136 minutes
6/25/2013
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.
Frank Henenlotter
as Himself
David F. Friedman
as Himself
Gal Friday
as Herself
Albert Cadabra
as Himself
Eleanor Ames
as Self (archive footage)
Virginia Bell
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Mary Blair
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Manny Brown
as Self (archive footage)
Doreen Cannon
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Peter A. DeCenzie
as Self (archive footage)
Kalantan
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Herschell Gordon Lewis
as Self (archive footage)
Russ Meyer
as Self (archive footage)
Bettie Page
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Russell Patterson
as Self - Pinup Artist (archive footage)
Iva Pratt
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Sally Rand
as Self - Burlesque Fan Dancer (archive footage)
Vera Richkova
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Rosita Royce
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Louis K. Sher
as Self (archive footage)
Dan Sonney
as Self (archive footage)
Georgia Sothern
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Lili St. Cyr
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Blaze Starr
as Self/Belle Fleming (archive footage)
Tempest Storm
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Doris Wishman
as Self (archive footage)
William H. Hays
as Self (archive footage)
Bebe Hughs
as Nudist Fencer (archive footage)
Cherrie Knight
as Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)
Mike Vraney
as Self (archive footage)