"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959

Rating:
Summary: A DEFINITIVE WORK!
Review: I have read many books & articles on exploitation films as well as viewing many of the films mentioned in Eric's book. THE BOOK IS WELL RESEARCHED. The chapters about censorship & distribution/marketing were the most interesting. Eric gives an excellent example of what cuts were required for a specific film for both the Chicago & the Ohio censorship boards (the Ohio board being much stricter), & mentions about how the same film was handled for the different markets. Detailed descriptions of many films are provided(& this is about the only book that mentions about exploitation films during the silent era). This is also the only book that I have seen that mentions about the ultra-low budgets(including dollar amounts)of these films. Anybody with a serious interest in film should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully designed and illustrated
Review: In Eric Schaefer's beautifully designed and illustrated book, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959, you get the full history of the exploitation film genre, a genre that concentrates on shocking the viewer and making money in the process. In language that is brutally simplistic, and images that don't require second-guessing, exploitation films deliver the darkest fantasy of American culture along with its moral. Schaefer discusses the writing, production, and distribution of these films and profiles some filmmakers. He presents details on such exploitation masterpieces as Road to Ruin, Modern Motherhood, One Way Ticket to Hell, and The Wages of Sin.

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Summary: Welcome to the amazing world of exploitation films.
Review: It is a world of unashamed nudists, high-flying hop heads, brazen strippers, vicious vice lords, and high school girls "in trouble." This is the world of low-budget "classical" exploitation films, and of "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" -- the first full-scale history of the movies that purveyed the forbidden thrills that Hollywood could not show.

When I first began to watch these odd, cheap little films, they prompted me to ask a number of questions -- questions that I could not find answers to in other books. I think that "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" goes a long way toward answering those questions. It is a carefully researched history that explores the reasons behind the development of exploitation films, how they operated, and why they disappeared. The book is informed by a wide range of sources -- trade and mainstream newspapers and magazines, archives, personal interviews, and the films themselves.

If you are unfamiliar with the golden age of exploitation movies, I think you will be fascinated by this history of the seedier side of the silver screen, the movies that existed in the shadow of the Hollywood studio system. And if you are already a fan of exploitation, "bad film," or "psychotronic" cinema, this book may help you see these films in a whole new light since they are placed in the historical context of the social problems they discussed. The book features dozens of rare photos and ad mats, many published here for the first time. It also includes an expansive filmography, a source list for exploitation on video, and a full index. Writing in the Los Angeles Times (September 19, 1999), Richard Schickel calls "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" "an important book, not merely as a study in a forgotten realm of film history, but as well-grounded social history, too." I hope that you will find "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" as fun and interesting to read as I did to write. Your comments and questions are always welcome!

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading
Review: The author of this book, Eric Schaefer, is an associate professor and, frankly, reads like one. With that said, Bold! Daring! is probably the most important book on the American screen published in recent times. The author eminently explains not only how exploitation movies, the step children of the Golden Era film industry, came to be but, more importantly, why. Using a liberal dose of both contemporary and modern sources, Schaefer eminently describes the rise and fall and rise again of a genre not as easily dismissed as previous works would have us believe. BOLD! DARING! SHOCKING! TRUE quite simply fills an important gap in our knowledge of society in general and the film industry (with stress on INDUSTRY) in particular. Anyone owning a copy of, say, REEFER MADNESS, will wish to view it again for more than the accustomed camp value.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Educative--say it ain't so
Review: Yes, the book is exquisitely researched; it offers more. For those with an interest in the close past, Schaefer examines the time through its rejection/acceptance of these films. The book is worth purchasing for its pictures alone (if you don't like words). If you like films, well, naturally you will want it.

If you are one of those persons who just likes knowing "stuff"; if you enjoy _Longtitude_ or the _The Professor and the Madman_ then you will find this book entertaining.

The subject matter is both tillitating and important. The films encapsulate both the desires and the anxieties of the time; gratuitious scenes of sex tempered with doctor's warnings of veneral disease. What a wonderful juxtaposition of the double standards of the time.

Schaefer's style is soo easy to read too.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Educative--say it ain't so
Review: Yes, the book is exquisitely researched; it offers more. For those with an interest in the close past, Schaefer examines the time through its rejection/acceptance of these films. The book is worth purchasing for its pictures alone (if you don't like words). If you like films, well, naturally you will want it.

If you are one of those persons who just likes knowing "stuff"; if you enjoy _Longtitude_ or the _The Professor and the Madman_ then you will find this book entertaining.

The subject matter is both tillitating and important. The films encapsulate both the desires and the anxieties of the time; gratuitious scenes of sex tempered with doctor's warnings of veneral disease. What a wonderful juxtaposition of the double standards of the time.

Schaefer's style is soo easy to read too.