Blonde Fire Review

Distributor: I-Candy Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film Run Time: 85 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1979 Director: Bob Chinn Written by: Jeffrey Fairbanks (as Jeffrey Neal) Cast: John Holmes (as John C. Holmes), Seka, Jesie St. James, Kitty Shayne, Fatima Hamoud, Phaery I. Burd (as Fay Burd), Jon Martin (as John Martin), Dorothy LeMay, James Price, Crimson Rose, John Seeman (as John Seemen), Carl Adams, Charles Scott, Peter Kenyatta Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Blonde Fire is the eleventh film in the Johnny Wadd film series following The China Cat. In this entry, Johnny Wadd (John Holmes) goes to Capetown in the Republic of South Africa to purchase the Blonde Fire, a $4 billion dollar diamond. Malcolm Blackmore (James Price) wants the Blonde Fire for himself and tries to liberate it from Johnny Wadd.

Blonde Fire is an okay entry in the Johnny Wadd series. What is here is enjoyable. There is a nice mixture of sex and non-sex scenes and the cast does a good job with both. What isn't here, well hurts the film as a whole. The plot in the film is thin, even for a Johnny Wadd film. Why Johnny Wadd is getting the diamond is never explained. The cast looks good and does a good job with the existing script. The sex scenes are nicely integrated into the film and the cast stays in character throughout them. The ending of the film, the final scene with Seka, seems tacked on as well. I am not sure if it was originally intended for a different point in the film, but where it sits it doesn't fit in that well.

Sadly, this marks the end of the Johnny Wadd series as far as Bob Chinn's involvement was concerned. The next two planned Johnny Wadd films Waikiki Wadd, some footage had already been shot for the film during the filming of Prisoner of Paradise, and Magnum Love were never made due to John Holmes' escalating drug use. In 1986 Penguin Films released another entry in the Johnny Wadd series, The Return of Johnny Wadd, reportedly with Penguin Films and John Holmes obtaining Bob Chinn's permission to do so. Bob Chinn eventually ended up turning the script for Magnum Love into a film in 1999, altering the script to make it the start off for a private dick series around a new character named Peter Magnum.

Blonde Fire is presented in the full screen aspect ratio. I-Candy's transfer of the film is problematic. The film is obviously transferred from a video master, due to the video glitches that are seen. The film also has dirt and artifacts. There is a lack of detail, especially in darker scenes. The colors aren't great either. In some places the color is muted and in other places the color is over saturated. Blonde Fire is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track, which works for the material being presented. The only extra that I-Candy has put on this release is a photo gallery with stills from the film.

Blonde Fire is the final film in the Johnny Wadd film series that Bob Chinn had any involvement with. Blonde Fire isn't the greatest film in the series and I wish that the series had a stronger film to end with. That aside, the film is enjoyable and has a decent plot and some enjoyable sex scenes. I-Candy's transfer for the film is disappointing.

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