Sexploitation, or "sex-exploitation", describes a class of independently produced, low-budget^[1] feature films generally associated with the 1960s^[2] and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films. Sexploitation films were generally exhibited in urban grindhouse theatres, the precursor to the adult movie theaters of the '70s and '80s that featured hardcore content. The term soft-core is often used to designate non-explicit sexploitation films after the general legalization of hardcore content. Nudist films are often considered to be subgenres of the sex-exploitation genre as well. "Nudie" films and "Nudie-cuties" are associated genres.^[2]

History[link]

Following a series of United States Supreme Court rulings in the late 1950s and '60s, increasingly explicit sex films were distributed.^[2] In 1957 Roth v. United States had established that sex and obscenity were not synonymous.^[2] The genre first emerged in the U.S. around 1960.^[3] There were initially three broad types: "nudie cuties" such as The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959), films set in nudist camps like Daughter of the Sun (1962) and somewhat more "artistic" foreign pictures such as The Twilight Girls (1961).^[1] Nudie cuties were popular in the early 1960s and were a progression from the nudist camp films of the 1950s.^[4] The Supreme Court had previously ruled that films set in nudist camps were exempt from the general ban on film nudity, as they were deemed to be educational.^[4] In the early 1960s films that purported to be documentaries and were thus "educational" enabled sexploitation producers to evade the censors.^[5] Nudie cuties were soon supplanted by "roughies", which commonly featured male violence against women, including kidnapping, rape and murder.^[6][7] Lorna (1964) by Russ Meyer is widely considered to be the first roughie.^[7] Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman's Scum of the Earth! (1963) is another film that is cited as among the first in this genre.^[8] Other notable roughie directors include Doris Wishman.^[7]

Sexploitation films initially played in grindhouse theatres^[9] and struggling independent theaters; however, by the end of the decade they were playing in established cinema chains.^[1] As the genre developed during the '60s films began showing scenes of simulated sex.^[10] The films were opposed by religious groups and by the MPAA, which was concerned that sexploitation films were cutting into the profits of major film distributors.^[11] Customers who attended screenings of sexploitation films were often characterized by the mainstream media as deviant, "dirty old men" and "raincoaters".^[3] In the mid-1960s some newspapers began banning ads for the films.^[12] By the late '60s the films were attracting a larger and broader audience, however, including couples rather than the single males who originally made up the vast majority of patrons.^[11] The genre rapidly declined in the early 1970s due to advertising bans, the closure of many grindhouses and drive-in theaters and the growth of hardcore pornography in the "Golden Age of Porn".^[9]

White coaters[link]

In the late 1960s American obscenity laws were tested by the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow).^[2] After the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court that the film was not obscene^[13][14] because of its educational context, the late 1960s and early 1970s a number of sexploitation films were produced following this format. These were widely referred to as "white coaters", because in these films a doctor dressed in a white coat would give an introduction to the following graphic content, to qualify the film as "educational". The ruling led to a surge in the production of sex films.^[2] Language of Love and other Swedish and American films capitalized on this idea until the laws were relaxed.^[15]

Notable sexploitation directors[link]

See also[link]

• Bavarian porn
• Black Emanuelle
• Nudity in film
• Pinku eiga
• Pornographic films
• Pulp magazine

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Sconce, Jeffrey (2007). Sleaze artists: cinema at the margins of taste, style, and politics. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3964-1. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q6Pa42W4SiQC. 

Further reading[link]

• RE/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films RE/Search Publications, 1986 by V. Vale, Andrea Juno, ISBN 0-940642-09-3
• Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs, ISBN 0-312-13519-X

External links[link]

• Sexploitation Movies: Definition and data base
• Razor Reel: Sexploitation: Art of perversion
• Atomic Cinema - Sexploitation Films
• Razor Reel: Sexploitation: The European Story
• Something Weird: Popular online resource for Sexploitation movies
• Interview with Stephanie Rothman

Cheryl Lynn "Rainbeaux" Smith (June 6, 1955 – October 25, 2002) was an American actress. She was known for her role in the exploitation film Caged Heat.

Career[link]

Smith was born in Los Angeles, California.^[1] Smith's first film appearance was in the short The Birth of Aphrodite, after a friend of her mother suggested her for the role. This led to roles in other films, including the cult classic B-movies Caged Heat, Phantom of the Paradise, The Swinging Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, The Pom Pom Girls, Laserblast and a cameo role in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke. She also starred in the cult horror film Lemora.

An accomplished musician and artist, she was associated with The Runaways and drummed with Joan Jett after that band's breakup.^[2]

Smith's film career effectively ended after she became addicted to heroin in the late 1970s. In the late 1980s she was arrested several times for drug-related offenses, and twice served time in prison. After her release, she was homeless for some time, and was often hospitalized for problems stemming from her addiction.

Death[link]

Cheryl Smith died in the early morning hours on October 25, 2002, of complications from liver disease and hepatitis after a two decade struggle with heroin addiction.^[2]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rainbeaux Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• Rainbeaux Smith at Find a Grave

Sy Richardson (born 1941) is an American film and television actor.

