Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad (1945)

** (out of 4)

Joan Blake (June Carlson) is a sweet and innocent teenager who sadly has a mom (Lois Austin) who refuses to talk to her about grown up things. This includes sex and before long Joan is dating a man who talks her into having it. Soon after Joan learns that she is pregnant.

MOM AND DAD is the notorious film that broke all sorts of grounds when it was originally released. Director William Beaudine was known for countless "B" and "C" movies and he actually does a very good job in his role here. Exploitation movies were all around throughout the 30s and 40s but this one here tried to go a bit further. For starters, this one was aimed at the mainstream and it managed to make a lot of money even with its controversial subject. The biggest "shock" for people at the time comes towards the end of the film when we get what would basically become the educational short showing an actual child birth.

But outside the controversy, how is the film? I actually thought it was much better made than countless other films that came before it. Stuff like REEFER MADNESS, SEX MADNESS and CHILD BRIDE were trashy films and they were also very poorly made. This film here tries to be educational in the same way but this here is much better made and at least tries to tell a serious story. It film certainly isn't a masterpiece but you can at least say it was better made than most films like it.

The performances are pretty much what you'd expect, although none of them are too awful. The film does have some campy moments including the mother played by Lois Austin. Her mindset is so silly and campy that you can't help but laugh at her and her thoughts on what should or shouldn't be taught to children. At 97 minutes the film runs on a bit long but for the most part it's mildly entertaining.

"Mom and Dad" is a so-called 'Roadshow Movie" and was rarely shown in actual movie theaters. Instead, the folks would travel the country with the film, showing it in various auditoriums. Why? Because the film is a sex education drama...and most theaters refused to show such 'filth'! Of course, many folks really WANTED to see the films...either to educate themselves or, more often, because they heard it was a 'dirty' film and wanted to see more! Many Roadshow movies weren't the least bit educational and were there simply to titillate. Others, like "Mom and Dad", were more well-meaning and educational.

Because this film was made in the 1940s and folks were extremely phobic about talking about sex AND because a 'sex film' MIGHT get you prosecuted by local authorities, the film, though well meaning, also hedges its bets. Many common words about sexuality simply aren't in the movie and euphemisms are often used. The only portion that is really educational is late in the movie when there is a very dry movie within the movie and it shows footage about childbirth and various STDs.

As for the rest of the story, it's about a nice girl whose mother is about as phobic and hung up about sexuality as possible. And, when the girl becomes pregnant, she cannot go to her parents to tell them what's happened because of this. Thanks to a nice ex-teacher who was fired for actually talking about 'social hygiene' (the euphemism the film uses for sex), the parents attend to the girl and everything works out fine...though, just to drive home how bad sex is, the girl and baby almost die!!

Overall, a film that is NOT bold nor shocking (words the film uses at the end) because of the time in which it was made. But for an exploitation film, it's pretty tame and actually has some decent production values for a cheap sex ed film of the mid-1940s. Not very good....nor all that bad. An interesting curio.

Mom and Dad is far the most successful exploitation/sex-hygiene film ever made, and not because of it's subject matter or it's production value. The main reason this little $65.000 film made over 22 million dollars in just under 11 years was because of Howard W. "Kroger" Babb, his carny like showmanship and unwavering promotion would always get 'em in the door, or as he would say "you gotta tell 'em to sell 'em". Shot by William "One Shot" Beaudine on a old Monogram lot in Hollywood over the course of a week, This film would go on to make Kroger Babbs tons of money.

The story is a simple one that would be copied by many others afterwards to capitalize on it's popularity. It's a story about a high school student who gets pregnant by a airplane pilot, he dies in a plane crash. Knowing she's in trouble and about to give birth, she confides in her high school teacher, but the teacher rats her out to her parents, and her parents get the teacher fired because she answered sex hygiene question in class?!?!. So, mother and daughter run away to another town to have the kid, the teacher gets re-hired and starts a class on hygiene. Experts are brought with films on childbirth and VD to the school to teach the little kiddies!! But to foil a happy ending the girl who was pregnant gives birth to a stillborn child, and I guess everyone lives happily ever after.

Although this film is nothing special or sensational, it was the marketing of it that made everyone come to it. The shows were segregated by gender, attendants posed as nurses and handed out booklets on sexual hygiene, all this added to the expectation that what audiences would see is something special. When audiences were sometimes letdown, a square up reel was shown (a square up reel is another short film afterwards, typically something really hot). Usually the square up reel was a live childbirth scene, (or something more sensational) that more than likely gave the audiences some satisfaction in seeing this film.

Billed as an educational product by Hygienic Productions- this film is surprisingly progressive! Viewing pearl-clutching mothers very critically and being firmly anti-abstinance-only education and pro-knowledge, this seems like the antithesis to Reefer Madness with actual awareness of reality and a willingness to say the parents are to blame for their children's ignorance.

The narrative half of this movie has some genuinely good character dynamics; a believable brother-sister relationship, one character that is the picture of sleazy fuckboys and a teacher that only wants the best for his students. It also deals with attempted suicide and frank discussions of sex.

The educational half has some shocking moments, most famously depicting actual footage of live human births, including a C-Section that is just as graphic now as it was then. Also images of venereal diseases with uncensored footage of infected penises and vaginas- it's so impactful to see it in a mainstream movie in the mid-40's!

There is some strange musical tones this movie has, like the music is so classic-Hollywood, it clashes with the realism the film is trying to convey, it seems to attempt to drown out the sorrow the main actress has when she realizes she's pregnant and other realistic dramatic and brutal moments.

Still a genuinely provocative movie for its time and now!

Using carnival-like methods of promotion, combined with word-of-mouth advertising, this movie exploited sex hygiene et cetera with incredible success. When I was 16 (a long time ago) this movie was in re-issue and a group of us drive 50 miles each way to the drive-in theater playing it exclusively. On a work night, suburban Washington DC's biggest drive-in was sold out. It was a "roadshow" one-theater attraction and they came with a carnival-like crew because at some point the film was stopped and they hawked sexual hygiene books to the audience. There was a rumor I'd heard many times over many years that the film contained an actual scene of sexual intercourse (untrue, but worth talking up.) The movie itself was pretty good, and the entire experience, including the carnival-hustle, made an unforgettable experience.