Film from 1948: Hitler’s Strange Love Life (likely filmed by Jews)

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Jews first published "schlock" films -- CSR

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The Cinema of Dwain Esper in Poverty Row Forum

    It should be noted that Esper did not direct or have anything to do with SEX MADNESS (1938) (aka Human Wreckage). For some reason this one often gets credited to Esper but this appears to be an assertion of recent years. I have never been able to pin down exactly who actually directed SEX MADNESS but I suspect that it was a fellow by the name Joseph Seiden who also co-wrote it.

Well since this thread has been quiet for awhile now I'd thought I would elaborate on this a bit. As said above for some reason Dwain Esper has been credited as being the director for SEX MADNESS (aka HUMAN WRECKAGE and THEY MUST BE TOLD) in several recent sources, most notably the Imdb HERE but I am more than certain that this assertion is wrong. I am not sure where the claim that Esper directed this film first originated but it seems to have happned only within the last decade but there is plenty of evidence to cast doubt upon it.

 As I brought up the Esper documentary thread neither Eric Schaefer or Bret Wood in their respective books on the Exploitation genre list Sex Madness as an Esper production. Both authors have done an extensive amount of research into Esper's career including interviewing various family members of his so it is rather odd that they neither of them would include this film in Esper's filmography if it were indeed one of his pictures.

The company that made/distributed SEX MADNESS/ HUMAN WRECKAGE has always been listed as Cinema Service Corp and I never seen any indication that Esper ever worked or distributed stuff under that company name. If it were indeed an Esper pic it most certainly would have been distributed under the name Roadshow Attractions which was the main company distributing Esper's releases at the time or possibily even under the his earlier name Hollywood Producers and Distributors (though I think Esper had retired that company name by the time he made MARIHUANA in 1936) and neither does his name appear on any original advertising for the film. Also some of the info I have found on the cast and crew of SEX MADNESS indicates that it may have been made in New York City while Esper was based in Los Angeles which makes it even more likely in my eyes that he had nothing to do with it.

So who actually directed Sex Madness then?    Most prints of the film in circulation today lop off the credits (if there ever were credits on it to begin with) making it difficult to determine who did what but there is at least one solid credit attached to it in the form of a writing credit on the film for    Joseph Seiden  and Vincent Valentini and I think that Seiden may have been the one that directed it. Seiden seems to have had pretty interesting career himself. He founded the Judea Pictures Corporation (later Jewish Talking Pictures) in New York City around 1929 and primarily produced and directed Yiddish language films, shorts, and documentaries. With the advent of WWII the market for Yiddish language films dried up and Seiden left the business to become a defence contactor for the army. Later after the war he tried to resume his career in producing Yiddish films but that proved to be unsuccessful and by the time the 50's roll around Seidan seems to have gotten out of the production end of things and instead concentrate on distributing his back catalog to the 16mm rental market. He also had a studio named Seidan Studios of the Talking Pictures located in Manhattan and he also seems to be the one behind  Cinema Service Corp. I have a hard time digging up any listings or references to Cinema Service Corp in any of the 1930's of 40's editions of the Film Daily Yearbook but there is a entry for them in 1956 edition under the name General Cinema Service Corp listing Joseph Seiden as president. Cinema Service is billed on much of the original advertising for the film (like oldposterho's lobby card posted above) and are listed as the production company and distributor of the film at the NYSA website so they definitely were active in the 30's. Also of note is that the cast of SEX MADNESS (who don't appear to have acted in much else) seem to have been made up of New York based actors making it even more likely that that is where the film was made.

Now what I find rather odd (if the above is correct) is why someone like Seidan would all the suddenly want get into the exploitation market. I can't find any evidence that he was involved in any other exploitation picture in his career so this sudden one shot leap from Yiddish films into the exploitation field is rather puzzling. Anyone care to speculate?




http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuk ... wain-Esper

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Hitler's Strange Love Life
alt. title   aka The Love Life of Adolph Hitler
date    1948
by    Dwain Esper, producer
medium    Poster

This advertising poster for 1948's Hitler's Strange Love Life is an odd, almost surreal mix of sexuality and atrocity. This film, which was compiled by Dwain Esper after the end of World War II, exploited the horrors of the holocaust by showing newsreel footage of Nazi butchery, while occasionally finding time to add shots of Hitler's mistress, Ava Braun, in a swim suit. All of this footage is advertised in the poster as "True, Authentic, Captured Film!" Such products captured the imagination of many Americans in the immediate Post-War years, which also saw the rise of similarly themed books such as I Was Hitler's Doctor.

The poster, which features a nude woman being whipped by the disembodied arm of a Nazi soldier, anticipates the rise of Nazi-themed S&M sexploitation films such as Love Camp Seven (1968) and Ilsa: She-Wolf of the S.S. (1974) decades later. Notice that the poster also serves a dual function as an advertisement for the "second shock hit" Sins of the Orient, most likely an atrocity film that portrayed war crimes committed by the Japanese similar to Beasts of the East and Outrages of the Orient.

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/services ... mg.php?i=8