Erotic Fairy Tale Movies of the 1970s: Alice, Cinderella, Pinocchio and the Adult Parody Boom
Between 1969 and 1978, filmmakers raided the nursery for adult comedies: Snow White in West Germany, and Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Fairy Tales in the United States. The X rating had become a selling point rather than a handicap, Disney was the obvious target, and the results run from cheerful to dreary. A few turned out better than their reputation, and most did not.
Short answer: The erotic fairy tale movies of the 1970s were low-budget X-rated parodies: Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults (Rolf Thiele, 1969), Pinocchio (Corey Allen, 1971, promoted as The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio), Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (Bud Townsend, 1976), Cinderella (Michael Pataki, 1977) and Fairy Tales (Harry Hurwitz, 1978). Flesh Gordon (1974) is the cousin that showed the formula could pay, and a 1973 British cartoon short, Snow White and the Seven Perverts, adds a footnote.
Every fairy-tale figure in these films, Pinocchio and Alice included, is played by an adult, and I treat them that way throughout. I begin with why the nursery was raided at all, then take the films one at a time, noting where sources disagree on dates and credits.
Why 1970s Filmmakers Raided the Nursery
Category: documented film history
Why did 1970s adult films parody fairy tales? Because the stories were free, the audience already knew them, and an X had become a marketing label rather than a warning.
The X Becomes a Brand
The American rating system began on 1 November 1968, replacing the Production Code, with X meant to signal "adults only" and nothing worse. Midnight Cowboy carried one. But the other ratings were trademarked and X was not, so any distributor could print it on a poster, and the sexploitation trade did, later adding XX and XXX for emphasis. The drive-in circuit met the new freedom with something like a gold rush, and Europe's sexploitation trade, of which Jess Franco is the best-known name, was working the same territory.
Porno Chic
Deep Throat opened in New York on 12 June 1972. On 21 January 1973 Ralph Blumenthal reported in the New York Times that it had grossed over $3.2 million in more than 70 theatres and had "engendered a kind of porno chic." The film reportedly began with a $25,000 bankroll. Those figures are the Times's own, from a single article. Producers noticed that the adult film had found an audience wider than its usual one, and the fairy-tale parodies arrived in that climate, and Alice later had an R-rated cut aimed at the wider crowd.
Cheap, Known and Pre-Sold
A parody of a story everyone knew needed little advertising, because the title did the selling. The sources were old as well, from Grimm, Perrault, Collodi and Carroll, and out of copyright. One account says Townsend was drawn to Alice partly because Carroll's text was free to use, and the film was reportedly shot in about ten days in New York in 1975, on a budget that runs from $350,000 to $500,000 depending on the source. Flesh Gordon, a parody of a serial, reportedly cost about $470,000 and earned about $5.3 million in US and Canadian rentals, which are not the same as gross. I would not call it a guarantee, but it is a ratio that producers could read.
Snow White and Pinocchio: The First Fairy-Tale Parodies
Category: documented film history
What were the first erotic fairy tale parodies? The earliest feature-length ones were a West German Grimm anthology in 1969 and an American Pinocchio in 1971, with a British cartoon short trailing in 1973.
Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults (1969)
Thiele's film is an anthology, with two wandering journeymen linking the episodes. Marie Liljedahl, a Swede known from Joseph W. Sarno's Inga (1968), plays Snow White, with Ingrid van Bergen as the Queen. Filmportal dates the shoot from 13 April to 4 June 1969, and Liljedahl, born in 1950, was 19 when it began. The New York Times reviewed it on 25 March 1971, and A. H. Weiler judged it "as adult as almost any skin flick or striptease." I take that as a verdict on the market, not on the film.
