Les fausses pudeurs

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.

William Beaudine's masterpiece had to wait in line until today, after being purchased many months ago. It is a great time capsule, a lot of fun, with unintentional humor and real concern for the characters' dilemmas. A high school girl gets pregnant by her pilot friend, but the boy unexpectedly dies, she doesn't know what to do, her mother doesn't help and a teacher shows her educational material to prevent her from any sexually transmitted disease... The plot is a simple excuse to include educational material with sexual content, for exploitative purposes. If we think that we have gotten rid of this kind of behavior, this morale and these social attitudes, don't be mistaken. They are still going strong, hidden behind PC. Masks. The bonus shorts and the sexploitation trailers included in the DVD edition are also good.

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.

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.

Its incredible but this $67,000 film made between $40-100 million at the box office! Thats Star Wars money in the 40's. In fact, it was difficult not to know about it back then. Its an old school exploitation film of the, believe it or not, 'sex hygiene' sub-genre. It faced many legal challenges and was even condemned by the National Legion of Decency. It used the tried and tested method of circumventing censorship laws by positioning itself as an educational film. It was never allowed to play in the big cinemas, it instead played mainly as a travelling show at various towns, with separate screenings for women and men.

Its storyline is melodramatic nonsense about a girl who falls pregnant to an older boy. She can't tell her mother, as mum's morals are stuck so firmly in the Victorian era that she gathers a posse and gets a teacher at the school fired for teaching sex education! Needless to say, things get worse before they get better.

But so what you might think? Where's the money shot in all this carry on? Well, towards the end an obstetrician is wheeled out and he shows some films to a class of teenage girls and this is where things get psychotronic. There is graphic footage of live births - one natural and one Caesarian. The latter is endurance testing stuff I can tell you....ugh! Then there are various images of body parts mutilated with syphilis and venereal disease! Horrible scars, rotting teeth, infected genitals and oozing open sores are the order or the day! There is no build up or warning for any of this stuff! Its all there to educate of course.

A proper curiosity piece this one. Well worth watching if you are at all interested in the stranger corners of the cinematic world.