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Between 1975 and 1987, Leslie performed in more than 300 loops and features. John first starred in such hits as Exposed, Talk Dirty to Me and Mary! Mary!. In this 1977 film, Constance Money and John Leslie play Mary and Ned, a liberated couple, but she complains that he achieves orgasm too quickly. As a joke, he asks the Devil to help him with his problem, and before he can bat an eye, he shows up with magical cream to provide him with a constant erection. Along with Nancy Hoffman, China Leigh and Kristine Heller, John starred the same year in Godfrey Daniels' Teeny Buns, which is better than its title. Off-screen, Leslie, a wine connoisseur and Ranaissance man, spent his free time painting, cooking and entertaining friends. During the early '80s, he lived on a platonic basis with the star of Misty Beethoven - Constance Money. Talk Dirty to Me - a classic film that spawned nine sequels - appeared in 1980. Screw called it "the best porno film ever made," a turnabout for Screw, since the film has no kinky sex, no bisexuality and more than one funny sequence, including two women comparing pubic hair and brushing and primping it to please their loves. "This is the story of Jack, who claims that within three days he can have any woman panting to jump in the sack with him, and his friend Lennie who is so shy he doesn't dare ask. Jack as John Leslie services four adoring women, one of whom is Jesie St. James who overhears him talking dirty to some other female. It's not a good title since the dirty talk is normal sex talk. Most women would enjoy John Leslie as a bed friend." (Bob Rimmer, X-Rated Guide, p.142) Talk Dirty To Me not only won the Fifth Annual Erotica Film Award as the Best Picture of the Year, but John was also chosen Best Actor. Talk Dirty was one of the first films Leslie employed "The Rat Look" - his name for his unique sneering expression. Leslie sang with a band for five years in the '70s, and if there was a girl he admired, he'd get that glint in his eye. The band members called him Ratso, and the nickname evolved into the Rat Look. "You don't practice that look," says John. "It's an emotion that comes through your face. It just happens." Talk Dirty to Me combined the elements of a male buddy f----flick with dirty talk that became a film fantasy for guys who desired to be macho yet hadn't a clue how to handle themselves. "Male moviegoers could relate to the story of Jack, a confident stud who could pick up and f--- any woman he wanted, and his slightly retarded friend Lenny who had to depend on Jack's leftovers for his lays. This wasn't a buddy film where the men were evenly matched like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; it was more like a porno Of Mice and Men. Talk Dirty's protagonists aren't heavy hitters; they're horny and homeless. Set in San Francisco, the film shows them breaking into house that are for sale, just for shelter. There's Juliet Anderson as a real-estate saleswoman who discovers the pair at a home she's showing. They have strong words but...it's mere minutes between Juliet's telling Jack, "I'm calling the cops," and "Let me suck your cock." (Porn Star Legends (PSL) 1/96, p.21) The sequel Nothing to Hide appeared the next year and was even better than the original. In 1982 it won the Erotica award for Best Picture, in a tie with Roommates. The retarded character played by Richard Pacheco now takes center stage by falling in love and getting married to a slightly retarded girl (Chelsea Manchester). Jack is angry at losing his friend to a wife, but winds up as the Best Man at the wedding. Because of the success of the original Talk Dirty to Me, director Anthony Spinelli split from producer Jerry Ross to do Nothing to Hide. Ross continued the series with 1983's Talk Dirty to Me: Part II where Leslie plays Jack to Bridgitte Monet's cool TV psychologist. In 1984, Ross made Talk Dirty to Me: Part III with Leslie as Jack falling in love with a mermaid, played by Traci Lords. The story, a take-of of Splash, is inane, but the all-star cast also features Amber Lynn and Ginger Lynn. Spinelli directed one more John Leslie-as-Jack film (Talk Dirty To Me One More Time) in 1985, before he gave it up to let producer Ross continue. Leslie's last appearance in the series was as an amnesia victim in Talk Dirty to Me: Part V. The franchise continued through Talk Dirty to Me: Part 8, but without Leslie, the last three films were less interesting. (PSL p.22 1/96) "Leslie is as complex off the screen as he is on it. The major influences on his life are Jackie Gleason, Babe Ruth and Curly Howard. At times John can be as intense as Gleason, as funny as Howard and like Ruth, he always goes for the home run. While he is molten-hot on camera, his off-camera attention is devoted largely to the more peaceful arts of painting, music, gardening and cooking. He is a gourmet chef and his Northern California living room is full of paintings that immediately capture the visitor's attention." (AFW) "As an actor it's difficult to do eight pages of a movie script a day because you can only be so good," says Leslie. "If you're working on a regular film and you do one, two pages a day, and you have a couple of months to shoot it, you can be brilliant. If I had that opportunity as I'd be as good as anybody." John's performing career went downhill in 1982. "If it weren't for Danielle's striking sensuality, the scene [in The Blonde Next Door] would've been laughable. John certainly was." (AFW 8/83) "By the mid Eighties," writes Anthony Petkovich, "Leslie became painfully aware of