Perversion for Profit

Presented and narrated by veteran newscaster and later right-wing pundit George Putnam (A registered Democrat FYI) and funded by fraudster/anti-porn crusader Charles Keating this production is what is often described as the "Reefer Madness of Porn". Various ludicrous postulates of the most alarmist nature are asserted as pure facts.

The censorship brigade which. by the time this was shot and cut. likely shared membership lists with the Temperance Union and other flaky outfits. The sheer panic that somebody might be getting sexual fulfillment literally anywhere probably horrified them enough to get them to watch this silliness over and over.

Even a prude (I'm one of those guys who complains to convenience store owners about porn being in full or partial view of minors) like me was disturbed by the moral arrogance and conspiracy theorist-style paranoia not merely present in the actual production but the forces behind it's conception.

The idea of it all being subversive was of course absurd in most of the examples presented. But the attitude, which at the time was so prevalent. meant that it was an underground industry which mafiosi produced for massive profit which financed other illegal enterprises. The notion that it was a gateway to depravity was only true because it had been driven underground into the clutches of organized crime.

Featured are nudist magazines which were of course just pornography masquerading as lifestyle magazines - a silly pretense employed to vend porn which fooled no one. Along with that are muscle and fitness magazines which in some cases they really were just that, but in other cases were openly gay erotica.

With it's paranoic's homophobic stance and junk science we get an idea of not only of the kind of prudery so dominant before the Sexual Revolution but the kind of virulent prejudice that now appears to have been an inseparable.

Keating, later convicted of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy used his public stance as defender of morality to hide behind. The anti-porn stance was an utterly brilliant way to win the confidence of crazy old ladies with money which they were only to happy to let him make off with in his various scams.

Keating testified before congress that he believed pornography was part of a communist conspiracy. All part of his narrative. All part of his scam.

I'm only guessing that most of the money put up for this production was spent on Putnam's services and his cachet as a news gatherer/presenter. Shot inside an office, with a map of the United States as backdrop and picture cards as props, his voice and presence are the one aspect that aren't bush league.

I've seen a number of reviews here by people who seem to think that this film is some kind of documentary. It's nothing of the kind. This is nothing more than a good old-fashioned exploitation film.

This film had no more intention of "saving souls from smut" than "Reefer Madness" had of dissuading people from smoking pot. The whole point of the exercise is to circumvent the legal and moral restrictions of the day and to make a fast buck while doing it.

These films all follow the same pattern:

1. "XYZ is evil/immoral/deadly"

2. "Here are some examples of XYZ so you'll know it when you see it."

3. "Fight XYZ!"

As the Master of Exploitation, Dave Friedman, points out in his autobiography, "A Youth in Babylon," the idea was to get the rubes to part with a few bucks to see something they could never see at the local Bijou.

Disguise it as "hygiene" or wrap it in patriotism or religion and the cops won't bother you.

Some other classic examples of the genre are "Mom and Dad," "Sex Madness", "Exposing the Nudist Racket". I believe all of these are available online.

Perversion for Profit (1965)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

George Putnam, listed in the credits as being an "outstanding news reporter", tackles dirty magazines that were on bookshelves back in 1965. Standing in front of a map of the U.S., Putnam talks to the viewer about all the evil magazines that are turning people into perverts, lesbians, homosexuals, child molesters and various other sexual evils. As you can tell, the main draw to a film like this is just like the draw of REEFER MADNESS and that's just to see how much b.s. they can fit into one film. The film is quite funny because of how politically incorrect the film is so if you're easily offended then you might want to stay away. I personally never knew how many adult magazines were available back in the day so it was very interesting seeing the covers and what was being passed off as sexy then. The narration is so over the top and the stories he's telling are so stupid that you can't take them seriously for a second. The stuff dealing with homosexuals trying to lure young boys was outlandishly surreal. The entire film is a nostalgia trip for those certain people pushing their viewpoints with lies.

Watching this 49 year old film from the perspective of same sex marriage rapidly gaining ground throughout the USA and civil right statutes for sexual orientation and gender identity being passed and enforced, one can only marvel at the sea change in attitude in half a century. Four years after this film and it does spend a good deal of time attacking gays, the Stonewall Rebellion took place.

Perversion For Profit is at the same level as Reefer Madness. I have no doubt that this was a work personally conceived by J. Edgar Hoover. The presence of George Putnam as narrator who was a running buddy of Hoover in the same manner that Walter Winchell was gives credence to that belief. During the course of the narration Putnam makes mention of the fact that our opponents in the Cold War, the Communists are at least applauding America's descent into 'degeneracy'. Putnam used the phrase Masters Of Deceit which was a book authored under Hoover's name and the phrase was that the Communists were masters of deceit.

I've also no doubt that after seeing this film those so inclined to alternative sexual expression went racing around their towns to find if their outlets for porn were still secure or seeking to acquire new ones.

Putnam's strident narration leaves us no doubt that the number one problem in America was porn, that it led people into all kinds of immoral behavior. Not race relations, not poverty, not the environment, kids getting their rocks off over something salacious and turning into polymorphous perverse. Does that not sound familiar?

Listening to Putnam among other things that ran through my mind was Robert Preston telling the folks of River City about their number one problem with that pool hall. No doubt the yokels of 1965 just ate this up.

George Putnam lived to the ripe old age of 94 dying in 2008. I can only imagine what he thought of the America he was leaving.

The first 5 minutes and I thought this must be from the McCarthyite early 1950's, when the Communist menace spread like an ink blot across the map, and every New Deal liberal had an FBI tail. But, no-- It's 1965, and thanks to a liberal Supreme Court, sexual explicitness is spreading to magazines and, horror of horrors, to neighborhood news stands. So the same folks who brought us the McCarthy purges must again swing into action against this newest assault on God, country, and the missionary position. After all, these self- appointed watchdogs are well practiced in the art of subversion—of the First Amendment, that is.

No need to repeat consensus points made by others. The logic of this 60-minute screed is indeed puerile and on the order of "If you like hamburger, you'll love cannibalism". But then, the script was never intended as an appeal to reason; it's meant to rally those already believing that any kind of sex outside monogamous marriage and man-on-top is not only wrong, but just plain evil, and a "threat to the American Way". Of course, it doesn't hurt, as the Bible well knew, to provide a little titillation along with the righteous sermon to keep all those nodding heads awake.

But these folks know what they're doing. Like fundamentalists of all stripes, they know that if you control a person's sex life, you control the person. Putnam gives away the game in the last 5-minutes, which stresses the significance of a tightly regulated sex life to our God- ordained right-wing American society. In short, Hugh Hefner is not just an evil pornographer, he's downright un-American and a threat to the family, and so much for the First Amendment and the rest of us. Thanks be to TMC for reviving this curiosity, for these forces are still among us, going by the name of Falwell, Robertson, and Roman Catholic conservatives, among others. They may have lost the 1965 battle, but the Word of God is absolute, and so, unfortunately for our democracy, are their beliefs.

(In passing—those of us living in LA and of a certain age are quite familiar with the late George Putnam. Regrettably, he anchored a local news show for many years, where he pontificated nightly in the same pompously self-righteous manner as this 1965 diatribe, that is, until the Nixon scandals, among others, undid his credibility. Perhaps most revealing, he was the inspiration for the smugly vacuous Ted Baxter newsman on the old Mary Tyler Moore TV show. You know, the silver-haired guy who was clueless to everything but his own ego. How appropriate.)