Prurient exuberance : Early Australian sex hygiene films and the origins of ozploitation
- Authors: Speed, Lesley
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Screening the Past Vol. , no. 42 (2017), p. 1-11
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Australian exploitation films that were made since the 1960s have received considerable attention in Mark Hartley’s 2008 documentary, Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! However, Hartley’s film and much of the subsequent interest in Ozploitation overlooks the fact that exploitation films existed in Australia since at least the 1910s. In its most basic definition, an exploitation film centres on a topic that is forbidden, such as sex or vice, while purporting to educate the public about it. This article examines the significance of two early Australian sex hygiene films, Remorse, a Story of the Red Plague (John E. Mathews, 1917) [1] and Should a Doctor Tell? (P. J. Ramster, 1923). Although these films do not survive, the information available about them reveals affinities with contemporaneous American and British exploitation films. They also form a precedent for the role of exploitation in the revival of the Australian film industry in the early 1970s. Purporting to explore the issue of sexually-transmitted disease while appealing to audience prurience, early sex hygiene films courted controversy in a manner that prefigures The Naked Bunyip: A Survey of Sex in Australia (John B. Murray, 1970), a significant early film in the revival and one of a cycle of local sexploitation films. Early Australian sex hygiene films expand understanding of Ozploitation by providing a glimpse of the diversity of early Australian film-making and forming a precedent for the role of exploitation in the development of Australian film.
In the best film star tradition : Claire Adams and Mooramong
- Authors: Speed, Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Screening the Past Vol. , no. (2015), p.
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Strike me lucky : Social difference and consumer culture in Roy Rene’s only film
- Authors: Speed, Lesley
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Screening the Past Vol. 26, no. (2009), p.
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Strike Me Lucky (Australia 1934) presents an imaginative view of Australian society and consumer culture in the 1930s. The only film starring vaudeville star Roy Rene, it has been largely dismissed because of its poor box office performance and perceived artistic failure. Yet Strike Me Lucky is significant for centring on a prominent Jewish Australian comedian and for being an early screen example of Australian ethnic humour. The film’s diverse view of Australian society undermines perceptions of the 1930s as culturally homogeneous and Anglocentric. Its depiction of a modern consumer culture reflects upon Australia’s relationship to Hollywood and modern capitalism.
- Description: 2003008037