Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes | |
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Directed by | Cass Paley |
Written by | Rodger Jacobs |
Produced by | Cass Paley |
Starring | John C. Holmes Ron Jeremy Larry Flynt Misty Dawn Aunt Peg Paul Thomas Anderson Mike Sager |
Cinematography | Willie Boudevin |
Edited by | Christopher Rowland |
Release date |
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Running time | 120 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes is a 1998 documentary about adult film icon John C. Holmes produced and directed by Cass Paley. [1] [2] It was the winner of Best Feature Documentary at the 1999 South by Southwest Film Festival held annually in Austin, Texas. [3]
Documentary about the enemies, friends, and family of adult film icon John C. Holmes and their memories of him. It discusses the creation of the Johnny Wadd film series directed by Bob Chinn. It also covers the romantic relationships of John Holmes with first wife Sharon Holmes and his second wife, the porn actress Misty Dawn. It also covers how he groomed, sexually molested, and trafficked a 15 year old child, Dawn Schiller. Finally, it covers Eddie Nash and Wonderland murders, as well as Holmes' death from AIDS. It is narrated principally by journalist Mike Sager, whose Rolling Stone story "The Devil and John Holmes" inspired the films Boogie Nights and Wonderland . [4] It has been reformatted in HD for redistribution by The Sager Group LLC.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Often, there's a conspiracy aspect to lost legends, but terrific films do fall through the cracks. Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes, which played the Toronto film festival and then slipped away, is the ultimate searching – and shocking – exposé of the porn world." [5]
Richard Corliss of Time wrote of the film, "Like Holmes, Wadd is seedy, twisted, a bit on the long side – and creepily fascinating." [6]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "Wadd leaves us to ponder the difference between Holmes's special 'gift' and, say, another star's beautiful singing voice. When you come right down to it, they're pretty much the same thing, but distributed to different parts of the body." [7]
Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide commented, "Holmes's story isn't pretty, but it's fascinating, in no small part because the people Paley interviews offer a glimpse into a brief time when making porn was an act of rebellion that attracted a diverse and eccentric group of filmmakers and performers." [8]
John Curtis Holmes, better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd, was an American pornographic film actor. He ranks among the most prolific adult film performers, with documented credits for at least 573 films.
Seka is a retired American pornographic actress who was known in the 1980s as the Platinum Princess of Porn. In 2013, she released an autobiography about her life and career, titled Inside Seka.
Boogie Nights is a 1997 American drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film is an expansion of Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), and stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham.
Eddie Nash was an American nightclub owner and restaurateur in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted money launderer and drug dealer. Nash was allegedly the mastermind behind the Wonderland murders, but was never convicted, despite multiple arrests and trials.
Misty Dawn is a former adult industry performer. Dawn acted in adult films and videos, and was an exotic dancer. She married fellow adult film actor John “Johnny the Wad” Holmes in 1987, and after his death from AIDS-related illness published his autobiography and appeared in several films about his life.
Wonderland is a 2003 American crime drama film, co-written and directed by James Cox and based on the real-life Wonderland Murders that occurred in 1981. The film stars Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Dylan McDermott, Carrie Fisher, Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, Tim Blake Nelson, and Janeane Garofalo. Kilmer plays the role of John Holmes, a famous pornographic film star and suspected accomplice in four grisly murders committed in a house at 8763 Wonderland Avenue, in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. The film uses a nonlinear Rashomon-style narrative structure to present conflicting accounts of the murders from differing perspectives.
The Wonderland murders, also known as the Four on the Floor Murders or the Laurel Canyon Murders, are four unsolved murders that occurred in Los Angeles on July 1, 1981. It is assumed that five people were targeted to be killed in the known drug house of the Wonderland Gang, three of whom—Ron Launius, William "Billy" Deverell, and Joy Miller—were present. Launius, Deverell, and Miller, along with the girlfriend of an accomplice, Barbara Richardson, died from extensive blunt-force trauma injuries. Only Launius' wife Susan survived the attack, allegedly masterminded by organized crime figure and nightclub owner Eddie Nash. Nash, his henchman Gregory Diles, and porn actor John Holmes were at various times arrested, tried, and acquitted for their involvement in the murders.
John Leslie Nuzzo was an American pornographic film actor-director-producer. Usually credited under the name John Leslie, he also worked under a variety of pseudonyms, including John Leslie Dupre, Frederick Watson, and Lenny Lovely.
William Gordon Amerson was an American former adult-film industry pioneer, mogul, producer and actor in the late 1960s to the late 1980s.
The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public. This American period, which subsequently spread internationally, and that began before the legalization of pornography in Denmark on July 1, 1969, started on June 12, 1969, with the theatrical release of the film Blue Movie directed by Andy Warhol, and, somewhat later, with the release of the 1970 film Mona produced by Bill Osco. These films were the first adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. Both influenced the making of films such as 1972's Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace and directed by Gerard Damiano, Behind the Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers and directed by the Mitchell brothers, 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger, the "crown jewel" of the Golden Age, according to award-winning author Toni Bentley. According to Andy Warhol, his Blue Movie film was a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released in 1972, three years after Blue Movie was shown in theaters.
The Wonderland Gang was a group of drug dealers involved in the Los Angeles cocaine trade during the late 1970s and early 1980s; their home base was located on Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. On July 1, 1981, three members and one associate of the gang died in the Wonderland murders.
Bob Chinn is a Chinese-American pornographic film director and actor. He is a member the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame.
Wadd is the pre-Islamic Arabian god of love and friendship.
Chapel of the Flowers is a wedding chapel located at 1717 Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Sexually transmitted infections in the pornography industry deals with the occupational safety and health hazard of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by workers in the sex industry. Since the 1980s many cases of pornographic performers contracting HIV/AIDS have been reported. However, since the mid-2000s strict adherence to rigorous STI testing, and limiting sexual contact with only fellow tested performers has halted the spread of HIV and other STIs in the industry.
The Dirk Diggler Story is a 1988 mockumentary short film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It follows the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a well-endowed male porn star. The character was modeled on American porn actor John Holmes. The film was later expanded into Anderson's 1997 film Boogie Nights.
Rodger Jacobs was an American journalist, writer, author, film producer, columnist, playwright, editor and screenwriter.
Porno Valley is a documentary series that aired from January 11, 2004 to April 4, 2004. This 13 part series follows the Vivid girls for 6 months. They present their work, their dreams and the daily life. They face the trouble in their relationships resulting out of their work, as well as the glamorous moments in their careers.
The Jade Pussycat is a 1977 pornographic film starring John Holmes. The plot of the film focuses on the search for a priceless jade carving from 13th century China known as "The Jade Pussycat". The character of "Johnny Wadd" is sent to find the Jade Pussycat and find the thieves who stole the item from a museum in Japan. During the search, Mr. Wadd is met by many lustful women. The film is set mainly in San Francisco's Chinatown.
The World of Henry Paris is a 1981 American compilation film documentary of the 1970s erotic films directed by Radley Metzger, working under the alias name of "Henry Paris".