Franco Gonella, AKA Matt Christy
great scene in Oversize Load with Jeff Turk as Scott O’Hara watches them from the next room, before joining in. But his best work (of sadly only 2 films!!??) was his lead role in Too Big for His Britches – he dreams blows a drill instructor in the shower (director Ronnie Shark AKA Bill Harrison), fantasy 3-way with a cop (see pic below), and finally does it with his potential new employer/boss Chad Johnson.
appears uncredited in HONCHO MAY 1986 – spread called “Oversized Load” – no doubt from the film. And in a pic magazine called “Soapstuds” – from Oversize Load (see below)
Hard to believe only 2 films – but I have a vague recollection he did some more specialty films for Zeus, or perhaps one of the wrestling companies in the mid 1980’s??
could if be that my last mention of him was back in 2004 ?
12 replies on “Franco Gonella”
It is odd that there are only two films to his gevi credits, not counting the later compilations that use scenes from those earlier films. Seeing as how that Stallion cover says 83 but the film credits were 86 or 87, maybe there are some other films or scenes he made using a different alias, and nobody has ever connected them to these films? If I ever saw him in anything else I am drawing a blank but I thought he was hot especially in Britches, sort of goofball / awkward but very sexy, and with a big uncut dick. In fact those two films are the two most recent youtube clips I made, here’s Britches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSvRymMLiX0
Oversize Load had better music I thought (Spider & Michael who did music on other Surge films if I’m not mistaken) but Britches had a pretty good (for porn) storyline centered on his fantasies that day, and more variety of body types than a lot of studio porn of the late 80s had. I was never too into Chad Douglas but his scene partner in Britches, Jeff Turner, was the kind of guy you can’t help but notice – beefy, bearded and studly.
Replying to myself since I can’t edit the comment above, looking at Jeff Turner’s gevi page I ran across a few films he made for Wings Video in 1986, here’s Care And Training Of The Male Slave:
https://www.gayeroticvideoindex.com/V/2/17872.html
No pics of the box cover alas, but note the Matt Christie in the credits, almost identical to the name he used in Britches. This Matt’s only other credit was another of the Wings videos with Jeff, Master Barber. So maybe that’s two more films he was in, and those gevi pages should be merged if we found proof it was him. Ooh, now I want to see him and Jeff Turner shaving and enslaving each other! lol I clicked on your link to your old blog post from 2004 and read where you said that it was offputting seeing Jeff with full beard on the street, then shaved down to a mustache in his sex scene and I hadn’t even noticed that part until you mentioned it but you were right. Maybe I missed it because of how much smoke machine they used, or perhaps I fast forwarded Chad’s scenes out of habit which I’ve done since the days of VCRs – he just never did anything for me, though the dick is certainly impressive.
can’t believe I didn’t credit him for Care and Training of the Male Slave and Master Barber! perhaps I was looking for proof – and the few stills I’ve seen don’t show Franco in them…
meanwhile – i LOVE LOVE LOVE the music in the “dream sequence” with the cop in TOO BIG! I just love that scene in many ways, the sex, the music, the cop’s face is never shown… (thankfully, cuz I never cared for Leigh Erickson)…
ahhhh – it IS him! Care and Training of the Male Slave – but it now leads to more questions…. who’s the guy already tied up when this version of the video begins? I think it’s a greek-sounding name beginning with “A”? ughhhh
EDIT: Chris Onassis
What happened to Leigh Erickson ? Still alive ?
Only two films because he died in December 1992. shortly after completing Oversized Load, Franco Gonella (Mark Mongoi aka Mark Ferrari) returned home to NJ for two years. He died in San Francisco after a long battle with AIDS. He was proud of his film work. His sister & brother-in-law hosted a party at their home for friends to view Oversized Load. He was charismatic, intelligent and sexy as hell. He was also a really wonderful friend to have. I still cherish his memory.
how sweet – thank you! How cool to hear from a friend!
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I’ll start with Chris Onassis, and adopt your style of writing by saying “you may remember Chris from The Bigger They Come” which is where I recognized him from – Chris is standing on a ladder when Robert Harris walks up, before Chris talks you think he’s going to have a deep, powerful “manly” voice to match his build and then … as the saying goes, that’s when the purse fell out of his mouth. Some of the other scenes in The Bigger They Come were pretty hot, Johnny Davenport/Tony Marino and Cole Carpenter/Chris Grey but the Chris O. scene didn’t do much for me.
As for Franco/Matt Christy also being Matt Christie, woo-hoo I was right! He was pretty sexy, and that’s a few more films to his credits then. Do you know anyone at gevi you could contact to let them know they could merge those two Matt pages? I know I’ve seen your blog cited as a source for some of the reviews I’ve read there, not sure if they asked before adding your blurbs or just stole them.
Finally the music in Britches wasn’t bad, it’s apparently three different musicians they used for the sex scenes and incidental music (Pornosonic, Multiman and San Francisco Music Works) so it’s sort of all over the place. The scene where they recreate The Biggest One I Ever Saw with Ronnie Shark/Bill Harrison substituting for Dave Connors dick is hot, as is the three way you mentioned with Matt, Jim Reeves and Leigh Erickson (Leigh never did much for me either, he usually looked too much like non-porn actor Leigh McClosky which is probably why he chose Leigh as a porn name) but both Matt and Jim have nice cocks and it’s a hot fantasy set-up.
on GEVI’s “FAQ” page is his email address; I haven’t been in contact in years – but many years ago he borrowed a box of VHS tapes so he could scan, etc. I offered to just send scans, but he wanted to be sure to do it “right” – he said it more politely than that! woody at wtule dot net
Chris Onassis – i didn’t really look at the Care And Training video I linked to – was Chris only in that opening shot? and if not – or rather, either way, wonder what HIS AKA name is!
I didn’t see him anywhere else in the clip, but I skipped ahead and only watched a few minutes here and there. At one point Matt and Jeff were tied together, facing each other then later they broke out the shaving cream and started trimming pubes and chest hair in various groupings. But you’re right, the name used by Chris would be another unanswered question, or if the full video had credits since those tend to get cut off on tube sites sometimes.
How do I get in touch with that email? is woody@wtule.net ? Couldn’t find any email provider with that name nor any further info abou how to get in touch. Would like to suggest a missing link and know more about the site hehe
that’s the last email address I used – did you try it?