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.
Name | Character | Team | |
---|---|---|---|
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Frank Henenlotter | Himself | Unowned |
David F. Friedman | Himself | Unowned | |
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Gal Friday | Herself | Unowned |
Albert Cadabra | Himself | Unowned | |
Eleanor Ames | Self (archive footage) | Unowned | |
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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 | |
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Herschell Gordon Lewis | Self (archive footage) | Unowned |
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Russ Meyer | Self (archive footage) | Unowned |
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Bettie Page | Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) | Unowned |
Russell Patterson | Self - Pinup Artist (archive footage) | Unowned | |
Iva Pratt | Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) | Unowned | |
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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 | |
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Lili St. Cyr | Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) | Unowned |
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Blaze Starr | Self/Belle Fleming (archive footage) | Unowned |
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Tempest Storm | Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage) | Unowned |
Doris Wishman | Self (archive footage) | Unowned | |
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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 |