Out of the Inkwell

My buddy Steve gave me an ad slick for a film I had never heard of – a burlesque movie in 3-D no less.

Naturally I was compelled to do some digging.

It turns out this film was actually a re-edited version of a 1947 film called "Linda be Good." The synopsis from imbd written by Les Adams matches the one on the ads sheet : "Linda Prentiss joins a burlesque troupe to get information for a novel she is writing without her husband, Roger Prentiss, knowing about it. Not knowing who he is, she meets her husband's boss, Sam Thompson, while on a night-clubbing tour with the show's burlesque queen Margie LaVitte. Later, the boss takes a client and Roger to the burlesque show, and Roger is stunned to see his wife as one of the stars."

Sidney Pink is credited as the director of the new 1953 version and he simply added a color 3-D stripper sequence as the film's conclusion.

Now, of course, I'd love to see it. I'm sure it's not a very good movie, but this is a great example of the rules of the classic exploitation film. Take a property with little value in the current market and add material to it to make it marketable. Change the title and turn something that played in neighborhood theaters into an "Adults Only" film that would be seen at drive-ins and grindhouses.

Re-titling to make a film more saleable was very common. My friend Richard Gordon's film "Tower of Evil," was also known as "Horror on Snape Island." Later, another producer bought re-issue rights to the film and called into "Into the Fog."

It's conceivable a drive-in devotee could have seen that same movie three times!

I have to admit I love the outrageous showmanship of the exploitation guys!

© 2011 by Gordon Michael Dobbs