George Weiss (producer)

George G. Weissis an American film producer who specialized in independent 'road show' exploitationZ moviesduring the 1950s andsexploitationshockers in the 1960s that openly defied the motion pictureproduction codeof the day.

George Weiss
Born	George G. Weiss United States
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1954–1995

Glen or Glenda

Weiss is best known as the producer who funded theexploitation filmGlen or Glenda(1953) directed byEd Wood,originally conceived as a fictionalized story of thesexual reassignment surgeryofChristine Jorgensen.When Jorgensen refused to collaborate on the film, Wood wrote a new autobiographical script about his own struggle with being a closet transvestite and added stock film footage about sexual reassignment surgery. Weiss appears in the film in an uncredited cameo as "man at transvestite's suicide." Adding to the film's already extensive fantasy sequence, Weiss included incongruous scenes of scantily clad women, bondage, and whipping taken from another project inspired by the fetish films ofIrving Klaw.This was done partly to increase the film's length up to the required 70 minutes.

In 1956, Weiss backed another Wood project, a juvenile delinquent film with the working titleHellborn.The project was soon abandoned. Wood later incorporated the footage into his filmsThe Sinister UrgeandNight of the Ghouls.

Timothy Farrell films

Another connection between Weiss and Ed Wood is actorTimothy Farrell,the sympathetic doctor inGlen or Glenda.Farrell had a major role as a gangster in Wood'sJail Bait,and a supporting part inThe Violent Years.

For Weiss, Farrell also played doctors inHometown Girl(1949) andTest Tube Babies(1948), an exploitation film about artificial insemination. In 1951 he was in the risque burlesque filmParis After Midnightwith famous stripperTempest Storm.

He played Umberto Scalli, a sleazy gymnasium owner and drug pusher in three films:The Devil's Sleep(1949),Racket Girls(akaPin Down Girls(1951)) andDance Hall Racket(1954) with iconoclastic comedianLenny Brucein his only film role. These films were largely an excuse for showcasing "cat fight" female-wrestling footage.

InGirl Gang(1954), Farrell plays another degenerate drug dealer in a film noteworthy for showing the step-by-step process of preparing and injecting heroin. (Weiss did not shy away from taboo subjects in any of his films.)

Stock footage features

As did Ed Wood, Weiss also cobbled together footage from other sources and created a flimsy plot as a framing device. From his collection of erotic burlesque films he releasedHollywood After Midnight,Baghdad After Midnight(both 1954) andThe Peek Snatchers(1965), among others.

Nudist Life(1961) was mostly put together from assortednudist campfilms from the previous two decades.

Weiss even stole from himself, as inThe Pill(1967), which he also directed. The bulk of the film is recycled fromTest Tube Babiesdressed up as a clinical study on birth control.

Many of Weiss' films are presented in a pseudo-documentary style accompanied by earnest voice-over narration (pretending to be an educational film was a way to circumvent censorship laws).Chained Girls(1965) is an example of this practice.

The Olga series

BesidesGlen or Glenda,Weiss may be best remembered for producing some of the first "roughie" sexploitation films of the 1960s with his "Olga" series. Directed byJoseph P. Mawraand starring Audrey Campbell as the sadistic white slaver Olga, Weiss unleashedOlga's House of Shame(which he also co-wrote),White Slaves of Chinatown,Olga's Girls(all from 1964),Mme. Olga's Massage Parlor(1965) andOlga's Dance Hall Girls(1969). Weiss has a brief role as a doctor inWhite Slaves of Chinatown.Although tame by today's standards, the series was shocking and unique in its day. Underground filmmakerJohn WaterscitesOlga's House of Shameas a major early influence.

Weiss was friendly with New York filmmakerMichael Findlayand his wifeRoberta Findlay,an actress and cinemaphotographer. In 1964 Weiss encouraged them to follow in the trail blazed by theOlgafilms. The Findlays went on to make a series of even more extreme sexploitation films, includingThe Touch of Her Fleshand its two sequels.

• Weiss was played by actorMike StarrinTim Burton's 1994 biographical filmEd Wood.
• Weiss is quoted at length throughout the interview-filled oral history biography on Ed Wood:Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.,byRudolph Grey(Feral House, Inc., 1992).

External links

• George WeissatIMDb