Discussion:
Dwain Esper: How many of his films survive?
(too old to reply)
Darren
2004-09-25 03:05:18 UTC
Permalink
How many?
IMDB lists these titles. Are there more?
1. Will It Happen Again? (1948) (producer)
... aka Love Life of Adolph Hitler (1948) (USA: reissue title)
... aka Strange Love Life of Adolf Hitler, The (1948) (USA:
reissue title)
... aka Strange Loves of Adolf Hitler, The (1948) (USA: reissue
title)
2. Curse of the Ubangi (1946) (producer)
3. Sex Madness (1938) (producer)
... aka Human Wreckage (1938) (USA: reissue title)
... aka They Must Be Told (1938) (USA: reissue title)
4. How to Take a Bath (1937) (producer)
5. How to Undress In Front of Your Husband (1937) (producer)
6. Hell-A-Vision (1936) (producer) (reissue)
... aka Hell-O-Vision (1936) (USA)
7. Marihuana (1936/I) (producer)
... aka Marihuana, the Devil's Weed (1936)
... aka Marihuana, the Weed with Roots in Hell! (1936)
8. Angkor (1935) (producer)
... aka Forbidden Adventure (1938/II) (USA: informal reissue title)
... aka Forbidden Adventure in Angkor (1938) (USA: reissue title)
9. Maniac (1934) (producer)
... aka Sex Maniac (1934)
10. Sången om den eldröda blomman (1934) (producer) (US version)
... aka Man's Way with Women (1937) (USA)
11. Modern Motherhood (1934) (producer)
12. Narcotic (1933) (producer)
... aka Narcotic! (1934) (USA: promotional title)
... aka Narcotic: As Interpreted by Dwain Esper (1933) (USA:
closing credits title)
13. Seventh Commandment, The (1932) (producer)
... aka 7th Commandment, The (1932) (USA: poster title)
... aka Sins of Love (1932) (USA: reissue title)
14. Freaks (1932) (producer) (reissue) (uncredited)
... aka Forbidden Love (1932) (USA: informal title)
... aka Nature's Mistakes (1932) (USA: informal title)
... aka Monster Show, The (1932)
15. You Conform Or Die! (????) (producer)
Darren Nemeth
***@giant-squid-audio-lab.com
Owner of "Giant Squid Audio Lab" - Specialists in durable,
high fidelity microphones for discriminating analog and
digital recording enthusiasts.
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/
Dr. Giraud
2004-09-25 02:59:04 UTC
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<< Subject: Dwain Esper: How many of his films survive? >>
Too many.
"I am amused to meet you."
--Monte Blue, SO THIS IS PARIS
PhantomXCI
2004-09-25 03:29:03 UTC
Permalink
MANIAC is certainly available from numerous sources.
And delete Esper as the producer of FREAKS. Thalberg was the producer. The
closest Esper ever got to MGM was at the traffic light down the block. He
tacked his name on when he rereleased the film in the 40s.
Jay Salsberg
Joe Moore
2004-09-25 16:22:40 UTC
Permalink
Post by PhantomXCI
MANIAC is certainly available from numerous sources.
And delete Esper as the producer of FREAKS. Thalberg was the producer. The
closest Esper ever got to MGM was at the traffic light down the block. He
tacked his name on when he rereleased the film in the 40s.
Jay Salsberg
NARCOTIC, MARIHUANA and SEX MADNESS also survive. I remember catching
the later on a double bill with REEFER MADNESS in the late 70s.
Joe Moore
Darren
2004-09-25 17:06:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Joe Moore
Post by PhantomXCI
MANIAC is certainly available from numerous sources.
And delete Esper as the producer of FREAKS. Thalberg was the producer. The
closest Esper ever got to MGM was at the traffic light down the block. He
tacked his name on when he rereleased the film in the 40s.
Jay Salsberg
NARCOTIC, MARIHUANA and SEX MADNESS also survive. I remember catching
the later on a double bill with REEFER MADNESS in the late 70s.
Joe Moore
I am downloading SEX MADNESS right now. archive.org has it. Free
download. I have 99% of it on my HD right now. :)
--
Darren Nemeth
***@giant-squid-audio-lab.com
Owner of "Giant Squid Audio Lab" - Specialists in durable,
high fidelity microphones for discriminating analog and
digital recording enthusiasts.
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/
Eric Stott
2004-09-25 22:55:22 UTC
Permalink
Post by Darren
Post by Joe Moore
NARCOTIC, MARIHUANA and SEX MADNESS also survive. I remember catching
the later on a double bill with REEFER MADNESS in the late 70s.
