http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33950843-75/story.csp
Oregon Historical Society announces discovery of print of unusual 1962 anti-porn film, “Pages of Death”
Movie’s main character becomes deranged after reading pornography books and murders a girl
By Christian Wihtol
The Register-Guard
JAN. 14, 2016
A 16 mm print of the 1962 anti-pornography film “Pages of Death” was recently discovered in the collection of the Portland-based Oregon Historical Society, the group announced Wednesday.
The campy, over-the-top movie tells the story of a young man who became so deranged from reading pornography magazines that he murdered a girl.
Movie’s main character becomes deranged after reading pornography books and murders a girl
By Christian Wihtol
The Register-Guard
JAN. 14, 2016
A 16 mm print of the 1962 anti-pornography film “Pages of Death” was recently discovered in the collection of the Portland-based Oregon Historical Society, the group announced Wednesday.
The campy, over-the-top movie tells the story of a young man who became so deranged from reading pornography magazines that he murdered a girl.
Before the short movie’s discovery, it had been included on a list of lost films, defined as films in which no copy is known to survive, the historical society said.
“That film was thought to be completely lost or eradicated,” said Rachel Randles, communications and marketing manager of the Historical Society.
A low-resolution copy of the film can be watched on the society’s YouTube page.
The pro-censorship film runs 27 minutes. It was produced by the Citizens for Decent Literature and narrated by 1940 Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. The movie was ranked 14 in Gambit Magazine’s list of 15 Films Lost to Time, the society said.
The movie was made in response to the growing accessibility of salacious material at low-cost “five & dime” drug and merchandise stores in the early 1960s, the society said.
Told in a “Dragnet” style storyline, the film “stands in stark contrast to the ease by which similar materials” are available on the Internet today, according to the society.
In the film, the proprietor of a drug store is targeted by detectives as a peddler of filth for wayward youths.
Cultural critic Jim Linderman described the movie as telling the yarn of Paul Halliday, who “hung out reading pornography at Baker’s Variety Store until he couldn’t stand it any longer and murdered a girl in a whipped up frenzy of smut inspired rage,” the society said.
The society is working to determine if the newly found print is the only surviving copy, or if segments from the film exist in other movie collections, Randles said.
“That film was thought to be completely lost or eradicated,” said Rachel Randles, communications and marketing manager of the Historical Society.
A low-resolution copy of the film can be watched on the society’s YouTube page.
The pro-censorship film runs 27 minutes. It was produced by the Citizens for Decent Literature and narrated by 1940 Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. The movie was ranked 14 in Gambit Magazine’s list of 15 Films Lost to Time, the society said.
The movie was made in response to the growing accessibility of salacious material at low-cost “five & dime” drug and merchandise stores in the early 1960s, the society said.
Told in a “Dragnet” style storyline, the film “stands in stark contrast to the ease by which similar materials” are available on the Internet today, according to the society.
In the film, the proprietor of a drug store is targeted by detectives as a peddler of filth for wayward youths.
Cultural critic Jim Linderman described the movie as telling the yarn of Paul Halliday, who “hung out reading pornography at Baker’s Variety Store until he couldn’t stand it any longer and murdered a girl in a whipped up frenzy of smut inspired rage,” the society said.
The society is working to determine if the newly found print is the only surviving copy, or if segments from the film exist in other movie collections, Randles said.
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