Oddball
Films presents Strange Sinema 54, a monthly screening of offbeat films, old
gems and newly discovered oddities all culled from Oddball Films 50,000 film
archive. Offbeat, genre-bending and wildly entertaining, this month Strange
Sinema 54: Strange Sex features a truly oddball look at that confounding
subject called sex. Films include the rarely-screened, award-winning
documentary The Most (1963), featuring the crown prince of sex, Hugh Hefn*r in
a candid (and unintentionally hilarious) profile of his erotic empire and the
swingin' Playb*y Club in early 1960s Chicago, Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs
(1943), one of the greatest banned cartoons of all time tells a twisted Snow
White tale, Sinderella (1968), features amateur drag queens strutting their
stuff in this bitch-slapping fairy tale (and Jack Smith influenced) reenactment
shot in San Francisco, Woody Woodpecker goes drag and eats his landlord out of
house and home in the rollicking Chew Chew Baby (1945), Uncle Si and the Sirens (1938)
integrates magical technology and voyeuristic lust, while Beaver Boys Puppet
Porn (1968) shows off a foxy gay puppet!, Buried Treasure (1928) the world's first
erotic and kinky animated short will bring down the house, while Sandy Sunrise
in The Babysitter (1970s),
a Triple XXX short combines themes of babysitting
and vegetables with minds of their own, featuring music by the Beach Boys
'Smiley Smile' (!) album. Plus! Rare tidbits from the NY Erotic Film Festival,
Weird and erotic commercials and the Cheap Smut Give-A-Way!
Date:
Friday, July 27, 2012 at 8:00pm
Venue:
Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission:
$10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to info@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
The
Most (B+W, 1963)
"It's
not very flattering but it's a work of art."-Hugh Hefn*r
"a
witty and ferociously loaded profile... The simple but devastating technique is
to let Hefner spout his philosophy, then, sandwich each banality between fleshy
layers of a Playboy party."
The
Sunday Telegram July 26, 1964
This
rarely screened, award-winning biopic by Richard Ballentine and Gordon Sheppard,
chronicles the man known for selling sex to America and creating a socio-sexual
cultural phenomenon, Hugh Hefn*r.
The
documentary short, which won the 1963 San Francisco International Film
Festival's Golden Gate Award, is
an incredibly savage length of film. One wonders, in the face of all the
evidence, if it really is a documentary, if its subject-Hugh Hefn*r, Playb*y
magazine, Pl*yboy Clubs, Pl*yboy bunnies, the lot - exists at all. That man,
strutting, preening, posing, and spouting nonsense, is a new kind of animated
cartoon, a sort of mental Magoo who cannot possibly realize what he is saying
when he admits, with feigned modesty, "It's probably not true that I have
made love to more beautiful women than any man in history," or when he
asserts, "Going by the strict definition of the word, yes, I suppose I am
a genius."
The
prince of playmates lives in an unspeakably vulgar playhouse, with a swimming
pool and, apparently, a perennial party. The film shows Hefner's minions (one
spits an ice cube back into his drink and says how much "Hef" has
done to change his life) and mignonnes. Or, there he is again, in his office,
late at night ("I often work in my pee-jays") saying, "I don't
think I'd change places with anyone in the world," and that, at least, is
a good thing, for no one who has seen Richard Ballentine and Gordon Sheppard's
cinematic portrait of Hefner would he willing to switch with him.-Newsweek
Magazine September 2, 1963
Coal
Black and the Sebben Dwarfs (Color, 1943)
Considered
by many one of the greatest animated films of all time, Coal Black has been
officially banned from circulation since 1968 and is one of the so called
"Censored 11", the group of cartoons pulled by United Artists due to
sexist and racist content. A
parody of Snow White, (called "So White" in the film), the blackface
imagery and stereotypes are shocking to witness today (including a nasty dig at
the Japanese). Nonetheless, Coal Black is a cultural tour de force snapshot of
1940's America, ugly stereotypes and all.
Sinderella
(B+W & Color, 1962) This amateur film produced in San Francisco by
"Lorelei" is a faithful reenactment of the Brother's Grimm
Cinderella.... with a super-campy twist including a handful of lovely drag
queens playing all the parts. A rare document of the San Francisco drag scene
in the early 60s, this gem is like a long-lost stepsister to Jack Smith's
Flaming Creatures. With low-brow production values, awesome wigs and
high-handed bitch slapping! Watch Sinderella's hair get a fabulous makeover when
she's transformed!.
Chew
Chew Baby (B+W, 1945)
The
infamously notorious and annoying Woody Woodpecker manages to get himself
evicted from a boarding house run by proprietor Wally Walrus. Later lonely
Wally runs an ad in the local newspaper looking for a sweetheart. Woody shows
up in drag at Wally's place and eats him out of house and home! A laugh riot!
Uncle
Si and the Sirens (B+W, 1938)
Uncle
Si sits at home with his wife reading a pamphlet about the most wonderful and
marvelous invention of the age - the American Television Receiver. It can
receive the human voice and show the human form. The illustration inspires him
to build one. In the bedroom he works with radio parts and what looks like a
mirrored vanity. Success! Miss Cynthia Squires, the world famous temperance
lecturer, appears in the tv mirror. Si's wife approves. Si makes some
adjustments, and a hula-hula dancer appears. This is more like it. Si dances
along in delight until he swallows his tobacco. More adjustments bring nude
women into view, smiling and posing discretely. Has Si found Utopia?
Beaver
Boy Puppet Porn! (1968)
Decades
before the rise of "furry" culture, Beaver Boy is the touching story
of a young man, reading quietly by himself, who is propositioned by a fox
puppet, a proposition too good to pass up.
Buried
Treasure (B+W, 1924)
The
legendary porno cartoon with a boogie woogie piano soundtrack depicting the
unlikely adventures of the perpetually aroused title character (Eveready
Hardon) with, among others, a man, a woman, and a cow. You'll laugh and the
guys may even scream!
The
artists are unknown, but a widespread rumor states that a group of famous
animators created the film for a private party in honor of Winsor McCay. Disn*y
animator Ward Kimball gave the following account of the history of the short:
"The
first porno-cartoon was made in New York. It was called "Eveready
Harton" and was made in the late 20's, silent, of course-by three studios.
Each one did a section of it without telling the other studios what they were
doing. Studio A finished the first part and gave the last drawing to Studio B
Involved were Max Fleisher, Paul Terry and
the Mutt and Jeff studio. They
didn't see the finished product till the night of the big show. A couple of
guys who were there tell me the laughter almost blew the top off the hotel
where they were screening it."
Sandy
Sunrise in the Babysitter (Color, 1971)
This
bizarro Triple xxx short explores the misadventures of a female babysitter and
vegetables with a mind of their own! Produced by Warped Imaginations (A Cum
Stained Cartoon) featuring music from the classic Beach Boys Smiley Smile album(!) What
hath the swingin', sexy 60s wrought?
Curator's Biography:
Stephen
Parr's previous programs have explored the erotic underbelly of sex-in-cinema
(The Subject is Sex), the offbeat and bizarre (Oddities Beyond Belief), the
pervasive effects of propaganda (Historical/Hysterical?) and oddities from his
archives (Strange Sinema). He is the director of Oddball Film+Video and the San
Francisco Media Archive (www.sfm.org), a non-profit archive that preserves
culturally significant films. He is a co-founder of Other Cinema DVD and a
member of the Association of Moving Archivists (AMIA) where he is a frequent
presenter.