Joe Moore
I am downloading SEX MADNESS right now. archive.org has it. Free
download. I have 99% of it on my HD right now. :)
--
Darren Nemeth
Just watched SEX MADNESS during dinner. It's pretty awful, but actually has some good parts. Esper knew how
to put soom "oomph" into the first reel to keep the customers seated- the action up through the "House Party"
is pretty good, the men and women are appropriately sleazy and cheap. I wonder if he just picked them up in a
bar?
Stott
Darren
2004-09-26 07:37:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Eric Stott
Just watched SEX MADNESS during dinner.
SEX MADNESS during dinner?!?!??!
Post by Eric Stott
It's pretty awful, but actually has some good parts. Esper knew how
to put soom "oomph" into the first reel to keep the customers seated- the action up through the "House Party"
is pretty good, the men and women are appropriately sleazy and cheap. I wonder if he just picked them up in a
bar?
Who knows.
One wonders if he even paid them as promised.
I just watched it, too. Not better or worse than his others, IMHO.
Although, MANIAC did give me a splitting migane. A film never effected
me like that before. Had to lay down.
Archive.org is a great place to download this kind of stuff.
What a great resource! Who needs TV!?!
The instructional films are good, especially the strange "Perversion"
porn-threat reel from 1965.
Some 1920s - 1930s silent class room subjects as well.
All envoke a nice time-period atmosphere and you learn stuff, too. :)
However, some of the transfers are not too good.
The Sid Davis grade school films I viewed are the best quality, so
far, and some of the others have too much frame overscan.
The 1920s silent "Communication: A Film Lesson in General Science" for
example, slices off letters in the intertitles.
Others seem like they were made with a telecine that was not bright
enough.
SEX MADNESS is alright. Looks to be a dupy 16mm print transfered to
analog video and digitized.
Not too bad. Especially since it is all free.
Ya can't beat that.
I am looking forward to an inevatable 35mm restoration of SEX MADNESS
presented on DVD. Well worth viewing again.
Until then, I'll be downloading more VD and driver training films. :)
Darren
WaverBoy
2004-09-25 16:39:51 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dr. Giraud
<< Subject: Dwain Esper: How many of his films survive? >>
Too many.
Aw, c'mon, MANIAC is absolutely jaw-droppingly hysterical from start to
finish. I never get sick of that one.
Darren
2004-09-25 16:26:44 UTC
Permalink
Okay. I have seen all but these.... and "Seventh Commandment" (1932)
is being released by SWV next year.
Are any of the below still around?
1. Will It Happen Again? (1948) (producer)
Post by Darren
... aka Love Life of Adolph Hitler (1948) (USA: reissue title)
reissue title)
... aka Strange Loves of Adolf Hitler, The (1948) (USA: reissue
title)
2. Curse of the Ubangi (1946) (producer)
4. How to Take a Bath (1937) (producer)
5. How to Undress In Front of Your Husband (1937) (producer)
6. Hell-A-Vision (1936) (producer) (reissue)
... aka Hell-O-Vision (1936) (USA)
8. Angkor (1935) (producer)
... aka Forbidden Adventure (1938/II) (USA: informal reissue title)
... aka Forbidden Adventure in Angkor (1938) (USA: reissue title)
10. Sången om den eldröda blomman (1934) (producer) (US version)
... aka Man's Way with Women (1937) (USA)
11. Modern Motherhood (1934) (producer)
15. You Conform Or Die! (????) (producer)
--
Darren
Bob Birchard
2004-09-25 18:04:17 UTC
Permalink
Post by Darren
How many?
IMDB lists these titles. Are there more?
1. Will It Happen Again? (1948) (producer)
... aka Love Life of Adolph Hitler (1948) (USA: reissue title)
reissue title)
... aka Strange Loves of Adolf Hitler, The (1948) (USA: reissue
title)
2. Curse of the Ubangi (1946) (producer)
3. Sex Madness (1938) (producer)
... aka Human Wreckage (1938) (USA: reissue title)
... aka They Must Be Told (1938) (USA: reissue title)
4. How to Take a Bath (1937) (producer)
5. How to Undress In Front of Your Husband (1937) (producer)
6. Hell-A-Vision (1936) (producer) (reissue)
... aka Hell-O-Vision (1936) (USA)
7. Marihuana (1936/I) (producer)
... aka Marihuana, the Devil's Weed (1936)
... aka Marihuana, the Weed with Roots in Hell! (1936)
8. Angkor (1935) (producer)
... aka Forbidden Adventure (1938/II) (USA: informal reissue title)
... aka Forbidden Adventure in Angkor (1938) (USA: reissue title)
9. Maniac (1934) (producer)
... aka Sex Maniac (1934)
10. Sången om den eldröda blomman (1934) (producer) (US version)
... aka Man's Way with Women (1937) (USA)
11. Modern Motherhood (1934) (producer)
12. Narcotic (1933) (producer)
... aka Narcotic! (1934) (USA: promotional title)
closing credits title)
13. Seventh Commandment, The (1932) (producer)
... aka 7th Commandment, The (1932) (USA: poster title)
... aka Sins of Love (1932) (USA: reissue title)
14. Freaks (1932) (producer) (reissue) (uncredited)
... aka Forbidden Love (1932) (USA: informal title)
... aka Nature's Mistakes (1932) (USA: informal title)
... aka Monster Show, The (1932)
15. You Conform Or Die! (????) (producer)
Darren Nemeth
Owner of "Giant Squid Audio Lab" - Specialists in durable,
high fidelity microphones for discriminating analog and
digital recording enthusiasts.
