There will always be adult productions, and there will always be Cecil Howard productions. And like the scales of Justice, one side amply balances out the other.

For every specified number of garbage / videos on the market, somewhere in the wings waits another Howard psychodrama, with all its eccentric angles of incidence and reflection, to be unleashed in a panther state of jungle heat upon the senses.

Such is the case of Firestorm II, Howard's latest entry and distinguishably his most riveting sex and storyline effort yet. For instance, when was the last time that you became so thoroughly engrossed in an adult film that its cliffhanger ending left you with the mixed inclination to boo and hiss (because it left you dangling) and yet willing to stampede the next premier to see how the saga wraps up.

Howard's Firestorm read some of the most prosaic adult reviews ever to extol the majesty of the craft — and deservedly.

Firestorm II continues the story of writer Ken Gushing (Eric Edwards) whose moral and character deficiencies are straight out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald booze binge. Gushing betrays the love of his women to further his self-serving financial schemes. In Part I, he wreaks havoc with the wealthy Balcourt family, particularly Claire, a blind girl. The family is blackmailed by Gushing, thanks in part to Lee Balcourt's (John Leslie) blackbook financial schemings in mideastern oil.

The story picks up two years later with Leslie out of prison being tracked by towel heads while he searches for his daughter Claire. Leslie hires a Heineken swizzling gumshoe (played wonderfully by Michael Gaunt) to help him in his search. Gaunt is so convincing you can smell the seediness that hangs heavy over him like a stale bar rag. But then everyone in this film stinks from some brand of deception.

Tish Ambrose, as Liza, Cushing's mentally beaten girlfriend, picks up the role originally played by Anne Marie Jackson, and Ambrose delivers one of the most powerful images of a woman ready to go over the edge this side of a cuckoo's nest.

The sex play is rich with the patented Howard feel for style and angle, and it's safe to say the bordello scene with Ron Jeremy and Rhonda Jo Petty will find its way on some gourmet's list of erotica.

It's only fair to warn you, don't expect a wrap up. Firestorm III awaits to be unleashed.