John Warren Wells
Different Strokes: Or, How I Wrote, Directed and Starred in an X-rated Movie
for PEGGY and BILL
but for whom...
Introduction
A Word From John Warren Wells
The book you now hold in your hand is in many respects a unique contribution to contemporary sexological literature. It contains in one volume the screenplay for a pornographic movie, a day-by-day production diary kept by the author of the screenplay (who is himself a performer in the film) and an interview with the film’s leading lady.
The book is thus sufficient unto itself, and surely self-explanatory, and originally no introduction was considered to be necessary. This is no longer the case. Circumstances have since dictated an explanation of why, although you can buy this book, you will very likely never see the movie chronicled herein.
In June of 1973, shortly after the filming of Different Strokes was completed but before the film had been edited, the Supreme Court of the United States of America did one of two things, depending on your point of view; either the Court struck a great ringing blow for public decency, or it effectively repealed the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The Court’s decision, in effect, holds that local communities may determine what is or is not obscene, and hence what may or may not be read or viewed in its confines. This would seem to contradict a principle established early in the past century that state and local governments may not take action in violation of the Bill of Rights, but this is hardly a place for a discussion of the legal aspects of the decision. On the practical side, the effects may or may not be far-reaching and long-enduring.
It is unclear at present just how many erotic efforts will fall victim to the Court’s ruling. It seems certain, though, that the chief victims will be the more expensively produced erotic films, of which Different Strokes had hoped to be an excellent example. Already several theaters throughout the country have wholly abandoned their policy of showing porn flicks, and it seems inevitable that a great many others will follow suit.
It also seems inevitable that a great many works of more enduring merit will be similarly banned or otherwise deprived of an audience, since this is always the case when censorship is given its head. But here the author’s own bias is showing; I am, as shall be made clear herein, unalterably opposed to censorship in any form, and for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps this will all blow over. Perhaps Different Strokes will one day be given final processing and cleared for theatrical release. Perhaps one day you will see it. If this never happens, you will not have been deprived of a major artistic breakthrough. You will have missed few major moments in the development of cinema.
But I do hope you get to see the film some day. And, in the meantime, I hope you find the record of its production interesting and amusing.
John Warren Wells
New York City, 1974
A Screenplay
1. Close-up of penis on erotic lamp. Hold this shot for a few seconds with only general room tone as background. We hear the sound of a gavel.
(OC) Ladies and gentlemen, lot number 453... (Camera pulls back slowly to reveal rest of statue.)
(Doubtfully.)... a lamp... (Camera continues pullback revealing AUCTIONEER.)
An unusually fine and rare example of its kind. Please consult your catalogues. May I have an opening bid of one hundred dollars? (Camera continues pullback revealing people sitting and standing in and around the room. The bidding continues as the AUCTIONEER continues calling for higher bids in increments of twenty-five dollars. People raise their hands occasionally to bid. The camera continues its pullback and now the POV has reached the last row. The camera begins a slow dolly to the right and holds steady after AUCTIONEER says:) I have five hundred, will you go five and a quarter. I have five hundred once. I have five hundred twice...
(SOPHIE jumps into frame, wearing a wild hat of bird feathers, etc. We see her from behind, back of head from top of hat to upper shoulders.)
One thousand goddamned dollars!
2. Exterior of the auction gallery. We pick up SOPHIE walking out with the package under her arm. Also at this point we begin our opening music. We have a montage at this point. Series of shots of SOPHIE walking in the Madison Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Central Park South area. Then—
3. SOPHIE at the corner of 59th and 5th. (Medium long shot.)
4. Shot across the street from SOPHIE’S POV. We see the traffic sign flash “WALK.”
5. Medium shot from SOPHIE’S side. We see her in frame start to cross the street. She steps off the curb. We see a cab start to turn the corner.
6. Shot of SOPHIE from inside the cab, driver’s POV. The cab just misses her and we see SOPHIE stumble backward.
7. Same shot as #5. SOPHIE’S hat is cockeyed on her head. Zoom in to her face as she mouths the words “fuck you” and gives the cab the finger.
8. Freeze frame on this shot and first credit.
9. Continuation of montage sequence.
10. Long shot of SOPHIE with operating pile driver in the foreground. Focus shifts from the pile driver to SOPHIE. Zoom in to her face watching it go up and down.
11. Freeze frame and second credit.
12. Continuation of montage sequence.
13. Medium shot of doorman opening door for SOPHIE outside her apartment building. Pan down to his crotch.
14. Close on SOPHIE looking down at the doorman’s crotch. She licks her lips and leers.
15. Shot of penis on erotic lamp in close-up.
16. Close shot of doorman’s crotch.
17. Close on SOPHIE’S face licking her lips and leering.
18. Freeze frame and third credit.
19. SOPHIE in the hall outside her apartment She is walking down the hall toward her apartment door. Shot from behind.
20. Reverse of 19. The door of SOPHIE’S neighbor’s apartment opens. We zoom in to see the neighbor’s hand on SOPHIE’S arm. He is IRVING, a seventy-year-old man with a twenty-year-old libido. Dressed in a velvet smoking jacket, rimless glasses, right out of the nineteenth century. You get the type, the kind who wears a bathing suit with socks and shoes. He has a small wrapped gift in his other hand.
21. Shot of IRVING from POV SOPHIE.
Sophie, my little rose petal, how about a little...
(To herself.) Oh, my God. (To IRVING.) Irving, I can’t begin to tell you...
22. SOPHIE POV IRVING.
What a comfort it is for me to have you watching the hall.
...Come and view...
23. IRVING POV SOPHIE.
...the new French slides I just got for my stereopticon.
24. Two-shot.