Dwain Esper, the Father of the Exploitation Flick

In the early 1930s, independent film producer Dwain Esper dubbed himself "the King of the celluloid gypsies." It was a fitting title because of his carnival background and the fact that, like carnival promoters of his time, Esper traveled with his risqué movies from town to town, often setting up tent shows that were always one step away from being busted by the local authorities. While his films preached moralistic warnings against sexual promiscuity and illegal drug usage, they also titillated. To some, Dwain Esper was the father of the modern exploitation film.

From 1932 through 1948, he produced films with titles that included "Narcotic", "Hell-a-Vision" "How to Undress in Front of Your Husband", "How to Take A Bath", "Maniac", "Sex Madness", "Marihuana: The Weed With Roots in Hell", and his most famous film of all, "Tell Your Children", which was re-titled "Reefer Madness."

The quality of his filmmaking rivaled the filmmaking of Ed Wood Jr., the acknowledged worst director in Hollywood history. Some say that Esper's shoddy, sleazy, and inept filmmaking even surpassed Wood. In fact, there was nothing that Esper wouldn't do to shock an audience. His films included real Caesarian births, close-ups of real venereal diseases, car accidents, and junkies shooting up.

"Narcotic"

For his film "Narcotic", Esper displayed a mummified corpse called "Elmer the Dope Fiend" in theater lobbies or in tents. He had bought the corpse from a circus sideshow.

"Maniac"

In this film, a mad scientist gouges out a cat's eye and eats it. And the same "maniac" skins cats for their fur.

"Sex Madness"

In "Sex Madness", a chorus girl has an extramarital affair and contracts syphilis. For the rest of the film, the main character must deal with this disease in her marriage.

"Hell-a-Vision"

Esper bought an Italian film version of "Dante's Inferno" and added new scenes showing full-frontal nudity.

"Freaks"

This was actually a classic Tod Browning horror film starring real-life sideshow circus freaks. Its subject matter was so shocking that the film was banned for years. Sensing an opportunity, Esper bought the film and it made the rounds of his fly-by-night "gypsy" tent shows.

"Reefer Madness"

In the 1960s, Esper's "Tell Your Children" (re-titled "Reefer Madness") made the rounds on college campuses and became (and remains) a cult hit. Unfortunately for Dwain Esper, he had failed to protect the film's copyright and never earned a penny from it. Considering the tawdry subject matters of his films and the cheap exploitation that he pandered, perhaps "Reefer Madness" was Dwain Esper's karma.

SOURCES:

"Shh, it's starting ...", Violet Glaze, Popmatters

"Shot in glorious sexploitation", John Windsor, Guardian

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0260871/bio

"Reviews", Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal

"Sex Madness", IMDB,

"Hell-a-Vision", IMDB

"Reefer Madness", IMDB

"Dwain Esper", Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

"Reefer, the musical on Showtime", Oakland Tribune