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Interesting!


#Following.

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Wonderful research work.!

Tho I think we're now at the anti-climax of this phenomenon.


The transformation is epic and has an allegory in the life of this beautiful actress:

From:



To:



Then now:



EPIC!

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Damaged Goods (1914)
and
Damaged Goods (1919, UK)

This early, dramatic sex-hygiene (venereal disease) educational film (now presumed lost) was typical of an early exploitation film with sensational content told with an educational slant. It was a smash-hit at the box-office when re-released in 1915 by the Mutual Film Corporation, with $2 million box-office revenue, and caused a wave of similar films for the rest of the decade.

Its plot was about how young lawyer George Dupont (Richard Bennett) contracted syphilis from a prostitute (Adrienne Morrison, Mrs. Bennett in real-life), and passed on the disease to his fiancee-wife (Senator Locke's daughter Henriette (Olive Templeton)) and baby - against Dr. Clifford's (Louis Bennison) advice.

By film's end, Dupont committed suicide by drowning himself (although in the re-release, the suicide was toned down).

A silent British version of the film was directed by Alexander Butler in 1919.

Other films in this sub-genre included The Spreading Evil (1918), The Scarlet Trail (1918), Open Your Eyes (1919), The Solitary Sin (1919), and Wild Oats (1919).

hmmmm,nawa o.wetin we go take am do.

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

D.W. Griffith's Civil War epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) was controversial for many reasons, one of which was its racist and "vicious" portrayal of blacks and its proclamation of miscegenation (racial mixing), according to the NAACP. For that reason, it was the subject of bans for inciting "race hatred and race riots."

In one long suspenseful scene, an emancipated former house servant/slave - an inflamed, lusty Negro "renegade" named Gus (Walter Long), chased after young Flora Cameron (Mae Marsh). Although he reassured her: "Wait, missie, I won't hurt yeh," she fell from a cliff after repeatedly threatening him -- "Stay away or I'll jump."

The scene has often been misinterpreted as a rape scene, although it wasn't. However, it could be interpreted that her threatened state symbolized the emasculation and 'rape' of whites in the South by a rampant black population suddenly emancipated - and destructive of the racial order.

In another controversial scene, lecherous mulatto leader Silas Lynch (George Siegmann, a white actor dressed as black and acting monstrously) attacked Elsie Stoneman (Lillian Gish), representing innocence, purity and virtue. He attempted to force marriage upon her.

The Cheat (1915)

Director Cecil B. DeMille's sensational melodrama combined elements of sexuality with sadomasochism, luring large audiences to theatres to watch it. It was an early example of DeMille's predilection for sensationalism and boldness in pushing the censors to the limit.

The masterfully-filmed story was about an indebted married, spendthrift woman named Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward in her debut film) who turned to a benefactor, a wealthy Japanese/Burmese ivory merchant/dealer named Hishuru Tori/Haka Arakau (Sessue Hayakawa). [The film was accused or racial prejudice against the Japanese, causing Paramount Pictures to change the name and nationality of the character.] When she was wanting to repay a loan of $10,000, he demanded her as repayment.

When she refused (in a 'rape' scene), the sexually-predatory, sadistic Asian man grabbed her by the hair, and branded her with a red-hot iron on her bare left shoulder, making her his property or possession.

A Fool There Was (1915)

The full-bosomed Theda Bara became an overnight sensation after her appearance in this melodrama. She was dubbed the "Vamp," and became the screen's first femme fatale (the first dangerous female in the movies) and first movie sex goddess or sex symbol.

The sexy actress was first introduced as an evil temptress in this film with her character name: Vampire. She was portrayed as a predatory vamp (luring men to ruin and destruction). The vamp was a reflection of the society's anxious fear and attraction to the newly-emancipated woman of the early 1900s.

As a homewrecker, she destroyed the marriage of wealthy lawyer and statesman John Schuyler, a successful Presidential special envoy to Britain. She delivered her most famous lines to him, shown in two title cards, as she draped her arms over him:

"You have ruined me, you devil, and now you discard me!"
" Kiss me, my Fool!"

Bara was a Hollywood creation who mixed ruthlessness and dark erotic sexiness into her numerous roles - she would often appear in risque transparent costumes, in her over 40 films created from 1914 to 1919.

The Vamp character was repeated in Bara's melodramatic The Devil's Daughter (1915) in the role of La Gioconda, and also in the lost film The Vixen (1916) (aka The Love Pirate) (see below) as the nymphomaniacal boyfriend-stealing Elsie Drummond. However, the "vamp" didn't last too long at this time, because it soon became too recognizable a caricature.

A Free Ride (1915)

A Free Ride was reportedly the earliest-known US silent stag ('men only') or pornographic film. Because these kinds of films (with increasingly explicit amounts of nudity and sexuality) were completely illegal, they were shown in all-male locations, clubs, etc., not in mainstream theaters.

Its comic titles foretold its plot:

Directed by A. Wise Guy, Photographed by Will B. Hard, and Titles by Will She.

It included explicit sex scenes of a wealthy man having sex with two female hitchhikers by the side of the road.

Hypocrites (1915)

Hypocrites was a Paramount 4-reel silent film from female director Lois Weber - the most important and prolific of all American women directors of the silent era.

It was considered a shocking and controversial film that was held up for many months because of its full nudity.

Nudity was portrayed in the ghostly figure of the Naked Truth, literally shown by a nude woman (Margaret Edwards) who revealed hypocritical desires for money, sex, and power.

