Mom and Dad (1945 film)
Mom and Dad | |
---|---|
Hallmark Productions | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $67,001[3] |
Box office | $40–100 million (estimated) |
Mom and Dad is a 1945 American
The film is regarded as an exploitation film as it was repackaged controversial content designed to establish an educational value that might circumvent U.S. censorship laws. Babb's marketing of his film incorporated old-style medicine show techniques, and used unique promotions to build an audience. These formed a template for his later works, which were imitated by his contemporary filmmakers. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[6][7] The Academy Film Archive preserved Mom and Dad in 2010.[8]
Plot
Mom and Dad tells the story of Joan Blake (
The film resumes at the point when Joan discovers that her clothes no longer fit, sending her into a state of despair. She takes advice from her teacher, Carl Blackburn (Hardie Albright), who had previously been fired for teaching sex education. Blackburn blames her mother for the problem, and accuses her of "neglect[ing] the sacred duty of telling their children the real truth." Only then is Joan able to confront her mother.[2][9]
The film then presents reels and charts that include graphic images of the female anatomy and footage of live births – one natural and one Caesarian. In some screenings, a second film was shown along with Mom and Dad, and contained images portraying
Cast
- Hardie Albright as Carl Blackburn, the teacher
- Lois Austin as Sarah Blake, the mother
- George Eldredge as Dan Blake, the father
- June Carlson as Joan Blake, the teen-age girl
- Jimmy Clark as Joan's brother
- Bob Lowell as Jack Griffin, the pilot
- Jane Isbell as Mary Lou, Joan's friend
- Jimmy Zaner as Allen Curtis, Joan's hometown boyfriend
- Robert Filmer as Superintendent McMann
- Willa Pearl Curtis as Junella, the Blake family's African-American maid
- Virginia Van as Virginia, Dave's girlfriend
- obstetrician
- Jack Roper as The coach
The official credits also acknowledge The Four Liphams as well as the California State Champion dancers of the jitterbug.[2]
Production
Despite the commercially successful run of Babb's debut film, Dust to Dust—a reworked version of the 1938 film
Production of the film cost Babb and his investors a total of $67,001.12.
The plot is padded with a large amount of filler. Films of this type were usually produced quickly and at minimal cost, and while filler was sometimes used to increase the production value, the usual motivation was to extend its running time to qualify for feature length status. Eric Schaefer notes that the "primary purpose" of the plot of Mom and Dad was to "serve as the vehicle onto which the spectacle of the clinical reels can be grafted", such as the live birth scene. The marketing materials suggest the latter reason also, and many posters for the film promised that "You [will] actually SEE the birth of a baby!"[13] The dialogue is carefully worded, and uses period euphemisms rather than explicit terms that may have been controversial at the time. In particular, at no time does the film specifically mention sexual intercourse or pregnancy.[9]
Marketing and presentation
In a Washington Post article covering Babb's career, the film critic Kenneth Turan wrote that Mom and Dad did not "flourish because of its birth footage or because of its puerile plot, which Babb himself disparages ... [its] success flowed, rather, from Babb's extraordinary promotional abilities."[14] The film was exhibited across the United States, and over 300 prints were produced.[4] In the weeks preceding the screening, local presenters sought to attract the attention of the town's inhabitants by distributing letters to local newspapers and church leaflets protesting against the film's moral basis. This strategy often utilized fabricated letters supposedly written by the mayor of a nearby city, who wished to register concern about local young women in his area who had seen the film and were awakened enough to discuss problems similar to ones of their own.[15]
The campaigns were usually orchestrated by employees of either Hygienic or Hallmark Productions,[9] and they nominally based their campaign from information provided by a standard and detailed pressbook containing cast and crew information, as well as other promotional and marketing materials.[2] Babb's marketing strategy centered on overwhelming small towns with advertisements and letters, in an attempt to create a controversial atmosphere. In keeping with his motto of "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em,"[2] the film became so ubiquitous that Time wrote that its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life."[4]
The local pitch included a variety of limited screenings, including adults-only showings, viewings segregated by gender, and a live lecture by the "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" which was often placed during the intermission. At any one time, a number of "Elliot Forbes"es would give simultaneous talks in a number of locations showing the film.