Early life[link]

Richardson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He started singing at age 12 and recorded his first record with Lil June and the Januarys at 16. Richardson served two years on active duty with the United States Navy.

Career[link]

Richardson made his film debut as the Fairy Godmother, in the 1977 American erotic musical comedy Cinderella. He is perhaps best known as a regular in the films of Alex Cox, having appeared in Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Straight to Hell, Walker, The Winner and Searchers 2.0. He played "Turbo" in the 1990 film Tripwire. He recently had a recurring role as the coroner on the TV series Pushing Daisies. He is also in They Live and played a tough L.A. County Sherrif in the gang classic Colors.

Personal life[link]

Richardson has one stepdaughter and two granddaughters. He teaches acting workshops and is a member of the International Society for Excellence in Christian Film and Television.

External links[link]

• Sy Richardson at the Internet Movie Database

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It has been suggested that Behind the Nudist Curtain be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2011.

Doris Wishman (June 1, 1912 – August 10, 2002) was an American film director, screenwriter, film producer

Early life[link]

Doris Wishman was born on June 1, 1912, in New York City. She was still a child when her mother died. Her father was a hay and grain salesmen who raised her and her five other siblings. ^[1]Wishman studied for awhile at Hunter College where she studied several courses including acting. She then worked as both a secretary and a movie booker until she met and then married a man by the name of Jack Abrahms. After Abrahms died, Wishman wanted to do something in her life that we keep her busy instead of being a grieving widow.

Early film career[link]

Despite being the cousin of one of the founders of the famous British Horror production companies, Amicus, Max Rosenberg, Wishman decided that she wanted to go into the film business on her own. recent legislation allowed to let nudity be seen in film in the context of Documentary footage. Wishman then borrowed $10,000 from her sister, Pearl Kushner. Her first feature was a film by the name of Hideout in the Sun in 1959. Her next film Nude on the Moon released in 1960 was an early Nudie film, which Wishman featured Science Fiction elements in it. The film was banned in New York State as the censor board stated that films featuring nudity in a Nudist Colony setting is fine; But the fact that Wishman decided to make it a science fiction themed film on a Nudist colony on the Moon was not fine. ^[2]Her next films included the starring for the legendary Burlesque performer, Blaze Starr, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) and other films that featured nude women making about one or two a year. After countless features in the Nudist genre, she decided to leave the genre when its popularity started to fade.

Rise in the Sexploitation genre[link]

When beginning her work in the Sexploitation Genre she decided to use a pseudonym "Louis Silverman". One of her first films for the genre Bad Girls Go to Hell(1965), would be considered one of her earliest successes of the genre. With this film we see that it was her first collaboration with her long time Cinematographer C. Davis Smith, who would work with Wishman until her death. Most of these films were shot in Black and White and in 1968 with her film Love Toy she transferred in to shooting her films in color as she went on to do soft-core films. Her biggest claim to fame was when she went on to direct two films with the sexploitation starlet, Chesty Morgan. The films Deadly Weapons and Double Agent 73 featured Morgan with her massive 73 inch bust, in the vein of fellow sexploitation works of filmmakers like Russ Meyer, The Chesty Morgan films had a high camp factor with scenes that featured Morgan taking off her top with sound effects accompanying it to convey the massiveness of her breasts.^[3]

Pornographic and other exploitation work[link]

Later on in her career after her long period of sexploitation work, Wishman went on to do a couple of Hardcore pornographic films like Satan Was a Lady (1975) and Come With Me, My Love (1976) both of which starred Porn Star Annie Sprinkle. Wishman was not fond of working on these films and continually denied working on them. She was known to have left the room on the set of these film during the sex scenes as she deemed them to inappropriate. As her biographer and long time admirer, Michael Bowen had stated in her New York Times Obituary, "She was actually rather sexually naive" He also stated that "She personally thought that someone's hand caressing your face was more erotic than sex itself." Although the project started in 1971, the 1978 release of her documentary on Transsexuality titled Let Me Die A Woman, featured many interviews with actual Transgendered subjects. The film also featured dramatized scenes about daily struggles of Transgendered people featuring that also featured Deepthroat star Harry Reems. She later became quite interested in joining in the Slasher film craze started with films like Halloween (1978), Friday The 13th (1980) Maniac (1981) and Prom Night (1980), Wishman decided to make her own film in the genre titled A Night to Dismember (1983), but the project was a commercial failure for Wishman.^[4]

Later life and death[link]

After the failure of A Night to Dismember, She moved to Florida in the mid-80s where she worked at a lingerie store. During this time people readily started to become very interested again in her work as much of it came to home video. Cult followings started to form and Wishman was honored at the New York Underground Film Festival. Cult Filmmakers like John Waters featured her Chesty Morgan work in his film Serial Mom. Joe Bob Briggs, The Drive-In Movie Critic described Wishman as "The greatest female exploitation film director in history". ^[5] Wishman died on August 10, 2002 at her home in Coral Gables, Florida after a long term battle with Lymphoma

Filmography[link]

• Hideout in the Sun (1960)

