joe sarno

Django Nudo and the Smut Peddler mourn Kitten Natividad but celebrate the 100th birthday of Bert I Gordon, the director of big creature and small people fantasy films who is still alive. They also announce that the European Genre Film Foundation has acquired the Joe Sarno collection of costumes, props, scripts and more from his widow Peggy Sarno, including the notorious double-dildo rocking horse from Young Playthings (1972). 

Kenne Fant was a talented director who was overshadowed by Ingmar Bergman, just like his contemporaries Hasse Ekman and Arne Mattsson. He often worked with the same actors as Bergmen, including Bibi Andersson and Max von Sydow. Other of his actors had no problem switching between arthouse and exploitation films, like Lars Ekborg (Blonde in Bondage, The Dance Hall), Christina Schollin and others. Special mention to older actor Edvin Adolphson.

As the films were produced by Nordisk Tonefilm, owned by the Swedish labour movement, there are some recurring political/didactic themes: one being criticism against the church and conservative priests, the conflict between rural and urban Sweden, and how young people try to change their lives, despite the grown-up world.

Wings in the Night (1953) - An orphan boy and the vicar's daughter fall in love, but her father is opposed to their relationship.

Young Summer (1954) - Helge Lysvik is a farmer's son. He dreams of a future as a musician, but there are many obstacles on the way. He's also torn between the girl next door and big city life.

The Taming of Love (1955) - The headmaster's wife in the small town has just published an acclaimed collection of love poems. Everyone is curious about who the young lover of the poems might be.

Tarps Elin (1956) - Elin Tarp is an unmarried mother with three children, who lives a hard life in the countryside. Eva Dahlbeck was referred to as “Battleship Femininity” by Ingmar Bergman. 

The Priest in Uddarbo (1958) - A young Max von Sydow impresses with warmth and humor as a young preacher, mobilizing the whole village to build a church. (No exorcism involved.)

The Game of Love (1959) - Colourful and innovative marital comedy. The everyday life scenes are black and white, the fantasy/film scenes are in vivid colour. A weird film. Very hard to understand the target audience for it. But great colour and great performances all around!

The Wedding Day (1960) - Star-studded comedy. A surprisingly outspoken and cynical film, where Max von Sydow screws around, despite his love for his fiancée Bibi Anderson. 

With English subtitles! Done by Smut Peddler himself!!

A memorable line from Christina Schollin as young student Titti, talking to Bibi Andersson, who’s about to marry Max: “Can’t I just borrow him for the night? You’ll have him every day!” Schollin is now matriarch of an acting dynasty and back on stage age 83. 

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1962) - Based on Selma Lagerlöf's fairy-tale about a boy who shrinks and flies on a goose all over Sweden. One of Sweden’s very few fantasy films, also a great geography lesson.

Django Nudo, Smut Pedler and Kitty Lash devote the 50th episode of Cultpix Radio to celebrate the life and career of the first true male adult star Harry Reems.

Born Herbert Streicher into a Jewish Bronx family in 1947, Harry Reems pursued stage acting in New York but did stag loops to help pay for the rent. The pimply kid with the big nose had come out of the Marine Corps with a hard body, plus he could act. Kitty Lash found Bucky Beaver's Stags Loops and Shorts (1970)  quite the turn on with its authentic and sweaty humping; in Ape Over Love (1970) Harry goes full gorilla (fake suit); while Mondo Porno (1971) foreshadows obscenity troubles to come, though the "judge for yourself" of the erotic "case studies" got Kitty purring again.

Deep Throat (1972) gave Harry fame and notoriety as he became the only US actor to ever be charged for appearing in a film. The case(s) dragged on until 1977 and contributed to his alcoholism. Late in life the love of a good woman saved him as he became a 'church gypsy': "I am not religious. I'm spiritual, 100 percent," he said. He also won belated recognition in the documentary "Inside Deep Throat" (2005). While converting to Christianity he kept his stage name and was happy to discuss his porn past.

A Touch of Genie (1974) is what you'd get if Woody Allan had made porn in the 70s, though Deep Jaws (1976)  is also genuinely sexy and funny.  Both beautifully restored by Vinegar Syndrome. The Love Witch (1970) sees Harry do an 'Alex Guinness' and playing multiple parts - with on-screen Batman-style f/x! Sherlick Holmes (1975) sees him playing the great detective, in More (1975) he is Detective Dick (!) Copper, while Dark Dreams (1975) is a hallucinogenic sex and horror trip.

Harry was shooting films in Sweden and Germany while his legal appeal was under way in the 1970s.: Justine & Juliette (1975) and Bel Ami (1976) are literary adaptations with a veneer of cultural respectability, but primarily gorgeously shot XXX features. Strangest Harry film of all is the non-nude SS Operation Wolfcub (1983) where he's a mercenary infiltrating a neo-Nazi training camp in Swedish forests.

Harry made a return in the 1980s. Trashy Lady (1985) is Harry doing a reverse My Fair Lady on too-classy mob moll Ginger Lynn, while in China and Silk (1984) Harry plays a cop. 

For anyone wishing to learn more about Harry we recommend the New York Magazine article 'The Afterlife of a Porn Star' by Dave Itzkoff, as well as the excellent podcasts by the Rialto Report here, here and here. Of course we also have a Harry Reems Spotify playlist.