1979, 79 minutes

Genre: feature film

Director: Anthony Spinelli

Cast: Jesie St. James, Desiree Cousteau (billed as Desiree Clearbranch), Laurien Dominique, Georgina Spelvin; Richard Pacheco (billed as Dewey Alexander), Mike Horner (billed as Johnny Wilson), Anthony Spinelli (billed as George Spelvin), Dan Howard, Ken Scudder (billed as Grant Stockton), Ronald Davis

It's back to the vaults for this classic from the era immortalized in "Boogie Nights," the 1970s, a time when porn makers strove for respectability via scripted features shot on film and edited and scored to resemble "real" movies. "Easy" is the sort of class smut that played in high-end porn palaces in Times Square and other red-light districts, with its star, Jesie St. James, prominently billed in posters and on marquees.

The good ol' CalVista logo signals we're in for quality cooze, and "Easy" doesn't disappoint, right from the opening shots of tight-bodied blue-eyed blonde St. James jogging in skintight red shorts and T-shirt (and knee-high gym socks) as her voiceover narration sets up the series of flashbacks that make up the movie. St. James is a high school teacher who, in the first scene, is reprimanding a male student after class only to have him turn the tables and force her into a grope-fest, resulting in him cumming thickly just as she's pulling his cock out of his pants (genius editing that). Jesie puts up only token resistance before getting into the sex, and throughout the film she's either lustily submitting to aggressive (and borderline criminal) treatment or getting aggressive herself despite her attempts to maintain a ladylike veneer.

Jesie enjoys being raped in her house by another "teenager" (Richard Pacheco, '70s porn's Method-minded answer to the young De Niro), to the point where she orders him to bend over so she can toss his salad. She puts the moves on a blind piano tuner (Ken Scudder), who clips her fingernails and has her dip her digits in butter for some more man-ass play. At a dinner party she retreats to a bedroom with an obnoxious guy she's just met and sucks him off. She quickly moves in with him, but that moment of happiness ends when a woman claiming he's her boyfriend beats Jesie up then really shows her by giving her the pussy eating of her life (kudos to the great Georgina Spelvin here). Jesie seems at last to have found true happiness with nice guy Mike Horner, until he tells her not to rush out and buy that house she's been eyeing - cuz he's married.

There's some sort of moral here about the dangers and disappointments of acting out and satisfying our lust -- an odd theme for a porn film. But all that libido treatment does make for fine screen sex. "Easy" comes from a golden porn age: arriving after those terrible, skanky loops with their repeated footage, and before the shot-on-video, gynecologically intense gonzo smut of today. There's just the right amount of hardcore action, artfully lighted, smoothly edited and skillfully scored and recorded. Jesie St. James gives the kind of slow, loving blowjob you don't see much these days, including post-ejaculation sucking and oral cleanup. Oh, and for all you youngsters watching, that great, mysterious stuff between the women's legs? Pubic hair.

                                                      THE DVD

This marks a second DVD appearance for "Easy," following a 2000 disc from NuTech that included a commentary track by porn critic Jim Holliday and actress Jill Kelly. That track is absent from this VCX release; instead the extras here are bonus scenes and trailers from other vintage fare, an "Easy" photo slide show and a press book (i.e., videocassette and DVD box covers and posters for "Easy"). The bonus scenes are from "Suzie Superstar" (with the late Shauna Grant and a somewhat svelte Ron Jeremy), "Eruption" (with the legend John Holmes) and two compilation titles, "Legendary Hardcore" and "Legendary Softcore." Among the trailers is one for the classic "Nothing to Hide," starring John Leslie and Richard Pacheco.

"Easy" was shot on 16 mm film and the transfer here is generally good - crisp images, full, rich colors, well-balanced sound. There is some print scratchiness around the reel changes, some significant frame flickering at the 1:06 mark, and in one scene the lighting gives the fair-skinned Jesie St. James an orange glow. The original 4:3 aspect ratio is preserved on disc.

                                              THE LAST WORD

Younger fans accustomed to nonstop extreme hardcore action may be a bit put off by the relatively tame and story- and character-oriented nature of "Easy." But those qualities sit well with me, and the beautiful Jesie St. James -- with her high cheekbones, small breasts, large nipples, blonde bush and white ass -- is a lust object for the ages. The disc extras are nothing special, but this is definitely a keeper for fans of quality porn of the bygone "Boogie Nights" days.