• Nude on the Moon (1961)

• Diary of a Nudist (1961)

• Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962)

• Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls (1963)

• Playgirls International (1963)

• Behind the Nudist Curtain (1964)

• The Prince and the Nature Girl (1964)

• Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)

• The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965)

• Another Day, Another Man (1966)

• My Brother's Wife (1966)

• A Taste of Her Flesh (1967)

• Indecent Desires (1967)

• Too Much Too Often! (1968)

• Love Toy (1968)

• The Amazing Transplant (1970)

• Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972)

• Deadly Weapons (1973)

• Double Agent 73 (1974)

• Satan Was a Lady (1975)

• Come with Me, My Love (1976)

• Let Me Die a Woman (1978)

• A Night to Dismember (1983)

• Dildo Heaven (2002)

• Each Time I Kill (2002)

Sources[link]

Who's More Peculiar Than Doris Wishman?, Spin Magazine, May 1998. 

Doris Wishman by Christopher J. Jarmick, Senses Of Sound.com

Doris Wishman, 'B' Film Director, Dies by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, August 19 2002

Doris Wishman Gerald Peary, 1997

References[link]

External links[link]

• Doris Wishman at the Internet Movie Database
• Doris Wishman at AllRovi
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (April 2012)

Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser (born October 5, 1950, Java, Indonesia) is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent, now Italian citizen. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emanuelle films. Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most notably in Love Is Forever (1983).

Gemser left Indonesia in 1955, at the age of four, and moved with her parents to the Netherlands.^[1] She grew up in the Dutch city of Utrecht, where she attended the MULO Regentesseschool high school.^[1] After that, she attended the Artibus Art School in Utrecht, where she specialized in fashion design.^[1] In 1975 she moved to Italy.^[1]

After modelling in various magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium, Gemser began to take part in some soft erotic films. She became internationally recognised after starring in a number of Black Emanuelle films in the 1970s.

Her most mainstream and well-received role was as Laotian refugee Keo Sirisomphone in Michael Landon's 1983 American television movie, Love Is Forever, in which she was credited as Moira Chen.^{[citation needed]} Gemser continued to do films: at times, she worked with her actor husband, Gabriele Tinti. In the 1990s, she left the movies to do costume designing for film. In addition, she lost her husband, who died of cancer in 1991. Today she lives in retirement and low profile in Rome.

Filmography[link]

• Amore libero – Free Love (1974) ... as Janine
• Black Emanuelle (1975)
• Emmanuelle 2 (1975) ... as Masseuse
• Emmanuelle in Bangkok
• Voto di castità (1976) ... as Maid
• Emanuelle nera orient reportage (1976) ... as Emanuelle
• Eva nera (1976) ... as Eva
• Emanuelle in America (1977) ... as Emanuelle
• Suor Emanuelle (1977) ... as Emanuelle
• Emanuelle Around the World (1977) ... as Emanuelle
• Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977) ... as Emanuelle
• I due superpiedi quasi piatti (1977) aka Crime Busters (US)
• La Via della prostituzione (1978) ... Emanuelle
• Mavri Emmanouella (1979) ... as Black Emmanouella/Emanuelle Brindisi/Victor's wife/Livia's stepmother
• Periscopio, El (1979) aka Malizia erotica (Italy)
• Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)
• Love Camp (1981)
• The Bushido Blade (1981) ... as Tomoe
• Caligola: la Storia mai raccontata (1982) ... as Miriam
• La Belva dalla calda pelle (1982) ... as Emanuelle
• Violence in a Women's Prison (1982) ... as Emanuelle/Laura Kendall
• Horror Safari (1982) ... as Maria
• Endgame – Bronx lotta finale (1983) ... as Lilith
• Déchaînement pervers de Manuela (1983) ... as Manuela/Emanuelle
• Emanuelle Escapes from Hell (1983) ... as Emanuelle
• Love Is Forever (1983) ... as Keo Sirisomphone (credited as Moira Chen)
• L'Alcova (1984) ... as Zerbal
• Il Piacere (1985) ... as Haunani
• Voglia di guardare (1986)
• Riflessi di luce (1988) ... as Diana
• Top Model (1988) ... as Dorothy/Eve
• Undici giorni, undici notti 2 (1990) ... as Jackie Forrest
• Quest for the Mighty Sword ... as Grimilde
• Metamorphosis (1990) ... prostitute
• Una Tenera storia (1992)

Costume designer credits[link]

• Top Model (1988 film)
• Amore sporco (1988)
• La Stanza della parole (1990)
• Troll 3 (Contamination .7) (1990)
• La Casa (1990)
• Metamorphosis (1990)
• Troll 2 (1990)
• Hot steps – passi caldi (1990)
• Ritorno dalla morte (1991)
• La Donna di una sera (1991)
• Door to Silence (1991)

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Article on Laura Gemser in Leeuwarder Courant, February 5, 1977

External links[link]

• Laura Gemser at the Internet Movie Database
• Laura Gemser at AllRovi
• Laura Gemser Biography
• The New York Times – Laura Gemser