Classic Nudes USA (2008)
Seduction Cinema DVD (region 0)

d. various unknown; pr. various unknown; cast. Candy Barr

“Stag films” were illegal, hardcore porno loops that were circulated illicitly before becoming the domain of the sex shop and then incorporated into the hardcore porno feature film in the early 1970s. 

It was the hardcore content that drew the attention of Christian moralizers and censors in protest of what was vast becoming an explicit form of American erotica – finally perfected in the feature length porno films of Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones.  The initial studies and surveys into American sexual behaviour of the Kinsey Institute reconsidered the stag film as an evolving indication of American attitudes to sexual relations, gender politics and usually male fantasy and thus worthy of archival treatment – the archive of sex on film as valid cultural document thus became even a librarian’s duty-bound obligation.

However, stag films were merely one available means of depicting the sexual charms of American women: indeed, just as the Playboy ethos of Hugh Hefner consumed America and the age of the centrefold consumed the developing men’s magazine market, the “girlie loop” proliferated. 

“Girlie loops” began in the early 1950s: they were short films featuring naked, attractive young women frolicking alone or otherwise displaying their bodies for the enjoyment of male viewers.  Also despised by the Christian moralists (or “wowsers” as the Australians described them) but less controversial as there was no explicit sex, girlie loops were popular viewing in penny arcades and peep show machines – intended for adolescent males itching for a quick, cheap sight of the female nude in motion and on display. 

Girlie loops were simple in design – usually a camera focusing on naked or barely-clad women as they danced, ran around or played up to the camera.   Increasingly, the girls began to engage the male viewer more directly, and the girlie loops were full of girls making eye contact with the camera, forbidden in traditional filmmaking as it shatters the barrier between viewer and film (referred to in film theory as “the fourth wall”) but central to American erotica as it developed into the cult of the porn star.  The initial girlie loops were silent, though had lounge music type accompaniment on occasion when select venues introduced more sophisticated means of exhibition / projection.  They concentrated on a single woman, usually semi-nude, and had a distinct burlesque quality to them, but frequently introduced two or more women and attempted some kind of context in which to frame the.  The surrounding scenarios were usually playful though and nowhere near as potent assessments of gender politics and sexual fantasy as were the stag films – girlie loops were all about the girls, who would often tease and play up directly into the camera, and their collection on DVD makes for an intriguing journey through the origins of American erotica as the simultaneous celebration and objectification of nude women.

Classic Nudes USA is an archive-worthy 2-disc DVD collection of 3 hours of vintage girlie loops over two discs, outlining the chronological development of the girlie loop over the second half of the C20th and providing an abundance of evidence for the form’s status as erotic cultural document. 

Watching this fine Retro-Seduction Cinema collection sequentially makes for a fascinating look at how the codes of representing the female nude evolved in the course of the girlie loop.  Especially interesting is the evident change in desirable female body shapes since the buxom, curvy women celebrated by the early girlie loop, long before today’s emphasis on anorexia-chic.  The American male obsession with the desirable woman’s body may have eventually spawned a multi-billion dollar adult industry accused of commoditizing and exploiting women, but it was always the individuality of the nude women and their on-camera teasing and verve which distinguished the girlie loop.

The first disc of this two disc collection contains over 36 vintage girlie loops from the 1960s when there was still little full-on nudity but much playful frolicking and light girl-on-girl pillow-fight type fun and games.  Retro-Seduction DVD’s admirable archivist intent with this freshly assembled, revealing collection is evident in the care they have taken to restore the lounge / striptease musical scores that accompanied the loops collected here, which have been fully restored for DVD release and preservation.  The restoration works well and the DVD emerges a perfect preservation of classic American sideshow erotica, evoking the original appeal many of these loops had and putting them in a nostalgic frame of reference, contextualized further in the informative fold-out booklet accompanying this two-disc release.  With the booklet giving introductory information about the key people involved (for instance, striptease “legend” Candy Barr, whose work is featured on the second disc), the girlie loops themselves are nicely assembled for a teasingly erotic look at how an earlier generation depicted the nude in film.  There’s a joy in femininity here and the first disc captures this intact.

The historical perspective carries through into the second disc in this collection, which is an assembly of 8mm film loops.  

Most of the early girlie loops were filmed on 16mm, but when the cheaper, easier to use format of 8mm emerged (then the equivalent of a popular home video format) the loops changed accordingly.  With cheaper and more flexible filming equipment, some of the 8mm loops revealed considerably more erotic ambition than the early nudie-cutie posing type material.  Talented burlesque artists and professional strippers began to perform, the aspect of performance being a development from the simple pose and tease structure of the early loops on the first disc.  Such performances were increasingly elaborate and sometimes creatively offbeat, allowing cult performers like Libby Jones to demonstrate their exhibitionist sexuality and their command of the burlesque art.  The footage is grainy and dated, though is set to period music and the background sound of a projector, which was a real presence in the original screening conditions in which these films were exhibited.  It is on this second disc that the erotic imagination of the girlie loop filmmakers themselves are more evident as some loops here are quite elaborate sexual fantasies, though never hardcore and cautious about nudity despite the striptease appeal.

This 2-disc DVD collector’s item is a wonderful collection of material celebrating the desirability of the female form.  The women here are playful and teasing, adoringly filmed and the attention to presentation on the DVD package, with fine quality transfers (although of grainy source material), booklet and authentic musical accompaniment makes this DVD release a truly rewarding, stimulating and teasing experience.  The loops are always fun, sometimes surprisingly creative and are often erotically charged, after all – these films are performed by women consensually and solely to turn men on.  As a slice of vintage American erotica, Classic Nudes USA is ideal: evidence of archival care and genuine fondness for the material of historic American erotica and its makers, fully capturing the girlie loop’s appeal.  Classic Nudes USA is the latest in a line of historic-erotica from the Retro-Seduction range.