HOLLYWOOD — Former New Yorker Joe Gallant has a rep for directing hard-edged, multi-award-nominated hardcore that wouldn't have seemed out of place in Andy Warhol's Factory, but his latest effort, The Crack Pack, for Adam & Eve Productions, may be his most approachable movie yet.
"It's sort of an homage to all the '60s films I love, all the Matt Helm stuff, the In Like Flint stuff," Gallant told AVN in-between takes of the songs he'd written for his 12-piece orchestra. "It's sort of the Rat Pack Meets Women's Lib in the mid-'60s."
The "Crack Pack" - apparently not a drug reference - consists of Dino Bravo, Jack Vegas and Tyler Knight, playing themselves as hard-loving, hard-drinking Las Vegas lounge singers and all-around Sin City bad boys who are given a chance to perform at Jumbo's Clown Room, owned by "the legendary and notorious club owner Lenny St. Stephens" (Ron Jeremy), who also manages the trio.
"Bree Olson, being the contract girl for Adam & Eve, is the star," Gallant explains. "She plays Carla Capri, a delightful young ingénue from the Midwest who is seeking fame and fortune but who ends up a secretary of Alexis Texas; a very mousy secretary who wanders onto the stage at Jumbo's Clown Room and suddenly is inspired to start stripping because of the instant sensation, and at the end of the movie, we see her almost like Sunset Boulevard, in her prime and just surrounded by accolades and wonderful sunsets and things like that. So it's very mainstream, very lingerie, very sexy, unlike my former filth and back-alley butt-scrooge material. It gives me a tremendous opportunity to integrate my passion, which is orchestra writing, into a porn film. That's the first time I've really been able to do that. So we have a whole complete score with a big band and it's a delight for me to have the opportunity."
Indeed, our first day on the set was at a famous Hollywood studio, where Gallant had assembled his orchestra as well as a trio of dancing girls - one a dead ringer for Sarah Michelle "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Gellar - known as Mia Presley's Voyeur Burlesque, all serving to highlight the song stylings of Dino, Jack and Tyler in some of the biggest production numbers the adult industry has seen in the last 30 years. (Kudos to choreographer Ben Wolff for most of that!)
"It's all built around the music of the era," Gallant recounts, "so it's very evocative of 1965 pre-hippie, post-war - that wonderful Martin Denny era, that little minute where it was sexy and samba and Tiki Lounge. That's where I live in my heart. I always liked '60s bachelor-pad big-band writing, and I've been thinking for many years about how to put my band writing into my movie work. My band writing tends to be darker, very post-Schoenberg , post-Europe string writing, so we needed a framework to hang that type of score on. Who better to use than Dino Bravo, who embodies that?"
But while the movie focuses on the Crack Pack and Bree, there are plenty of other stars to ogle, including Debi Diamond, who plays an escapee from a mental hospital who, with partner Mya Luxe, joins the boys' show with a magic act. But the thing is, Gallant says she's also a safecracker, though he hasn't revealed just how that aspect shows up in the plot - but he does admit to being a big fan of Ocean's Eleven, both the original and the remake.
We also got to be present for the sex scene between Tyler and former girlfriend/partner-in-crime Kirra Lynne. Seems Kirra's just blown into town and wants to muscle in on Tyler's action - and the Pack's Vegas show - by blackmailing him about a mysterious incident that happened in Cleveland several years ago. Tyler's not happy about it, but he's willing to let her audition - horizontally.
The pair begin in the living room with heavy kissing and 69 on the couch before heading for the bedroom for even more intense action. Kirra spreads out on the bed, almost daring Tyler to lick her pussy, but it isn't long before he's pulled her into cowgirl position - and boy, can her bubble-butt shake! - and later some mish. Reverse cowgirl anal follows, as does anal mish and anal piledriver before he unleashes his load on her buttcheek - and while we don't know if it'll make it into an extra on the DVD, Kirra comes away from the pop ready for even more action. It's truly a sight to behold.
The Crack Pack from Adam & Eve will be sliding its way into video stores in early summer.
