking vodka" remembered his girlfriend at the time "in retrospect I would suspect he was quite depressed as he couldn't see a clear direction and he got bored doing the blue films."


Nicky Stanton

Whereas the early 70s hardcore loops Marks had shot of Clyda Rosen (Autograph Hour, Dolly Mixture) have Marks' eccentricity and personality all over them, the Stanton loops are far more conventional examples of pornography, that realistically could have been made by anyone. Busty Baller has your basic porn loop narrative of...man knocks on a door, woman answers it, they fuck, the end. Big N' Busty doesn't even bother with a premise, cutting straight to Nicky being fucked by two guys. Arabian Knights is the most lavish of the Stanton loops, thanks to Color Climax footing the bill for Arabic costumes, naked extras and a four star hotel as the shooting location, all contributing to an air of late 1970s, well moneyed, sexual decadence. Indeed the film was likely inspired by Marks' involvement with the rich Arabs who indulged in sex tourism during their business trips to London. Many of Marks' models had career sidelines as high class prostitutes, and Marks would act as a reluctant pimp, tipping the girls off when 'the Arabs' were in town, while forewarning them just what they were signing up for. Apparently the Arabs paid well, but had a reputation for the severe, with anal sex being the main order of the day. In her recent autobiography Cosey Fanni Tutti remembers Marks calling her up about the Arabs, asking her "Do you do anal? That's all they want, They'll pay you a couple of grand. It's in their flat in Mayfair". After declining this offer to party with the ass crazy Arabs, Fanni Tutti noted that Marks 'seemed relieved that I'd refused. I turned down all such offers and eventually wasn't asked again'. In Marks' blue movie take on this subject, a rich Arab Sheik is in the process of finalizing a deal with a western businessman (Marks regular 'Short Jack Gold'). To seal the deal the Sheik lays on a parade of harem girls for the pair of them to choose from. After touching up the lineup, the Sheik decides on a threesome with two of the girls (Nicky Stanton and Jada Smith) and gets to experience Nicky's tit-fucking abilities, before blowing his load over Jada's pussy. Playing the role of generous host, the Sheik gives the okay for his western counterpart to partner off with another of the harem girls and do some Middle Eastern drilling of his own. Or as the inimitable hyperbole on Color Climax's 8mm box puts it "they then get down to some really passionate poolside poking and in absolutely no time the two oilmen are gushing their gism all over the place, covering the busty birds in come".




The surprise piece of casting here is long time movie heavy Milton Reid, who appeared in the big budget family movie 'Arabian Adventure' the same year. Here Milton embarks on an altogether more adult type of Arabian Adventure, and seems to be having a ball as the Sheik's servant. A role that gives him the opportunity to line up the naked harem girls, pinch their bums and see some big boobs. On a roll, Milton followed this with a non-sex role as a chauffeur in the hardcore loop Schoolgirl Holiday, and in Bustman's Holiday, Milton strips down to a thong and ends up frolicking in a pool with Nicky Stanton and another big bust model. The mini scandal that erupted over the filming of Arabian Knights (more on that later) didn't exactly do Milton's reputation any favours. My impression though is that his career was winding down at this point, with stories of him becoming muscle bound and suffering from arthritis by the end of the 1970s. While Arabian Knights captured Reid in career decline, the film also marked the debut (and only hardcore performance) of Jada Smith, who soon after would relaunch her career in softcore magazines and films under the name 'Rosemary England'. Long out of the public eye and wanting nothing to do with her past, Jada/Rosemary now runs a B&B on the south coast. Fortunately for her, she retains a degree of anonymity in the Internet age by virtue of her real name. 99.9% of Internet search results for 'Jada Smith' relating to Will Smith's wife, rather than an obscure porn star turned B&B owner.



Incidentally I was surprised to recently discover that the going rate for the women who acted in high end porn loops back in the 1970s was £100 a day, whereas male performers could only expect to walk away with £60 per day. There is an irony in the fact that an industry which is routinely accused of exploiting and demeaning women was actually paying them nearly twice as much as men for doing the exact same job. A boast that few 'respectable' professions can lay claim to in 2022, let alone in the 1970s. In the world of seventies loops, it seems female performers were the ones who were valued, whereas men were paid less, even though the success or failure of these loops tended to rest heavier on the men's shoulders...as well as other parts of their anatomy.

Speaking of male performers, here's what cast member 'Short Jack Gold' had to say about Arabian Knights a few years ago

"Yes I was in that film. It was shot in winter at the Hotel Julius Caesar in Queens Gardens in Bayswater. It took two days to shoot, and was famous for the fact that a few of the girls who stayed at the hotel trashed their rooms, and abused a member of staff who, as a result, tipped of the press as to what was going on. A well known newspaper planted a reporter on the roof of the hotel who was able via a spyhole to observe all that was going on. The next weekend it was headline news and I think GHM ultimately had a court case to answer.

Milton Reid was an ex showbiz pal of GHM who desperately wanted to appear in a GHM "blue movie" Busty Nicky Stanton was also in it and a lady I called Jada, but as you say she went on to more assignments under the Rosemary England name. The other girl in the H/C scenes was called Stevie Taylor who eventually went to the States and did more porno.

They were all terribly sweet and very keen to help the actors if you see what I mean. It was actually snowing outside whilst we were filming, so it felt a bit strange acting as if we were in a desert oasis.

GHM was pretty pissed throughout the whole thing, which is why it took two days to complete. Ah Happy days....."



 

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