As a period piece, "The Pizza Boy, He Delivers" cannot be topped. William Higgins combined all the elements of California dreamin' in this 1985 classic -- from cum-filled athletic young blond jock fuck buddies to somewhat innocent air-head boys exploring their sexual tendencies, this flick has it all. Along the way you'll find three of the greatest scenes ever committed to male porn, one of which helped turn the cover boy, Steve Henson, into one of a handful of young stars who made few flicks but left indelible impressions.
The action takes place in and around a pizza parlor in Los Angeles, where the usual bunch of young guys work and hang out. David Ashfield and Grant Fagan are co-workers who take a pizza and some beer to a park after work and explore their conflicted sexuality. Actually, it's Ashfield -- using his best sweet-boy Southern accent and seductive smile, who eggs the baby-faced uh-duh Fagan into fucking around on a park bench. In one of the sweetest, yet most suggestive, best written and acted seduction scenes involving late-teen types, Ashfield whips out his huge dong after teasing Fagan, who follows by whipping out his own howitzer after being hotly encouraged. Before long, Ashfield is chomping on his buddy's pole, bringing him to a quick gusher that Ashfield laps up delicately. He then sweet-talks Fagan into returning the favor, spilling out a load into his buddy's open mouth, which Fagan swallows, ending the scene in a kiss. They'll be back.
Next, Tony Stefano, a typically gorgeous Italian-American hunk, comes into the pizza parlor after a vacation in the Caribbean and tells a pizza boy how he had such good sex on the islands. We see Stefano being sucked in a hut-like room by Joey Hart in a scene in which Stefano plays strictly trade, fucking Hart silly. It's worth watching him get serviced by a guy who is so much into cock, and Stefano shows his appreciation by fucking him all over the room, cumming twice.
After a couple of weeks, Ashfield and Fagan decide to go to their rendezvous place again where Fagan shows a new trick -- he sucks his own cock for Ashfield's edification. But Ashfield's got more in mind -- once again, he uses his seductive act to show Fagan how it feels to have his asshole played with, fingering it gently before easing a cock up the younger guy's chute, gently, steadily, lovingly, as Fagan moans in pleasure at the new sensation eating away at his insides. Camerawork here is key -- under the table and overhead shots accentuate the impression of sexual awakening, and when the two blow simultaneous, huge loads, you can feel the shivers. The ending of this scene is so sweet you're likely to have to run out to the dentist, but it's almost plausible that you might catch yourself sighing with a smile.
Two quintessential California beach boys, Tim Barnes and Art Williams, come off the tennis courts and into bed to relieve their horniness. Barnes, whose tight body jumps out of his white outfit, makes a meal of Williams' huge boner right from the start, but soon the two are engaged in deep 69-play, before Barnes offers up his spectacular ass for a doggy-fuck which brings tons of cum out of Williams' cock -- which is ready for more. So Williams turns his fuck buddy on his back and plows him again, creaming again -- which brings Barnes off as well. Not done yet, Williams rolls Barnes over for a sidesaddle-fuck, this time spilling another load into Barnes' asscrack.
Back at the pizza parlor, three of the workers are talking over how one of them was just propositioned by a customer who wanted to give him a $50 tip just to suck the pizza boy's cock. Feigning non-interest, they hoot and holler until the phone rings -- it's the customer ordering another pizza. Dark-haired Troy Ramsey grabs a pizza box (hilarious how he carries it) and makes for the customer's house. Lo and behold, it's Steve Henson, a tight swimmer's-built pack of walking sex appeal whose elongated ripped chest, long legs, thick thighs and very pretty ass burst out from his low-riding, tight jeans. Henson seduces Ramsey into staying to help him eat the pizza ("my old lady left" -- yeah, right?), and before you know it, Henson accidentally spills Chianti all over poor Ramsey's crotch. Oh, poor dirty wet pizza boy, we'll just have to clean you off! The sex scene which follows, complete with excellent and believable dialogue, in a funky bathroom which looks like Rube Goldberg designed it, is a remarkable display of semi-innocence, heat and dirty-talk all spectacularly edited and lit. While Ramsey shows more familiarity with the task at hand than one would suppose for a supposedly naïve pizza boy, this is all Henson's show. The close-ups of him sucking Ramsey, his verbal encouragement, to get Ramsey to rim him and then to fuck him, which he does in several positions until he cums, is superb. He shows his own prowess as a top when he fucks Ramsey, ending a classic scene with a sweet, if not classic, kiss.
