The History of Sex in Cinema
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Pioneering Film-maker Doris
Wishman
Prolific adult-oriented, self-taught,
pioneering filmmaker Doris Wishman, known as the "Queen of Sexploitation
Films,"
was responsible for many varieties of titillating underground films ("nudies", "roughies",
and "skin flicks"). In some cases (among the approximately
30 films that she wrote, produced, cast, directed and edited), she
had to take pseudonyms as male directors (Louis Silverman and Kenyon
Wintel).
Wishman's films are now regarded as kitsch, drive-in
quality pieces of vulgarity and guilty pleasure - paving the way
for the films of Roger Corman, Russ Meyers and John Waters. She made
26 features between 1960 and 1977 - her first film was Hideout
in the Sun (1960).
Her films over 40 plus years included first, a number
of nudist camp films (a total of eight) in the 1960s. She took advantage
of the fact that 1957's court rulings for The Garden of Eden
(1954) (see earlier) had removed the "nudist film" from censorship.
Hideout in the Sun (1960) was one of the first 'nudist' films to receive
a legal release. |
Wishman's Nudist Camp Films (Early 1960s)
The first five nudist films from Doris Wishman were:
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Hideout in the Sun (1960)
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Tagline: "Escape...to
a modern Garden of Paradise... where Nature's sun-kissed daughters
walk forth in all their natural beauty!"
Facts: Shot in late 1958,
and released in 1960 - Wishman's debut film, in Easman Color
and Nuderama!
Plot: In the heist tale
set in pre-1960s Miami, two bank robbers Duke Martin (Greg
Conrad) and his brother Steve (Earl Bauer) fled into a nudist
camp in Miami (before a plan to escape to Cuba via the ocean),
accompanied by kidnapped and car-jacked Dorothy Courtney (Dolores
Carlos) in tow (a member of the naturist club). They had to
pretend they were nudists while hiding out, to avoid suspicion.
As the film ended, Steve and Dorothy fell in love (amidst all
the nudists and their activities).
[Note:
Reportedly, the film was photographed in one of the largest
and most beautiful Nudist Camps in Florida, The Sunny Palms
Lodge in Homestead Florida, although later, this was refuted.
Doris lied about it for legal reasons.] |
Hideout in the Sun (1960)
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Nude on the Moon (1961)
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Tagline: "And
the Heavens Brought Forth the Wonder of Woman."
Facts: Wishman stretched
the limits of censorship laws with this sci-fi nudie film,
causing it to be banned in New York State. [Note:
The shooting location was the Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida.]
Plot: Young rocket scientist
Dr. Jeff Huntley (Lester Brown), after inheriting a fortune
of $3 million, constructed a moon rocket with the help of the
Professor Nichols (William Mayer). After landing on the moon,
the two scientists came upon an alien world inhabited by semi-nude
topless moon people looking like Power Rangers.During his expedition,
Jeff fell in love with The Queen of the Moon (Marietta, in
a double-role as both the telepathic Moon Queen and Jeff's
secretary/love interest). |
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Diary of a Nudist (1961)
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Tagline: "Woman Reporter Poses as Nudist!"
Plot: The
plot was described as such:
"A Beautiful and Extraordinary Love Story - About a French
Girl Who Joins An American Nature Colony." During a hunting
trip, conservative newspaper editor Arthur Sherwood (Norman Casserly)
of The Evening Times happened to stumble into a nudist
camp. To write an expose on the camp in order to shut it down,
he sent his female reporter Stacy Taylor (Davee Decker) to pose
undercover as a nudist in order to report on the place, but she
fell in love with the alternate lifestyle. Sherwood fired Stacy,
and then took her place to expose the immorality of the camp
himself - and found that he enjoyed it too. |
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Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) (aka Back to
Nature)
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Tagline: It was advertised as exhibiting "nature's carefree daughters
in all their natural beauty."
Facts: Wishman's
film was the only feature film
starring the busty redheaded burlesque queen (as Herself/Belle
Fleming).
Plot: Intrigued by the
idea of a nudist camp, screen siren Blaze Starr (Herself) became
a member of the Sunny Palms Lodge in Florida, and became close
to the camp's accordian-playing director, Andy Simms (Ralph Young).
When she looked like she might forsake or damage her professional
career by missing out on press functions, her manager/fiancee
Tony (Gene Berk) became worried. |
Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962)
(aka Back to Nature)
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Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls (1963)
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Tagline: "The
elemental beauty of nature... so intimate, so revealing!" and
"See what working girls do after a hard day at
the office!"
