Can You Really Exploit Exploitation?
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.
** (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.
- Michael_Elliott
- Sep 3, 2015