That's Sexploitation!

David F. Friedman
2013-06-25

This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past.
6.2
136 min

Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.

Cast

Name Character Team
Frank Henenlotter Himself Unowned
David F. Friedman Himself Unowned
Gal Friday Herself Unowned
Albert Cadabra Himself Unowned
Eleanor Ames Self (archive footage) Unowned
Virginia Bell Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Mary Blair Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Manny Brown Self (archive footage) Unowned
Doreen Cannon Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Peter A. DeCenzie Self (archive footage) Unowned
Kalantan Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Herschell Gordon Lewis Self (archive footage) Unowned
Russ Meyer Self (archive footage) Unowned
Bettie Page Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Russell Patterson Self - Pinup Artist (archive footage) Unowned
Iva Pratt Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Sally Rand Self - Burlesque Fan Dancer (archive footage) Unowned
Vera Richkova Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Rosita Royce Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Louis K. Sher Self (archive footage) Unowned
Dan Sonney Self (archive footage) Unowned
Georgia Sothern Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Lili St. Cyr Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Blaze Starr Self/Belle Fleming (archive footage) Unowned
Tempest Storm Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Doris Wishman Self (archive footage) Unowned
William H. Hays Self (archive footage) Unowned
Bebe Hughs Nudist Fencer (archive footage) Unowned
Cherrie Knight Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) Unowned
Mike Vraney Self (archive footage) Unowned