Long Jeanne Silver/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Long Jeanne Silver
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Longjstop.png

If the Encyclopedia Britannica had an entry for "amputee porn," Jean Silver's photo and a footnote to Alex de Renzy's Long Jeanne Silver (1977) would be the reference.

Where to begin? Basically, this film is shot in the form of "A day in the life of the handi-capable." Jean Silver provides various monologues on people she's met and then proceeds to invite them home to play with her and her stump. De Renzy's point is made upon first penetration of Jean's leg. Surprisingly, he does practice some restraint by allowing Jean to wear her prosthetic for the first 6 minutes of footage. He attempts to provide a "big reveal" by having her partner quickly remove the leg. However, this would have been more effective had the film not used Silver's novelty to promote the film, "Her's is bigger than Johnny Holmes'"

Throughout the film, Silver offers tidbits on how the world reacts to her deformity. She explains to two friends that she was born without a fibula and a pinky toe. The lower portion of her left leg was amputated when she was around 2 years old. In the same scene she peruses her recent photo spread from Cheri Magazine (1977). She talks about what its like to use her leg as a sexual organ saying that it's like a cock, "but it's safer; I keep it very clean, and you can't get any diseases from my leg."

Longjeanne1.jpg

Other than shock value, there's not much more to this film. Perhaps, its most important attribute is that the use of an amputated leg in a feature pornographic film had not been done before. Is that a landmark accomplish? You be the judge.

The film does boast several notable performances--wait, let's rephrase--several performances by some legendary porn players. Namely, Joey Silvera, who began his career in Most Valuable Slut (1973) and continues to be active in the industry both acting and directing. He has just shy of 1,000 films to his credit and his most recent role was released in 2009--thanks to Viagra, I'm sure. Paul Thomas also provides services for one scene. Strangely enough, he started his film career with Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). He moved into hardcore shortly after and continues to work in the industry.

As for Jean Silver, she went on to perform in several more films including Water Power (1977) (as Joan Beattie) and in Jim Clark's follow-up sequel Debbie Does Dallas 2 (1981). In April 2006, Robin Bougie wrote about Long Jeanne Silver for the online newsletter The Cultural Gutter. In the article he cites the original Cheri article from 1977 saying that "Jeanne admitted that she began prostituting her ass in reform school at the age of 15, where she had been placed due to seven counts of burglary. From there she plied her trade as a stripper in Phoenix, Arizona, then moved from town to town, hooking to pay her bills." Some time later a commenter posted the following, "First and foremost I must say that you have some facts wrong here. I will admit that I attempted Prostitution for about 1 hour and could not do it." The commenter went on to update Bougie on her new life as a mother of a first year college student and how she retired from porn in the late 1980s. The commenter added (among other points) that she now works as a bar manager in Arizona. The note was signed "LJS." Long live Long Jeanne Silver!

On the off chance that Jean Silver is reading this post, this reviewer will be kind. However, there is one recommendation for viewing Long Jean Silver. Run a warm bath and have a good scrub brush on hand because you will definitely feel unclean after 64 minutes of this film.

Reviewed by Texploited

Newsletter
  • Grindhouse Database Newsletter
  • Exploitation books
  • Kung fu movies
  • Giallo BluRay