Smart Alec (I) (1951) User Reviews

De basement Tapes

[tedg · 2 June 2006]

I wrote a comment about the 1981 "Through the Lookingglass." Ostensibly a porn movie, it struck me as an effective — oh so effective — horror film. All art can transform like this from what the creator intended and it can happen immediately when its released to the catalyzing air.

So an astute reader sent me this as another example. It is a stag film like perhaps thousands of others of the era, clumsy in every way. It became the most popular of them because of propitious mobster connections, and arguably led to the porn moviehouses of the late sixties, and so the porn video business of today. Candy Barr subsequent to this billed herself as the first porn star.

She was fifteen when this was made, and was drugged and coerced into it at gunpoint. The plot is that she meets a traveling salesman and services him sexually, but he wants oral sex too. Some real tussle is shown, pretty hard wrestling. She wins, and a call is made to a prostitute who comes to finish the job.

It isn't clear whether the makers intended her to be the smart alec or what. Viewing this gives you a pretty deep journey into American politics if you let it. Ten years later she was living with and lover of a stripper, the top performer at Jack Ruby's club. The older, Jada, testified that they both encountered Lee Harvey Oswald in Jack Ruby's club, possibly the strongest fact fueling a bevy of persistent conspiracy theories.

Candy said nothing. The older stripper, Jada, died in 1980 in what has been called a "mysterious" car accident, supposedly sharing the fate of several others "with knowledge."

Really great films have resonances with other, larger stories. This is not a good film, and if it were it wouldn't deserve to live. But watching it today opens all sorts of emotions about the basement of the national character, institutional extortion and the abuse of political power. Rough stuff, all that

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Dubious circumstances and a very forgettable outcome

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 28 June 2017]

"Smart Alec" is an American black-and-white film from 1951, so this one is already over 65 years old. The only cast listed for this one is actress Candy Barr, or performer would be a better description. This is hardcore adult and it is one of the early films here on IMDb from this genre, but definitely not one of the earliest as there is even some stuff from the 1910s I see. Anyway, back to Barr, she was only 15 or 16 when this was made and I don't think there is the need to elaborate on the production backgrounds. Her age says it all. I also don't want to elaborate on her later connection to Jack Ruby, lets just stay with the picture here. it runs for slightly under 10 minutes and it is really uncommon to see a silent film from the 1950s as the days of movies without sound seemed long gone by then. So this is a film that stands out for all kinds of reasons, but these are obviously the wrong reasons. As for the story, it is really forgettable. Two people have sex for almost the entire film and eventually they are joined by another woman at the very end. Nothing one needs to see really, not even if you are looking for porn. i suggest you stay away from this incredibly weak and despicable movie.