Prepare to Be Outraged

When an elected official decries the current state of film and television and issues a call for a return to the "good old days," sit that idiot down and show him the eleven-minute-long featurette, "Polly Tix in Washington." The 1933 short stars a five-year-old Shirley Temple as the titular Polly, a prostitute on the payroll of the Nipple Trust; she's hired to seduce a freshmen senator (also played by a toddler) for her bosses. Yeah, it's creepy -- but those were the "good old days," huh? Tom Stockman's Super-8 Politically Incorrect Movie Madness promises a walk through Hollywood's long history of cultural, sexual and racial blind spots with a selection of films that will certainly raise modern eyebrows. Just to be clear, Stockman's not screening the films to insult anyone or to promote any of the taboos on display. This is cultural anthropology, a delve into our cinematic past and the societal mores of our grandparents' generation. Super-8 Movie Madness takes place at 8 p.m. this evening at the Way Out Club (2525 South Jefferson Avenue; 314-664-7638). Also on the bill are a pair of wildly racist Bugs Bunny cartoons, and truncated versions of the homophobic Disco Beaver From Outerspace and O.J. Simpson's revenge blaxploitation flick The Klansman. A 60-minute, 16mm print of Tod Browning's Freaks rounds out the evening. Admission is $3. You're probably gonna want money for drinks though, because some of this stuff is bound to rattle you.
Tue., April 2, 2013