Roadshow Rarities (June 30 – July 6) In the old days of theatrical releases some of the more lavish movies would be promoted by holding limited screenings in large cities. These roadshow releases would generate hype before the nationwide release and allow producers to tweak the film to the audience’s reaction. This model also worked for low budget productions that may have had no intention of a wide release. These explo roadshows traveled an informal circuit of theaters, churches, revival tents, high school auditoriums and anywhere else they could run a projector. They frequently promised more than they delivered and left town before the angry audience could catch up to them. Through the restoration efforts of SWV many of these movies have survived to piss audiences off to this very day!

Directed by W. Merle Connell (The Flesh Merchant) and written by Danny Arnold (who created Barney Miller) and Richard S. McMahan, this uses the same cast and crew as Test Tube Babies.

Actor Timothy Farrell made three low-budget exploitation movies in which he played the part of gym owner Umberto Scalli. These films are also all about women wrestlers, such as Racket Girls, Dance Hall Racket and this movie. Scalli may have died at the end of Racket Girls but he came back to life for the other movie.

Scalli is out of prison and has two new scams. One is a health spa where women can get dangerous diet drugs and the other one is to sell amphetamines to teenagers at parties. Judge Rosalind Ballentine (Lita Grey, the second wife of Charlie Chaplin) and Detective Sergeant Dave Kerrigan (William Thomason) try to stop him, but he has photos of the judge’s daughter Margie (Tracy Lynne) nude and drugged out at one of those parties.

“Today’s Moral MENACE ! Daring expose of the devil drug traffic in Bennies, Goofies and Phenos as it really exists.”

Oh it does. This movie was probably really scandalous in 1949 but today, it’s nearly quaint.

You can watch this on Tubi.