As
I wrote in two previous articles,
Sid Davis Productions contains the greatest collection of over-the-top, pushy,
and obnoxious short films aimed at the educational market. The main focus of most of the Sid Davis catalogue, besides driver safety films, were social conditioning films. Like the pathetic “abstinence-only”
& “teach men not to rape” brigades today , Davis felt it was up to the
state and underpaid civil servants to lead the way on this cause, as most
parents were too stupid to be able to do it properly. And similar to the infamous "Boys Beware" Davis
managed to do it with a heavy handedness that quickly becomes camp once its
viewers reach high school age.
So
here is a collection of five more of the most obnoxious educational scare films
ever made. Enjoy and Caveat Emptor:
Moment of Decision (1957): Heavy handed film about car stealing and joy riding.
Name Unknown (1952): For a thrill she traded her life in order to be a statistic.
The Dropout (1962): A warning to would be slackers. Stay in school or forever be branded a loser.
Control Your Emotions (1950): Remember feelings are for ethnic people.
Let's be Good Citizens At School (1953): This one seems to be exceptionally dated.
As
I wrote in a previous article,
Sid Davis Productions contains the greatest collection of over-the-top, pushy,
and obnoxious short films aimed at the educational market. With over 200 titles
in its catalogue, Sid Davis focused his films not for math or science, but on
the moral upbringing and behaviorofa student. Like the pathetic “abstinence-only”
& “teach men not to rape” brigades today , Davis felt it was up to the
state and underpaid civil servants to lead the way on this cause, as most
parents were too stupid to be able to do it properly. And like the infamous "Boys Beware" Davis
managed to do it with a heavy handedness that quickly becomes camp once its
viewers reach high school age.
So
here is a collection of five more of the most obnoxious educational scare films
ever made. Enjoy:
The Relaxed Wife (1957): Teaching girls how to be better wives to their
husbands. To help him unwind
after a long day of man work, and to never NEVER burn the pot roast
The Strange Ones (1969): A helpful policewoman warns children about the dangers of kidnappers and molesters, which is easy as they all look creepy and have mustaches.
Big
Man on Campus (1958). The deviancy of being a class
clown and how you’re only really cool
by following the rules.
Alcohol is Dynamite (1958): Another anti-drinking
short where one beer leads down a
destructive path to spilled blood and twisted metal.
The Snob (1958): A high school female doesn't want to
associate with the other students at school, preferring to spend
her time at home,doing homework, etc. The other kids think she's a
snob, but a fellow student's mother convinces them that all she
really needs is to be pretty and popular. For more weirdness try Across the Wounded Galaxy by Rex Hurst
Sid Davis Productions created perhaps the greatest
collection of short films aimed at the educational market which dealt almost
exclusively in taboo or social engineering topics. In face some of his methods
for dealing with his topics are, by today’s standards, so heavy handed that there
is a case for labeling them as exploitation films- since a person can watch
them (as I’m sure most people who view them nowadays do) with a sadistic glee
as what will befall the protagonist, or to just laugh at the ridiculousness of
it all.
Sid Davis productions got its foundation due to the infamous
case of Linda Joyce Glucoft, a 6 year old girl who was raped and murdered in
1949. Davis often stated that the case bothered him so much because his own
daughter was 6 at the time. What further concerned him was that, despite his
warnings, the girl still did not seem to pay attention watching out for
perverts. Davis often worked as a stand-in for John Wayne and was discussing
his worries to him when Wayne suggested that Davis make a film about it and
offered him $1,000 startup fund (roughly 10,000 in today’s economy).
With this he produced The Dangerous Stranger- which coined the term “stranger danger”
still in use today. It was a tremendous hit in police and educational circles and
earned him enough to start his company, which eventually sported a catalogue of
between 150-200 titles. The Dangerous
Stranger was remade twice, once in 1963 and again in 1972.
And while nominally many of the subjects of these film
are important social matters and he took them seriously, his approach has
always been criticized for being over the top, and employing scare tactics and
misinformation to attempt to drive his point home emotionally. As can be seen
in the a clip from Live and Learn, a
short on home safety, where a little girl is making paper dolls with scissors
when her father comes home, she leaps up to greet him, trips on the carpet and
impales herself on the scissors.
Now to be fair, Sid Davis was one of the foremost
active vocalists against child abuse of his time, something that no one wanted
to discuss then, and campaigned for tougher laws for child predators. I have
already covered Sid Davis most notorious film "Boys Beware" (which confuses the idea of pederasty and homosexuality),
so below I offer several more selections of the more outrageous Sid Davis “social
guidance” films. Enjoy.