the smut industry's descent into doldrums. As a result, he almost felt obligated to try his hand at directing - Night Shift Nurses (for VCA) being his first attempt in 1986… and a damn good one. Seeing sluts like Lois Ayres chow down gargantuan black cocks as if the things were uncircumcised fudgicles, or hussies like the underrated Dana Dylan getting strapped across squaky hospital beds while their tight little kazoos are savagely crammed with beef catheters, or Leslie giving enemas to scantily clad nurses…they marvellously exhibit Leslie's talent for capturing pure poetic sleaze." (The X Factory) First as a performer and later as a director, Leslie created more great X films than anyone else in the history of the genre. Measured by industry standards, writes Dr. Joseph Slade in the July 1997 edition of Wide Angle, Leslie's early films "were overwritten and overdesigned... His collaboration with [jazz musician Bill] Heid, with Jack Remy, a cinematographer and lighting director of uncommon skill, and with a group of enthusiastic performers, resulted in upscale films alternately praised for their intelligence or denigrated for their pretension. The hallmarks of this period are swift characterization, credible dialogue, smooth camerwork, and rapport with the cast." Goin' Down Slow, 1988, features "treachery, adultery and murder run rampant in this spitfire spectacular of couples porn." (AFW 1996 Dir. p. 257) The Catwoman also appeared in 1988. "Kathleen Jentry portrays a woman possessed by a feline presence that is brought to the surface when she become disgusted over her boyfriend's frequent business trips. Director Leslie's theme concerns the animalistic nature of man, the beast that lurks beneath everyone's civilized exterior. Leslie revives one's faith in the potential of this medium." (AFW 96Dir. p. 253) In The Chameleon, Tori Welles plays a sexually obsessed woman who has the ability to change identity. "A true classic with some of the most ferocious sex of 1989." (p. 253) Bad, 1990, makes no sense but the sex sizzles. Hate to See You Go stars Nina Hartley and Randy Spears as a couple who get into trouble when they investigate a property Nina has just inherited. "Leslie takes a simple twist on the idea of a hubby switching the medicine on his wife, conspiring to take her out of the picture while scheming to replace her with another girl (Jacqueline) and score big time with the inheritance, and turns it into a blistering parade of zipper-busting sex. We discover the place that Nina inherits is populated by some horny sex enthusiasts....Everyone contributes some of the best sex on screen in 1991." (AFW p. 257) Curse of the Catwoman, 1991, contains great sex scenes that all make sense and have stimulating motivations. Chameleons, 1992, is a loose takeoff on The Hunger. Deidre Holland, Ashlynn Gere and Rocco Siffredi play sexual vampires who turn into people."Shot on film with a big budget, this is a richly produced and lovingly edited erotic near-masterpiece from John Leslie. We open on Ashlynn taking charge at a sex party, drawing a great performance out of Tim Lake and Fawn Miller. Deidre gets seduced by Gere with a strap-on." (AFW p. 253) VCA released Anything That Moves in 1992. "The subterranean world of strip clubs is exposed - tough, f---ed-up men battling callous, hard females who are emotional rollercoaster rides." (AFW p. 248) Bad Habits, 1994, features Deidre Holland playing a romance novelist whose shrink suggests she try past life regression. It seems Deidre seeks the perfect lover from another life. Leslie delivers a well-written dramatic flick with volcanic sex. Dogwalker appeared in 1994. "The crowning achievement of Jon Leslie's directorial career comes with his first release for his own company. "Leslie uses a plot similar to Jacob's Ladder to launch a stunningly visual piece of porn drama that will have you on the edge of your seat. Leslie is a master of sensual subtlety, making even the most disparate moments weave together into a melange of moving eroticism. "Steven St. Croix plays a thief who tries to call the shots after a heist and finds himself on the outs with his gang and struggling with the realization that his life is effectively over. "The opening scene where Steven is forced to watch his wife (Kristi-Lynn) get ass-f---ed by two hoods is riveting. He finds himself in the high country next, watching Christina Angel do a triple blowjob on Byron, Sanders and Williams. From here the plot and sex flow effortlessly, through a beautiful porn palace poke with Isis Nile with Angel in the background. Steve gets Christina in the end, but it proves too late for him. Leslie's finest. XRCO Best Film of 1994." (AFW 96D, p. 255) Other John Leslie directed films include Hot Scalding, Mad Love, Nightshift Nurses, Nurse Tails, Oh What A Night, The Rehearsal, Second Skin, Sexophrenic, Strange Curves and The Voyeur 1-4. In 1994 Leslie shifted to the distributor Evil Angel and formed his own production company, An Eye For An Eye. "The name tells people that you get what you pay for." John began his second phase, dropping dialogue and commissioned scores and increasing the degree of surveillance, transgression, and criminality. (Slade) Al Goldstein calls Leslie's later videos "amoral"; the characters "f--- like wolves." John's controversial Fresh Meat of 1995, like Michael Ninn's Sex, resembles Natural Born Killers. It's difficult to understand, but the sex is volcanic. In volumes five and six of the X-Rated Videotape Guide, Pat Riley awards the best movie of each volume - compiled between 1992 - 1996 - to Director John Leslie. In Vol. 