Trodden Underfoot

About this episode

A deep dive into the film 'Venus in Furs' and its exploration of sadomasochism and sexploitation.

Yes, we have this in a higher heel. Enter a world of suprasensual sexploitation with this week's deep dive into one of the earliest big screen adaptations of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s oft-referenced sadomasochism novella, Venus in Furs . Muscle-hunk Shep Wild plays this version of Severin (named David), a shoe-salesman who is taken for a literal trip after a chance meeting with the striking Marina, played by Barbara Ellen, who is as much a creative force in this endevaor as director Joseph Marzano and producer Lou Campa. All three were coming off the sleazy success of the sinful blackmail story, Cool It, Baby (1967), but Venus in Furs was a Marzano product through-and-through, with the former experimental filmmaker given free rein to indulge in his deepest, darkest desires—as long as he stayed within the Campa/Cam-Scope budget. Marzano wasn’t able to fully achieve his vision, but the end result is still a stylishly erotic and boundary-pushing film filled with fetish funhouse imagery and a recurring musical motif pulled from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet . Like that story, there’s no happy ending here, but a descent into unfulfilled sexual madness, an aching longing for the…

People in this episode

Guest: Jane Garrett

Topics covered

• sexploitation
• film analysis
• sadomasochism
• fetish culture
• 1960s cinema
• interviews

Keywords

• sexploitation
• sadomasochism
• Venus in Furs
• fetish
• 1960s film
• Joseph Marzano
• Jane Garrett
• film analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Venus in Furs, Cool It, Baby, Romeo and Juliet

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