The Dangerous Stranger (1949)- Teaching kids to be fearful of the world
Girls Beware (1951)- Teaching girls not to get into compromising situations. Nowadays feminists call this victim blaming.
The Bottle and the Throttle (1961). Film on drinking and driving. Fun fact one beer can cause you to drive out of control.
Marijuana and Heroin- The Terrible Truth (1961). The "gateway drug" myth is older than you think. Slurping on a J, will cause you to shoot up.
Live and Learn (1951). The first in a long line of trying to scare kids into being safe... without much success.
Gossip (1953). Look at the damage you girls can do with your incessant chattering! For more fun, try Spiff Blasthandy: Behind the Screen. It's a blast.
This was a short film produced by Sid Davis
productions in 1959 on the suggestion of the Inglewood Police Department in
Southern California. Shot on a shoestring budget, it was ostensibly was made to
warn young boys of the danger of predatory men, but does not differentiate
between homosexuals and pedophiles.
Rakph, 1950's homosexual
Actual quote from the film, “What Jimmy didn’t know was the Ralph was sick. A sickness not visible
like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious- a sickness of the mind. You
see Ralph was a homosexual, a person who demands an intimate relationship with members
of their own sex.”
As you can see, it minces no words and certainly
reflects the prevailing attitudes of the authorities of that time which believed
that all gay men were child predators. One that still is pushed forward today by
certain religious and conservative groups. At one point in time Boys Beware was required viewing for
males in many school districts across the country.
Ralph and Jimmy
The plot follows four different scenarios of young
boys being preyed upon by older men. The first one is the tale of Jimmy who is
befriended by Ralph a pedophile (again the word used here is homosexual). Ralph
buys Jimmy things and eventually lures the boy back to his apartment for sex.
Ralph is ultimately arrested and Jimmy is placed on probation. It’s unsure why
this is done to Jimmy, speculation runs from the idea that the sex is
consensual to a form of victim blaming. The second scenario deals with Mike a
young boy who accepts a ride home from a stranger and ends up (as the narrator
puts it) “trading his life for a newspaper headline.” A third boy is tricked
into a stranger’s car by the man asking the boy for help to track down some
stolen bicycles. The man is arrested after the boy’s friend writes down the man’s
license plate number. The final boy is Bobby who is stalked by a man after Bobby
makes the mistake of using a public restroom, which is a “known predatory spot
for the homosexual.” Bobby almost compounds the error by taking a shortcut
under a boardwalk, but he notices the man following him and takes another
route, thus narrowly escaping death.
The film was remade twice by the studio. The first
time in 1973, under the title Boys Aware
and a third edition being produced in 1979. Each of these was made using the
exact same script and even the same voice-over narration as the original.
Sid Davis
Sid Davis Productions created short pieces directed at
the educational market and gained an edge by covering topics most other
educational studios wouldn’t. Besides Boys
Beware, the studio had a catalog of over 150 titles- all shot cheaply
with little to no input from experts who had studied the subjects in question. He
often relied on purely on anecdotal evidence from police officers and detectives
The topics varied from driver safety, the dangers of marijuana (an early
example of the “gateway drug” myth), gang violence, juvenile delinquency, rape
prevention, heroin addiction, anti-smoking, and household safety. All done in a
grim exploitative manner.
Ostensibly Boys
Beware sports some good safety tips. Don’t get into strangers cars. Hitchhiking
is dangerous. Let your parents know where you are going. Let you parents know
if a strange man approaches you. Writing down the license numbers of cars. Etc.
But the heavy handed narration and its refusal to see homosexuality as anything
other than a mental illness that drives a man to lust after young boys,
destroys all credibility that it may have had.
As
I wrote in two previous articles,
Sid Davis Productions contains the greatest collection of over-the-top, pushy,
and obnoxious short films aimed at the educational market. The main focus of most of the Sid Davis catalogue, besides driver safety films, were social conditioning films. Like the pathetic “abstinence-only”
& “teach men not to rape” brigades today , Davis felt it was up to the
state and underpaid civil servants to lead the way on this cause, as most
parents were too stupid to be able to do it properly. And similar to the infamous "Boys Beware" Davis
managed to do it with a heavy handedness that quickly becomes camp once its
viewers reach high school age. 