6: "If you take an excellent set of loops with quality females, add brilliant camera work, a good musical score, a luxurious feel, a director who is passionate about his work and seems to make movies for himself rather than for their commercial appeal, you have the winner, John Leslie's Fresh Meat #2." In Vol. 5, Riley gave the best movie award to Dog Walker. Both the original Fresh Meat and Dog Walker have been criticized for preferring "plot over slot", but for those who prefer their porn raw, Leslie also turns out "the pure spewing satisfaction of The Voyeur series." (AFW) "There's a certain danger that I find in dirty movie," says Leslie. "I want to make things dangerous. The Voyeur series has that. In it, you don't have to look at the whole movie. You can look at segments. Porn should allow a viewer to look at ten minutes of something, be satisfied, and then come back and see something else later. "You can do that with any porn movie, but to get the full impact you have to watch the whole thing. Fresh Meat like Dog Walker are psychodramas, they're about the human mind. Fresh Meat deals with fear, prejudice and choices. There's psychological meaning behind the laugh track. "Oliver Stone deals with many of the same subjects I do. Natural Born Killers was a big influence on Fresh Meat. But Fresh Meat was already written and ready to go when I saw Natural Born Killers. Seeing Oliver Stone do it gave me the go ahead to do my film. "Looking at the movies of the Golden Age, they don't seem to hold up well. The pacing and look are entirely different. The same can be said of the movies coming out of mainstream Hollywood during that time. They're not what we're used to. The films of the Golden Era were refined for that time period, but if you played any of those movies now, you might think that they're boring or too long. The people doing those movies were essentially students. They were learning their trade. They were babies." (HEVG) David Aaron Clarke reviews Fresh Meat 3: "...A blistering slice of impeccably shot and edited metaporn. Using surreal grace notes to daze unwitting masturbators, Leslie creates a world full of dark sexual dynamics. Since American standards forbid this tapegetting really nasty, Leslie manages to evoke that treasured aphrodesiacal quality through an air of hardened decadence. Not the stupid, ugly Zane/Max Hardcore sort of nastiness, but a sophisticated filthiness. "Leslie also has good taste in porn pussy and he knows how to shoot it. Latest proof being newcomer Dina, a debuting doxie... A richly fleshed, wholesome-eyed slut who seems excited to be there, taking the prongs of two equally pleased studs, Dina will undoubtedly launch ten thousand anonymous orgasms." (AFW 97) John's lived in Sonoma County in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1981. "I like that this area is liberal. I like the weather, the sun, the beauty. "I use Eva Flowers a lot. You'll notice that I use women that aren't typical porn women. "Savannah was a cartoon. In the beginning, she was nice. But when these girls start making themselves into these blow-up dolls, it doesn't turn me on. I look for personality when I'm casting a movie. I have to like their appearance, but their should be something else about them that excites me. When I met Tori Welles, I was blown away. "This is an incredible woman." There's always something going on behind her eyes. "One scene I shot that turned me on more than any other was in an alley with Jamie Gillis, Ashley Nicole, Rocco Siffredi and Raven in Curse of the Catwoman. The inspiration came from a woman I knew from Europe, who was a model. She liked getting f---ed in alleys. Once she dragged me down into this stairwell that ended at this big locked metal door. When I took out my dick, she said, "It's not big enough." I loved it. It just grew another inch. In Curse of the Catwoman when Ashley Nicole talks to Jamie about his dick not being big enough for her, it's sexy." (The X Factory) Dirty Tricks, subtitled Just A Bunch of Whores, is the first volume of an "amazing series, a mesmerizing, episodic mediation on the basic question that faces a soldier in the trenches of the battle between the sexes: "Pussy costs money! How much do you want to pay?" "John Leslie's irony, as depicted in a savage, entrancing series, is that the price we pay for our pleasure too often exceeds the mean currency of cold hard cash. In the world portrayed here, whores, as well as their tricks, are shown not as honorable or dishonorable. Sexual politics are stripped of morality and false humanity, until nothing is of any value but cash and orgasm. Beautifully shot and expertly edited, Dirty Tricks is full of lush women and ferocious sexuality, almost overwhelming by its sense of conviction. Leslie presents every woman at her sensual best, verging on poetry in his portrayal of Mediterranean siren Selena, a perfectly proportioned brunette who is in the steamiest and cleverest of the sequences. Also outstanding are firm-bodied blond gamines Kim Kataine and Lexi Leigh, who put the lie to the old saw that golden tresses equal sexual somnambulism." (AFW 97) Redhead Ariel Daye and platinum blonde Candy Apples play two housewives fascinated by Steve Hatcher. He asks if either have been f---ed up the ass, setting the scene for the inevitable. "Brassy blonde Kirsty Waay and dark Lana Sands work as waittresses in a cheap cafe who put on a show for a balding senator." (AVN 97) In Dirty Tricks 2, John
Leslie's look at hookers and johns takes on a European and double penetration
angle.
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