I’ve said it before and I’ll stick with this. While some movies leave a lot lacking there is always a reason to retain them for historical reasons. This includes pornographic films as well. They may not be what most of us watch but there is something about them that sociologists will gather information from about the times in these films. Perhaps most interesting will be those films that try to be proper feature films while at the same time featuring nudity and sex. A SCREAM IN THE STREETS is one of those types of movies.
The story is light here but then most porn movies are just that. It revolves around a rapist/murderer who is terrorizing Los Angeles. Detective Ed Haskell (Joshua Bryant) and his new partner Detective Bob Streeker (Frank Bannon) are on the case and adapting to one another. Lots of jibes, anger and yelling passes between the two before they finally click.
Along the way we get glimpses of other things to fill out
the 91 minutes. One is a recurring peeping tom and what he sees as we witness various
romps by different couples. Another is an officer and the dispatcher who become
“acquainted”. And lastly there is the killer, a transvestite who is so
obviously male it is difficult to figure out why his victims never realize it.
As portrayed by Don Covert it is by far the worst performance in the film.
That’s it. That’s all there is to say about the plot of the movie here. As with most pornographic movies of the time there is the tiniest story here around which to place naked bodies coming together. One thing about this one is you get the feeling they were trying to avoid the tag of porn because the degree to which the interaction goes just falls shy of pornography and just over the edge when it comes to hard R.
One amusing thing for many will be trying to place the face of Bryant. The entire time watching the film you’ll find yourself thinking “I’ve seen this guy before”. Let me save you the time. He starred in a number of episodic TV series and is probably most famous as Scully the helicopter pilot on the TV series M*A*S*H.
Severin has done a great job of saving this film from
obscurity though with a 2k scan from the original film negative. In addition to
that they’ve included several extras including “The Peeper” – two shorts made
from outtakes from the film, trailers for this and other films and reversible
cover art for the disc.
Most people will pass this one by. Film historians might have some interest in it. Pornography collectors will add it to their collection. It is an interesting film to watch from an historical perspective but other than that I can’t recommend the film.
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