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“Skip The Juvenile Delinquency And Get Right To The Sex”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber and Something Weird Video continue their collaboration to present “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture” with Volume 10—Wages of Sin. Unlike the other exploitation titles that have appeared over the last two years, Wages is not an American picture; instead, it comes from Switzerland and was originally released as a serious drama examining the social problem of illegal abortions and the need to educate the public in birth control, as well as make a case for the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. The original German title translates to, roughly, The Doctor Says… or The Doctor Speaks Out…

However, American producer/director/actor Donn Davison, who at the time was a practitioner in the grindhouse and exploitation film circuit, secured the U.S.

Act Like a Man is a column examining male screen performers past and present, across nationality and genre. If movie stars reflect the needs and desires of their audience in any particular era, examining their personas, popularity, fandom, and specific appeals has plenty to tell us about the way cinema has constructed—and occasionally deconstructed—manhood on our screens.In the postwar Polish cinema, it’s difficult to overstate the revolutionary difference presented by the screen appearance of Zbigniew Cybulski. In a nation so thoroughly devastated by the Nazi occupation and the horrors of Stalinism, Cybulski and his generation helped represent the future, though not unchecked by the nightmares of the past. In his short 39 years, he starred in dozens of films—the most prominent of which were collaborations with close friend Andrzej Wajda. In 1956, what would later be called “the thaw” would help spring Polish filmmakers from creative prison.

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...