Snow White and the Seven Perverts (1973)
The cartoon is a footnote, and its credits are murky. It is an explicit British short of ten to thirteen minutes, depending on the print, and I found no link to the German film. David Hamilton Grant, a London sexploitation producer, is the usual name attached. IMDb lists Grant and the animator Marcus Parker-Rhodes as directors, both uncredited, and Parker-Rhodes has reportedly said it was mostly his work. The BBFC lists a 1973 submission by Grant's company, Oppidan, as unsuitable for classification, one database claims an X certificate, and Australian censors cut five seconds for an R rating in 1974. It resurfaced on the 1980 video compilation Electric Blue 001, and it should not be confused with a West German cartoon sometimes given the same English title.
Pinocchio (1971), Also Sold as The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio
Corey Allen directed, and Chris Warfield produced and co-wrote. Allen had played Buzz in Rebel Without a Cause and later won an Emmy directing Hill Street Blues, an odd line on the résumé. Ray Dennis Steckler is credited as cinematographer. Alex Roman, an adult man, plays the puppet, with Monica Gayle as Gepetta, Dyanne Thorne as the Fairy Godmother and Uschi Digard as Lily, uncredited by IMDb's account. Most databases give 79 minutes. The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio was a promotional title, which one database places in American billing and another in British advertising. EOFFTV gives a 1970 copyright, while Variety reviewed it on 13 January 1971, so I say 1971 with that caveat. It is unrelated to Luigi Comencini's Italian television serial of 1972.
What It Does with Collodi
The film keeps the puppet and the fairy and alters the rest. Geppetto becomes Gepetta, a lonely woodcarver who makes herself a companion, and a Fairy Godmother, a title from Cinderella rather than Collodi, turns him into a man. By the synopses I have seen, he is sent out to learn what that means and ends up working in a brothel. The poster line, "It's not his nose that grows!", is the joke on Collodi's liar. One reviewer reads the plot as love against commerce, ending in a reunion.
The Trade and the Critics
Variety called it "ex-moppet X-rated fare" and a "bawdy, vulgar but slickly photographed" burlesque, noting that the nudity was relatively discreet for the market. Britain's Monthly Film Bulletin, reviewing it in January 1978, found only "clumsy and witless comedy." The two verdicts bracket the cycle, curiosity in 1971 and impatience later. Whether it shaped Alice I cannot show, but it set a template of a known title, an adult cast and a comic tone, and its Fairy Godmother, Dyanne Thorne, would soon be better known as Ilsa.
Disney as the Target
Disney's Snow White (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951) had given the public its mental pictures of these stories. The parodies borrowed the stories, not the studio, and I have found no sign that any of them licensed Disney's name. Ebert's review of Alice describes it as "explicitly not to be confused with the Disney version." The joke was the contrast, and the audience supplied the cartoon from memory. Disney was also the safest target, since a parody needs a famous original and nobody was more famous.
Germany Goes First
The early signal came from West Germany. Rolf Thiele's Grimms Märchen von lüsternen Pärchen opened on 29 August 1969, rated for over-18s, and gave Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty a sex-comedy treatment. Thiele had been a mainstream director earlier in the decade. In North America it was released as Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults, also known as The New Adventures of Snow White, and one source reports about $1.1 million there. Whether American producers took notice, I cannot show. Pinocchio followed in 1971, and Italy's Biancaneve & Co. arrived in 1982, outside our decade.
Flesh Gordon: The Parody That Showed the Formula Could Pay
Category: documented film history
Why is Flesh Gordon in a fairy-tale article? Because this 1974 space-opera spoof showed that an adult parody of a famous old story could pay, and its star, Jason Williams, conceived Alice in Wonderland two years later. It is a cousin of the fairy-tale cycle, not a member.
A Serial Gets Spoofed
Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm directed, Benveniste wrote, and Walter Cichy, Bill Osco and Ziehm produced, with Mammoth Films distributing. Wikipedia gives a release date of 26 July 1974, while AllMovie says 30 July. The target was Universal's 1936 Flash Gordon serial. Williams plays Flesh, Suzanne Fields is Dale Ardor, Joseph Hudgins is Dr. Flexi Jerkoff, William Dennis Hunt is Emperor Wang and John Hoyt is Professor Gordon. Craig T. Nelson is reported as the uncredited voice of the Great God Porno. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction names Hunt as co-writer, which the other sources do not.