Inspiration (1915) (aka The Perfect Model)

Audrey Munson (a real-life 'perfect' model for numerous Beaux-Arts sculptors) first appeared artistically nude as a sculptor's model, recreating classic artistic (nude) paintings in George Foster Platt's controversial film from the Mutual Film Corporation. In fact, the film told the story of her own life.

It has been claimed that this was the first known film in which a leading actress stripped down to be naked, making her the first nude film star.

It was the first of her four silent films. Munson also appeared nude in Purity (1916) (see below) and in Heedless Moths (1921).

Behind the Screen (1916)

In this two-reeler for Mutual, Charlie Chaplin portrayed a hired worker named David at a film studio.

In the film's infamous 'gay' scene, he kissed a young girl (Edna Purviance) who was dressed in masculine clothing (as a masquerading way to find work), thereby upsetting his brutish and burly foreman Goliath (Eric Campbell). The boss believed they were homosexual and teased them mercilessly by acting 'prissy' to mock them.

Daughter of the Gods (1916)

This controversial film (filmed in Jamaica) starred Australian-born swimming and diving champ Annette Kellermann (the "Esther Williams of the silent era". It was Kellermann's second feature film, and also the most expensive film of its decade at $1 million.

Earlier Kellermann films included Siren of the Sea (1911), The Mermaid (1911), and her first feature film, the underwater fantasy Neptune's Daughter (1914). [The biopic Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), with aquatic star Esther Williams, was based upon Kellermann's life.] She was called "the world's most perfectly-formed woman" and "The Australian Mermaid," and billed as "the Diving Venus."

In 1910, she had already gained attention for advocating the scandalous-at-the-time one-piece bathing suit, for which she was arrested in Boston Harbor.

She caused a great stir when publicity posters displayed her naked, with her long flowing hair covering her breasts and pubic region. She was one of the first major female stars to appear nude on screen.

Intolerance (1916)

D. W. Griffith's lurid epic Intolerance (1916) featured bare-breasted, lightly-draped women ("virgins of the sacred fires of life") in love temples, in the tinted Babylonian sequences.

Purity (1916)

After her appearance a year earlier in Inspiration (1915) (see above), sculptor's model Audrey Munson also appeared nude in another silent film, Rea Burger's 7-reel Purity (1916), in a dual role, as a spirit figure and as an artist's nude model named Purity/Virtue.

The National Board of Review allowed nudity in the film, as long as it was shot at a distance and posed motionless (or viewed only momentarily).

Even with some censored (or edited) scenes, the film was banned in various places (Kansas, and in the cities of Dallas and Washington). The New York Times called the film "offensive," claiming that Munson as Purity was a "beautiful figure of a famous model exploited on the screen."

The Vixen (1916) (aka The Love Pirate)

In this lost film, Theda Bara took the role of spoiled, deceiving nymphomaniac "vixen" Elsie Drummond.

She wooed Wall Street businessman Martin Stevens (A. H. Van Buren) away from his interest in her sweet sister Helen (Mary G. Martin). She continued to seek after rich men, eventually marrying young statesman Knowles Murray (Herbert Heyes) (again stolen from Helen) - but still willing to be unfaithful with Stevens who had since regained his fortune.

Cleopatra (1917)

This elaborately-produced film (now presumed lost) from the Fox Film Corporation was one of vamp Theda Bara's biggest hits. It was the sexy star's first film made in studios on the West Coast, and her most famous film - although only fragments exist today.

When the film was promoted, publicists realized that her name Theda Bara was an anagram for "Arab Death." The fact was overly exaggerated with the claim that she was the reincarnated daughter of Seti, high priest of the pharaohs, and in a past life was actually Cleopatra.

In the over two-hour long epic, she portrayed the historical Queen of Egypt Cleopatra -- noted for her risque and bare-breasted costuming. She was seen nearly nude with the contours of her breasts held by two curving gold asps, and she wore a gown with spidery embroidery over her crotch.

The Chief Cook (1917)

In this Billy West (a Charlie Chaplin imitator) short silent comedy, Oliver Hardy appeared as Babe, the head of a touring theatre boarding house who inevitably caused trouble for West.

The slapstick two-reeler contained a brief sequence in which the Star Boarder (Billy West) voyeuristically spied through a keyhole upon a young woman named Dolly (blonde starlet Ellen Burford) taking a bath. At one point, she draped herself over the tub, allowing a nude glimpse.

Mack Sennett's "Bathing Beauties"

Comedy pioneer and "King of Comedy" Mack Sennett popularized his sexually-appealing "bathing beauties" starlets. The swimsuited beauties were usually uncredited swimsuit models, although some became famous leading ladies, such as Juanita Hansen, Phyllis Haver, Gloria Swanson and the original bathing beauty Mabel Normand.

Sennett had them appear bare-legged in his cheaply-made popular slapstick comedies. Although he was accused of exploiting their bodies by the Temperance Movement, they remained highly popular - and racy for their time.

Isle of Love (1918) (aka An Adventuress (1920))

Young starlet Virginia Rapp (with the screen name of Rappe), who was later portrayed as the victim in the rape/murder case/scandal involving silent film comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on Labor Day 1921, appeared in this film. She and other participants laid the blame on Arbuckle before her death four days later of a ruptured bladder and peritonitis.

She ultimately appeared in small roles in about 10 films during her short career, and had developed a trampish reputation as one who would frequently strip and sometimes modeled in the nude.

Her biographical information claimed multiple abortions, venereal disease, dabbling in prostitution, and an out-of-wedlock child raised by foster care.