Sex on Celluloid
You won’t stop reading the book which may even shock you. Sex on Celluloid is claimed to be such a book by its publisher MACFADDEN-BARTELL Corporation, New york. The book by Michael Milner is illustrated with candid photographs many of them scissored by censors in films.It is also claimed to be an explosive book.
Milner’s object is to give full and frank picture of sex in films in detail, hard facts, and illustrations. It covers the sex angle in films from feature films to the pornographic. How many of us know that Thomas Edison made films too! One of his earliest films showed a couple kissing. It was the beginning of sex in films perhaps.
Psychologist N.L.Munn declares,”All of the higher animals have a sex drive.” Kinsey Report on Sexual Behaviour in The Human Male Says,” From the dawn of human history….men have left a record of their sexual activities and their thinking about sex.” How can films be sexless then?
Sexual instinct is one of the basic instincts of human beings. It is basic to films too. Sex is presented in movies in the same subconscious and conscious manner as it plays its part in our lives- its pure form as well as its perverted form.
In films sex is a part of the film or sometimes even the major purpose of the film. It all depends on the choice and taste of the filmmakers and their purpose of making films. The market and the
audience responses too have a vital impact on their choice.
The market rules of demand and supply play their vital part in film making. When sex in films is in demand no filmmaker would ignore to supply the demand. Would you as a film maker? Films must attract the largest number of audience, being the mass medium. To attract audience, the film must have
universal appeal. Sex is one such universal appeal.
Fannie Hurst, the author, points out, “In general, sex pictures pay off for what higher grade films stand to lose. And the industry knows that altruism and big business do not mix.” Jerry Wald, the producer of The Best of Everything, claimed about his film, “There is every kind of sexual relationship you can think of.”
There’s a lot more in the book: The Movie Maker and his Intentions-Honorable and Otherwise. The Pornographic Film Racket. The Nudes. Experimental and Expressionist Films. Survey of Sex: The Censorable Subjects includes: Nudity and Exposure. Premarital and Extramarital Sex. Prostitution.Perversion. Incest, Abortion. Rape. Obscene and VulgarLanguage. Thje Sex Symbol: The Star, discusses many aspects of the Star as sex symbol. Finally censorship is covered in detail.
Sex on Celluloid was published in 1964. From 1964 to 2007-How much has changed? Reading the book is one way to discover.