The Adventures of Lucky Pierre

Infobox Film
name = The Adventures of Lucky Pierre


image_size = 200px
caption =
director = Herschell Gordon Lewis David F. Friedman
producer = Herschell Gordon Lewis
writer = Herschell Gordon Lewis David F. Friedman
narrator =
starring = Billy Falbo
music = Herschell Gordon Lewis Larry Wellington [Something Weird.]
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Lucky Pierre Enterprises
released = 1961
runtime = 70 minutes
country =
language =
budget = US$7500 [Quarles, 158.]
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0054604

"The Adventures of Lucky Pierre" is a 1961 nudie cutie sexploitation film created by exploitation filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman. The first of its kind to be filmed in color, [Rockoff, 32.] the film starred comedian Billy Falbo. It was unique for its time and genre, adding successful comedy to the nudity and sensationalist material.

The film was conceived by Lewis and Friedman when film distributor Al Sack offered the two US$7000 to create a single reel, "color 35mm film of cute girls carousing around with beach balls, or whatever." [DVD Talk interview.] 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 [Friedman, 265.] , and, with Falbo, proceeded to film the movie over a four day period in Chicago, Illinois. [DVD Talk interview.]

"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. [Friedman interview.] 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. [Quarles, 159.] In another, Pierre, as a painter, has three nude women posing for him in a park, [Friedman, 262.] and another vignette had Pierre come upon two sunbathing women while birdwatching. [Friedman, 263.]

The film was a financial success, grossing over $12000 in a single theater over a week's run upon opening [Friedman, 271.] and continued to enjoy similar financial success while avoiding the type of censorship previous exploitation films such as "Mom and Dad" faced. [Friedman, 272-274.] 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, [Friedman interview.] estimated over 600 "Pierre"-style films being released between 1961 and 1970. [Friedman, 264.]

The film has had a unique influence on popular culture, given the film's b-movie status. Aiden Moffatt of Scottish band Arab Strap released a solo album under the name "Lucky Pierre" in 2002, [Pitchfork Media.] and novelist Robert Coover released a novel of the same name in 2002, about "the last of the great pornographic icons," in a plot similar to the film that inspired it. ["New York Times".]

Works cited

* DVD Talk: " [http://dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/hglewis/interview.html 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: " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054604/ The Adventures of Lucky Pierre] ". URL accessed 28 May 2007.
* "New York Times": " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDA1439F932A35751C1A9649C8B63 I Lost It at the Movies] ." Will Blythe, 1 December 2002. URL accessed 28 May 2007.
* Pitchfork Media: [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/41181/L_Pierre_Dip 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 0786411422).
* Reel.com: " [http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/friedman 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 0786412275).
* Something Weird Video: " [http://www.somethingweird.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=22770 The Adventures of Lucky Pierre] ". URL accessed 28 May 2007.

References