“Clinical Exploitation”
By Raymond Benson
There have always been what have been termed in the motion picture industry “exploitation films,” even back in the silent days. The late 1930s and much of the 1940s, however, saw a deluge of cheap, not-even-“B” pictures made, usually independently of Hollywood and marketed in guerilla fashion as “educational” adult fare. You know the type. Reefer Madness. Child Bride. Marihuana.
In the 40s, especially in the wake of World War II, the Baby Boomer phenomenon was just beginning, and there was a need for sexual hygiene education for young people—at least, that’s what the makers of these tawdry movies told the public. There most certainly was a necessity for Sex Ed in schools—and some legitimate companies stepped up to the plate to create “clinical” material shown to gender-segregated classrooms dealing with the facts of life, menstruation, and venereal disease. I can...
By Raymond Benson
There have always been what have been termed in the motion picture industry “exploitation films,” even back in the silent days. The late 1930s and much of the 1940s, however, saw a deluge of cheap, not-even-“B” pictures made, usually independently of Hollywood and marketed in guerilla fashion as “educational” adult fare. You know the type. Reefer Madness. Child Bride. Marihuana.
In the 40s, especially in the wake of World War II, the Baby Boomer phenomenon was just beginning, and there was a need for sexual hygiene education for young people—at least, that’s what the makers of these tawdry movies told the public. There most certainly was a necessity for Sex Ed in schools—and some legitimate companies stepped up to the plate to create “clinical” material shown to gender-segregated classrooms dealing with the facts of life, menstruation, and venereal disease. I can...
- 4/12/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Aside from the obvious appeal of this smörgásbord of dirty movie delights, cult director Frank Henenlotter hosts a good history of soft-core film smut, in all its forms. Includes excellent clips and input from one of the 'greats' in this field, David F. Friedman. Remember, it's for educational purposes only. That's Sexploitation! Blu-ray Severin Films 2013 / Color / 1:37 full frame / 136 min. / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 24.95 Starring Albert Cadabra, Gal Friday, David F. Friedman, Frank Henenlotter. Cinematography Daniel Griffith, Brent Kerr, Anthony Sneed Produced by Jimmy Maslon, Mike Vraney Written and Directed and Edited by Frank Henenlotter
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Remember the beginning of the Paddy Chayefsky-Sidney Lumet film The Bachelor Party, where a group of men in a darkened room are watching a film, and we don't know what it is? That's Sexploitation! is a comprehensive documentary about a sleazy, yet strangely innocent, slice of prurient Americana. From VHS through the DVD days,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Remember the beginning of the Paddy Chayefsky-Sidney Lumet film The Bachelor Party, where a group of men in a darkened room are watching a film, and we don't know what it is? That's Sexploitation! is a comprehensive documentary about a sleazy, yet strangely innocent, slice of prurient Americana. From VHS through the DVD days,...
- 5/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
While his name may not jump out at you at first, I can promise you that Mike Vraney was an important part of just about every horror fan's life, and unfortunately he's been taken from us far too soon. Vraney, the founder of Something Weird Video, has passed on at the age of just 56.
From the Something Weird Video Facebook Page
In Memorium Mike Vraney Founder of Something Weird December 29, 1957 to January 2, 2014
We regret to tell you that Something Weird’s founder, Mike Vraney, passed away on January 2, 2014 after a long heroic battle with lung cancer. He was 56 years old, way too young to leave this planet. There was still so much Mike wanted to do in his life, so many films to be found, and adventures to be embarked upon.
This sad news may come as a shock to most of you. Mike was a very private person and didn’t want anyone,...
From the Something Weird Video Facebook Page
In Memorium Mike Vraney Founder of Something Weird December 29, 1957 to January 2, 2014
We regret to tell you that Something Weird’s founder, Mike Vraney, passed away on January 2, 2014 after a long heroic battle with lung cancer. He was 56 years old, way too young to leave this planet. There was still so much Mike wanted to do in his life, so many films to be found, and adventures to be embarked upon.
This sad news may come as a shock to most of you. Mike was a very private person and didn’t want anyone,...
- 1/6/2014
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
In a reprint of his 1958 review of Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika, Jean-Luc Godard wrote of the scene captured above (and previewed to the right) saying, "One must see Summer with Monika, if only for the extraordinary minutes when Harriet Andersson, about to sleep with a guy she has left once before, stares fixedly into the camera, her laughing eyes clouded with distress, and calls on the viewer to witness her self-loathing at involuntarily choosing hell over heaven. It is the saddest shot in the history of cinema." The full review is included in the 28-page booklet accompanying Criterion's new Blu-ray release of the film along with an essay by Laura Hubner (read it in full right here) whose interpretation of the shot reads as follows: The static shot of Monika's face is scandalously close up, and she looks steadfastly at us, breaking the cinematic illusion, as the screen darkens around her.