Cheap Start, Expensive Finish
Wikipedia says it was shot in 1971, the Encyclopedia says the work ran nearly two years, and a 1996 Chicago Tribune piece says three, so the dates are loose. Ziehm told the Tribune that $100,000 from two earlier adult films started it, and the effects pushed the cost to the figure given earlier, which the paper rounds to $500,000. The effects crew is the surprise: the Encyclopedia lists Jim Danforth, Dave Allen, Rick Baker, Greg Jein and Dennis Muren, some uncredited, and Danforth reportedly appears in the credits backwards, as "Mij Htrofnad." Even Variety, scolding the film, called the effects "creative and expensive."
Universal, the Vice Squad and the Rating
According to Ziehm's DVD commentary, as relayed by Wikipedia, Universal considered suing over the resemblance, so he added a scroll calling the film a burlesque and put "Not to be confused with the original Flash Gordon" on the advertising. Alice reportedly needed a similar warning on its poster. The same commentary says explicit footage was surrendered to Los Angeles vice police because making it was then treated as pandering. Both claims are single-source and amount to the producer's own telling. The rating is a muddle: Wikipedia says X, then re-edited to R, the Encyclopedia says it escaped the feared X, and the Tribune describes an R-rated theatrical cut of 72 minutes. Other sources give 78, 84 or 90.
Reviewed, Not Admired, and Nominated
Variety is quoted as calling it "puerile," and Vincent Canby wrote that "what wit the film possesses had gone into the physical production." Wikipedia tags both quotations as needing citations. Yet the Hugo Awards site lists Flesh Gordon among the 1975 nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation, beside Young Frankenstein, Zardoz, Phantom of the Paradise and The Questor Tapes. Wikipedia says it lost to Mel Brooks. I would not have predicted the ballot, and it is easy to check.
Williams, Alice and the Star Wars Claim
Wikipedia, drawing on the Rialto Report, says Williams proposed an "X-rated musical" in the style of Flesh Gordon and pitched it to Osco, who produced both films. The two formed General National to release it. By that account the line from one film to the other is direct. A book about the shoot, told from Williams's side, is also reported to claim that the film paved the way for Star Wars by proving a Flash Gordon pastiche could earn. The dates allow it, three years apart, but I can show no link. A 1990 sequel, Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders, and a 1992 comic book followed.
Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976)
Category: documented film history
Who made the 1976 Alice in Wonderland, and how was it received? Bud Townsend directed it for the producer Bill Osco, with Kristine DeBell as Alice, and Roger Ebert gave it a warmer review than its genre usually got. It is the best remembered film in this article, partly because its credits are so disputed.
Credits and Cast
Bucky Searles wrote the screenplay and, by Ebert's credit box and IMDb, the songs. Wikipedia lists Jack Stern for music, while IMDb has Stern arranging and conducting. Williams says Peter Matz re-recorded the songs with a full orchestra afterwards. DeBell plays Alice, Larry Gelman the White Rabbit (Ebert's box says Mr. Rabbit), Alan Novak the Mad Hatter and Juliet Graham the Queen of Hearts, with Searles as Humpty Dumpty. Ebert's box lists Teri Hall as the Queen, but Wikipedia and the Rialto Report make her a nurse, and I follow them. On money, Williams says the shoot had $100,000 and Kaleidoscope Films added $250,000 to $300,000 afterwards, which is one way to read the budget range given earlier.
The Premise
Alice is a shy librarian who opens Carroll's book and follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland. Wikipedia has her falling asleep, while Ebert has a song summoning the Rabbit, so the dream frame is a matter of reading. Carroll's characters are given grown-up business, and Ebert thought it would have "poor Lewis Carroll spinning in his grave." The songs carry much of the plot. Running times vary by cut, with 72 minutes for Britain's X version and 88 on IMDb.
