Pacific Coast Highway

Anyone familiar with gay porn during the late 70s and early 80s will immediately recognize the phrase quoted in my one line summary as it adorned the trailers for every single Higgins film 'coming soon to a theater near you'.

"In the William Higgins Tradition..."

While it doesn't really mean anything, it does sound marvelously grand and in the face value market of all male erotica (adult critic Jim Holliday once pointed out that - contrary to the straight side of the industry - gay porn companies always have the Old Hollywood "Studios" tagged to the company name) that's the whole point.

Not that Higgins was some two bit hack, mind you. He was an excellent cinematographer (never better than here, by the way) with a penchant for young looking guys. He certainly knew something about chemistry as he almost unfailingly paired the right men, major exception being his FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S BOYS in almost its entirety. Sure, he couldn't tell a story if his life depended on it (unlike, say, Jerry Douglas) but the attempt to do so was rarely near the top of his list anyway.

What you DO get in this, as far as I'm concerned his very best film (and, yes, I've seen BIG GUNS, which I'd rate 3rd following this one and SAILOR IN THE WILD) is scene after scene of hot hunky men making passionate love like they mean it in the great outdoors with breathtaking photography and a deliciously dated disco soundtrack which is bound to make anyone nostalgic for the genre's Golden Age this is most certainly part of. The late, massively underrated Ben Barker (in a non-sex role, the film's only considerable waste of resources) ties things together as the little brother reading letters from his older siblings detailing their sexual escapades along the California coast. While every scene's a scorcher, special mention must be made of the Kip Noll three-way in a jeep, a "Bring on the Kleenex" moment if ever there was one !

Higgins kissed the genre temporarily goodbye in the late 80s (when production quality was at an all time low) to open a gay bar in Prague. He returned to the fold as "Wim Hof" (same initials, at least) in the 90s with a slew of Czech and Hungarian starring all male epics like IMPROMPTUS, proving he had not lost his Midas touch.