The Reefer Madness of porn
January 27, 2016 11:01 AM   Subscribe

Oregon Historical Society announces discovery of print of unusual and thought lost 1962 anti-porn film, “Pages of Death” (★★☆☆☆)
An anti-pornography and pro censorship film running 27 minutes in length, Pages of Death was produced by the Hour of St. Francis radio program and distributed by the Citizens for Decent Literature (Cincinnati, Ohio) which was affiliated with the Roman Catholic anti-pornography campaigner, Charles Keating.
Charles Keating would later be known for his key role in the S&L crisis and was convicted of fraud, racketerring and conspiracy, later dropped on appeal.

The CDL also produced Perversion for Profit and Printed Poison (previously.

'So remember everybody, don't watch porn or you'll end up murdering someone.'
posted by the man of twists and turns (13 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy must be salivating right now.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2016 [9 favorites]


It's kind of OK, but it's no Next Stop, Nowhere, the zenith/nadir of Quincy's epic nagging spree on behalf of worried babyboomers everywhere.
posted by howfar at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


So remember, everybody: "If you allow the devil to decorate the Chamber of Imagery in your heart with licentious and sensual things, you will find that he has practically thrown a noose about your neck..." --Anthony Comstock, from an interview conducted in 1915. Comstock, previously.
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:34 AM on January 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'll wait for the porn parody, thanks.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:54 AM on January 27, 2016 [7 favorites]


> .... decorate the Chamber of Imagery in your heart with licentious and sensual things ...

That's some pretty lurid prose. I confess it's gotten me a bit excited and I want to read more.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:59 AM on January 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


There's all sorts of interesting stuff going on in Oregon these days!
posted by TedW at 1:12 PM on January 27, 2016


Guess it's time for a spite wank!
posted by _Synesthesia_ at 1:18 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Queefer Madness!
posted by chavenet at 1:24 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Metafilter: It's ok to try perversion just for kicks!
posted by symbioid at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Seriously though, what I found most interesting besides the obviously mocked aspects...

The class based propaganda where the business man looks down on the blue collar worker. How different it is nowadays, not just that you can get all anal all the time in full HD, cheaper than a quarter and a 4 cent stamp, but the social narrative that would be at play, and how the class aspect wouldn't even be used. It's subtle, but it's clear to see that. Thanks a lot Reagan, you fuckwit and your revolution.

Finally... To the dude at the end (and J Edgar Hoover)...
CORRELATION != CAUSATION
posted by symbioid at 3:52 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


all anal all the time is class based propaganda? what?
posted by marienbad at 3:57 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


marienbad: "all anal all the time is class based propaganda? what?"

LOL... No, I mean, times have changed.

From "Oh goodness with a quarter and a 4 cent stamp they can order pornography through the mail" to nowadays just fire up the old pornotubes and away you go (with much filthier stuff than they could imagine).

Second, the OTHER change was the class based propaganda in terms of the rich guy looking down on the victim's father ("oh, a forklift driver? Well, I sure wouldn't talk to *him*" -- the implication there being that the rich guy (whose son, let us not forget, is a "sex fiend") is nothing like us common good hardworking decent folk with innocent daughters. It's a covert moment of class propaganda designed to evoke the common man struggling against the upper classes and their intellectual arguments for "free speech". Hoity toity bastards.

The appeal here is clearly to the blue collar/working class type folks. Nowadays, though, I don't really see how they could pass that off with 30+ years of Reaganomics making the upper class (sorry "upper MIDDLE class") of society come off as mean and snooty. No, we're supposed to worship and emulate them. We wouldn't even give a fiction of class division in a modern take on this, I don't think. It would be all hunky dory we're all middle class people myth.

That's sort of what I was getting at.
posted by symbioid at 4:29 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


So Pages of Death is not the only anti-smut propaganda film in the series. There's also The Sinister Urge, directed by the ineffable Ed Wood, which had the good fortune of being turned into a MST3K episode. Same sets, same basic plot just different specifics. Given the deep similarities between the two I have to wonder if Pages of Death is not also an uncredited Ed Wood production?
posted by scalefree at 5:23 PM on February 8, 2016


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