A young, aristocratic woman, played by Terri Hall, falls headfirst into Jamie Gillis' dark and ultimately deadly web when she has a chance encounter with the harsh, unfeeling millionaire one fateful evening. Indeed, from the moment of their initial meeting at an establishment of fine-dining, Hall finds herself entranced and enveloped by Gillis' austere and mysterious demeanor, and the dark, sinuous path upon which the two set forth turns not only sinisterly sexual but dangerously controlling, as well. How it all will turn out for the pair is anybody's guess, but the outcome certainly looks ominous...at best. Such is the case in "The Story of Joanna", an acclaimed Golden Age release from director Gerard Damiano and the Alpha Blue Archives.

Tis a shame that great film like this are treated like dirt by the companies that release them. Gerard Damiano's powerful and majestically shot masterpiece inspired by the great French Novel "The Story Of O" is one of the finest hardcore films EVER made by one of the genre's finest directors. Jamie Gillis is Jason, a wealthy socialite who discovers he is dying of a rare (although unnamed) desease. He thus "adopts" a young woman, Joanna (Teri Hall) to keep him company during his final days. She however is unaware of his ailments. Their relationship quickly turns from one of short term lovers to a violent bondage filled endurance test for poor Joanna who is tormented in just about every way possible. Slowly, as their profane relationship continues to develop, Jason becomes weaker and weaker due to his mysterious ailment while Joanna grows stronger and stronger through her torments... Damiano's great strengths as a director are present in every aspect of this masterpiece.

Terri Hall......as Joanna Jamie Gillis....as Jason Zebedy Colt.....as Griffin Juliet Graham...as Gina "The Story of Joanna" from 1975 has the most highly developed storyline of any porn film I have seen. I don't want to give to much of it away, but it involves Jamie Gillis being a millionaire who picks up this woman and sets about degrading her for a special purpose he has for her later in the movie. The degredation of her though is very central to the plot of the movie and after what I had read of how this was one of the rougher movies of the 70's I was surprised by how tame it was. The acting in this movie is top notch, I have not seen a porn film with acting equal to this one. The music is excellent and the sets are beautiful. The audio and video on the dvd for this movie are not that good though, about equal to some of the classics VCX puts out on dvd.