The Lost Sexploitation Triple Feature

The transitional era of the early 1970s was a trying time for the makers of softcore features, as hardcore slowly overtook the decade-long demand for every flavor of sexploitation. Although soft-X material did remain moderately bankable, many of these efforts appeared overly tame for their day and vanished as quickly as they were produced, all too often becoming forgotten, abandoned, or otherwise lost to time. Presented here are three very distinct, striking examples of long-believed lost sexploitation cinema, all produced in New York in the early '70s, and at last resurrected and restored in 4K for their home video debuts.

In SIDEWALK COWBOY (1970), a wayward young man enters a spiral of sexual confusion and misfortune as he's abused, debased, molested, and taken advantage of by man and woman alike in this bent riff on Midnight Cowboy. Directed by the great producer Robert Sumner (Take Off, The Nesting), it makes great use of many of the lyrical streetscapes of Manhattan, as well as the prolific Linda Boyce (The Curse of her Flesh).

A square middle-aged couple accidentally discover Screw Magazine in FUN AND GAMES (1972), which takes them on an outrageous journey of sexual liberation through all manner of freaks and hustlers (and one very angry cop) in New York's free love scene. Helmed by acclaimed Broadway writer/director Mervyn Nelson and featuring Casey Donovan (as Cal Culver) in an early role, this sprawling underground comedy was initially distributed by Radley Metzger!

Driven mad from a brutal assault during her college years, a young woman and her simpering, bloodthirsty admirer embark on a sex-fueled murder spree in 1974's absolutely bonkers HAPPILY EVER EVER! Starring Mary Mendum (The Image) in one of her most impressive performances, strikingly photographed by João Fernandes (Invasion U.S.A.), and written & directed by Ron Wertheim (Through the Looking Glass), this genuinely unnerving and often disturbing genre treasure is long overdue for cult classic status.