The Exploits of Elaine is a 1914 American film serial in the damsel in distress genre of The Perils of Pauline (1914).
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become historically important, and even gain a cult following.
Mondo films are a subgenre of exploitation films and documentary films. Many mondo films are made in a way to resemble a pseudo-documentary and usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, or situations. Common traits of mondo films include portrayals of foreign cultures, an emphasis on taboo subjects such as death and sex, and staged sequences presented as genuine documentary footage. Over time, the films have placed increasing emphasis on footage of the dead and dying.
David Frank Friedman was an American filmmaker and film producer best known for his B movies, exploitation films, nudie cuties, and sexploitation films.
Mom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation film maker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films. Although it faced numerous legal challenges and was condemned by the National Legion of Decency, it became one of the highest-grossing films of the 1940s.
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb was an American film producer and showman. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine show tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman", he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film Mom and Dad, which was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005.
Summer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish romance film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg. It is based on Per Anders Fogelström's 1951 novel of the same title. It was controversial abroad at the time of its first release for its frank depiction of nudity and, along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated country.
Child Bride, also known as Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust, is a 1938 American drama film directed by Harry Revier and produced by Raymond L. Friedgen. It was promoted as educational in an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states.
Cox and Underwood was the name of an exploitation film travelling road show and production company from the 1930s run by Howard Russell Cox and Howard Underwood. They, at one time, employed Kroger Babb, who would later form his own medicine show-style production company.
Hygienic Productions was a film production company based out of Wilmington, Ohio. Formed by exploitation film producer Kroger Babb, the company was in charge of promotion and production for a number of Babb's films, including the infamous Mom and Dad.
Mildred Horn was an American film critic and screenwriter, best known for her work on the Kroger Babb exploitation film Mom and Dad.
She Shoulda Said No! is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana. Directed by Sam Newfield and starring Lila Leeds, it was originally produced to capitalize on the arrest of Leeds and Robert Mitchum on a charge of marijuana conspiracy.
Kwaheri, also known as Kwaheri: Vanishing Africa or Kwaheri: The Forbidden, is a 1964 mondo film directed by David Chudnow and Thor Brooks. The film was a pseudo-documentary about vanishing native tribes in Africa. Kwaheri means Goodbye in Swahili.
One Too Many, also known as Killer With a Label, Mixed-Up Women, and The Important Story of Alcoholism, is an exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb in 1950.
Z movies are low-budget films with production qualities lower than B movies.
The 1960s and 1970s marked the rise of exploitation style independent B movies. Movies that are usually made without the support of Hollywood's major film studios. As censorship pressures lifted in the early 1960s, the low-budget end of the American motion picture industry increasingly incorporated the sort of sexual and violent elements long associated with so-called exploitation films. The demise of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1968 coupled with the success of the exploitation film Easy Rider the following year fueled the trend throughout the subsequent decade. The success of the B-studio exploitation movement had a significant effect on the strategies of the major studios during the 1970’s.
The Lawton Story of "The Prince of Peace", originally released as The Lawton Story and later reissued as The Prince of Peace, is a religious-themed film that later made the roadshow rounds presented by exploitation pioneer Kroger Babb. Filmed in Cinecolor in 1948, it is based on an annual passion play in Lawton, Oklahoma, "The Prince of Peace," created in 1926 by Rev. A. Mark Wallock. This Easter pageant became immensely popular among locals, attracting as many as 250,000 people.
Jack S. Jossey was an American film producer and businessman. A Seagram stockholder, he helped finance and film many exploitation films during the 1940s, including Mom and Dad and The Prince of Peace.
Damaged Lives is a 1933 Canadian/American pre-Code exploitation film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The screenplay is based on the French play Les Avariés (1901) by Eugène Brieux.
Mondo Cane is a 1962 Italian mondo documentary film and directed by the trio of Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco E. Prosperi, with narration by Stefano Sibaldi. The film consists of a series of travelogue scenes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film audiences. These scenes are presented with little continuity, as they are intended as a kaleidoscopic display of shocking content rather than presenting a structured argument. Despite its claims of genuine documentation, certain scenes are either staged or creatively manipulated to enhance this effect.
