American adult movies from 1973 that have been cut or banned in Australia.
The X-rating, for hardcore sex, was introduced in February 1984.
Fleshpot on 42nd St
aka Erotic Diary of a Happy Hooker
aka Fleshpots on 42nd St
Directed by Andy Milligan / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In September 1974, a censored 2343.00-meter (85:24) print of EROTIC DIARY OF A HAPPY HOOKER was passed with an R-rating.
An unsuccessful appeal was made to the Films Board of Review to prevent it from being cut.
Studio Films was the applicant.
A title change was noted in the December 1976 edition of the FILM CENSORSHIP BULLETIN from EROTIC DIARY OF A HAPPY HOOKER to FLESHPOTS ON 42ND ST.
The original title change was done to cash in on Xaviera Hollander’s book THE HAPPY HOOKER: MY OWN STORY (1971). The film adaptation, THE HAPPY HOOKER (1975), was R-rated in June 1975. Presumably, by December 1976 the publicity had subsided and it made sense to revert to the original title.
Softcore vs. Hardcore version
Matt reports.
Something Weird Video (us) – VHS – 74:40 (NTSC)
Vinegar Syndrome (us) – 2019 Blu-ray – 87:17 (NTSC)
The IMDb states that William Mishkin Motion Pictures made available two different cuts. The original XXX hardcore version, under the title FLESHPOT ON 42ND STREET and the X softcore version titled THE GIRLS OF 42ND STREET.
The Something Weird release is very choppy and all of the sex scenes are shortened. Although it is missing the title, this is the softcore THE GIRLS OF 42ND STREET version.
Vinegar Syndrome’s FLESHPOT ON 42ND STREET is the uncut hardcore version. The censored Australian print ran 85:24, which suggests that it began as the hardcore version.
Fongaluli
Directed Eduardo Cemano / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In April 1976, a 2331.00-meter (84:58) print of FONGALULI was censored by 232.90-meters (08:29) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Rebelz was the applicant.
Review
Mike reports
After Hours Cinema (us) – DVD – 71:51
Professor Liviticus Wirtsus (Eduardo Cemano) dedicates his research to crossbreeding animal species (his ambition is to create a flying turtle) and while on his travels he encounters a local (Alvin Bojar) who lets him try nibbling on a leaf of the fongaluli plant. On humans, this allows them to experience realistic and bizarre sexual hallucinations while on other animals it can turn them into a different species entirely. His experiments don’t go entirely to plan, but he does manage to transform his lobster into a beautiful naked woman. They eventually both turn into lobsters again and live happily ever after. FONGALULI is well worth watching – it’s more or less the porn version of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.
The extant version is 13 minutes shorter than the print submitted in Australia in 1976, but it does seem to contain more than enough footage to account for the 08:29 of cuts required by the Film Censorship Board.
03:00 to 05:34 – The professor tries fongaluli for the first time and has a wild sexual hallucination. Although it’s not possible to see exactly what is going on in his dream there are certainly lots of naked people having sex and many of them are wearing animal masks. So we see a gorilla, a lion and a panda and the dream ends with a man thrusting into a woman who is wearing a pig mask. Despite the images being obscured by filters and distortion techniques, this was likely rather too much for the mid-1970s.
28:30 to 31:35 – The professor lands on a desert island in his quest for more fongaluli leaves and meets a giant naked woman. After he accepts her invitation to climb inside her vagina, she lies on a fallen tree and masturbates quite graphically for some time. The close-up shots may well have been a problem.
38:20 to 42:30 – The professor and his lobster (who by now has turned into a woman) stumble across two men and two women who have also ingested fongaluli. They pair off and have fairly explicit softcore sex for a few minutes and the camera, simulating someone hallucinating, veers wildly through the scene capturing many close shots. We are told that one of these pairings was a sister and brother.
46:38 to 47:15 – The lobster woman (who is still a woman) is sexually molested by the men and women from the previous scene until she is rescued by the professor.
66:30 to 68:10 – The professor and lobster woman encounter an evil witch wearing face paint (Ultramax) who punishes them by making them observe a very graphic softcore group sex scene featuring actors such as Jamie Gillis and Helen Madigan. Again, the camera moves haphazardly through the scene and gets very close to the action.
The Harder They Fall
Directed by Gil Kenston / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In January 1981, a 640.70-meter (58:23) 16mm print of THE HARDER THEY FALL was banned because of sex and violence, which were both found to be:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Esquire Films was the applicant.
The following month it was resubmitted as a 661.00-meter (60:14) ‘pre-censor cut version’. This too was banned for the same reasons as before.
In August 1981, it was seen for a third time, now in a 611.20-meter (55:42) ‘reconstructed version’. Once again, it was banned, this time for ‘sexual violence’.