Plot: This
contrived plot was about a married nudist couple named Anne
(Joan Bamford) and Tom Brooks (Lou Alexion) who worked in a
real estate office with a very conservative owner, Mr. Bennett
(William Mayer). Tom was fired when the owner of the company
discovered that he was a nudist. Tom retreated to his naturist
club, where he took over as temporary nudist camp director.
He discovered that his real estate client Al Jenkins (Gene
Burk) was also a nudist camp member. So the two plotted to
see if they could change the mind of Tom's boss, by
tricking him to come to the club. |
Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls
(1963)
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Wishman Films: 1963-1965 (Unavailable For Viewing)
- Playgirls International (1963) (aka Playgirls
of Nature) (lost film)
Described as a narrated "International
Mondo-Sexy Dance Documentary"
Tagline: "A whirling
twirling panorama of Nature’s Playgirls in a new dimension!"
- Behind the Nudist Curtain (1964) (lost film)
Tagline: "It’s all new, and oh, so intimate…a
private eye’s discovery of what makes Nature Girls tick!”,
and “Filmed
around the World and in Florida’s Leading Nature Camps!"
- The Prince and the Nature Girl (1965) (only
available in German):
Tagline: "“A kingdom of girls is yours to behold!", "You’ll
flush, you’ll blush, your head will spin when you frolic with
the fairest maidens this side of Heaven!", "It’s
all New. What a Paradise…What a Fascinating Adventure!"
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Wishman: "Roughies" (Mid-to-Late
1960s Sexploitation Films)
Next for Wishman in the mid-1960s came a series of
grainy, B/W sexual melodramas or sexploitation films, sometimes called "roughies," in
which violence and the gratuitous nudity of tragic heroines was depicted,
but without explicit sex. These films played mostly in grindhouse cinema
houses. Her second release in this genre and first official "roughie"
sexploitation film was Bad
Girls Go to Hell (1965) - about Boston housewife Meg (Gigi Darlene)
who became a female fugitive runaway after accidentally murdering
her buck-toothed janitor-rapist after making love to
her husband and showering. She fled to NYC,
changed her name to Ellen Green (allegedly from Chicago), roomed with
a lesbian named Della, and claimed she was a dancer. She encountered
more abusive violence and exploitative sex - but then woke up - was
it all a dream? However, the cycle began to ominously repeat itself.
Wishman purchased O zestos minas Avgoustos
(1966, Greece) - renamed
Hot Month of August (1969) and Pyretos (1965, Greece) -
renamed Passion
Fever (1969) for $4,000 from
a struggling film company while vacationing in Greece. Both of the
"Adults Only" films were over-dubbed into English (with no regard for
the original scripts which were lost) and added about 10 minutes of
soft-core scenes (mostly nudity from body doubles with obscured faces).
The
tagline for Hot Month of August was: "He blew her cool...She
blew his...and her husband blew all in...". It marked the film
debut of soft-core star Marie Liljedahl (credited as Ann) as a teen
on the beach. And the tagline for Passion Fever was: "He
hungered for the hunt....The ANIMAL...destroying every decent girl
with INDECENT LOVE!" It added: "The Sweet Smell of a Woman...Any
Woman! This was his HANG-UP!...a master at the game!"
Movie Title Screens (or Trailer Titles) - Wishman's "Roughies"
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The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965)
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Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)
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Another Day, Another Man (1966)
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My Brothers Wife (1966)
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A Taste of Flesh (1967)
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Indecent Desires (1968)
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Too Much Too Often (1968)
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Hot Month of August (1969)
(aka O Zestos Minas Avgoustos (1966, Greece))
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Passion Fever (1969)
(aka Pyretos (1965, Greece))
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"Roughies" or Sexploitation Melodramas
(1960s)
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The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965)
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Bad Girls Go To Hell (1965)
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Another Day, Another Man (1966)
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My Brothers Wife (1966)
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A Taste of Flesh (1967)
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Indecent Desires (1968)
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Too Much Too Often (1968)
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Hot Month of August (1969)
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Wishman: Other Features (Early 1970s)
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The Amazing Transplant (1970)
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Tagline: "His
was the most unique of all... women DIED for it!"
