Last December, we reviewed a DVD of Gerard Damiano's The Story of Joanna from Alpha Blue Archives, and though the release was advertised as the "original, uncut" version, we quickly realized that it wasn't: Missing scenes, out-of-order scenes and major scratches and emulsion defects throughout the movie forced us to give the disk a low rating.
But now, Bob Augustus, recently separated from VCX and having opened up his own company, TVX Films, is about to bring out his own version of this hardcore bondage classic, and it promises to be a significant improvement.
"I have an excellent copy; as good as you're going to get it," Augustus told AVN.com. "This is not missing anything. On a scale of from 1 to 10, ours is about 50 times better than the other guy's, and I'm thrilled with it. I've spent so much time cleaning this thing up – you just can't imagine the time we've put into this film."
For those who aren't familiar with the 1975 film, it stars Terri Hall as a young socialite who falls for the charismatic but reclusive fetishist Jamie Gillis (who, incidentally, celebrates his 62nd birthday today). In an effort to please Gillis and secure his love, Hall submits to his every whim, including becoming a scantily-dressed maid at his party, where a multitude of guests finger her pussy as she serves them drinks, and being fucked by several of Gillis' friends and by both of his servants, Juliet Graham and Zebedy Colt. The film is more interested in the bondage than the sex, but it's an extremely well-told story from an acknowledged master of the art.
"People are ordering like hotcakes right now," Augustus said of Joanna.
"The problem we have is establishing copyright on these old films," he adds. "I wish I could protect the copyright on this son of a bitch, but I can't. But we've got the DVD portion copyrighted. None of us ever believed these pictures would have the value they have today except Joe Steinman. He actually said to me, 'One day, Bob, these films are going to be worth a fortune' – and now, all of a sudden they are. But you've got to have the money to fix them up, and that gets expensive, and sometimes, they just aren't worth it."
Augustus, who's about to move his company back to his home state of Texas, owns approximately 80 classic movies from porn's early days, but sadly, the color has faded on many of them, and Augustus estimates that it would cost about $35,000 a piece to restore most of them, which he thinks would not be cost-effective.
The Story of Joanna, which ships on DVD next week, can be ordered from TVX's Website, www.tvxfilms.com.