- 6/1/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
By Raymond Benson
The red carpet label Criterion Collection has continued its mining of classic foreign language films by releasing for the first time in the U.S. two pictures that first brought famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman some attention. Summer Interlude (1951) and Summer with Monika (1953) are both fairly commercial love stories but with a slightly dark flair which only Bergman can produce. Both films are highly erotic (especially Monika) for the time, and these titles contributed to the notion in America that Sweden made sexy movies.
In fact, Summer with Monika was first released in the U.S. as a sexploitation film in 1956 by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest showman,” Kroger Babb, an exhibitor/producer who specialized in low budget sleaze thinly disguised as “educational material for adults.” Babb re-cut Summer with Monika, added a dubbed English language soundtrack that had little to do with Bergman’s original, laid on a jazzy,...
The red carpet label Criterion Collection has continued its mining of classic foreign language films by releasing for the first time in the U.S. two pictures that first brought famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman some attention. Summer Interlude (1951) and Summer with Monika (1953) are both fairly commercial love stories but with a slightly dark flair which only Bergman can produce. Both films are highly erotic (especially Monika) for the time, and these titles contributed to the notion in America that Sweden made sexy movies.
In fact, Summer with Monika was first released in the U.S. as a sexploitation film in 1956 by the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest showman,” Kroger Babb, an exhibitor/producer who specialized in low budget sleaze thinly disguised as “educational material for adults.” Babb re-cut Summer with Monika, added a dubbed English language soundtrack that had little to do with Bergman’s original, laid on a jazzy,...
- 5/30/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 22, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg are young and in love in Bergman's 1953 Summer with Monika.
Inspired by the earthy eroticism of his muse Harriet Andersson (Smiles of a Summer Night), in the first of her many film roles for him, Ingmar Bergman (Face to Face) had a major international breakthrough with his 1953 drama-romance Summer with Monika.
Set in Stockholm, the sensual tale of young love tells of a girl (Andersson) and boy (Lars Ekborg, The Magician) from working-class families who run away from home to spend a secluded, romantic summer at the beach, far from parents and responsibilities. Inevitably, it’s not long before the pair is forced to return to reality.
The version of the classic film originally released in the U.S. was re-edited by its distributor into notably more salacious kind of film, but the original Summer with Monika...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg are young and in love in Bergman's 1953 Summer with Monika.
Inspired by the earthy eroticism of his muse Harriet Andersson (Smiles of a Summer Night), in the first of her many film roles for him, Ingmar Bergman (Face to Face) had a major international breakthrough with his 1953 drama-romance Summer with Monika.
Set in Stockholm, the sensual tale of young love tells of a girl (Andersson) and boy (Lars Ekborg, The Magician) from working-class families who run away from home to spend a secluded, romantic summer at the beach, far from parents and responsibilities. Inevitably, it’s not long before the pair is forced to return to reality.
The version of the classic film originally released in the U.S. was re-edited by its distributor into notably more salacious kind of film, but the original Summer with Monika...
- 3/14/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
This past Monday, February 14, David F. Friedman passed away at the age of 87. As a producer and distributor, Friedman certainly left his mark on the history of cinema, ranging from classical exploitation in the 1940s, the European import boom of the ’50s, the nudies and slashers of the ’60s, and the modern exploitation era of the ’70s. He’ll forever be one of the greatest champions of fun, excessive cinema, a true legend in the “give-the-people-what-they-want” tradition, back when that actually meant something.
Friedman’s first major foray into the exploitation world came from working with Kroger Babb after World War II. Babb was one of the great classical exploitation kingpins, and he brought Friedman on to work on publicity and distribution for his roadshow titles. Among dozens of others, Friedman helped Babb peddle Mom And Dad, the sex-hygiene film that was among the top 10 highest grossing films of both the 1940s and the 1950s.
Friedman’s first major foray into the exploitation world came from working with Kroger Babb after World War II. Babb was one of the great classical exploitation kingpins, and he brought Friedman on to work on publicity and distribution for his roadshow titles. Among dozens of others, Friedman helped Babb peddle Mom And Dad, the sex-hygiene film that was among the top 10 highest grossing films of both the 1940s and the 1950s.