Plot: In this Doris
Wishman thriller,
sexual encounters with women wearing gold earrings caused once-nerdy
Arthur Barlen (Juan Fernandez), with a male penis transplant, to
go homicidally crazy. In
the opening, Arthur made love to - and strangled girlfriend-fiancee
Mary (Sandy Eden) - wearing earrings. He went on to further uncontrollable
rapes and murders of women with gold earrings. A detective named
Bill (Larry Hunter) discovered why Arthur was a crazed
psychopath with a fetish regarding gold earrings (with multiple
flashbacks to many of his crimes). He learned from Arthur's
transplant doctor, Dr. Meade (Bernard Marcel), that Arthur's
well-endowed, recently-deceased donor-friend Felix had provided
Arthur with his recent penis graft or transplant. Felix was
a serial rapist who became beserk by women wearing gold earrings. The
film ended with the newspaper headline: "TRIAL ENDS JURY FINDS
ARTHUR BALEN GUILTY" |
The Amazing Transplant (1970): The Opening Scene
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Love Toy (1971)
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Tagline: "He
knew all the games...She was the plaything!"
Facts: Wishman's first soft-core
color feature film was Love Toy (1971), followed by others
- see below.
Plot: In this sleazy non hard-core thriller,
compulsive gambler Marcus (Vic Lester/Larry Hunter) lost his
own nubile teen daughter Chris (Pat Happel) due to his habit
of gin rummy. She became the sex slave of fiend Alex (Bernard
Marcel) and his wife Mary (Willa Mist/Uta Erickson) - as an
object or 'love toy' for various humiliating, role-playing
perversions, such as domination, spanking, incest, oral sex,
bondage, fetishism. After a while, Chris was converted to enjoying
being a 'love toy' - but was it only a dream? |
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Keyholes Are For Peeping (1972)
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Tagline: "Will
Titillate The Cockles of Your Heart!"
Facts: This was Wishman's
first attempt at sex comedy or parody.
Plot: Nebbish, Jerry Lewis-like Stanley
Bebble (Sammy Petrillo) took a correspondence course in marriage
counseling, and then solicited his neighbors with hand-written
business cards. He discovered his apartment building's superintendent
Manuel was a Peeping Tom into keyholes. Stanley took it upon
himself to counsel Manuel in finding a real girlfriend for
sex. |
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Chesty Morgan Films (1974)
Then, she hit it 'big' with two low-budget thrillers, Deadly
Weapons (1974) and Double Agent 73 (1974), both starring
Chesty Morgan, a Polish-born stripper with an enormous bust.
She was named for her large physical endowments (73-32-36), although
there was little sex and only a minor amount of nudity in the
films.
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Deadly Weapons (1974)
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Tagline: "Watch
the mob get busted when Chesty takes her revenge."
Facts: Doris Wishman's
notorious and off-beat sexploitation film was advertised
as featuring Polish burlesque stripper and star Chesty Morgan's
(real name Lillian Wilczkowsky) 73-inch enormous and grotesque
bustline (her complete measurements: 73-32-36).
Plot: Chesty starred as an ad executive
Crystal (billed as Zsa Zsa) - she was in love with a seedy,
gangster named 'Hook' Larry
(Greg Reynolds/Richard Towers), who was known to the Mob
for stealing a black book of names and addresses. She sought
revenge when two other mobsters, eye-patched Captain Hook
(Mitchell Fredericks) and Tony Barler (Deep Throat porn
star Harry Reems) eliminated Larry. First, to lure Captain
Hook to her room, she performed an unsexy and
lethargic striptease in a Las Vegas club. Then, she drugged
him with a mickey and then smothered him with her mammoth
'deadly weapons' on the sofa -- it was the first of two
such murders (to the sound of ten-pins falling). Her next
target was Tony in Miami.
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Double Agent 73 (1974)
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Tagline: "Watch out for the booby traps...They're
explosive."
Facts: This was considered a semi-sequel to
Deadly Weapons (1974).
Plot: Chesty Morgan portrayed Jane Tennay
(aka Agent 73), a big-breasted secret agent. Her objective
was to eliminate heroin drug-pushers (with inferior low-grade
products), led by underworld drug king Ivan Toplan (Louis
Burdi). She was outfitted via a surgical operation above
her left breast, with an implanted spy camera - to photograph
enemy agents. She was unaware that her agency had also planted
a time-triggered bomb inside the camera - in case she was
ever captured. By the film's conclusion, it was revealed
that her own love interest was the lead criminal Ivan - she
shot him to death when he asked her to marry him.
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Double Agent 73 (1974)
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Wishman: Soft-Core Features (Mid-1970s)
When more explicit
sex was demanded by the mid-1970s, Wishman directed a few soft-core
features, although reportedly wasn't present on the set when some
of the more revealing hard-core sex scenes were shot. Satan Was
a Lady (1975) was the first of two hard-core films that Wishman
directed (with the pseudonym Kenyon Wintel), although she undoubtedly
left the most hard-core scenes for others to direct. She publically
denied making the hard-core Come With Me My Love (1976).
