Jim and Artie Mitchell were the real deal, with the Biblical analogy to Cain and Abel too tempting to pass up. John and Lem Amero proved that sibling rivalry need not be a part of any family tie fueled joint venture and no one really knows much of anything about Elliot and Louie Lewis, nor their "sister" JoAnn for that matter. BROTHERS SHOULD DO IT, gay porn theater marquees screamed at the dawn of the '80s, although I've got a hunch that dick-centric dirty movie director William Higgins had a different kind of collaborative effort in mind. Don't even get me started on his BROTHER LOAD ! Liberally lifting classic Hollywood's favored fantasy concept of an angelic force interfering with human havoc, ANGEL BUNS marks the seemingly solitary stab at carnal cinema by the mysterious MacKenzie brothers whose penetration pic pedigree proves more substantial than anyone was aware of. They are in fact Jim and David Buckley, porn production partners from the previous decade, securing on-screen cameos for and as themselves on IT HAPPENED IN Hollywood, famously funded by landmark Screw magazine which Jim had actually initiated along with its more notorious editor in chief Al Goldstein.
Meanwhile, David busted out of the closet, writing and producing as well as directing his heartfelt New Queer Cinema precursor Saturday NIGHT AT THE BATHS in 1975, cementing his position as an upstanding member of an increasingly out 'n' proud homosexual society. Apart from acting in Chuck Vincent's R-rated American TICKLER, he was to find his niche as a costume designer on TV's CAGNEY & LACEY. Freed from the shackles of Screw, Jim found a new lease on the lustful life as fornication filmmaker alter ego "Jim Clark", taking full advantage of the liberty to indulge his intimate interests in barely legal teenage temptresses with 1978's box office blast DEBBIE DOES DALLAS. Apparently content with their chosen career path, David having all but severed his ties to an industry Jim was still very much part of, both Buckleys were to reconvene for a final fling prior to a permanent parting of the ways.
David took the reigns for his first and only foray into fornication film territory with Jim merely writing and producing and though the deliberately silly results hardly qualify as hardcore history, their infectious sense of conspiratorial mischief, occasionally bordering on outright anarchy, successfully separates ANGEL BUNS from the glut of grinders vying for adult audience attention at the time. Portraying the titular celestial creature, Veronica Hart has been bleached and slathered with blue eye shadow to within an inch of her life, blending old Hollywood love goddess glamor with a drag queen's defiantly deviant interpretation thereof. Idly awaiting her wings for the past millennium, she's sent down to earth by the luck of the draw of the Heavenly bliss celestial lottery to intervene in the unhappy sex life of sad shoe-selling schmuck Sydney Pertzer (Robert "Bolla" Kerman) who's on the brink of ending it all after being blown off for the umpteenth time. Although Angel Buns has complete carte blanche to set up situations so Syd can get laid, there's a bit of a catch inasmuch as she's not allowed to "commingle" with earthlings for that would drastically change the course of mankind. So naturally, at the end of her week-long allotted assignment, Angel has fallen (!) for her newly confident charge and he discovers in the wake of her inevitable departure that no amount of ready, willing and able floozies can hold a candle to his heavenly hottie. Fortunately, Hart and Bolla's tried and tested chemistry - having shared combustible couplings in at least ten other movies - keeps the predictable from turning trite.
It's a good thing that these two's thespian prowess holds down the fort as few other cast members can be bothered or are simply unable to rise to the occasion. Still in the early stages of what was to be an admittedly uneven if rarely less than intriguing industry trajectory, Jerry Butler gives a game try as Angel Dick drafted in for the double purpose of relieving Hart's pent-up tensions and instructing Sydney in the intricacies of rectal intercourse ! As was so often the case, Tiffany Clark comes across as high as a kite when it's time for Bolla to put theory into practice, their rear end replica but a pale imitation of its passionate demonstration. Rather unexpectedly, it's the amateurs that carry the flick sexually in a prolonged sequence where Sydney picks up a pair of hot to trot model friends at the shoe store. Going back to their hotel room, Angel magically appears - only to be seen by Syd - to gently guide him through his paces in a real barn burner. One shot Brenda Brooks is the tall blonde Southern Belle though, somewhat ironically, it's petite Hispanic Laurie Smith type Lisa Beth who had been cast as Miss Virginia in Jim's preceding YOUNG, WILD AND WONDERFUL. George Payne steps in about halfway through to pick up the prick shortage and take Beth off of Bolla's busy hands. The attraction between them is immediate and (almost unprofessionally) intense. Illustrating the old adage that you can't win 'em all, another single shot starlet (scrawny redhead Angelina Flores) proves something of a damp squib, chugging Bob's choad with a dispiriting lack of enthusiasm. Jim's script's cute but, like most of his creative output, doesn't aim very high. Besides Hart's increasingly despairing mantra of "Sydney, don't be a schmuck !", the movie's most spirited dialog exchange might be Bolla's clumsy request of "How about a goodnight f*ck ?" to which the vivacious Veronica evidently retorts "Okay, good night, f*ck !" Sophisticated ? Probably not. Funny ? Hell, yeah !
