Review: New 2K Scan of Bressan's 'Forbidden Letters' Is A Tender, Torrid Love Note from the '70s

A new 2K scan of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.'s film "Forbidden Letters" offers a look into an often forgotten corner of gay cinema: The erotic film that offers a full package of story, sex, and soul.

The film was first released in 1979 and has remained unavaialable since then. Now, thanks to The Bressan Project, the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, Blu-ray distributor Vinegar Syndrome, and streaming platform PinkLabel.tv, the film has been given a 2K scan. The sound is a little tinny, and the acting won't win any awards, but the film's structure mixes voiceover passages from letters between Larry (Robert Adams) and his somewhat older lover, Richard (Richard Locke), the latter of whom – a "hoodlum" who weighs in at "200 pounds of hostility," as the guys' gal pal Iris (Victoria Young) puts it – has been locked up on assault charges for the last year.

Though Richard is big and tough, Larry reflects on how the letters he wants to send – but doesn't dare to – could mark him for abuse on the inside. Larry has been counseled to type his letters and sign a woman's name to them, but he doesn't want to do that; he prefers to pour out his honest feelings in his own voice, and save his letters as a homecoming present for his man, someone he misses in ways (he confesses) his brain cannot comprehend, though his body retains a precise memory of Richard's own.

Bressan has an eye for composition and a flair for storytelling; wandering the city streets as he waits for Richard's return that night, Larry takes in a porno film and, in his imagination, the cruddy movie he's viewing turns into a beautifully composed situation that he's observing in person – a hot three-way encounter unfolding on a beach. After that, all nerves, Larry paces around Castro Street before heading up a hillside where he meets a photographer and decides to burn off some nervous energy with a bout of sex.

But even then, Larry's mind leaps again and again to scenes from his romance with Richard: Sensual picnics, fantasies about joining Richard in jail for simultaneous episodes of onanism in adjoining cells, and a swaggering daydream in which Richard approaches from a desert landscape before pleasuring himself.

It's clear that Larry is smitten and Richard, as well; as seen through Larry's eyes, Richard is playful and tender, not the thug Iris describes. If love and beauty are a matter of what the beholder sees, Bressan uses his camera to bring us in on Larry's personal vision.

Adding to the film's mood and emotional power is an original, and unapologetically romantic, score by Jeffrey Olmstead

"Forbidden Letters" is available for streaming now at PinkLabel.tv