Both the second and third submissions were made by 14th Mandolin.
Why was it banned?
Matt reports.
Vinegar Syndrome (us) – 2016 DVD as COME DEADLY – 60:23
Part of STOREFRONT THEATRE COLLECTION: VOLUME 2 BIZARRE ART SET
The print appears to be uncut and is in great shape. It is hard to believe that 14th Mandolin ever thought they could slip this past the Film Censorship Board. The plot concerns a rapist who is attacking and strangling women in a theatre. When the numerous hardcore rape scenes are not on the screen, we get hardcore sex between the various theatre actors and the undercover cop.
In the film’s defence, it is so poorly made that the subject matter does not seem half as disturbing as it should be.
High Finance
Directed by Emile A. Harvard / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In October 1981, a 526.56-meter (47:59) 16mm print of HIGH FINANCE was passed with an R-rating.
The sex in this ‘pre-censor cut version’ was described as being:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
14th Mandolin was the applicant. They reportedly went on to release it on their King of Video label.
This played at Melbourne’s Club Cinema in November 1982.
Review
Mike reports
Unknown source – 55:36
This film is a combination of only vaguely related scenes all of which refer to the connection between sex and money.
Marc Brock and Jack Birch’s characters work in finance. We know this because they’re in an office continually taking phone calls about making deals. This doesn’t prevent them from having sex with their secretaries, usually at the same time. Birch’s character leaves the office in the middle of a sex scene to travel to Brock’s house to have sex with his wife – for money. She had previously been seen copulating with a male prostitute.
HIGH FINANCE loses steam at the halfway point and presents additional unconnected scenes of people paying for sex. The final one has a delivery man arriving at a house to find a ‘girl scout’ (played by an adult actress). She tells him her age and he makes her read a pornographic book to learn about techniques. In addition to the cuts to the hardcore, the ‘age-play’ dialogue may also have had to be trimmed.
The Hooker Convention
Directed by Unknown / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In July 1976, a 676.60-meter (61:39) 16mm print of THE HOOKER CONVENTION was banned because of ‘indecency’.
Regent Trading Enterprises were the applicant.
Success for 14th Mandolin
In September 1980, a 1868.50-meter (68:06) print was submitted and passed with an R-rating following the removal of 25.20-meters (00:54) of footage.
The rating was awarded for sex, which was found to be:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
While the cuts were made to remove sex that was considered to be:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: High
Purpose: Gratuitous
14th Mandolin, the applicant, went on to release it on their King of Video label.
Banned in Queensland
On 11 December 1981, the censored R-rated version of THE HOOKER CONVENTION was prohibited by the Queensland Films Board of Review. This decision was subsequently revoked.
The distributor was 14th Mandolin.
Review
Mike reports
Alpha Blue Archives (us) – Download – 50:41
The J.W. Hooker zipper company (Slogan – ‘Never Mess with a Hooker’s Zipper!’) are planning a convention at the Merry Maids Hotel. Elsewhere a collective of four prostitutes decides they will do better business if they form a company dedicated to providing sexual services instead of competing with each other. They also decide to hold a convention to publicise themselves and choose the same hotel. An overworked hotel clerk books them both in as the ‘Hooker Convention’ and many sexual misunderstandings occur.
The Alpha Blue Archives print of THE HOOKER CONVENTION is missing a lot of material, perhaps as much as 20 minutes. It is difficult to be sure because there is a lack of information about the original runtime. Their version seems to be the result of splicing together different prints, which damages the continuity and there are many plot points which don’t seem to make sense or are never resolved. It might also have affected the tone of the film because it sets up the comical situation of the hookers and the businessmen booking the same hotel but the resulting film, at least in the extant print, just isn’t very funny.
THE HOOKER CONVENTION, at least in its surviving version, is a softcore film. The sex is very restrained and the sexual scenes fairly short. It’s difficult to imagine that any of this material would have troubled the Film Censorship Board either in 1976 when they banned it, or in 1981 when they cut it by 00:54.
One possibility for the Board’s cuts is a scene at the end in which both conventions join forces for a last night party. A naked woman is lying naked and spreadeagled on a dining table and the other participants approach in turn and smear fruit over her body, one of them placing an apple in her mouth. She writhes suggestively while this is going on and eventually they pour cognac over her. Cuts of 00:54 would be just the right length to remove the closer shots in this scene.
Hot Connections
Directed by James Hong / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In July 1974, a 2363.00-meter (86:08) print of HOT CONNECTIONS was banned because of ‘indecency’.
A 1972.30-meter (71:53) ‘reconstructed version’ lost a further 52.00-meter (01:53) before being awarded an R-rating in June 1975. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Roadshow Distributors was the applicant.
