Sex and Buttered Popcorn

This film chronicles the exploitation film business of the '30s and '40s. Though this documentary does provide ample footage of legendary films like 'Mom and Dad', 'Maniac', and 'Reefer Madness', its aim is not to provide artistic criticism (which, given the quality of these movies, is a wise choice). Rather, 'Sex and Buttered Popcorn' highlights the promoters of these films, complete with reminiscences from many of the top exploitation producers.

Most of the films under consideration dealt with some taboo issue that excited the public's interest and (often morbid) curiosity. 'Maniac', for example, ostensibly deals with mental illness, 'Mom and Dad' with teen pregnancy, 'Reefer Madness' with drug use. The promoters would use the films to excite, titillate, and often panic their crowds, then sell books and other materials dealing with the topic. In almost all instances, the movies were there to help sell other products, not to stand on their own. This subtlety is usually lost on modern viewers of these movies, especially "bad movie" fans who often cry, "What were they thinking?" This film goes a long way toward answering that question.

Granted, most of the films were laughably bad by modern standards, and one can only speculate on the quality of the materials these hucksters were dealing, but the surviving promoters certainly show no shame. The men in this movie, rather, are proud of what they did and speak with great joy of their days on the circuit.

If you're a fan of exploitation movies, this is indispensable viewing. If not, it's still a fascinating look at a misunderstood sector of the industry. 7/10.

"Sex and Buttered Popcorn" is a documentary about exploitational films. While the film does explain what they were to a degree, it's not a very thorough examination of the genre is meant more to titillate. For example, most of the exploitation films of the 1930s-50s actually showed very little and nudity in them was very rare....yet the clips you see tend to be from more obscure stag films...giving you the impression that the movies were filled with nudity. As for me, I would have preferred a more thorough explanation of how the films were marketed and how they got around the very tough Production Code which eliminated off-color subject matter in movies. The film just wasn't very thorough and is more a basic look at the movies. Showing the names of the various films in the clips AND less of an overreliance on a few exploitation films would have helped.

Now my complaints don't mean I disliked the documentary. Parts of it were quite good...such as showing two versions of the same movie...the less sleazy (for more conservative markets) and the more gratuitous ones for cities.

In fact, there is 338 minutes, which is a tad bit more than the 74 minutes shown on site as the running time. This comes from a three-volume VHS set released in 2001 by Kit Parker and VCI Entertainment.

Volume 1 "Sex and Buttered Popcorn: "Tease, Sleaze and Social Disease" begins with trailers, images of the lobby cards and posters, Ned Beatty doing a carnival barker introduction, and then the nearly full-length presentation of 1934's "Tomorrow's Children'", followed by 1943's "The Story of DE 733 (The Ship of Shame." )113 minutes running time.

Volume 2 "Sex and Buttered Popcorn: "Sex, Sin and Salvation" begins with (different)trailers, images of the lobby cards and posters, Ned Beatty doing a carnival barker introduction, followed by full versions of 1940's "Mad Youth" and 1949's "Wild Weed. 143 minutes running time.

Volume 3 "Sex and Buttered Popcorn: "The Story of the Hollywood Exploiteers", is basically the version shown on site, minus Beatty's carnival spiel but narrated throughout by Mr. Beatty and as described in most of the Reviews and Comments on this page. 82 Minutes running time.