So many interesting things to stumble across on the web…so little time to find them all. This little film is particularly interesting for me because it was made right here in Maryland back in 2007 for the 72 Hour Film Festival in Frederick. Nothing like local ties to pique the interest.
According to the description all the scenes came from a reel of 35mm nitrate that someone dug up in an old movie theater in Pennsylvania. The scenes are apparently censored clips that theater owners were forced to cut from films because of their overly titillating and scandalous nature.
The message at the beginning of the short is a bit heavy-handed, but still relevant. And it’s fascinating to view the scenes in the context of our current moral standards.
Like the cheering girls at around 1:24. You have to wonder what it is in that so turned the censors on that forced them to want to turn the lights off on that scene.
And the idea that the under the table dancing feet, in and out of heels, in the scene soon following it was just too much for the delicate sensibilities at the time makes me giggle. Sure there ARE some gorgeous gams in that scene, but they seem so innocently adorable it’s hard to believe that they could have been offensive.
When you see the blown up skirt scene starting around 3:00 it’s impossible to not compare it to the famous Marilyn Monroe scene that appeared in the 1950’s and interesting to think about the changing standards in those 30 or so years between the two scenes.
