The Gym Lesson

‘The Gym Lesson’ is available directly from Janus (it is not listed under the drop-down menu for ‘movies’ on the main page but you can find the movies through a Google search) at http://www.janusworldwide.com/store/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=856.  It is also available for viewing only on the “Memories of a Strict Uncle’ blog at http://strictuncle.blogspot.com/2010/11/gym-lesson.html?zx=156045325d30485.

‘The Gym Lesson’ was a 7 minute long movie released by Janus in 1977.  It was available for purchase (on 8 mm movie film since video tape hadn’t reached the home market at that time) or it could be viewed in private viewing booths in the back of the Janus store in London.  The film did not include sound so the acting features the exaggerated facial expressions commonly seen in many silent movies.

Janus was the well-known English spanking magazine and, after their management turmoil in the mid-seventies, they decided to start producing and marketing spanking movies.  Nick Underdown, a writer for Janus during the seventies and, more recently, of the ‘Memories of a Strict Uncle’ blog tells the story:

Back in the mid 1970s Janus had the bright idea of producing a series of 8mm spanking films for the home market. Unfortunately, they lacked a cinematographer, so went and paid a visit to the only one in town who just might agree to produce and direct the films for them, a certain George Harrison Marks.

 

Harrison Marks had no interest whatsoever in spanking - his bag was girl on girl as you will see when you watch the film, but he did understand film making and produced a workmanlike series of films for Janus which the magazine proceeded to sell at about £50 a throw.

£50 in 1977 corresponds to about £295, or $375, today.

George Harrison Marks, the subject of my last post, was already working as a free-lance photographer for Janus so he was well known to the owners and he would soon become editor of the magazine as well as director of a series of films for Janus, many of which had the word ‘lesson’ in the title.  Harrison Marks worked with Luke Lukas on the Janus movies and he was never shy about putting his name in the credits.

 

‘The Gym Lesson’ opens with 4 girls ‘having fun’ in a gymnasium before a gym class.  Their teacher comes in and she is not happy with their attitude so she starts leading them through a series of calisthenics but two of the girls misbehave.  She responds by giving all four girls a spanking that is little more than a playful slap on their bare backsides but she singles out the two ringleaders for further attention.  The first of the two receives what is meant to appear as a severe caning but it isn’t believable.  The second receives what is meant to appear to be an equally severe OTK spanking but it is equally unbelievable.  The movie ends with the two girls commiserating in way that suggests it might lead into the type of girl-on-girl eroticism that was Harrison Marks more common fare.

It is interesting to compare ‘The Gym Lesson’ to the early Nu-West movies that Ed Lee was making in the US at about the same time.   A spanking aficionado would probably prefer the content of the Nu-West movies but ‘The Gym Lesson’ is technically superior.  Harrison Marks' and Lukas were experienced film makers and their experience shows.  However, they weren’t spankophiles but that would come in time.

 

‘The Gym Lesson’ is a silly little piece of fluff by current standards.  It could easily be shown on commercial television in most countries (but maybe not the US).  By itself, this movie really isn’t worth watching but it is historically important because it marks the beginning of the English spanking movie industry.  Within a few years, the other major English spanking magazines like Blushes and Roue would all start making movies, Harrison Marks would leave Janus to found Kane and Christian Fennington and Harry Michael Smith would create Spanking for Pleasure.  Others produces like Moonglow, Red Stripe and Strictly English would follow creating the golden age of English spanking videos.