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Satan Was a Lady (1975)
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The Immoral Three (1975) (aka Hotter Than Hell)
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Come With Me My Love (1976)
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Soft-Core Films (mid-1970s)
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Satan Was a Lady (1975)
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The Immoral Three (1975)
(aka Hotter Than Hell)
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Come With Me My Love (1976)
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Wishman's Other Features (Late 1970s and Into
the 1980s)
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Let Me Die a Woman (1977)
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Tagline: "Born
a Man. Let Me Die a Woman. All True! All Real! See a Man Become
a Woman Before Your Eyes!"
Facts: Wishman's film was
a
semi-documentary (shockumentary) about gender dysphoria and
sex change.
Plot: Included
was medical transformation post-op, sex reassignment footage
after changing a man to a woman, and the notorious chisel scene
when a hermaphrodite re-enacted excising his own penis with a
hammer and chisel.
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A Night to Dismember (1983/1989)
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Tagline: "Lust, Betrayal,
and Dismemberment..."
Facts: This was Wishman's 27th feature,
an incoherent gory, slasher horror cult film. It was her first
and only horror film. Although the film was shot in 1979 and
finally completed by 1983, it wasn't released on video until
1989. It
was entirely narrated by the voice-over of Detective Tim O'Malley
without additional dialogue from the characters: ("I'm
Tim O'Malley. I'm a detective. The story I am going to tell
you happened in October 1986 in Woodmire Lake, a small town
in the Midwest").
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Murder of Bonnie Kent in Opening Scene
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Plot: The film opened with
the bloody, axe-wielding bathtub murder of a nude Bonnie Kent
by her elder sister Susan Kent, who afterwards fell on the
axe and killed herself. The sequence was somewhat unrelated
to the remainder of the film. Two other murders happened in
rapid succession - the killing of their mother Lola Kent (Cindy
Boudreau) (also murdered in a bathtub) by her husband Mr. Broderick
Kent (Levi Richards), who then hanged himself.
Six years later, The Kent family's young niece, Vicki
Kent (Samantha Fox porn star) was released from the Brandt
Hospital for the Criminally Insane after serving just five
years for murder. Vicki went to live with her father Adam (Saul
Meth), her mother Blanche (Miriam Meth), and her two
scheming, jealous and conspiring siblings Mary Kent (Diane Cummins)
and Billy Kent (Bill Szarka) - members of a murderous
and cursed family. Subsequently, Vicki (and others) went on
a killing rampage involving dismemberment (spikings, impalements,
stabbings, knifings, etc.) - mostly caused by her siblings
who appeared to be framing Vicki for the many murders, or were
trying to drive her crazy, in order to send her back to the state
asylum.
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Satan Was a Lady (2001)
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Tagline: "Evil comes in many shapes,
she just had the best one..." and "She worked the corner of
Sin and Shame!"
Facts: After
a 17 year hiatus (from 1983 to 2000), Wishman made a comeback
film - Satan Was a Lady (2001), a remake of her own
film from 1975 (starring Annie Sprinkle).
Plot: This latest
lurid pulp melodrama told about a red-haired, curvy, and sadistic
dominatrix-stripper and hooker named Cleo Irane (Honey Lauren)
who was obsessed with a fur coat and other luxuries. In the
opening sequence, she wore a mask as she viciously whipped
a bare-backed man until she drew lots of blood. Her plan to
blackmail a rich businessman client John King
(Edge) didn't turn out well.
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Wishman's Last Two Films (Released Post-Humously):
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Dildo Heaven (2002) (aka Desperate Desires)
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Tagline: "Wild, wicked and wanton!"
Fact: The film, a soft-core sex comedy
(with surreal dream sequences), had its official world premiere
at the New York Underground Film Festival in early 2002. It
was a direct-to-video feature.
Plot: Three lusful female roommates struggled
with their Peeping Tom neighbor, wished to seduce their bosses
for sex, and enjoyed the pleasures of owning
a dildo. |
Each Time I Kill (2007)
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Tagline: "A shocking story revealing the brutality of innocence!"
Fact: This last film written and directed
by Wishman, was shot in 2002.
Plot: It was a teen horror thriller about a magical,
mystical locket. If its shy high-school teenaged owner Ellie
Saunders (Tiffany Paralta) committed a murder, she could claim
a physical attribute of the victim. |
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