{"id":569,"date":"2013-03-29T00:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T04:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/blog\/?page_id=569"},"modified":"2020-12-07T05:55:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T10:55:57","slug":"the-kinky-world-of-nick-philips","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569","title":{"rendered":"These Boots Are Made for Lickin’: The Kinky World of Nick Philips"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/a>If adult movies are indeed a sort of magical, perverse window into the times in which they were made, the newly rediscovered softcore flicks of Nick Philips offer a peephole (or is that gloryhole?) into the ways in which the \u201cfree love\u201d revolution of the late 1960s was viewed by the average American male. Philips\u2019 movies depict hippie chicks experimenting with lesbian sex, fetishism, light bondage and drugs, and suffering harshly as a result. Whether you find it artistic or incoherent, kinky or just downright sleazy, his porn is so distinctive that it immediately commands your attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

With sixteen of Nick\u2019s movies from the period 1967-75 having debuted on DVD in the last two years on two different labels (Retro Seduction\/EI and Guilty Pleasures\/Media Blasters), and more set for eminent release, it\u2019s time to explore exactly what makes these pictures so compulsively watchable to both fans of vintage porn and camp-cult melodrama, and also to find out who made these strange relics from another, far kinkier era.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>The first thing that strikes viewers used to the better-known softcore \u201cauteurs\u201d of the period (Meyer, Metzger, Sarno) is the anonymity of Philips\u2019 movies. Each one begins with a single title credit (in quotes for some reason) and the film begins, with not a cast or crew name in sight. The movies similarly grind to a sudden halt and a solitary \u201cThe End\u201d card appears on screen, sometimes before the last scene could be fully understood. Adult movie historians would ague that the lack of credits was a savvy move on Philips\u2019 part, intended to dodge the legal troubles that plagued pornographers even after the landmark Deep Throat<\/em> court battles. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>But Philips himself (real name: Nick Millard, pictured at right with his wife Irmgard, is now age 64 and still making movies) attributes most of the hallmarks of his style to a lack of finances: \u201cThat was a way to save a buck. Titles cost money\u2026 Basically it was an economic thing, you know what I mean \u2013 save the money and use it for better things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s frugal methods of filmmaking and his kinship to the adult industry were a legacy from his father, S.S. Millard, a legendary producer and distributor of roadshow adult pix. \u201cMy father said he was the second man in the adult film business after a NY distibutor named Sam Cummings. His biggest hit was a piece of junk with the great title Is Your Daughter Safe? <\/em>(1927) that was an Ed Wood-like bunch of scraps. He produced the films, and would then literally put the can of film in the trunk and go on the road, show the picture in Little Rock, Arkansas one week, Fort Wayne, Indiana the next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Although Nick, too, once worked as a distributor and even managed a theater for a time in Sacramento, California, his primary work for the past four decades has been as a low-budget filmmaker. He inherited his father\u2019s traveling ways, though, and wound up filming softcore features not only in his hometown of San Francisco (right), but also in Paris, Munich, Spain and Denmark. Thus much of his softcore has a travelogue aspect to it, as his tortured lesbian characters walk the streets of the Haight-Ashbury (Sappho 68<\/em>, seen at right), Munich (Birgitta<\/em>), or Madrid (Passport to Pleasure<\/em>) \u2013 in the latter film, we see an entire bullfight in between the couplings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>Nick professes a love for the French New Wave, Orson Welles, and other arthouse masters. This may seem incongruous when discussing a man who made features with titles like Fire In Her Bed<\/em> and Fraulein Leather<\/em>, but the foremost feature of his pornos, made from 1964 to \u201974, is an element he cribbed from European cinema and literature. The movies rarely have direct sound or dialogue, and are instead narrated in the first person by a perpetually horny, self-loathing female. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>Philips used different actresses to perform this function over the years, and so these unsung heroines \u2013 performers Kimberly Cohen, Carol Daniels, Priscilla Alden and others \u2013 would be responsible for conveying the pictures\u2019 faint storylines and also expressing the character\u2019s feelings, which run hot (feverish les-lust) and cold (\u201cwe were quite happy in our dark, ugly, degenerate world\u201d declares the heroine of Pleasures of a Woman<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>At times, Nick journeyed into Russ Meyer territory, and would have his smoky-sounding narrators recite a free-version inventory of hyperbolic phrases that made the movie sound more like a trailer, as when the narrator of Passport<\/em> talks about \u201cimages of the bizarre, extraordinary cinema, white-hot bitch heat, moist love, soft lips, hungry vaginas, screaming clitorises, hard phalluses, slick tongues\u2026insatiable audiences!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>At other moments, one begins to question whether the \u201cmoral and redeeming social value\u201d that Philips mentions he included in his pictures to get them past the censors motivated the constant put-downs of sexual freedom that punctuate the narration. Nick is a practicing Catholic who denies that his faith has had any effect on his moviemaking, but our sexy femmes\u2019 description of themselves and their partners as \u201cperverts,\u201d \u201cdegenerates\u201d and \u201cbitches\u201d while they cavort onscreen makes one wonder exactly what is up. The horny heroine of Pleasures of a Woman<\/em> broods at one point, \u201cNow I\u2019d become a lesbian pillhead, which is slightly better than being a two-headed freak.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>The most striking aspect of Philips\u2019 porn, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with his frugal approach to filmmaking or the \u201csocially redeeming\u201d suffering of his heroines. His work is rife with kinky sequences in which his lovely hippie chicks, and legendary softcore icons like big-chested Uschi Digart engage in fetishism, bondage and leather worship. His women are quite often drawn to each other\u2019s boots and shoes, and proceed to lick the footware or use it to get themselves off. In Fraulein Leather<\/em>, our horny heroine enthusiastically purrs, \u201cone shoe, one boot, an exciting choice of pleasures, like one scoop of vanilla and one of chocolate\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>When questioned about the fact that shoe and high-heel worship occur in quite a few of his adult movies, Nick notes that \u201cfetishism kinda got you around the censors\u201d who presumably couldn\u2019t figure out what to cut when a woman went to town with her friend\u2019s stiletto. He doesn\u2019t shrink away from this unique element in his pictures, proudly proclaiming, \u201cyou\u2019ve gotta know a little about sex if you\u2019re going to make sex films\u2026.