Once again Brainscan takes a deep dive into a forgotten chapter in the history of film nudity: the grindhouse era. Brainscan alone created all the commentary and collages, as well as the film clips that accompany this article in the members’ version of the Fun House.
At the turn of the decade, from the 60’s to the 70’s, the production of gindhouse movies moved from mainly New York to mainly LA, and with that shift in geography came a shift in the actresses who starred in these films. The popular New York group included several women who were attractive enough, but not breath-taking. Only Gigi Darlene stands out as truly beautiful. The others, to borrow a line from the funniest Kiwis, would definitely be in the top three on the street … depending on the street.
June Roberts is a fave of mine, but she was not a classic beauty, as you can see in 1968’s Kitten in a Cage.
Linda Boyce in Kitten in a Cage,
in A Thousand Pleasures (also 1968)
and in Monique, My Love (1969) had, well, an interesting look,
as did Janet Banzet in Mini-Skirt Love (1967)
and The Ultimate Degenerate (1969),
but it was Jo Sweet in Monique, My Love who would attract the attention of most of us, were she to have wandered by.
Much the same thing – attractive but not extraordinary – can be said for
Elizabeth Knowles in Trader Hornee (1970)
and Just The Two of Us (1970)
and for Julie Conners in Trader Hornee
and in The Curious Female (1970),
whereas the real striking beauty in Curious Female was Charlene Jones, who had something of a career in TV for a while.
So, it was pretty common in a 1969 or 1970 grindhouse movie to have an actress or two who would stand out in the real world and another actress who would stand out even on the streets of Hollywood. That’s what you get in Alice in Aliceland (1969)
with Janice Kelly,
Julia Blackburn
and Sheri Jackson
and in Sweet Sickness (1968) with Vincene Wallace
and Marguerite Zalud.
All of this means the move to LA produced a shift toward glamour, along with a shift from topless to full frontal AND a shift from black and white to color. To see that change summed up in a pair of movies, take a look at
And the last trend of sorts to mention in these transition years was a move away from actresses pulled from the ranks of topless print models, such as Lillian Parker
She acted in in Obscene House (1969)
more Lillian Parker action with some unknowns
– a movie that has a boatload of unknown actresses with made-up names,
to actresses, such as Georgina Spelvin
and Jennifer Welles in Career Bed (1969),
who would go on to do the hardcore thing.
Part 1 of this series, The Immoral Mr. Teas, can be found here
Part 2, Nudie Cuties and More, 1963-1965, can be found here.
Part 3, The Nudie Cuties of 1963, can be found here
Part 4, The First Nudie Musical, can be found here
Part 5, Early Nudie Costume Comedies, can be found here
Part 6, The Mid Sixties, can be found here
Part 7, 1967, can be found here.
to be continued …
If you enjoy Brainscan’s work, here are the other series that can be found on Other Crap:
The Films of Harry Novak
Part 1, The Sixties, can be found here.
Part 2, Hicksploitation, is here.
Part 3, The Seventies, is here.
Part 4, The Models in Print (and in his films), is here
The Early Years of Film Nudity
Part 1: 1932. Peak Pre-Code Talkies.
Part 2: 1929-1934. The Other Pre-Code Talkies.
Part 3: 1927. The Swan Song of the Silents.
Part 4: 1900-1926. The Silent Era.
Part 5: 1935-1951. The Dry Years.
Part 6: 1952-1959. Europe to the Rescue
The same articles, with the added bonus of all of Brainscan’s film clips, can be found in the members’s version of the Fun House, along with the many thousands of other collages, clips and commentaries that Brainscan has created in the past two decades. (And his contributions represent only a tiny fraction of the content in the back issues, since the Fun House has been updated every day, seven days a week, without exception, for the past 24 years.)
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