“CLINICAL
EXPLOITATIONâ€
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 “educationalâ€
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 remember being in fifth or sixth grade in the early 1960s…
all the girls were ushered out of class for an hour for a special screening of
some cryptic film that all the boys were curious about, but of course had no
idea what it could possibly be. Whenever we asked any of the girls what they
had seen, we were met with an emphatic, “I’m not telling you!†This just
made the event even more of a mystery.
In
the 1940s, a producer who was really nothing more than a snake oil salesman—but
a very successful one—named Kroger Babb specialized in making, at the time,
sexually frank and sometimes explicit but so-called educational films that were
really nothing more than exploitative and an attempt to attract an audience
with prurient inquisitiveness. Mom and Dad, first seen in 1945, might
be the most successful of any of these pictures. In fact, it was one of the
biggest box office hits of the entire decade and beyond, as it was exhibited up
until the 1970s.
Babb
and his team would come to town, rent a theater for a week or two, and
distribute promotional materials and place ads in local papers that hawked the
film’s “moral†and educational aspects, and that it was something every young
adult must see (no children allowed). There was, of course, push back from
churches, public officials, and the law. In some territories the film was
banned (the New York State Supreme Court finally allowed it to be shown in
their state after years of being unseen). All this served to boost audience
interest! And if there wasn’t much of a protest, then Babb intentionally created
and distributed his own fake outrage in flyers and such to drum up the
enthusiasm!
Screenings
also featured a lecture during intermission by a “medical specialist†named
Elliot Forbes—who was really a hired actor. This interlude also served as a
chance to sell sexual hygiene literature produced as tie-ins to the film.
Interestingly, in African American communities, the Elliot Forbes role was
taken by none other than Olympic star Jesse Owens (who was most likely
handsomely paid).
Mom
and Dad is
the lurid story of Joan (June Carlson), a teenage girl whose mother is very
strict and never told her anything about the facts of life. One evening, she
meets a slick pilot who is a few years older than she, and he successfully
seduces her (offscreen). He goes away, dies in a plane crash, and leaves Joan
with child. Thanks to the more liberally minded schoolteacher, Mr. Blackburn
(Hardie Albright), who had been fired for daring to teach sex education to the
students, Joan and her parents come to terms with the pregnancy.
The
last half hour, after the intermission, contains the material that was the big
draw—real footage of childbirth—yep, you see the kid come right out of
there—and the more wince-producing footage of a caesarean section birth. That
is followed by video of the dangers of venereal disease, complete with explicit
genital depiction of sores and other gross stuff. Yes, this was shown in 1945.
A
lot of this clinical footage was acquired from authentic sexual hygiene shorts
that were made for the U.S. military during the war, and other exploitation
pictures produced earlier.
Perhaps
the most valuable piece of the new Kino Lorber Blu-ray that is produced in
association with Something Weird Video
as part of their new “Forbidden Fruit†series of exploitation films, is the
inclusion of the World War II army short, Sex Hygiene, directed by none
other than John Ford! This half-hour picture was required viewing for all GIs,
warning them of the dangers of V.D.—and it included much of the full-frontal
gross-out footage of the effects of syphilis and gonorrhea.
The
feature film is a 4K restoration using more than one 35mm film element, and the
result is quite impressive. It is accompanied by the enlightening optional
audio commentary by Eric Schaefer, author of Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!:
A History of Exploitation Films.
Supplements
include the John Ford short plus four excerpts from other sex hygiene
exploitation films produced during the period—The Story of Bob and Sally,
Not Wanted (the title of which was changed to The Wrong Rut), Life
and Its Secrecies, and Human Wreckage (not the silent film of the
same name, but a 1940s vintage remake). There are also a few short segments
from sex hygiene lecture films, more childbirth and animated conception video
from the period, and “trailers†for the various books and pamphlets that were
on sale in the theater lobbies. All this is topped off with trailers for other
exploitation films.
Mom
and Dad,
the first volume of the “Forbidden Fruit†series from Kino Lorber, is a
worthwhile addition to any cinema history buff’s library—if not for the novelty
of the thing, but for its true hilarity.
We’ve
come a long way since then. Or have we?
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