American Nudes
Cult Epics
3 Disc digipack
This is a difficult set of DVDs to
classify. It is a collection of American "erotic" short films from
the 1930s to the 1970s. For "erotic" read "pornographic" -
although they may not seem so now, in their day they only pretended to be
artistic. The set of DVDs doesn’t pretend to be educational – there is no
commentary or sleeve notes. It is not really pornographic by current standards –
as far as the women are concerned , you can see more on an average beach in
summer these days. It does, however, reflect the trends in what titillated men
over the years.
The first DVD is from the 1940s period.
The plots, such as they are, consist of various pretexts for girls to undress.
These include an expose of girls who take their clothes off for money (“They Wear No Clothes!” – shock,
simulated horror !) and, of course , the compulsory “documentary” on nudist
camps. (“They won’t even allow dressing
on their salads”). The obsession at this time was apparently with breasts.
Very little is shown below the waist, and even that must have neatly-trimmed
pubic hair. The girls at least were young, looked happy in their work,
and the short films were well made and come out well on the DVD.
Volume 2 covers the 1950 – 1960 period. In
this post-war time the producers seem to have lost the touch of simple class
that they had in the earlier decade. The quality of the production seems lower,
the women somewhat older and bulkier, and the action consists of them taking
off their clothes and rolling around a bit on the bed. There is no attempt at a
plot, however minimal. Girls “wrestling” each other is about as exciting as it
gets. Producer Irving Klaw seems to have been an expert at these quickie
soft-cores. He and actress Bette Page turned them out at an alarming rate. His
sister Paula also featured in some of his movies, and he gradually built up a
stable of burlesque dancers such as Blaze Starr for his productions. Tame by
today’s standards, they really pushed the limits in the 1950s. Unless you are a
fan of suspender belts and stockings, though, it is hard to imagine that these
were regarded as pornography in their day.
There are brief appearances by Klaytan W
Kirby, “Famous Underwater Danseur”, in a couple of underwater “mermaid”
sequences. The underwater scenes were filmed in the pool at the Town House in
The films from which the DVD was compiled
seem to have had a rough life as well, with numerous streaks and marks. This
section could have done with a bit of digital retouching. Overall, the films of
this period look a bit cheap and tawdry.
Volume 3 covers 1960 to 1970, just before
some real money was put into the industry to produce feature-length shows like
"Sex World". Color was introduced, but the subtlety is gone, the
women are rather hard-looking, and nothing is spared from the probing eye of
the camera. The clips show this period as the beginning of mass production
hard-core, complete with full visible penetration and “money shots”.
I am a little sorry that the set does not
include some clips from the pornography renaissance of the late 1970s and
1980s, when good scripts and quality production led to some of porn’s greater
productions. What is included on Volume 3 is some very early (around the 1930s)
clips of surprisingly hard core films. The poor quality of the film hides the
detail, but they are quaint and rather whimsical in their silent movie style,
and a worthwhile addition to the collection.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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