Flesh

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A man desperate for money and no income, turns prostitute and interplays with a variety of clients and hustlers.



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From the Underground USA issue of
Films and Filming magazine (August 1969)

Colour/89 mins.
Directed by Paul Morrissey

Joe Dallesandro/Geraldine Smith (Geri - Joe's Wife)/Maurice Braddell (the Artist)/
Louis Waldon (David)Geri Miller (Terry)/Candy Darling/Jackie Curtis/
Patti D'Arbanville (Wife's Girlfriend)/Barry Brown (Hustler)/
Bob Dallesandro (Hustler)/John Christian (Young John)

Flesh was shot by Paul Morrissey while Andy was recuperating from his gunshot wounds. Warhol never actually attended any of the filming, although he was credited as the producer of the film in the New York Times review of it. During negotiations with the Warhol Foundation in about 1995 Morrissey waived the rights to a number of films (including San Diego Surf and Lonesome Cowboys) in exchange for ownership of other films such as Trash and Flesh. (JHA)

According to Joe Dallesandro's biographer, Michael Ferguson, the idea for Flesh was conceived on the set of Midnight Cowboy. Some of the Factory regulars had been invited to appear in a party scene in Midnight Cowboy and spent much of their time just waiting around on the set. Both Paul and Joe were there and came up with an idea for a film that would be about a boxer, incorporating some of the stories that Joe told Paul about his life or the people he had met on the street. (JOE72)

Paul kept in touch with Andy during the filming of Midnight Cowboy. Warhol thought it might be a good idea to make their own film about a hustler (even though they had already made one in 1965 - My Hustler), and release it before Midnight Cowboy was released. (Ibid) So, instead of making a film about a boxer, they made another film about a hustler, with Paul Morrissey saying that his inspiration for the film came from the 1960 Mauro Bolognini film, La Giornata Balorda (script by Pier Paolo Pasolini). (JOE 81)

Flesh was shot mostly on weekends during August/September 1968 at a cost of approximately $1,500.00. (JOE72). The scene between Dallesandro and Louis Waldon was filmed in the Greenwich Village apartment of art critic David Bourdon. (DB311) Joe was nineteen at the time. The film followed Joe's character as he turned tricks in order to pay for his wife's girlfriend's abortion. (One of his fellow street hustlers was played by Joe's real life brother Bob Dallesandro.)

The artist who picked Joe up in the film and took him back to his apartment to pose for him was Maurice Braddell, an old British actor who appeared in the science fiction film of H.G. Well's Things To Come (1936). Morrissey later used him in his own first feature length film Sleep Walk (1964). At the time that Braddell appeared in Flesh, he was working restoring paintings for museums. (JOE74-5).

The film also marked the debut of transvestite superstars Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis who Andy had met on the streets of Greenwich Village in August of 1967. Geri Miller, who gave Joe a blow job while Candy and Jackie sat reading movie magazines inFlesh, was a stripper in real life who had worked at Al Goldstein's M & M Club and the Metropole, as well as once popping out of a birthday cake for Mick Jagger. (JOE76) (See Geri Miller Interview)

According to Callie Angell, "Flesh opened in September 1968 and was a considerable success, running continuously at the Garrick Theater for the next seven months, after which it moved uptown to the 55th Street Playhouse." (FAW35) As per the ad below from the Village Voice, it opened at the 55th Street Playhouse on Monday, 4 August 1969.

Village Voice ad, 31 July 1969

Full Movie on Alluc1
and Alluc2
And