That's Sexploitation!
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From director Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Brain Damage) and co-producer Mike Vraney (the late founder of Something Weird Video) comes the epic documentary critics call "fascinating" (Video Watchdog), "titillating" (Time Out Los Angeles) and "jaw-dropping" (Seattle Weekly): Henenlotter and legendary exploitation monarch David F. Friedman - in his final film appearance - are your hosts for this eye-popping expedition through the world of pre-code peekaboos, stags, sex-hygiene films, goona-goonas, nudie-cuties, roughies, druggies, white-coaters and more, featuring thousands of spicy, steamy and downright sleazy clips from the SWV archives.
It's A Revolution Mother
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Here’s an odd but nonetheless fascinating time capsule of late- Sixties social unrest filtered through the mind of Florida-based sexploitation producer-director HARRY KERWIN. Yup, the man who made Strange Rampage, My Third Wife George, and Girls Come Too - and who was also the brother of Blood Feast star Bill Kerwin wanted to tap into the same youth market companies Like AlP were so good at exploiting. But lacking the funds to make something along the lines of an Easy Rider or a Wild in the Streets, Kerwin blissfully dispensed with both fiction and actors and, instead, went out and filmed The Real Thing. Combining (rough, raw) authentic footage of bikers, peace protestors, and the crowd at a rock festival, he created the mondoesque It’s a Revolution Mother! a self-described "Documentary of Love" tied together with an exuberant (and often hilarious) anti-government-anti establishment-anti-Vietnam-war-pro-rebellion rant -written by TOM CASEY, director of Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things (’71) - delivered by an uncredited narrator who sounds like an AM disk jockey on speed.
Maidens of Fetish Street
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In a series of vignettes, a pathetic man is abused by a bitter prostitute, a sculptor and her model try to suppress their longings for each other, and a lonely middle-aged man is caught by his wife in bed with another woman.
Her Odd Tastes
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A woman's job as a sex researcher takes her all over the world and gets her into some difficult situations.
The Weird World of Weird
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To celebrate 20 years of Something Weird bringing the world the very best in subversive, disreputable, and cult cinema, SWV made available four exceedingly rare, never-before-released jewels that will make any cinephile’s head light up and spin.
Rosie (b&w) is a failed 19-minute pilot for a TV sitcom about a talking dog named Rosie. It is absolutely horrifying. Why? Because the dog is not played by a real canine (or a puppet or a cartoon) but by a large adult in a mangy dog suit with a creepy dog face, clumsily walking around on his hands and knees.
The Weird World of Weird (1970, color) is a loony 47-minute never-aired TV special in which host RALPH STORY explores psychic phenomena, astrology, witchcraft and “all those mysterious secrets hidden in the mystical world of the occult.” with detours to a psychic “balloon reader” and a spook-filled séance at the Magic Castle. It's got a groovy, late-60s psychedelic feel to it all that makes it a wonderfully bizarre time capsule.
Follow That Skirt (1964, color) is a nasty little 26-minute short that was probably intended to be America’s second gore film. Though not released until 1965 when, according to Dave Friedman, it played a single theater in San Francisco, there’s little doubt that Blood Feast was its influence.
Based on the popularity of its trailer, The Smut Peddler (1965, b&w) is among a handful of currently “lost” films that Something Weird (as well as the rest of the world) has been actively searching for. So we were thrilled when we at least found this much in excellent condition. And, yeah, it’s good stuff. A crude oyster-eating publisher, a lesbian secretary, and a French photographer all love mauling and exploiting their lovely nude models while W.B. PARKER (Olga’s House of Shame) is shocked and appalled. - Frank Henenlotter
She Should'a Said No!
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“The Film That’s Scorchin’ The Nation’s Screens!”
The She who Shoulda Said ‘No’! is honeypot LILA LEEDS (Lady in the Lake, Moonrise) who was busted for doing doobies with rugged Robert Mitchum just months before this updated upgrade of Reefer Madness. Cashing in on the notoriety of “The Screen’s Newest Blonde Bomb,” KROGER BABB, “America’s Fearless Showman,” promoted the film as “The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Expose of the Marijuana Racket!” (She’s even costumed in the same suit she wore when she was sentenced with Mitchum!)
Giants of Rome
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After word of an enemy’s powerful secret weapon leaks out, a group of soldiers is handpicked by Julius Caesar to destroy the machine at all costs.
