8. Mom and Dad (1945)
Mom and Dad is the story of Joan, a young girl who falls in love with a pilot Jack who sweet talks her into having sex with him. Joan asks her mother to get her sexual education manuals but she refuses. Unfortunately the pilot is killed in a crash. Cue a couple of months later and Joan's clothes don't fit. She seeks the advice of a school teacher who had been banned from teaching sex education. He blames her mother on Joan's predicament for denying her access to the truth. The girl confronts her mother. The film takes a wildly different turn showing close ups of female genitalia, actual birth footage, pictures of genitalia ravaged by syphilis. Mom and Dad had a number of different endings ranging from Joan's baby being stillborn to it being put up for adoption. Directed by William Beaudine and produced by legendary exploitation producer Kroger Babb, Mom and Dad is the most successful example of the exploitation sub-genre sexual hygiene films. It was condemned by the Legion of Decency but was one of the top grossing films of the 1940s. Babb used all sorts of hokey carnival tricks to market the film. There is a lot of filler in the film which was presumably added to pad it out to feature length status. An amusing curio of a bygone age.
Clare Simpson
Contributor
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
See more from
Clare