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/
Esper was a one-lung producer who basically made his money by defrauding his
investors. He'd raise fifty thousand dollars to make a picture. Produce it
for about nine thousand and then pocket the difference. The investors always
lost as the pictures had virtually no distribution potential outside the
cheapest grind house venues.
--
Bob Birchard
Now available from the University Press of Kentucky
Cecil B. DeMilles Hollywood
by Robert S. Birchard
I.S.B.N. # 0-8131-2324-0
http://kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Category_ID=1&Group=42&ID=1113
Darren
2004-09-25 19:02:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Birchard
Esper was a one-lung producer who basically made his money by defrauding his
investors. He'd raise fifty thousand dollars to make a picture. Produce it
for about nine thousand and then pocket the difference. The investors always
lost as the pictures had virtually no distribution potential outside the
cheapest grind house venues.
Now I know why they call him one of the "40 Theifs."
This type of stuff seems to be common among the road show exploiters
of the day.
When people watch these films they wonder why they stink so bad.
However, all we have left are the films. Back then the movie was only
30% or less of what a exploitation road show was all about.
There were exhibits, lectures and hype.
Too bad someone isn't attempting to recreate one of these experiences.
Folks at Cony Island are doing this for freak shows.
The films aleady exists. Just set up exhibits. Not much overhead.
Darren
(Who remembers a couple of road shows he went to as a child. No films
involved, however. Just shark exhibits at a car dealership and The
Minnasota IceMan at the local mall.)
Eric Miller
2004-09-25 23:57:19 UTC
Permalink
MANIAC (1934) and NARCOTIC (1933) are both on an excellent Kino DVD.
With all the acclaim MANIAC gets, I think NARCOTIC is very underrated.
Several of the scenes, particularly those in the opium den, are
atmospheric in a sleazy, low-budget way. There are some experimental
extreme high- and low-angle shots that never would have been permitted
within Hollywood (and I love the shot from inside the fireplace!). The
part where the slow-motion footage of snakes fighting continues to
play over audio of men fighting comes across as almost avant-garde.
You have to admire him for pushing the envelope like that.
MARIHUANA (1935, or is it 36?) is on an equally cool Something Weird
DVD with two other marijuana movies. It isn't as interesting
cinematically as the previous two, but there are still some good
shots. Its closer to the Hollywood model--you can tell he was trying a
little harder to make a "normal" movie. He also manages to tell a
fairly coherent story for most of the running time. I guess those are
the big three...
ANGKOR (aka FORBIDDEN ADVENTURE) is availabe from Something Weird but
I haven't seen it yet. The production history of the movie is the most
convoluted I've ever encountered. The date of relase as well as the
date of the expeditionary footage it uses seem to be in question.
There's a good, probably definite write-up on it in the second
"Forgotten Horrors" book, but other things I've read on it don't
credit Esper at all. The book "Forbidden Fruit" credits Esper with two
jungle/gorilla shorts from 1934--perhaps they use the same silent
stock footage as ANGKOR.
One version of the short HOW TO UNDESS (IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND)
(37), with Elaine Barrymore, was actually on a Grapevine tape with
other shorts! I think their version is an abridged one without the
footage demonstrating how not to undress. I thought the short was
actually rather charming, along the lines of what Pete Smith or Robert
Benchley would do if they made shorts about women undressing.
Esper is responsible for another short called SINISTER MENACE (or
SINISTER HARVEST?) about drug smuggling in Egypt. It looks to be the
1930s (using found footage from the 20s).
I really wish there was an infallible source for the production and
release dates of some of these roadshow movies! So many of them
extensively utilize stock footage from years earlier, and there were
so many different versions shown of the same film, under so many
different titles, that we'll probably never know for sure on a lot of
them.
eric