DIXIE RAY: HOLLYWOOD STAR (1983) **

What the heck is Cameron Mitchell doing in a porno?  Apparently, he didn’t know he was appearing in a XXX flick until he already shot his scenes.  You can’t really blame him for thinking it was a legitimate picture though because director Anthony (Sweat) Spinelli does a great job mimicking the look and feel of old film noir detective movies.  That’s about the best compliment I can give him.   

Detective Nick Popodopolis (John Leslie) is in a pickle when he shoots a client (Juliet Anderson) in self-defense.  The lieutenant (Mitchell) wants to know what happened, and Nick relates a series of flashbacks leading up to her death.  Turns out he was hired by a fading movie star named Dixie Ray (Lisa De Leeuw) to find her missing husband.  Naturally, the dame isn’t on the level, so Nick has to keep on his toes while putting a series of ladies on their backs.

Even though this is a porno, the production values are quite good.  Leslie gives an intense performance and holds his own with Mitchell.  As one of the biggest Cameron Mitchell fans on the planet, I have to say it was an honest thrill to see him in something like this (even if he was in a strictly non-sex performance).  Dixie Ray:  Hollywood Star may be a hardcore film, but it’s far from the skeeviest movie Mitchell’s appeared in.  

While the camerawork and cinematography during the dialogue scenes is quite professional, some of the sex scenes suffer from poor camera placement.  Because of that, it’s hard to see the “good stuff”.  The best scenes are mostly weighted toward the beginning too, which doesn’t help.  Leslie’s scene with Juliet Anderson is solid though, as is his tryst with De Leeuw.  The sex also gets more sporadic as it goes along, and once the plot begins to take over, things start to get a bit dull.  It clocks in at over a hundred minutes too.  That might not sound as serious as murder, but it’s still a crime to make a porno that runs over a hundred minutes.

Leslie is strong enough to suggest he could’ve made the transition from porn to “legitimate” movies.  He does a fine job with the hardboiled narration too.  He’s also given the majority of the sex scenes, which is great for him, but it doesn’t offer the audience much in the way of variety.

Leslie also gets the best line of the movie; a clever riff on The Maltese Falcon:  “It’s the stuff wet dreams are made of!”

AKA:  It’s Called Murder, Baby.