The last segment is really two scenes in one -- Brent Woods and Art Stevens are sneakily filming two of their buddies -- Chad Johnson and Michael Gere -- across an alley as they work out. The whole set-up is a little lame, but when Woods calls them and asks to come over and is rejected, Woods orders a whole load of pizzas to be delivered to Johnson and Gere. The pizza boy Sean Gage shows up and before you know it, there's a threesome underway. This scene is notable for giving us a young Chad Johnson, whose hairy body and open face make him a dead-ringer for "Baywatch's" David Hasselhoff. He and Gere -- who sports a flattering spikey hairdo well ahead of its time -- put the pizza boy through all his paces, which prompts the guys across the alley to explore this method of sex on their own. Johnson, Gere and Gage all bottom in their threesome, while Woods eats Stevens' cock across the way. All in all, it's a fairly good scene, but nothing like the classics which preceded it.
The DVD version has a decent photo gallery of movie stills and chapter selection, and the clarity is spectacular, especially in a flick where close-ups are so critical. "The Pizza Boy, He Delivers" stands among the greatest classics of an era, if only because of the way it captures a unique culture in each of its scenes, and also introduces us to a legend in Henson who grabs your crotch, if not your heart, as soon as he comes on screen.
A DVD Review by Bo Champion
Where was I when this movie came out? Oh, yeah, I was in Catholic grade school, wondering why I felt funny whenever I saw the other boys changing for gym class. I vaguely recall the urban legend from those days that told of what pizza boys were up to when they made their rounds. I had no inkling there was actually a movie that documented the nocturnal habits of delivery boys until much later in life. It wasn't until recently that I viewed this William Higgins precondom classic that forever scandalized the profession of pizza delivery.
The times have definitely changed since this movie originally filled venues of gay adult entertainment. The main difference between The Pizza Boy and the gay adult movies of today is that you can actually feel good about calling this Higgins production by the word "movie" or "film." Many of the current gay flicks are cranked out looking like bad home videos and lack the polishing that this movie possesses. The Pizza Boy and other such movies from the era provide somewhat engaging dialogue, beautiful color and a sense of realistic male sexuality. This movie also expertly captures the lost art of sexual tension. What ever happened to the art of seduction that these movies from the era embraced?
This movie drips with both tension and seduction as it rolls from scene to scene. The characters are never portrayed as sex-crazed queers, but rather as the regular "horney guys next door" who are up for experimenting with their sexuality. It is this sexual innocence that makes scene after scene so engaging (it definitely isn't the big hair and the wardrobe by Members Only). What could be hotter than the opening scene when David Ashfield convinces Grant Fagan that there is nothing better than getting your dick sucked by a buddy after a long day tossing dough and talking about cars? The ambiguous sexuality carries on to the next scene as the brooding Tony Stefano tells his buddy how he met "someone" nice on his trip to the Virgin Islands. He seems to skip the fact that this "someone" was a man. We are given the full picture as Stefano is shown gushing thick creamy stands of cum all over his "friend's" backside after bareback fucking him in various positions.
The fact that everyone is fucking in the raw is never a matter of contention while viewing the DVD. Taken in context, the activity is very timely and reflects a more casual and "preepidemic" world. Nestled within these naïve sexual expressions of "precondom" love are some very hot moments. One such moment is when Art Williams shellacs Tim Barnes from head to toe with an ample amount of semen after a heated game of tennis. Williams slow-motion shoots again and again, assaulting every pore of the blond Barnes with salty dick juice.
Another steamy moment is provided when Troy Ramsey delivers a pizza to the lovely Steven Hansen and winds up loosing his pants after having red wine spilt on them (I'll have to use that trick sometime). Hansen guides Ramsey into the bathroom to clean up. They flip-flop-fuck and shoot their protein shakes for Higgins' camera.
The last scene provides us with the campiest moments in the movie. A couple of video dorks busily tape record Michael Gere and Chad Johnson as they work out their muscles. Things turn slightly hostile as the geeks decide to prank the muscle jerks by sending them several pizzas. Noticing that there has been some mistake, the delivery boy excuses the charges and joins the two for a workout. Gere and Johnson use the delivery boy as the geeks continue taping. The nerds get horney and decide to have a show of their own. It isn't long before both parties are probing and sucking their way to several milky explosions.
The Pizza Boy provides us with more than just hot gay sex. It aslo acts as a bit of gay history as well. It is a documentary of the styles and social standards of when this film was created. Yeah, some of the guys are dorky, and the clothes and hair are seriously dated, but you can't deny that this film offers much more than what many current videos can only claim to. Included on this DVD is a picture gallery and bonus scene of some dye-job twink riding some German guy's bratwurst. The scene isn't half bad but isn't nearly as intriguing as the feature that proceeds it.
- Andrew Gyette
