Grindhouse - The Forbidden World of Adults Only Cinema
The history of grindhouse cinema has rarely been explored, and when it has it’s usually only through ‘zines and books with unbelievably small print runs. Perhaps the problem lies in the term being used to describe a wide variety of films with little in common other than means of distribution and choice of venue. Regardless, anyone just getting acquainted with the grindhouse will find resources spotty at best.
Along comes Twitch Film, which has uncovered the republication in web form of Eddie Mueller’s book Grindhouse - The Forbidden World of Adults Only Cinema over at Greencine. Mueller’s tome starts way back in the 30’s with the roadshow and makes it’s way through the 40’s, 50’s, and up to the 60’s, when Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman traded in soft-core for hard gore.
The next frontier, perhaps, was to show nude people actually engaged in erotic entanglements. They knew that would never pass. In 1963, the sight of a single pubic hair could bring out the riot squad. A penis penetrating a vagina? Absolutely inconceivable.
But what about a knife? Or better yet, an ax?
It’s a great read, and definitely worth your time if you’re interested in the sordid underbelly of cinema.