Django Nudo and the Smut Pedler discover that the only thing scarier than Halloween Horrors are US sex hygiene scare films. With sexually frank adult dramas too taboo to be made in the repressed Hollywood of the fifties, other countries' sexually frank adult dramas were imported, shown in “arthouse” theaters, and sold as smut. Like “Unmarried Mothers” (1953), an amiable paean to Swedish maternity homes.
The four “Language of Love” films (1969-1972) are the core of this history of sex ed films. With its graphic intercourse scenes, the Swedish Board of Censors nearly had a meltdown, but could not demand any cuts, as this was clearly ‘educational’. Instead the head of the Board had to take a two-week vacation after seeing the films three times. Björn & Benny (pre-ABBA) made the music for the export version “The Language of Love” (1970), After the four films there was also “Sweden is Love” (1971), which had a sleazy English voice-over and the most "naughty bits" from the films.
Thanks to Something Weird Video a wealth of sex education/hygiene films have now been rediscovered. The centrepiece here is also a quartet, the “Sex Hygiene Scare Films, Vol. 1” and Two, Three and Four. Each one has a slightly different focus and we couldn’t possibly do them all justice in this summary. But some of them are so graphic they have made people run out from screenings at Something Weird festivals.
In addition we also have “Sex Madness” (1938), from the people who brought you “Reefer Madness” (1936); “Street Corner” (1948) - 'The Most Intimate Moment In Her Life... Ended in Murder!'; “The Wrong Rut” (1949/1962), Ida Lupino's uncredited directorial debut that collides head on with graphic birth-of-a-baby footage. How? Via the hucksterism of roadshow exploitation and the magic of a splice; “Birthright” (1951), an amazing example of how an innocent little sex-ed film is turned into 'Adults Only' smut with two simple, subversive splices; “Mated” (1952), “Scenes formerly restricted to medical books... Now On The Screen For The First Time!”; “The Price of Sin” (Switzerland 1966, re-edited in USA) that gives us abortions, a baby-smothering mommy, and authentic footage of a cesarean birth; “Perversion for Profit” (1965) I & II, the anti-pornography propaganda documentary by Ohio's Citizens for Decent Literature; “Aphrodisiac!: The Sexual Secret of Marijuana” (1971), people who smoke weed get horny and have sex, maaaaaann…; and finally “The Sexually Mature Adult” (1973), which was clearly inspired by “The Language of Love” and is probably the most sex-positive of the US sex ed films.