\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>When asked about his own tastes in ladies footwear — and yes, some of his hippie chicks remained barefoot throughout their sequences \u2013 Philips expresses amusement that \u201cwomen still feign innocence, they\u2019ll say \u2018we didn\u2019t know these four-inch heels are sexy!\u2019\u201d As for today\u2019s platform heels, \u201cit\u2019s like looking at a person with a clubfoot.\u201d His taste runs more to old-fashioned \u201csexy high-heeled shoes, like the ones from that guy Manolo Blahnik.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a>\u201cI look at the old stuff and still get turned on,\u201d Nick cheerfully reflects on his adult work. He may have chosen to stop making porn in 1974, but viewers will continue to be intrigued, amused and turned on, as more of his long-unseen softcore titles appear on DVD: EI\u2019s Retro Seduction label will roll out three more in the coming months. Nick is flattered by the remakes of his pics that are being produced by the folks at Seduction Cinema; Chantal<\/em> will soon hit video stores, starring fan favorite Misty Mundae, whom Philips describes as \u201ca sexy little tomato.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>He spends little time doting on the past, though, as he has kept on making ambitious low-budget features in every genre from horror (his much-beloved over-the-top slasher pics Criminally Insane<\/em> and Crazy Fat Ethel 2<\/em>) to biopics (Howard Hughes<\/i>) to remakes of classic tales (Faust<\/em>). His current roster of projects includes one title that could prove to be his long-awaited return to fetish filmmaking, <\/i>Women Extreme: The Helmut Newton Story<\/em>. We can only imagine what Nick, the man who gave us the ultimate <\/i>junkie-hooker picture, Roxana<\/em>, and the finest leather-lesbian feature ever, Fraulein Leather<\/em>, could do with a biography of the lord high priest of kink photography. — Ed Grant<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

(First published in\u00a0Celebrity Skin<\/em> and used with the written permission of the author and publication of first instance.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If adult movies are indeed a sort of magical, perverse window into the times in which they were made, the newly rediscovered softcore flicks of Nick Philips offer a peephole (or is that gloryhole?) into the ways in which the \u201cfree love\u201d revolution of the late 1960s was viewed by the average American male. Philips\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":217,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-sidebar-none.php","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-569","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"kubio_ai_page_context":{"short_desc":"","purpose":"general"},"yoast_head":"\nThese Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"These Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If adult movies are indeed a sort of magical, perverse window into the times in which they were made, the newly rediscovered softcore flicks of Nick Philips offer a peephole (or is that gloryhole?) into the ways in which the \u201cfree love\u201d revolution of the late 1960s was viewed by the average American male. Philips\u2019 […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Media Funhouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ed.grant.378\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-07T10:55:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/psych-face-300x225.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mediafunhouse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569\",\"name\":\"These Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/psych-face-300x225.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-29T04:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-07T10:55:57+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/psych-face.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/psych-face.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=569#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Writings\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?page_id=217\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"These Boots Are Made for Lickin’: The Kinky World of Nick Philips\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Media Funhouse\",\"description\":\""From high art to low trash and back again!"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Media Funhouse\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/09\\\/Funhouse-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/09\\\/Funhouse-logo.jpg\",\"width\":453,\"height\":267,\"caption\":\"Media Funhouse\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mediafunhouse.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/ed.grant.378\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/mediafunhouse\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"These Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"These Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse","og_description":"If adult movies are indeed a sort of magical, perverse window into the times in which they were made, the newly rediscovered softcore flicks of Nick Philips offer a peephole (or is that gloryhole?) into the ways in which the \u201cfree love\u201d revolution of the late 1960s was viewed by the average American male. Philips\u2019 […]","og_url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569","og_site_name":"Media Funhouse","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ed.grant.378","article_modified_time":"2020-12-07T10:55:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/psych-face-300x225.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@mediafunhouse","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569","url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569","name":"These Boots Are Made for Lickin': The Kinky World of Nick Philips - Media Funhouse","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/psych-face-300x225.png","datePublished":"2013-03-29T04:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-07T10:55:57+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/psych-face.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/psych-face.png","width":640,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=569#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Writings","item":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=217"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"These Boots Are Made for Lickin’: The Kinky World of Nick Philips"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/","name":"Media Funhouse","description":""From high art to low trash and back again!"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#organization","name":"Media Funhouse","url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Funhouse-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Funhouse-logo.jpg","width":453,"height":267,"caption":"Media Funhouse"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ed.grant.378","https:\/\/x.com\/mediafunhouse"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1929,"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/569\/revisions\/1929"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}