The Adventures of Lucky Pierre

The Adventures of Lucky Pierre is a 1961 nudie cutie film created by exploitation filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman. The first of its kind to be filmed in color,[3] the film starred comedian Billy Falbo. It was unique for its time and genre, adding successful comedy to the nudity and sensationalist material.

The Adventures of Lucky Pierre
Directed byHerschell Gordon Lewis (credited as Lewis H. Gordon)
StarringBilly Falbo
Lawrence J. Aberwood (as Lawrence Wood)
William Kerwin
Music byHerschell Gordon Lewis
Larry Wellington[1]
CinematographyHerschell Gordon Lewis
Production
company
Lucky Pierre Enterprises
Distributed bySomething Weird Video
Release date
1961
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS $7,500[2]

History

The film was conceived by Lewis and Friedman when film distributor Alfred N. Sack offered the two $7,000 to create a single-reel, "color 35mm film of cute girls carousing around with beach balls, or whatever."[4] Upon learning of this reel, another distributor offered a deal to expand the film into a full-length feature film. The two spent around five hours writing the film,[5] and, with Falbo, proceeded to film the movie over a four-day period in Chicago, Illinois.[4]

Plot

The Adventures of Lucky Pierre is a series of vignettes featuring the title character, Lucky Pierre, in a series of unrelated storylines involving scantly-clad or nude women.[6] Pierre, named after a childhood rhyme Friedman and Lewis remembered, would end up in a short segment where he encounters various naked women – for instance, in "Drive-In Me Crazy", Pierre attends a drive-in movie where the ticket taker and concession workers are all nude women who also appear in the film he's seeing.[7] In another, Pierre, as a painter, has three nude women posing for him in a park,[8] and another vignette had Pierre come upon two sunbathing women while birdwatching.[9]

Reception

The film was a financial success, grossing over $12,000 in a single theater over a week's run upon opening,[10] and continued to enjoy financial success while avoiding the type of censorship previous exploitation films such as Mom and Dad faced.[11] The film ushered in a new form of sexploitation film, the "nudie cutie", and Friedman, who worked with the American Film Institute to catalog such films for them,[6] estimated over 600 Pierre-style films were released between 1961 and 1970.[12]

References
  1. Something Weird Video release of The Adventures of Lucky Pierre.
  2. Quarles, 158.
  3. Rockoff, 32.
  4. DVD Talk interview.
  5. Friedman, 265.
  6. Friedman interview.
  7. Quarles, 159.
  8. Friedman, 262.
  9. Friedman, 263.
  10. Friedman, 271.
  11. Friedman, 272-274.
  12. Friedman, 264.

Notes
  • DVD Talk: "CineSchlock-O-Rama: Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore." G. Noel Gross, 27 April 2001. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
  • David F. Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X).
  • Internet Movie Database: The Adventures of Lucky Pierre. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
  • New York Times: "I Lost It at the Movies." Will Blythe, 1 December 2002. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
  • Pitchfork Media: L. Pierre - Dip review. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
  • Mike Quarles, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2).
  • Reel.com: "David F. Friedman: Wage Earner of Sin." URL accessed 28 May 2007.
  • Adam Rockoff, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986. (McFarland & Company; 2002; ISBN 0-7864-1227-5).
  • Something Weird Video: The Adventures of Lucky Pierre. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
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