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Fetish Film Night: Prelude to Happiness

Thursday, April 09, 2009 03:13 PM

tags: bettie page, fetish, Movies, rick castro

Tomorrow is going to be a really good Friday because we have the day off because it's Good Friday and because it's time for another of Rick Castro's "Fetish Film Night" screenings at the Egyptian Theater.

I am simultaneously horrified and intrigued by Prelude to Happiness, as per usual with Mr. Castro's choices for FFN. Here's what he's got to say about it:

Imagine an amputee love affair filmed like a low budget Douglas Sirk melodrama, crossed with an even lower budget episode of "As The World Turns," with bad acting, bad hair and more booms in shots than a reality show. Sue Imes (Rose Petra) loses her leg in an auto accident, and her fiancée dumps her. Then dashing young doctor (Gary Lee Davis), who amputated her leg, falls madly in love with her. What could possibly happen to her next?! This amazing mid-1970s sleaze soap opera exploitation classic was thought to have been lost. This is the only feature length film to even dare to present the subject of amputee fetish. It is an extremely rare, earnest, bold and bizarre film.

Full details on the screening (which will also include some rare Bettie Page film clips) after the jump.

SPECIAL ADDED BONUS: In honor of the passing of the great BETTIE PAGE (April 22,1923 --December 11, 2008), FFN will present short film clips from Bettie’s collaboration with IRVING KLAW, the creator of contemporary fetish film. The combination of Miss Page and Mr. Klaw was never recognized, nor respected during their era, in fact they were prosecuted and forced to end their collaboration. Now fifty years later, FFN is proud to give them their long overdue tribute.

(These programs are from DVD sources, and the impossibly rare PRELUDE is not in pristine shape.)

FFN is once-monthly series hosted by Rick Castro of Antebellum Gallery, the only fetish art gallery in the world, located right around the corner from the American Cinematheque.

After the screening, Rick Castro invites the FFN audience for a sneak preview of the new exhibit-

*CLOWNIE* BABY* AMPUTEE*

This series is for audiences 18 and over.

ANTEBELLUM
1643 N Las Palmas Ave
Hollywood, CA 90028
323 856-5818
antebellum@earthlink.net