about the rise and fall of the fabled Mitchell Brothers.] nnThe film - You can have your bells bottoms, disco dancing platform shoes, the Sly & The Family Stone Afros, and the goofy porn star caricatures from Boogie Nights. For my tastes, give me the grit, the gratuitous nudity, the leisure suits, the smell of the quick buck and the blythe parental acquiesences from Rated X, all of which attempt to make the case that true pornographers are basically born, not made. nnIf nothing else, that's what probably accounts, proportionally, for as much or more unappetizing pornography as the other variety - many of its practitioners tending to fall into the lap and luxury of the business by accident rather than design. Then there were the Mitchell Brothers. And, judging by the Emilio Estevez film, at least one of them was probably born under the sign of the Peep Show, thus fating him legendary status in pop/porn culture. The star child in this case being Jim Mitchell by the process of elimination taken to its literal conclusions. At one point in the film, a young Jim Mitchell proclaims that he wants a million bucks. Artie says he wants a million girls. They both get their heart's desire. And you all know that bromide about being careful what you wish for. nnIn true Boris Karloff fashion, the film begins on a dark and stormy night in February, 1991 when Jim Mitchell, in blinding rage, drives to his brother Artie's [Charlie Sheen] house in Corte Madeira, Marin County where he shoots him in cold blood. The rest of the picture pretty much occupies itself establishing emotional ground rules, alibies and legal defenses for fratricide. Jim's the serious minded/business-oriented, chain-smoking coke snorter. Artie's the genial, happy-go-lucky, womanizing coke snorter who files his drugs, forgetfully, in the office cabinet under "S" for stash. Jim's continually bailing out Artie to some degree or another, one seminal instance being when Artie screws up royally [tantamount to leaving the film out of the camera] during the production of Behind The Green Door. An exasperated Jim salvages the project - a pattern that, evidently, will repeat itself over and over. "How many times can one guy fuck up?" Jim asks his brother. nnThat Jim Mitchell [played by Estevez] goes biblical in such ritualistic manner is quite conveniently presaged when his father [Terry O'Quinn], sounding like a cross between one of the witches in Macbeth and Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven, advises the brothers to settle differences at night during a storm. "Nobody can hear you," he says. Later, he counsels, "Somebody hits you, you hit back until they're flat on their ass." But flat on their ass wouldn't be the fate of The Mitchell Brothers, they being blessed with the Midas Touch which the free love culture was destined to hand them right out of the starting gate. nnJim lenses a girl dancing topless at a student rally for a class project and is reprimanded by his teacher [Peter Bogdonovich in a cameo role]. "Nudity for the sake of nudity creates neither emotional understanding or character revelation," Bogdonovich tells him. "It's a cheap device for winning over the lowest common denominator. What you have made is pornography, not art." nn"Yeah, so," is the cynical message beaming loud and clear here as Jim sets to the task of empowering a successful cottage industry with the willing help of his fellow classmates who, true to the late 60's, can't wait to fuck for the camera. nnJim's the visionary who sees pots of gold at the end of the rainbow using naked women as willing accomplices. Artie, on the other hand, doesn't get it at first and is almost ready to settle for a menial job in Las Vegas until Jim convinces him that they could be another Warner Brothers with the ability to "make the product, own the product, show the product, make money on both ends and everywhere in between." Sage advice then and now - and, bingo, the O'Farrell Theatre. But Artie catches on real quick to the matters at hand during the production of some cheesy movie, with an empassioned speech that probably comes straight out of the Charlie Sheen art-imitating-life-manual: "Anyone know what gives me a stiff dick? Young cheerleaders in short skirts, pom-poms and bobby socks." Was Heidi Fleiss a technical advisor on this project? nn"We're giving people want they want," Jim tells his mother who's just too darn gracious about this whole porno-thing to qualify for endearing, Whistler's Mother sentimentality. "Keep an eye out for Johnny Law," is dad's wordly insight. And, as history plays itself out, Jim would have been well-advised to heed those words of warning instead of the ones about revenge finding refuge in a rain storm. nnRegardless, during their formative years, the brothers take their arrests with the glib insouciance of frat boys, continually flipping the legal system the bird at every available opportunity. Then, when business gets financially more complex, as do the busts, they seek out Timothy Leary's lawyer who gets them off the hook in a facilely-rendered obscenity court case that ends with a hung jury. "We're clean cut all American boys, and we're going to stick to making clean cut All American fuck films," Jim proudly boasts to the press who begin extolling him as some mythic Barbary Coast figure. Artie, on the other hand, really starts resenting Jim's obvious prominence developing in the brother equation and wants to make his own bones. nnArtie makes good to a degree when he discovers Marilyn Chambers [Tracy Hutson] who's under the mistaken impression she's auditioning for a mainstream movie that has a "bowling" scene. "Nobody like you has been in porno before," he tells her. "You're like Tuesday Weld. I'm going to make you a star." The mind shudders at how many variations of that line have been echoed in shopping malls since then. "This film is our shot at cutting through the mainstream," she's told and Chambers, although she already has legitimate screen credits, thinks it's going to be a good career move. Of course, common sense begs the question as to what she could have possibly been thinking, notwithstanding the fact the Ivory Snow [ called "Angel White" in the film] scandal put her and the Mitchells on the map. nnHistory: The Ivory Soap scandal grabbed international headlines and helped the movie gross over $50 million, which, if you subscribe to the movie, wound up mostly in the hands of guys with bent noses in New York. Historically, the Mitchells made a career of challenging pornography laws. They were convicted in 1982 for producing what was termed a lewd and lascivious act. But the decision was overturned in 1987 by the California Supreme Court. Chambers herself was arrested in 1985 on prostitution charges at the O'Farrell Theatre [it was converted to a showplace] when a dozen cops raided the place. Chamberts was accused at the time of having sex with at least 20 patrons in the audience. The case was later dismissed, but it cooled off the interactive participation between the dancers and the patrons which was the calling card of the theatre. Then the brothers were given six month prison sentences for contempt in a prostitution case, but they never served time. When they beat that rap, they, legend has it, held a full scale orgy and fucked tons of porn actresses in the O'Farrell's Ultra Room. nnThe brothers were born and raised in Antioch, California. With Jim studying at San Francisco State, the Mitchells began shooting a number of softcore loops in their late teens. They opened the O'Farrell in July 4, 1969, and writer Hunter S. Thompson would call it the "Carnegie Hall of Sex." Deputy district attorney Bernard Walter had another name for it, "the cadillac of whorehouses." Walter often referred to the Mitchells as "corporate pimps" and tried on numerous occasions to shut them down. By 1974, the Mitchells were operating 11 theaters in San Francisco, Santa Ana and Los Angeles. Then, to goose along the career of his then-current girlfriend, Missy Manners, Artie Mitchell orchestrated Behind The Green Door: The sequel. It starred Missy and co-starred a condom. It was the first time rubbers were ever used in an adult picture, and the whole project laid a critical egg along with the follow-up, Missy's Guide to Safe Sex.
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