Meanwhile, David busted out of the closet, writing and producing as well as directing his heartfelt New Queer Cinema precursor Saturday NIGHT AT THE BATHS in 1975, cementing his position as an upstanding member of an increasingly out 'n' proud homosexual society. Apart from acting in Chuck Vincent's R-rated American TICKLER, he was to find his niche as a costume designer on TV's CAGNEY & LACEY. Freed from the shackles of Screw, Jim found a new lease on the lustful life as fornication filmmaker alter ego "Jim Clark", taking full advantage of the liberty to indulge his intimate interests in barely legal teenage temptresses with 1978's box office blast DEBBIE DOES DALLAS. Apparently content with their chosen career path, David having all but severed his ties to an industry Jim was still very much part of, both Buckleys were to reconvene for a final fling prior to a permanent parting of the ways.
David took the reigns for his first and only foray into fornication film territory with Jim merely writing and producing and though the deliberately silly results hardly qualify as hardcore history, their infectious sense of conspiratorial mischief, occasionally bordering on outright anarchy, successfully separates ANGEL BUNS from the glut of grinders vying for adult audience attention at the time. Portraying the titular celestial creature, Veronica Hart has been bleached and slathered with blue eye shadow to within an inch of her life, blending old Hollywood love goddess glamor with a drag queen's defiantly deviant interpretation thereof. Idly awaiting her wings for the past millennium, she's sent down to earth by the luck of the draw of the Heavenly bliss celestial lottery to intervene in the unhappy sex life of sad shoe-selling schmuck Sydney Pertzer (Robert "Bolla" Kerman) who's on the brink of ending it all after being blown off for the umpteenth time. Although Angel Buns has complete carte blanche to set up situations so Syd can get laid, there's a bit of a catch inasmuch as she's not allowed to "commingle" with earthlings for that would drastically change the course of mankind. So naturally, at the end of her week-long allotted assignment, Angel has fallen (!) for her newly confident charge and he discovers in the wake of her inevitable departure that no amount of ready, willing and able floozies can hold a candle to his heavenly hottie. Fortunately, Hart and Bolla's tried and tested chemistry - having shared combustible couplings in at least ten other movies - keeps the predictable from turning trite.
It's a good thing that these two's thespian prowess holds down the fort as few other cast members can be bothered or are simply unable to rise to the occasion. Still in the early stages of what was to be an admittedly uneven if rarely less than intriguing industry trajectory, Jerry Butler gives a game try as Angel Dick drafted in for the double purpose of relieving Hart's pent-up tensions and instructing Sydney in the intricacies of rectal intercourse ! As was so often the case, Tiffany Clark comes across as high as a kite when it's time for Bolla to put theory into practice, their rear end replica but a pale imitation of its passionate demonstration. Rather unexpectedly, it's the amateurs that carry the flick sexually in a prolonged sequence where Sydney picks up a pair of hot to trot model friends at the shoe store. Going back to their hotel room, Angel magically appears - only to be seen by Syd - to gently guide him through his paces in a real barn burner. One shot Brenda Brooks is the tall blonde Southern Belle though, somewhat ironically, it's petite Hispanic Laurie Smith type Lisa Beth who had been cast as Miss Virginia in Jim's preceding YOUNG, WILD AND WONDERFUL. George Payne steps in about halfway through to pick up the prick shortage and take Beth off of Bolla's busy hands. The attraction between them is immediate and (almost unprofessionally) intense. Illustrating the old adage that you can't win 'em all, another single shot starlet (scrawny redhead Angelina Flores) proves something of a damp squib, chugging Bob's choad with a dispiriting lack of enthusiasm. Jim's script's cute but, like most of his creative output, doesn't aim very high. Besides Hart's increasingly despairing mantra of "Sydney, don't be a schmuck !", the movie's most spirited dialog exchange might be Bolla's clumsy request of "How about a goodnight f*ck ?" to which the vivacious Veronica evidently retorts "Okay, good night, f*ck !" Sophisticated ? Probably not. Funny ? Hell, yeah !