Flesh ** (1968, Joe Dallesandro, Geraldine Smith, Patti D’Arbanville, Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis) – Classic Movie Review 3,135

Paul Morrissey’s 1968 directorial debut film Flesh stars Joe Dallesandro as a dumb but sexy hustler called Joe pounding New York’s mean streets and getting involved with transvestites (Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis), clients and druggies.

Joe the Hustler: ‘I can’t hustle 25 hours a day.’

Writer-cinematographer-director Paul Morrissey’s 1968 directorial debut film Flesh stars Joe Dallesandro, alongside Maurice Braddell, Geri Miller, Geraldine Smith, Patti D’Arbanville, Louis Waldon, Jackie Curtis, and Candy Darling, The no-budget film was controversial but became a box office hit.

Joe Dallesandro stars as a dumb but sexy hustler called Joe pounding New York’s mean streets and getting involved with transvestites (Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis), clients and druggies. Geraldine Smith plays Geri, Joe’s wife, and Patti D’Arbanville plays Patti, Geri’s lover. They spark off the plot when Geri ejects Joe from bed to make him go on the streets to make money for Patti’s abortion.

Produced by Andy Warhol, and also known as Andy Warhol’s Flesh, it is hardly much more than a home movie. It may be amateurish, hastily improvised and tattily made, but it has a vitality and a certain sleazy Sixties charm, from a time when life seemed a lot simpler.

Dallesandro is a sight for sore eyes. Also in the cast are John Christian as Joe’s customer, Maurice Braddell, an artist who wants to draw Joe, Geri Miller as Terry, Barry Brown as a new hustler boy on the street, and Louis Waldon as David the Gymnast.

Morrissey directed his first solo feature Flesh after the attempt on Andy Warhol’s life in June 1968 by Valerie Solanas, produced by Warhol for just $4,000. It was a commercial hit, and freakishly popular in West Germany, selling more three million tickets.

It was a controversial movie and hit censorship problems, and in many countries was shown only in clubs in its day. But nevertheless it was a popular success, so two more films directed by Morrissey, produced by Warhol and starring Dallesandro followed.

Follow-ups: Trash (1970) and Heat (1972).

Morrissey recalled: ‘It doesn’t really matter what the camera’s doing as long as the people are worth watching.’

Paul Joseph Morrissey (February 23, 1938 – October 28, 2024)

Flesh (1968).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3,135

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