FIRESTORM (1984) 104 Minutes.
p/d – Cecil Howard. Cast: Eric Edwards, Joanna Storm, Victoria (Tina Marie) Jackson,
Kay Parker, John Leslie, Rikki Harte, Sharon Kane, Sharon Mitchell, Sean Elliot,
Michael Bruce, George Payne, Veronica Hart, Kurt Mann, Adam DeHaven, Allison
Royce, Ward Summers, Bram Arnold and Lilah Glass.
The finest epic to date from superior filmmaker Cecil Howard provides more substance
than most folks are used to seeing in adult entertainment. In order to appreciate FIRESTORM,
you must be prepared to deal with the film on a much different level than with routine,
formula sex films. The story is long and involved, with much flashback usage, but the acting,
sets and editing provide a rare payoff to adult buffs.
The essential difference between FIRESTORM and other sweeping films of the ’80s lies
in that one elusive word — eroticism. This offers the layered plot, superb production, lighting
that looks like hours were spent carefully setting up and other accountrements (not the least
of which is acting) found in films like ROOMMATES, RAW TALENT, STIFF COMPETITION
and CORPORATE ASSETS. However, FIRESTORM provides the kind of sex those fine
films are missing. At a major Pussycat showing for the industry (long after the press had
screened it and I had raved about it) several key adult executives expressed doubts about
my rave. I swear they simply did not want to concentrate to the extent FIRESTORM demands
to achieve the maximum appreciation level.
The story has writer Kenny Gushing (Eric Edwards in one of his two career performances)
hired to ghost memoirs for Magda Balcourt (Kay Parker). He explains ‘the one great firestorm’
of his life to interviewer Veronica Hart and time gap flashbacks interweave his work for Kay
and his involvement with girlfriend Liza, played by Victoria (Tina Marie) Jackson, and Kay’s
blind daughter Claire, Joanna Storm in her most touching career performance. Complicating
matters is John Leslie as Kay’s husband, a wheeler-dealer heavy out of NEON NIGHTS
cryptic. Rikki Harte will stop a few hearts as John’s cupcake companion who is a secret
sneak. Shades of the David Markson novel “Going Down” appear with the Eric-Joanna-Tina
menage a trois. The Tina, Sharon Kane, George Payne, Michael Bruce four way red tinted
sex scene won the award as the year’s best. FIRESTORM is as much an experience as it
is a film. I’ve seen it ten times now, and it’s still a bargain. D’Arcy Brooke sings “Coming
Back To Me,” the title theme that says it all. It’s the second best adult song ever sung.
FIRESTORM and EVERY WOMAN are the last great sex films to date.