- 2/18/2011
- by Daniel Metz
- OriginalAlamo.com
Goodbye to the man who brought us Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, The Erotic Adventures Of Zorro, Trader Hornee, Thar She Blows, and Ilsa She-wolf Of The SS. Producer and Huckster extraordinaire David F. Friedman died Sunday in Miami of heart disease at age 87. For a full appreciation of the history of exploitation films, you should read his autobiography A Youth In Babylon for Friedman was one of the few of the exploitation giants whose roots stretched back to actual carnivals. His father ran one and much of Friedman’s youth was spent traveling the carnival circuit throughout the South. It was there that he was first bitten by the showbiz bug, giving him a taste for exploitation and spectacle that would serve him well in the future. Friedman apprenticed with fellow showman Kroger Babb (best known for the birth-of-a-baby film Mom And Dad which played like a tent revival for years...
- 2/15/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
In three days, the curtain goes up in Franklin, In as The 2010 B-Movie Celebration comes to town for three days of cinematic thrills and chills. The celebration takes place on September 24, 25 and 26. During that time, over 50 films will be shown spanning the whole history of the B-movie from the exploitation pioneers of the 1930s to the low-budget monster epics of the 50s, 60s and 70s on through to today’s kings of micro-cinema.
What exactly is a B-movie? A B-movie is a film produced aside from the big budget, more prestigious A-list offerings from Hollywood. Often confined to the horror and sci-fi genres, B-movies can also include westerns and film noirs as well. The B-Movie Celebration is designed to magnify the achievements of past B-movie filmmakers while heralding the breed of independent, low-budget B-mavericks. In short, the past, present and future are...
In three days, the curtain goes up in Franklin, In as The 2010 B-Movie Celebration comes to town for three days of cinematic thrills and chills. The celebration takes place on September 24, 25 and 26. During that time, over 50 films will be shown spanning the whole history of the B-movie from the exploitation pioneers of the 1930s to the low-budget monster epics of the 50s, 60s and 70s on through to today’s kings of micro-cinema.
What exactly is a B-movie? A B-movie is a film produced aside from the big budget, more prestigious A-list offerings from Hollywood. Often confined to the horror and sci-fi genres, B-movies can also include westerns and film noirs as well. The B-Movie Celebration is designed to magnify the achievements of past B-movie filmmakers while heralding the breed of independent, low-budget B-mavericks. In short, the past, present and future are...
- 9/21/2010
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Feb. 9
7:30 p.m.
Light Industry
220 36th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), 5th Floor
Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by: Light Industry
Child Bride, directed by Harry Revier, is a production of the legendary exploitation film producer Kroger Babb from 1938.
This “gripping tale of shackled youth” is in the grand exploitation tradition of claiming to be educational and “thought-provoking,” but is really just a lurid journey into degradation, sleaze, violence and partial nudity. Here’s the wild and hilarious description of the film from Light Industry:
Let us show you an era when lust was called just, when any blossoming prepubescent could be seized by throngs of men thrice her age (or more!) for a life without education or opportunity. See the fight for progressive reform to protect our youth from perverts, mongoloids, and midgets! See moonshiners and bootleggers scrabbling for survival in the Great Depression!
The 16mm archival print that...
7:30 p.m.
Light Industry
220 36th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), 5th Floor
Brooklyn, NY
Hosted by: Light Industry
Child Bride, directed by Harry Revier, is a production of the legendary exploitation film producer Kroger Babb from 1938.
This “gripping tale of shackled youth” is in the grand exploitation tradition of claiming to be educational and “thought-provoking,” but is really just a lurid journey into degradation, sleaze, violence and partial nudity. Here’s the wild and hilarious description of the film from Light Industry:
Let us show you an era when lust was called just, when any blossoming prepubescent could be seized by throngs of men thrice her age (or more!) for a life without education or opportunity. See the fight for progressive reform to protect our youth from perverts, mongoloids, and midgets! See moonshiners and bootleggers scrabbling for survival in the Great Depression!
The 16mm archival print that...
- 2/7/2010
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
TORONTO -- Emerging from a mock confessional booth on a purple-draped stage where flower arrangements and heaps of garbage set a mood of sweet decay, John Waters has come not only to pine for vanished decadence but to dream up new transgressions for a world with few remaining taboos. He's doing it for the children -- the college kids, to be precise, who have come to see the entertaining one-man show captured in this performance documentary.
The genre, and the fact that Waters isn't a star on the stand-up circuit, suggests a niche appeal at the boxoffice, but fans will be very pleased. The endearingly louche filmmaker might even win the love of some viewers who can't be bothered with his button-pushing features.
Directed by Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin, the high-def pic is shot and edited conventionally, which suits it fine. Waters' anecdotes are so colorful, conjuring such outrageous imagery, that it's a relief the filmmakers aren't trying to compete.
