David F. Friedman

Lives in retirement since the early 1990s in his home town of Birmingham, Alabama. [February 2008]

He continued to produce and direct a number of softcore sex films during the early and mid 1970s, such as The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972), Come One, Come All (1970) and the violent grindhouse vigilante flick Johnny Firecloud (1975). In addition to producing, Friedman also ran a theater in Los Angeles for several years which ran many of his exploitation films.

Though producing exploitation movies was no longer lucrative, he occasionally dabbled in various independent productions in Los Angeles through the 1970s and into the 1980s. By then, Friedman more or less retired from film producing and re-settled back in Alabama, though he continued to come out of retirement to lend a hand at producing independent erotic or gore horror films, as he put it, "just for fun.

By 1969, Friedman's career began to slide as the Hollywood film industry abolished the Hays Code and adopted the new Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system in which independent and Hollywood mainstream filmmakers began producing X-rated, hardcore sex films, which soon swept aside the softcore roughie genre. Unwilling to get into the hardcore adult film industry, which was very profitable (but also very illegal), Friedman turned down several offers to direct hardcore sex films because he felt that it was "not as fun" as producing or directing the simulated roughie films.

Started, with partner Dan Sonney, the Pussycat Theater chain of adult-film theaters. They sold it to Vince Miranda in 1968.

In 1965 Friedman formed his own filmmaking company to make "roughies", and produced, co-wrote and co-directed The Defilers (1965), a low-budget exploitation film about two guys who kidnap and hold hostage a young woman "just for kicks". The film was a hit and restarted his career in the softcore field.

Despite many bad reviews and the low production values, "Blood Feast" brought in more money than they had gotten making "nudie-cuties", which soon led to their turning out Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), followed by Color Me Blood Red (1965). After that Friedman ended his partnership with Lewis for a variety of reasons, both artistic and financial.

Friedman moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to continue his production work there.

Wanting a change of pace away from the nudie-cutie exploitation genre, Friedman and Lewis worked together to produce Blood Feast (1963), which was filmed in Miami only a few days after filming their last nudie-cutie effort, Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963).

They made a series of softcore sex films, the first of which was The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961), then Daughter of the Sun (1962), Nature's Playmates (1962), Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963), Boin-n-g (1963) and their first "roughie", a softcore sex film with some rather strong violence committed on the female characters, called Scum of the Earth (1963). Most of these films were shot on location in and around Miami, Florida, during winters when Friedman and Lewis lived there, away from the cold winters in Chicago.

Friedman met Herschell Gordon Lewis in 1960 while he was working in Chicago pitching for producers for his first low-budget film, The Prime Time (1960). He and Lewis formed a partnership, with Friedman in charge of obtaining production financing, to make what were known as "nudie-cuties", very low-budget, crudely made films featuring female nudity, which was not seen in "mainstream" films. Over the next few years Friedman and Lewis worked as mercenary filmmakers, with Friedman being the producer and sound man and Lewis being the director and cameraman.

A stream of more roughie and soft-core exploitation movies followed throughout the 1960s, which he produced, co-wrote and even acted in; some of these were A Sweet Sickness (1968), A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966), The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966), The Brick Dollhouse (1967), The Lustful Turk (1968), among many others.

During the 1950s Friedman worked for Paramount Pictures as well as Essanjay Films--which later became Modern Films--as well as the independent Apex Attractions in producing and working on a number of short pictures of the underground softcore set.

David F. Friedman was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His father was a local newspaperman and his mother was a professional musician who played the piano and organ in silent-movie theaters and in churches. Friedman was exposed to the adult world at the age of four or five when his parents took him out "on the town" to restaurants, movies and stage shows. His father, already in his 50s when he was born, died when Friedman was 13. His mother re-married a few years later. After graduating from high school, Friedman was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II. After his discharge in 1945 he settled in Chicago, where he married and found work in filmmaking at Essanjay Films, where he knew co-owner Irwin Joseph, and they collaborated on making 8mm and 16mm underground sex hygiene films.