Ebert and the Critics
Ebert reviewed it on 24 November 1976, and the "explicitly not to be confused with the Disney version" line quoted in the first section is his, the opening of that review. He called the film "a pleasant surprise," mild enough that it "could almost be an R," and praised DeBell's "freshness and naivete," predicting "a future in the movies, and not just X movies." Writing in Senses of Cinema in 2018, Justine Smith agrees about DeBell but objects to "the infantilisation of Alice" and finds the film "very much of the male gaze." Ebert is praising a performer and Smith is questioning a frame, and both can be true. I could not reach the Variety or New York Times notices, so I do not quote them.
Kristine DeBell
DeBell was born on 10 December 1954, per Wikipedia, TMDB and Wikidata, so she was 20 at the mid-1975 shoot. She came from modelling and school musicals, and the Rialto Report says she was the one cast member from outside the adult trade. Of that time she said, "I was very rebellious." She says she did not remember the later explicit re-edit, which Wikipedia and the Rialto Report say Osco assembled, and of the film she says "I can't take it back." By her account she held 1% and saw no profits. Her mainstream career followed with Meatballs (1979) and The Big Brawl (1980), and after a break to raise a family she returned in 2012. Most of this is one interview, and she says her memory is selective.
Box Office and Afterlife
Wikipedia gives a $90 million gross, citing a 2009 essay collection, and DeBell says over $100 million. Williams says only "millions." I treat both figures as lore, since I found no trade source for them. The release date is no firmer: a Tucson opening on 29 April 1976, Wikipedia's 11 June, and IMDb's 10 December. The R cut reached VHS through Media Home Entertainment, and Subversive Cinema's December 2007 DVD carried the X and explicit versions. An off-Broadway adult stage musical followed in 2004, and a remake script co-written by Ken Russell was reported in 2011.
Cinderella (1977) and Fairy Tales (1978): Charles Band's Two Fairy-Tale Musicals
Category: documented film history
Who made Cinderella (1977) and Fairy Tales (1978)? Charles Band produced both, with Michael Pataki directing the first and Harry Hurwitz the second. They are the cycle's two musicals, both cheap, and both better remembered than watched.
A Producer of Twenty-Five
Band was born on 27 December 1951, so he was 25 when Cinderella opened in May 1977. IMDb lists Charles Band Productions, and Frank Ray Perilli wrote Cinderella. Producer credits wobble: Rainbeaux Smith's 1985 letter calls Brandon Chase "the Producer," while other listings give Band, some adding Albert Band and J. Larry Carroll. Wikipedia reports $2.6 million in US and Canadian rentals for Cinderella, citing a 1987 distribution study. He founded Empire in 1983 and Full Moon in 1988, so these films sit early on that road, though no source says he planned it.
Cinderella: Cast, Songs and Smith's Age
Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith plays Cinderella, with Yana Nirvana and Marilyn Corwin as the stepsisters, Sy Richardson as the Fairy Godmother and Brett Smiley as the Prince. Smiley was a glam-pop singer. The tale's outline survives, and the rest is songs and innuendo that I will not itemise. Smith's age needs a footnote. Wikipedia gives her birth date as 6 June 1955, which makes her about 21 at the shoot. A 2005 profile by Chris Barbour says it was 6 June 1957, the earlier year coming from papers she obtained to avoid rules on minors, which makes her about 19. Either way she was an adult, though I could not confirm the shoot date.
How Cinderella Was Received
I found no contemporary review. Jeffrey Kauffman, reviewing the 2022 Blu-ray, found the songs "often surprisingly tuneful with occasionally witty lyrics" and still gave it 2.5 out of 5. The Silver Emulsion blog called it "memorable" and "enjoyable." By Wikipedia's account, Britain released it as The Other Cinderella after cuts, with a poster line, "Positively not to be confused with any other film with a similar title," the same defensive joke Flesh Gordon and Alice used. Full Moon issued a US DVD in 2015 and a Blu-ray on 10 May 2022.
