Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! : A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schaefer, Eric, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (488 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham, NC, USA Duke University Press 19991001

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Unashamed nudists, high-flying hopheads, brazen strippers, vicious vice lords, and high school girls who find themselves “in trouble” comprise the population of exploitation films. In the first full-scale history of these low-budget movies of decades past, Eric Schaefer reveals how this pioneering form of “trash film” purveyed the forbidden thrills of explicit sexual behavior, drug use, and vice that the mainstream movie industry could not show.Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! is a meticulously researched, interdisciplinary study that is informed by a wide range of sources—including both mainstream and industry newspapers and periodicals, archival accounts, personal interviews, and the films themselves. Schaefer begins by exploring the unique mode of production of exploitation movies, their distribution, and the outrageous exhibition practices that were rooted in the traditions of sideshows and carnivals. His close analysis of dozens of films, such as The Road to Ruin, Modern Motherhood, One Way Ticket to Hell, and The Wages of Sin demonstrates that these films were more than simply “bad” movies. By situating exploitation films in a historical context and organizing them according to the social problems they addressed, Schaefer shows how they evolved during a period of forty years and how, during that time, they shaped public policies and attitudes. Finally, he focuses on the changes in the postwar American film industry that led to the decline of the classical exploitation film and set the stage for the rise of “sexploitation” in the 1960s.Engagingly written, illustrated with rare photographs, posters, production stills, and ad slicks, and offering a full filmography, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! reveals a forgotten side of film history and American culture. It will delight and inform those interested in film history, cultural studies, American studies and history, and the many fans of exploitation films.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: "As Long as It Was in Bad Taste!"

1. "An Attempt to 'Commercialize Vice''': Origins of the Exploitation Film

2. "A Hodge-Podge of Cuttings and Splicings": The Mode of Production and the Style of Classical Exploitation Films

3. "You Gotta Tell 'Em to Sell 'Em": Distribution, Advertising, and Exhibition of Exploitation Films

4. "Thoroughly Vile and Disgusting": The Exploitation Film and Censorship

5. "No False Modesty, No Old-Fashioned Taboos": The Sex Hygiene Film

6. "The Monster That Caters to Thrill-Hungry Youth": The Drug Film

7. "Timely as Today's Front Page": Vice, Exotic, and Atrocity Films

8. "They Wear No Clothes!": Nudist and Burlesque Films

9. Conclusion: The End of Classical Exploitation

Appendix 1-Major Exploitation Producers/Distributors and Their Company Names

Appendix 2-Filmogra

Appendix 3-Video Sources

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 12. Dez 2020)

ISBN:

9780822395966

0822395967

OCLC:

1226679030