Babb insisted that the program be followed closely; a contractual agreement with theaters required that each presentation follow a similar approach. Because the Forbes lecture formed part of the viewing, extra newsreels or short films were not permitted, although previews were allowed. A contractual agreement disallowed matinée pricing, set specific times for the segregated viewings, and prohibited the screening of the film on Sundays.[16]
Reception
Mom and Dad is the third highest-grossing film of the 1940s in dollar value,[4] and returned close to $63 for each dollar invested by its backers.[21] The Los Angeles Times estimates that the film grossed between $40 million and $100 million,[14] and it has been cited as the most successful sex hygiene film ever released. It remains the most profitable pre-1960 exploitation film; ranking among the top ten grossing films of both the 1940s and 1950s, even when scaled against those year's mainstream releases.[22]
The film was at the center of many high-profile lawsuits and condemnations. The exploitation genre was pitched against numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s, and fought many local censorship battles, and fought bitterly against the motion picture censorship system.[23] It has been claimed that nearly 428 lawsuits were laid against both Babb and Mom and Dad during the film's run.[14] Babb often used the supposed educational value of his films as an offer of defense, and recommended such tactic to theater owners in his pressbooks. One successful challenge was in New York City, where Mom and Dad remained censored until 1956, when the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the censorship board, deciding that human birth did not qualify as "indecent".[24][3]
According to Modern Film Distributors, as of the end of 1956, the film has been dubbed into a dozen languages and attended by an estimated worldwide attendance figure of over 175 million people, at over 650,000 performances.
The film's success spawned a number of imitators, who sought to saturate the market with genre imitations. In particular,
In 1969, the film was submitted to the
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Schaefer, 199.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Pressbook.
- ^ Archive.org.
- ^ a b c d e Library of Congress press release
- ^ Hans J. Wollstein, Mom and Dad (1947)", AllMovie
- ^ "Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Briggs.
- ^ Schaefer, 200.
- ^ Marshall, 242.
- ^ Feaster, 109.
- ^ Schaefer, 106.
- ^ a b c Turan, 22,
- ^ Schaefer, 116.
- ^ a b Schaefer, 133.
- ^ a b Mondor, personal letter.
- ^ Friedman, 119.
- ^ a b c d McDougal.
- ^ Schaefer, 128.
- ^ Variety.
- ^ Schaefer, 197.
- ^ Schaefer, 136–164.
- ^ Schaefer, 329.
- ^ Schaefer, 202.
- ^ Feaster, 110.
- ^ MPAA website
Bibliography
- Felicia Feaster and Bret Wood, Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of Exploitation Film. (ISBN 1-887664-24-6)
- ISBN 978-1-57392-236-4)
- Letter to Michael Zengel from Card Mondor, February 5, 1994. Available from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives.
- Library of Congress: National Film Registry 2005 Press Release. URL accessed August 27, 2006.
- Wendy L. Marshall, William Beaudine: From Silents to Television. (Scarecrow Press, 2005; ISBN 0-8108-5218-7)
- Dennis McDougal, "Filmmaker Babb let promotion offset low budgets." The Press-Enterprise, (Riverside, California), unknown date.
- Pressbook (Wilmington, Ohio: Hallmark Productions, c. 1959.)
- Eric Schaefer, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959. (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8223-2374-5)
- Kenneth Turan, "Kroger Babb: Superhuckster." Los Angeles Times via The Washington Post, November 11, 1977.
- Variety, Kroger Babb obituary, January 30, 1980.
- "Kroger Babb's Roadshow." Reason, November 2003.
External links
- Mom and Dad essay by Eric Schaefer on the National Film Registry website
- Mom and Dad at IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- Mom and Dad essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 381-382 pages 381-382