Fairy Tales: The Nursery Parade
Hurwitz is credited as Harry Tampa on some listings, and Perilli and Franne Schacht wrote it. Don Sparks plays a prince searching for Sleeping Beauty, with Richardson as Sirus, Irwin Corey, Martha Reeves, Angela Aames as Little Bo Peep and Angelo Rossitto in support. One review gives the shoot as five days. TMDB dates the release 1 August 1978, while IMDb's distributor list shows a US run in 1979, and running times are 76 or 82 minutes. Starburst in 2018 found it "quite painful," while 1000 Misspent Hours confessed to liking it more than it deserved. 88 Films issued the longer cut in Britain on 14 May 2018 as Adult Fairy Tales.
Linnea Quigley and the Age Question
Linnea Quigley's first film role was Sleeping Beauty. She has said she was "I think, 19," and her usual birth date, 27 May 1958, makes her 19 or 20. Starburst, reviewing the 2018 Blu-ray, writes that the Band and Perilli commentary says she lied about her age and was sixteen. I have not heard the commentary, and a decades-old recollection is not a document. It conflicts with her own account and with Wikipedia's 1976 high-school graduation. If it were right, an industry that took a young actress's stated age on trust would have a serious matter to answer for here. I take no side. Aames, born 1956, and Reeves, born 1941, were adults by any count.
Pasolini, Borowczyk and the Art-House Counterpoint
Category: documented film history and critical opinion
What was the art-house counterpoint to the American fairy-tale parodies? Pier Paolo Pasolini's Trilogy of Life and Walerian Borowczyk's La Bête (1975) took tales and legends and made arguments of them, where the X-rated parodies made punchlines. Neither is strictly a fairy tale, and the difference is the point.
The Pasolini Trilogy of Life
Pasolini adapted Boccaccio in Il Decameron (1971), Chaucer in I racconti di Canterbury (1972) and the Arabian Nights in Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974). These are story cycles, kin to folk tale. The festivals took them seriously. The New York Times reported on 4 July 1972 that Canterbury won the Golden Bear at Berlin and that Decameron had won a Silver Bear the year before. Wikipedia credits Arabian Nights with a special Grand Prix at Cannes in 1974.
The Recantation and Salò
Pasolini wrote "Abiura dalla Trilogia della vita" on 15 June 1975, and the Corriere della Sera published it on 9 November, a week after his murder on 2 November. He declares that he recants, "benché non mi penta di averla fatta," arguing that power had captured the sincerity of the films and turned bodies and sex into merchandise. Wikipedia adds disgust at Italian soft-core imitators. The excerpts I read ignore the American parodies. Salò, released about three weeks after his death, is usually read as the dark answer.
Borowczyk: From Animation to Immoral Tales
Borowczyk, born in Poland in 1923, settled in Paris in 1959 and began with animation: Les Astronautes (with Chris Marker), Les Jeux des anges (1964), which Terry Gilliam ranked among the ten best animated films, and Le Théâtre de M. et Mme Kabal (1967). Contes immoraux (1973-74), or Immoral Tales, has four tales. By one account the producer Anatole Dauman suggested an erotic feature to find an audience, and it sold 359,748 tickets in France. The art house was reading the market too. La Bête began in 1972 as a film from Mérimée's Lokis, was planned as a tale within Immoral Tales (five or six, depending on the source), and premiered at Avoriaz in January 1975. The beauty-and-beast shape is my reading.
Censors, Critics and Releases
I will not describe the dream sequence that drew the censors. The BBFC refused it a certificate, a cut print played at London's Prince Charles Cinema with Greater London Council approval in September 1978, and the BBFC classified it uncut in 2001. Australia banned it in November 1976 and passed a cut version in October 1977. I found no firm record of a US ban. Peter Bradshaw called it "Borowczyk's masterpiece" in 2001, while AllMovie finds Immoral Tales lapses "into exploitation a little too often." Arrow issued a Borowczyk box set in September 2014. Interno di un convento (1977 or 1978) and Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (1981) followed.
