Trash Film Orgy
The Oldest Independent Filmmakers in America
by Putrid Paul
Imagine if your granddad was a dirty old man. Now imagine if both of your granddads were dirty old men. Well, if that idea doesn’t make you too nauseous, then you’re going to like this movie. Mau Mau Sex Sex is a documentary about some of the pioneers of the Exploitation genre in American cinema, Dan Sonney and David Friedman. Directed by Ted Bonnitt, Mau Mau Sex Sex chronicles the history of these two venerable filmmakers, tracing their history from child of a famous police officer turned traveling huckster turned filmmaker. Dan Sonney’s dad, Louis Sonney, worked with Dwain Esper in making Maniac (1934) the first exploitation picture. He also produced The Wages of Sin (1938), Hell-A Vision (1936), and You Can’t Beat the Rap (1936). Friedman also came from the great exploitation family who basically invented exploitation. Sonney took the reigns from his father after his father retired. The censors of the time were down on sex, violence, drugs, so most of their pictures were shown in grind houses and adult picture theatres. In order to be able to show these exploitative topics without too much interference from authorities, Sonney would tack on to the beginning of each picture what they called the “Square-Up Reel” The square-up was a crawl that condemned the subject matter. For instance, in Child Bride (1938), an excerpt of the crawl went like this: In Dramatizing life among these “back yonder” folks – we aim neither to ridicule nor to defend their mode of living… and if our story will help abolish Child Marriage – it will have served its purpose. By hiding behind these transparently flimsy Square-Ups, the makers of these films hoped to avoid charges of obscenity and other troubles. Really, all they did was prime the pump of the audience members’ expectation that something lurid was about to be shown. There were still plenty of prosecutions on obscenity and morals charges made against many of the exploitation filmmakers. Moving from the Morals Genre to more traditional sexploitation, In 1952, the paid famed burlesque dancer Lili St.Cyr five thousand dollars to film her act. The movie turned into the short film Love Moods – St. Cyr’s act was the opposite of what you’d expect: she took a bath, and exited the bath, dressing. It’s a very effective piece of burlesque, and made for compelling cinema, too. The movie made money for Sonney, and led him into the next phase of his career, the adventure genre. Forbidden Adventure (1937) was a famous travelogue called The Lost City of Angkor when Sonney’s father purchased it and spiced it up with a Maiden and Gorilla plotline. Them maidens loves them their monkeys, and worship the gorillas, making love to them. That’s the gist of it. That canard is as old as cinema itself – King Kong being one more famous examples of the Maiden and Gorilla plotline. Released later in the 1950’s with additional footage shot by George M. Merrick, it was often shown with another film of similar theme, Virgin of Sarawak, on the traveling road shows that Louis Sonney sponsored. Similarly, Mau Mau, from which this film gets its name, is a documentary about the Mau Mau uprising in Africa. No television network would carry it, and it was too short to be a feature, so Sonney bought it and added some really bad locally shot footage to it and released it as Simba - Mark of Mau Mau. They hired some local Los Angeles actors to film the close up shots of the village violence, but the backdrop they used was so close to the actors that you can see their shadows on it. It’s pretty hilarious, but in reality the film is scary and racist. Film Historian Frank Henenlotter (who also directed 1990’s Frankenhooker, among others) adds interesting commentary to the picture – really, he’s one of the most entertaining aspects of the movie. Very knowledgeable and personable, his interview scenes where he explains about storylines and history are funny and informative. Sonney was the producer of last resort for many filmmakers. If they couldn’t sell their picture anywhere else, he would probably buy it. He was “a junk man,” as he calls himself on one of the extra audio commentary tracks on the DVD. Judging from the films they released, I’d say that fits pretty well. The history itself isn’t as interesting as much as the scenes of the old men themselves – among their family, ribbing each other. The scene where they talk about their old man prostates is pretty funny, as well as their argument about President Clinton. Their wives provided some interesting insights into their lives as well, especially Mrs. Sonney, who understood that her husband was a philanderer and slept with many of the women he filmed. She says she knew she could leave him at any time she wanted. That says something about how people used to look at marriage. Older generations used to look at marriage much more seriously than people do today. The scenes of Friedman working his carnival provided a glimpse into the life of a Carney. Friedman owns a carnival these days and Ted Bonnitt followed him around for a couple of days watching him work the crowd. One gets an understanding about what it must be like to be a showman from watching him work. In the late 1950s through the 1960s Sonney and Friedman produced horror, nudie cuties, roughies, psychedelic, sex comedies, and soft-core films: Blood Feast, directed by Friedman partner H. G. Lewis, The Acid Eaters, Sex and Buttered Popcorn, The Defilers, Two Thousand Maniacs, Starlet, Thar She Blows, and many more. Blood Feast and The Defilers, in particular, defined depravity, sinking it to new lows. The Defilers is still the roughie film by which all others are compared. In 2002, Dan Sonney died of heart failure, not long after the making of this film, but David Friedman is still going strong, as the executive producer of Blood Feast 2, and the currently in post-production of 2001 Maniacs. If you have the chance to see this film, you should – it’s a great look into the world of Trash and Exploitation, and the men who make them. |
|||
 |