Hollywood Babylon

Hollywood Babylon (1972)

** (out of 4)

When Kenneth Anger released his now notorious book Hollywood Babylon, most people came out and said it was nothing but lies. In 1972 this exploitation movie was made, which is mostly public domain footage from silent movies with some re-enactments added for "adult" favor. This so-called documentary shows up what the likes of Clara Bow, Charlie Chaplin, Wally Reid, Marlene Dietrich and Fatty Arbuckle were really up to behind the camera.

Anger's book has pretty much been laughed off the map as far as any truths are concerned but there's no question it was a ground-breaker and it really did open the doors for such sleaze as the National Enquirer and TMZ. This film, on the other hand, just uses the book for its title and the rest is pretty much pure exploitation. In fact, it often doesn't even mention the stars that the re-enactments are based around and I'm guessing this is because the producers didn't want to get sued.

We learn about various naughty parts of Hollywood during the 1920s including the drug use that killed the likes of Wally Reid and Olive Thomas. We also hear about how Chaplin had a thing for very young girls and was forced into marrying one. We also see that savage beast Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as he attacks a sweet, young girl at one of his parties. Several other celebrities have their stories exposed here.

Yeah, this thing is pretty darn stupid from start to finish but fans of exploitation might find it entertaining in a strange way. The re-enactments are nothing but sex, nudity, orgies and more nudity. I'm not going to lie, some of the re-enactments were rather funny including the Clara Bow gang bang of a football team. Of course, this has been proved false. The re-enactments are all rather poorly done including the Arbuckle sequence, which really makes no sense and really comes no where near any of the "truths" or "myths" to the story.

Hollywood BABYLON is a pretty sleazy little movie that has no real purpose other than to show many women naked. Exploitation fans will notice Uschi Digard playing Dietrich.

Some of the sleaziest rumors of old Hollywood turned into a series of short films with beautiful, and often even stunning, girls and overly long and rambling voiceovers. The film works with allegations and insinuations probably for legal reasons (because many of the stories are overblown or completely fictitious) which takes a lot of the edge away and makes the storytelling weirdly coy and camp. Many of the stars are so old that you may never have heard of them, such as Olive Thomas. In the case of Fatty Arbuckle, being exonerated in a court of law didn't save him from getting smeared here once more.

Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon is one hell of an expose of the early days of Hollywood sleaze even though some of it was probably embellished. However I think it cannot be denied that their were wild parties, rampant sex and despicable behaviour with all sorts of cover ups to protect the guilty.

This movie version is loosely based on the book but nowhere near as biting or entertaining. Kenneth has anger but not the wit. This is old public domain footage with some soft porn re-enactments of some sleaze from the stars of the silent screen.

The film starts brightly enough but after a while it stops mentioning the scandalous stars that misbehaved. I guess at the time some of the stars involved were still alive and the producers of the film did not want to be sued.

It is a curious film worth watching while having access to Wikipedia so you can find out more about the stars featured and what might had actually happened in their private lives. I think some of the stories seem less sordid now, even Fatty Arbuckle's use of a champagne bottle to make up for his shortcomings.

Based on the Kenneth Anger book of the same name, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON is over 50% public domain silent movie footage with boring narration over it. I can't believe I'm commenting on this, as it is really nothing to comment on, but there are some good sequences of Uschi Digard as a lesbian Marlene Dietrich and the re-enactment of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. Otherwise, nothing to shout about and certainly nothing to seek out. Maybe if you're a Hollywood scandal fanatic, but even then, more time is spent on Hollywood history (mostly fictional).

This is pure exploitation (in the best sense). You take some scenes from classic public domain films (Keaton etc.) mixed it with historical WWI footage and then you spice it up with some wild softcore re-enactments of the scandals from Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon" book and, BANG!, you've got a hit! Oliver Stone, eat your heart out! Boobqueen Uschi ("Supervixens", "Scavengers", "Touch Of Sweden" etc.) Digart's portrait of a lesbian Marlene Dietrich is a blast. More informative (and funnier) than Discovery History Channel! The slick but stale flicks of the PC 90's can't hold a candle to the wonderful world of 70's exploitation cinema. So get your psychotronic kicks, daddy-o!