Young Performers and the Real Contrast
The contrast is not clean. Lise Danvers plays a sixteen-year-old in the first Immoral Tales episode and was born in January 1958, per French Wikipedia, so she was a minor on set; the shoot dates are unclear. Franco Merli, born 31 October 1956, was 16 when Pasolini cast him in Arabian Nights. Both films put sexual material around young performers, and I note that without description. Festival prizes did not change that. My judgment holds: Pasolini and Borowczyk wanted to say something about desire and power, while the parodies wanted a laugh and a ticket.
Where to Watch the 1970s Erotic Fairy Tale Movies Legally
Category: viewing guide, availability checked 4 to 11 October 2026
Where can you watch the 1970s erotic fairy tale movies legally? Mostly on disc from licensed labels, with a small streaming offer that comes and goes. The art-house titles are easier to find than the parodies. Everything here is a snapshot, so each check is dated.
The American Parodies on Disc
For a Flesh Gordon Blu-ray, Hen's Tooth Video issued a Region A disc on 27 August 2019, per blu-ray.com, and Turbine issued a German two-disc edition on 4 July 2024 that lists English audio and subtitles. I could not confirm that the Hen's Tooth disc is still in stock, and I found no 4K release. A Cinderella 1977 Blu-ray means Full Moon's May 2022 disc, which Full Moon Direct listed as out of stock on 11 October. Full Moon's Fairy Tales Blu-ray dates from August 2016, in an 82-minute cut, and blu-ray.com lists it as unavailable. The 88 Films disc is Region B (locked), so it will not play on a standard US player. For Alice in Wonderland 1976, where to watch means the Subversive DVD, region free but listed on blu-ray.com as unavailable new. I found no official Blu-ray, and a dateless Blu-ray page on blu-ray.com is not a release. Pinocchio has DVDs only: Jef Films (Region 0, PAL) in July 2007 and Cheezy Flicks (US) in August 2016. Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults has a Japanese Blu-ray on Amazon, label and subtitles unconfirmed.
Pasolini and Borowczyk on Disc
Criterion's Trilogy of Life reached Blu-ray and DVD on 13 November 2012, and Criterion's page still carried it on 11 October. The Blu-ray is Region A, and the booklet includes Pasolini's 1975 statement "Trilogy of Life Rejected," which appears to be the recantation discussed earlier. Arrow's Borowczyk box holds Immoral Tales and The Beast and is listed as Region B, so US readers need a region-free player.
Streaming and the Fine Print
JustWatch's US listings showed Cinderella free on Fawesome on 4 October. They showed no streaming for Flesh Gordon on 7 October, nor for Alice or Grimm's on 11 October. Full Moon Features sells subscriptions, and its site has pages with players for Cinderella and Fairy Tales, but I did not test access. For Pasolini, The Decameron was on Prime Video and free with ads on Tubi on 11 October, The Canterbury Tales on MGM+ the same day, and Arabian Nights on MGM+ and Tubi on 7 October. Immoral Tales and The Beast were free on Kanopy on 10 October, which needs a participating library or university. Catalogues change and region matters, so check JustWatch for your country or the label's own site before buying. I link no unlicensed uploads, and I would skip them.
Reading and Listening
Roger Ebert's review of Alice is short and worth the three minutes. Justine Smith's 2018 essay in Senses of Cinema argues the other side. The Rialto Report's 2015 article has Jason Williams and Kristine DeBell telling the production story, each from their own side.
The Verdict: Parody, Provocation and the Nursery
Ranked honestly, Alice in Wonderland (1976) comes first, because Kristine DeBell's performance still works. Flesh Gordon (1974) survives on its effects, and Cinderella (1977) as a small cult item with some tuneful songs. Pinocchio (1971) and Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults (1969) matter more as template and early signal than as films. Fairy Tales (1978) is the weakest, though I hold that loosely, since the evidence is two reviews.
Pasolini and Borowczyk wanted to say something about desire and power, while the parodies wanted a laugh and a ticket. That is my one position, and it is a judgment, not a documented fact.
The stories outlasted the parodies, as they always do.
Profiles of Kristine DeBell, Rainbeaux Smith and Linnea Quigley are planned for Meeting Venus.