Cut on video
In October 1982, Blake Films had a censored 83-minute tape of HOT CONNECTIONS passed with an R-rating, the length of the cuts were not listed.
The rating was awarded for sex, which was described as being:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Identical reasons were given for the 83-minute tape that Blake Films had classified with an R-rating in February 1984.
In the same month, Pakenham Video Library had an 87-minute tape passed with an R-rating.
HOT CONNECTIONS was released on tape in Australia on Roadshow’s Vibrant Video label.
Review
Mike reports
Something Weird Video (us) – DVD – 71:11
Arnold Thaxton (Christopher Geoffries) is a manager at a telephone company who has fired a pregnant switchboard operator for making personal phone calls on company time. Given his track record with female employees, he may well be the father of her baby. His ex-wife Cynthia (Margie Lanier) runs a local Women’s Lib group, which resolves to make Arnold pay.
HOT CONNECTIONS is a softcore film, containing sex that was fairly normal for US R-rated productions of the time but was somewhat too strong for Australian standards of the mid-1970s. While it is difficult to be sure what the Film Censorship Board objected to in 1974, due to the extant print missing 15 minutes, most of the cuts were likely to tone down the explicitness of the sex. However, there were a few scenes that would have posed more specific problems.
1. Two couples are making love and to get in the mood they watch what appears to be a fake stag film. This shows a gynaecologist conducting an exam on a woman (Sandy Dempsey). She is naked and has her legs apart and he pretends to be extracting objects from her vagina. These include a stethoscope and a dog biscuit.
2. Cynthia is distressed and in tears and Arnold takes the opportunity to strip and rape her. She tries to push him away repeatedly and makes it clear that she objects to what is happening but he persists. This scene goes on for three minutes and may have been cut by Blake Films for their R-rated releases in 1982.
3. The Women’s Lib group have obtained some photos of Arnold in compromising positions with several female employees and are using them to try to get him fired. While they are distracted by a bra burning ceremony, he breaks into their headquarters. He is discovered and the women strip him at knifepoint and trace the knife over his body, very close to his penis at times.
4. One of Arnold’s colleagues, George (Jay Scott), is displeased to learn that his wife has joined the women’s movement too. He puts her over his knee and spanks her hard on the bare buttocks for some time.
HOT CONNECTIONS also includes some kung-fu footage to take advantage of the mid 1970s martial arts craze. Not much of this is evident in the extant version but it is very tame and unrealistic so is unlikely to have caused the Board concerns over the level of violence.
Hot Girls for Men Only
Directed by James Chiara / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In February 1976, a 2194.00 (79:58) print of HOT GIRLS FOR MEN ONLY was banned because of ‘indecency’.
The following month, a 1974.96-meter (71:59) ‘reconstructed version’ was passed with an R-rating.
Roadshow Films were the applicant.
Banned in Queensland
On 27 September 1976, the censored R-rated version of HOT GIRLS FOR MEN ONLY was prohibited by the Queensland Films Board of Review.
The distributor was Roadshow Distributors.
Meet Sweet Myra
aka Pleasure is My Business
Directed by Joseph F. Robertson / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In September 1975, a 1631.80-meter (59:29) print of MEET SWEET MYRA was banned because of ‘indecency’.
The film was resubmitted in April 1978 in a slightly longer 1645.92-meter (60:00) print. It was passed with an R-rating following cuts to remove 97.3-meters (03:32) of ‘indecency’.
In both cases, the applicant was 14th Mandolin.
First video release
In the early 1980s, 14th Mandolin issued MEET SWEET MYRA on their King of Video label.
This was presumably the same as their censored theatrical version.
Banned, then cut for video
In August 1985, a 53-minute tape was Refused Classification because of ‘gratuitous sexual violence’.
This was followed in August 1986, by a 49-minute ‘edited version’, which was passed with an R-rating. It was awarded for sex, which was described as being:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
In both cases, the film had been retitled PLEASURE IS MY BUSINESS and was submitted by 14th Mandolin.
The R-rated version was released on their Pink Video label. Although there is no mention of it in the National Classification Database, they reportedly also issued an uncut X-rated version.
The Mermaid
aka Deep Down
Directed by Dan Martin / 1973 / USA / IMDb
In August 1981, a 2219.00-meter (80:53) print of THE MERMAID received an R-rating after the removal of 11-00-meters (00:22) of ‘sexual violence’.
The R-rating was awarded for sex, which was said to be:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
…and for violence, which was:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Cinerama Films was the applicant.
The one-sheet poster lists Greg Lynch Film Distributors (GLFD) as the distributor.
Retitled & released on video
In June 1985, a 76-minute tape of THE MERMAID was passed with an R-rating under the title DEEP DOWN.
It was awarded for sex, which was said to be:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
14th Mandolin released the video on their Blue Angel label.