There's the image, for instance, of this man-of-the-world as a young child who counts Captain Hook among his top three heroes: Lacking the villain's curly locks, he tapes a mass of his father's ties to his head, sticks a coat hanger out one sleeve and scares off the family housekeeper for good.
Or of the ceremony he staged when protege Traci Lords decided to tie the knot, and he needed to be baptized to qualify for a church wedding. At a stolen altar, with a clergy license obtained for Waters by Johnny Depp's people, The Pope of Trash cleansed the porn legend's sins and (from the sound of it) threw in a little therapy for free.
That episode is one of the monologue's occasional hints that Waters is a good deal less jaded than some would think. Cracks in his ironic facade appear momentarily when a subject like capital punishment comes up, though that doesn't keep him from getting some laughs. And while his suggestions for would-be-rebel teens are deliberately silly, they seem to spring from a genuine sympathy for today's youth, for whom garden-variety transgressions would hardly raise a parent's eyebrow.
His most inspired cultural commentary comes, not surprisingly, on the subject of art. Drawing connections between art house cinema and schlockmeister sensationalists like Kroger Babb, he imagines how university film programs might again become something special.
None of which is to suggest that This Filthy World is an agenda-driven film. While ostensibly a micro-memoir touching on every point in Waters' bad-taste oeuvre (paying particular attention, naturally, to his late friend Divine), he'd rather you call it vaudeville than a lecture. The term doesn't quite fit -- he hasn't yet booked the freaks and low-rent strippers to open for him onstage, and the monologue as it is dips in rare moments to the feel of straightforward stand-up comedy -- but even if he's never able to mount a full-scale return to the happy depravity of his youth, Waters is one of bad behavior's most likable champions.
THIS FILTHY WORLD
Filthy World Llc./Red Envelope Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Jeff Garlin
Screenwriter: John Waters
Producers: Michele Armour, Jeff Garlin
Executive producer: Ted Sarandos
Director of photography: Dan Shulman
Production designer: Vince Peranio
Editor: Rob Naylor
Performer: John Waters
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
The genre, and the fact that Waters isn't a star on the stand-up circuit, suggests a niche appeal at the boxoffice, but fans will be very pleased. The endearingly louche filmmaker might even win the love of some viewers who can't be bothered with his button-pushing features.
Directed by Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin, the high-def pic is shot and edited conventionally, which suits it fine. Waters' anecdotes are so colorful, conjuring such outrageous imagery, that it's a relief the filmmakers aren't trying to compete.
There's the image, for instance, of this man-of-the-world as a young child who counts Captain Hook among his top three heroes: Lacking the villain's curly locks, he tapes a mass of his father's ties to his head, sticks a coat hanger out one sleeve and scares off the family housekeeper for good.
Or of the ceremony he staged when protege Traci Lords decided to tie the knot, and he needed to be baptized to qualify for a church wedding. At a stolen altar, with a clergy license obtained for Waters by Johnny Depp's people, The Pope of Trash cleansed the porn legend's sins and (from the sound of it) threw in a little therapy for free.
That episode is one of the monologue's occasional hints that Waters is a good deal less jaded than some would think. Cracks in his ironic facade appear momentarily when a subject like capital punishment comes up, though that doesn't keep him from getting some laughs. And while his suggestions for would-be-rebel teens are deliberately silly, they seem to spring from a genuine sympathy for today's youth, for whom garden-variety transgressions would hardly raise a parent's eyebrow.
His most inspired cultural commentary comes, not surprisingly, on the subject of art. Drawing connections between art house cinema and schlockmeister sensationalists like Kroger Babb, he imagines how university film programs might again become something special.
None of which is to suggest that This Filthy World is an agenda-driven film. While ostensibly a micro-memoir touching on every point in Waters' bad-taste oeuvre (paying particular attention, naturally, to his late friend Divine), he'd rather you call it vaudeville than a lecture. The term doesn't quite fit -- he hasn't yet booked the freaks and low-rent strippers to open for him onstage, and the monologue as it is dips in rare moments to the feel of straightforward stand-up comedy -- but even if he's never able to mount a full-scale return to the happy depravity of his youth, Waters is one of bad behavior's most likable champions.
THIS FILTHY WORLD
Filthy World Llc./Red Envelope Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Jeff Garlin
Screenwriter: John Waters
Producers: Michele Armour, Jeff Garlin
Executive producer: Ted Sarandos
Director of photography: Dan Shulman
Production designer: Vince Peranio
Editor: Rob Naylor
Performer: John Waters
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
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