Vera Richkova

Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.

Burlesque film. Leon De Voe sings "Ridin' Shotgun," accompanied by Loretta Miller and a chorus line. Slats Taylor and Clyde Hodges perform a comedy sketch about a young man seeking permission from an aged, deaf father to marry his daughter. Contessa Vera Richkova sings "La nuit pour moi" and performing an dance titled "The Black Angel." De Voe returns with the chorus and Miller to present "Good Bye Mary." Comedian Clyde Hodges portrays a drunk in a foreign restaurant, then dons blackface to impersonate male and female singers as he sings "Big Fat Cadillac." Patti Waggin sings "Something's Going to Happen" to De Voe, who responds with the song "My Baby Likes Fun." Richkova returns in "her spectacular dance ritual of seductive love and hate." The film closes with Lili St Cyr undressing to take a bath and preparing for bed.

Merchant Marine sailors Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) and Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as part of a sea convoy. When the group of ships comes under attack from a German U-boat, Rossi and Jarvis navigate through dangerous waters to evade Nazi naval forces. Though their mission across the Atlantic is extremely treacherous, they are motivated by the opportunity to strike back at the Germans, who sank one of their earlier ships.

Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to the US as an advocate of socialism.