Mom and Dad (1945)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

William Beaudine

Writers:

Kroger Babb (story)
Mildred Horn (screenplay)

Release Date:

4 April 1949 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The picture the world has been waiting for!

Plot:

Because a high school girl's parents refuse to discuss sex education (called "personal hygiene" in the film) with her...

Plot Keywords:

Sex Education | Birth | Childbirth | Cult Favorite | B Movie

Awards:

1 win

Cast

June Carlson	...	Joan Blake
Lois Austin	...	Sarah Blake
George Eldredge	...	Dan Blake
Jimmy Clark	...	Dave Blake
Hardie Albright	...	Carl Blackburn
Bob Lowell	...	Jack Griffith
Willa Pearl Curtis	...	Junella (the maid)
Jimmy Zahner	...	Allen Curtis
Jane Isbell	...	Mary Lou Gardner
Robert Filmer	...	Supt;. McMann
Forrest Taylor	...	Dr. John D. Ashley
John Hamilton	...	Dr. Burnell
Virginia Vane	...	Virginia Van
Kaye Renard	...	Nightclub singer
Wheeler Oakman	...	Bourbon drinker on train

Also Known As:

A Family Story (UK)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Hallmark Productions

Trivia:

When the film opened in Baltimore, Maryland, the theater was picketed by religious groups, the Catholic Legion of Decency gave it a "C" (Condemned) rating and the Maryland Board of Censors threatened to have it banned in the state. All of that publicity resulted in the picture doing $32,000 worth of business in the first week at a time when theater admission prices were 25 cents.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies (2001)

Soundtrack:

Where Shall We Dream Tonight?

The most notorious Exploitation/Sex Hygiene film ever made!

Mom and Dad is far the most successful exploitation/sex-hygiene film ever made, and not because of it's subject matter or it's production value. The main reason this little $65.000 film made over 22 million dollars in just under 11 years was because of Howard W. "Kroger" Babb, his carny like showmanship and unwavering promotion would always get 'em in the door, or as he would say "you gotta tell 'em to sell 'em". Shot by William "One Shot" Beaudine on a old Monogram lot in Hollywood over the course of a week, This film would go on to make Kroger Babbs tons of money.

The story is a simple one that would be copied by many others afterwards to capitalize on it's popularity. It's a story about a high school student who gets pregnant by a airplane pilot, he dies in a plane crash. Knowing she's in trouble and about to give birth, she confides in her high school teacher, but the teacher rats her out to her parents, and her parents get the teacher fired because she answered sex hygiene question in class?!?!. So, mother and daughter run away to another town to have the kid, the teacher gets re-hired and starts a class on hygiene. Experts are brought with films on childbirth and VD to the school to teach the little kiddies!! But to foil a happy ending the girl who was pregnant gives birth to a stillborn child, and I guess everyone lives happily ever after.

Although this film is nothing special or sensational, it was the marketing of it that made everyone come to it. The shows were segregated by gender, attendants posed as nurses and handed out booklets on sexual hygiene, all this added to the expectation that what audiences would see is something special. When audiences were sometimes letdown, a square up reel was shown (a square up reel is another short film afterwards, typically something really hot). Usually the square up reel was a live childbirth scene, (or something more sensational) that more than likely gave the audiences some satisfaction in seeing this film.