Maniac
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There’s no way around it. DWAIN ESPER’s Maniac can justifiably be called one of the greatest exploitation films ever made. Not content to crank out another sex hygiene or dope film, Esper and his wife, HILDAGARDE STADIE (who wrote the screenplay), concocted a uniquely delirious mix of horror film, discourse on mental illness, and whacked-out girly show. The plot – if you can call it that – pulls elements from Frankenstein, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and Poe’s “The Black Cat,” as well as the spicy spectacle of exploitation epics of the day.
Hollywood Babylon
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A faux cautionary documentary that portrays several notorious celebrity sex scandals from the golden age of Hollywood through film clips and often humorous softcore reenactments.
Hercules Against the Moon Men
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Hercules is summoned to oppose the evil Queen Samara, who has allied herself with aliens and is sacrificing her own people in a bid to awaken a moon goddess.
The Devil's Joint
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Not a lot is known about this exploitation clip-collage which examines the classic marijuana scare-films of the 1920s through the 1940s. However, the year of release, tone of the narration, and the complete lack of credits indicate that The Devil's Joint may well have been some kind of underground film. After all, it was released around the time when vintage drug films like the 1936 Reefer Madness were being rediscovered by a new generation via midnight screenings at smoke-filled theaters and college universities.
The tone here is cleverly set from the opening text which informs us that the film has been made without the cooperation of the Whit House, FBI, or local police authorities. In case you still didn't get the hint, The Devil's Joint then shows us a clip of TICHARD NIXON stating that he is here to tell us the truth despite his honesty and integrity being under question, before cutting to grisly newsreel footage of Chinese opium users being executed in the 1930s. What follow is essentially a series of extended clips from a number of the most notorious roadeshow drugsploitation films including Reefer Madness (of course), as well as a silent film from the 1920s called The Pace That Kills
For the most part, the film wisely lets these clips speak for themselves, although a narrator does give us a quick rundown of all the propaganda clichés used in the drug scare genre, and during sequences which depict stoned people fighting, Batman-style "Pows!" and "Zaps!" flash across the screen. Occasionally, silent-movie-style text cards pop up displaying lurid pulp blurbs like "An Innocent young virgin under the spell of the Killer Weed! Will she fall prey to man's lust?"
Naked Rider
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A wealthy rancher in a small Southern town owns everything--including the local wives, who he samples on a regular basis. However, when he discovers that his own wife is playing around with his horse trainer, things get out of hand.
Anatomy of a Psycho
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The crazed brother of a condemned killer sent to the gas chamber swears vengeance on those he holds responsible for his brother's execution.
School of Fear
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A teenager named Kurrat mysteriously disappears from a German boys' school. Then a teacher is found dead; the mystery grows.
Deadly Organ
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Sex, drugs, and a rubber monster mask in another Argentinean rarity from EMILIO VIEYRA, the director of The Curious Dr. Humpp! Then he plays his organ. Preying upon the "swingers" who frequent a local nightclub, Rubber Face lures babes with his own haunting theme song, turns them into love-slaves with heroin, and slobbers all over them while still wearing that stupid monster mask.
The Doomsday Machine
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A spy discovers that the Chinese government has created a doomsday device (the "key" to which, "only Chairman Mao has") capable of destroying the Earth and it will be activated in 72 hours.
Classroom Scare Films: Drug Evils
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Awwwwww, freak out! Noted Percocet hound SONNY BONO, replete in shiny orange suit, dishes about Marijuana and how its users are cooler than those "square and unhip alcoholics". Still, the film illustrates the downsides to grass, such as seeing yourself in a mirror with a spooky monster mask, careening off a cliff, or -- in the case of one Nigerian pusher -- executed. You also see a monkey taking bong hits in a lab, which is, quite frankly, priceless.
But Narcotics: The Inside Story shows you a bunch of rats hopped up on pills, which is far more entertaining than watching the computer animated antics of Stuart Little; followed by happy-go-lucky teenagers enjoying a seemingly unrelated beach blanket barbecue featuring a rather milquetoast volleyball game and weenie roast.
Also featuring: Focus on Heroin, Thinking About Drinking, The PCP Story, and more.
The Weird Lovemakers
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A juvenile delinquent gets out of the pen and immediately embarks on a rampage of untethered anger, most of it directed at the girlfriend of the journalist who helped send him up.
NFTV 3
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