The Grindhouse Era, Part 11: Getting Harder (continued)

Scoop’s note:

The approach of the 70s sounded the death knell for a grindhouse industry pressured from all sides.

• Mainstream Hollywood movies were adding more and more nudity, taking away what had been the unique selling proposition of the grindhouse offerings in the early 60s.
• Foreign films with nudity and sexual content were filling up some of the small theaters that used to specialize exclusively in grindhouse products.
• Hard core porn was becoming more accessible and acceptable in society, and was thus taking over other grindhouse screens.
• The real estate boom was destroying the drive-in theater market, as more and more locations found that the sale value of their large tracts of land was greater than any reasonable forecast of future operating revenues from outdoor theaters.

Lacking the talent, production values and wide mainstream appeal of Hollywood or European films, and lacking the titillation of real porn, grindhouse film makers struggled to find a niche. The grindhouse film makers took various actions to defend their markets. Brainscan’s article below explains one strategy they tried – to create a “harder” product than Hollywood could offer, while maintaining a certain respectability and legal status still generally denied to hard core films.

Brainscan's commentary:

As legal restrictions on complete nudity in movies decreased and pressure to reveal anything and everything increased, grindhouse directors pushed the enveloped of what they would film.  Some movies in the short period of 1969 to 1972 do a nice job of showing just how far these movies would go.

Eye Spy (1971) had the story, acting and production qualities of a hardcore film but none of the hardcore activity.  It stars Donna Stanley and Pamala Westcott, both of whom were very attractive and both of whom would try her hand at hardcore movie making for a very brief time.  The thinnest of stories has a guy installing hidden video equipment around a house so that its owner could spy on the comings and goings of his daughter.  Or something like that. 

Donna Stanley



Donna Stanley and Pamala Westcott



Pamala Westcott