A decade before he directed the low budget video nasty Don’t Go in the Woods, cult filmmaker James Bryan shot a variety of sexploitation features for the drive-ins and late-night movie theatres. Perhaps the most notorious of these was 1970’s The Dirtiest Game (also known as The Dirtiest Game in the World), which told of a politician’s attempts at winning the young votes by lobbying to legalise marijuana. Starring adult veteran Titus Moede and Bryan regular Frank Millen, The Dirtiest Game was the director’s first feature after a series of shorts and documentaries and was intended to shock and repulse his viewers. He succeeded and the movie became controversial for a scene in which a character masturbates with a razor. Eventually, however, the hype finally died down and the film soon got lost amongst the other softcore entries of the era, including Bryan’s own Escape to Passion.
Aside from a handful of images published in Stephen Thrower’s excellent study of exploitation, Nightmare USA, very little from behind the scenes has been made public. But in the years since the tragic death of Moede in 2001, Bryan has inherited a wealth of old film and has collected them together for your viewing pleasure. So, for the first time, fans can witness the filmmakers hard at work on what was arguably one of the most bizarre adult movies of its time.
“As the X-rated business boomed at the mid point of the seventies adult film budgets quickly grew higher driven by the audience demand for greater production values. When Dirtiest Game was produced the rules for the very tame theatrical adult features were really strict,” explained Bryan to Dr. Gore’s Funhouse in his tell-all interview regarding the production of the movie. “The distributor did have a slight regret over the extreme nature of Dirtiest Game, it was not the kind of film that could be re-edited to a softer drive-in version which represented a bonus rental market that could be utilized in a majority of cases of nudie films.”
All images courtesy of James Bryan. WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised!
Read our exclusive interview with James Bryan.