Frequently Asked Questions About Erotic Fairy Tale Movies
What was the first erotic fairy tale movie?
The earliest feature in this article is Rolf Thiele's West German anthology Grimms Märchen von lüsternen Pärchen, which opened on 29 August 1969. It reached North America as Grimm's Fairy Tales for Adults. Pinocchio (1971) followed, then a British cartoon short in 1973, though I cannot show that American producers took notice.
Who played Alice in the 1976 Alice in Wonderland?
Kristine DeBell played Alice in Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976), directed by Bud Townsend for the producer Bill Osco. She was born on 10 December 1954, per Wikipedia, TMDB and Wikidata, so she was 20 at the mid-1975 shoot. Roger Ebert praised her "freshness and naivete" on 24 November 1976.
Is Alice in Wonderland (1976) rated X?
It was released as an X-rated musical, as the full title says, though Roger Ebert thought it mild enough that it "could almost be an R." An R-rated cut also existed and reached VHS through Media Home Entertainment. Running times vary by cut, with 72 minutes for Britain's X version and 88 on IMDb.
Was Flesh Gordon a fairy tale?
No. Flesh Gordon (1974) spoofs Universal's 1936 Flash Gordon serial, so it is a cousin of the fairy-tale cycle, not a member. It matters here because it showed an adult parody of a famous old story could pay, reportedly costing about $470,000 and earning about $5.3 million in US and Canadian rentals.
Who produced Cinderella (1977)?
Charles Band produced Cinderella (1977), directed by Michael Pataki from a script by Frank Ray Perilli, though producer credits wobble. Rainbeaux Smith's 1985 letter calls Brandon Chase "the Producer," while other listings give Band, some adding Albert Band and J. Larry Carroll. Smith plays Cinderella.
Who is Charles Band?
Charles Band, born on 27 December 1951, was 25 when Cinderella (1977) opened in May 1977. He produced both Cinderella and Fairy Tales (1978), and he founded Empire in 1983 and Full Moon in 1988. These films sit early on that road, though no source says he planned it.
Is The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio the same as Pinocchio (1971)?
Yes. The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio was a promotional title for Corey Allen's Pinocchio (1971), which one database places in American billing and another in British advertising. EOFFTV gives a 1970 copyright, while Variety reviewed it on 13 January 1971. It is unrelated to Luigi Comencini's Italian television serial of 1972.
Where can I watch the 1970s erotic fairy tale movies legally?
Mostly on disc from licensed labels, with a small streaming offer that comes and goes. On 4 October 2026, JustWatch's US listings showed Cinderella (1977) free on Fawesome. Criterion's Trilogy of Life Blu-ray was still listed on 11 October. Catalogues change and region matters, so check JustWatch for your country.
Did Pasolini film fairy tales?
Not strictly. His Trilogy of Life adapted story cycles kin to folk tale: Boccaccio in Il Decameron (1971), Chaucer in I racconti di Canterbury (1972) and the Arabian Nights in Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974). He recanted the trilogy in a text the Corriere della Sera published on 9 November 1975.
What is La Bête?
La Bête, also called The Beast, is Walerian Borowczyk's 1975 film. It began in 1972 as an adaptation of Mérimée's Lokis, was planned as a tale within Immoral Tales, and premiered at Avoriaz in January 1975. The BBFC refused it a certificate and classified it uncut in 2001. The beauty-and-beast shape is my reading.
Is the 1976 Alice a Disney parody?
Not officially. The film borrowed Carroll's story, not Disney's studio, and I found no sign that any of these parodies licensed Disney's name. Ebert's review describes it as "explicitly not to be confused with the Disney version." The joke was the contrast, and the audience supplied the cartoon from memory.
Did Linnea Quigley appear in Fairy Tales (1978)?
Yes, her first film role was Sleeping Beauty. Her age is disputed in one review of a commentary track, which I have not heard. It conflicts with her own account, "I think, 19," and with her usual birth date of 27 May 1958. I take no side.
