Living Venus (1961)

Curiosità

Living Venus is a 1961 exploitation film loosely based on the life of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Marking the directorial debut of Herschell Gordon Lewis, the film stars frequent Lewis collaborators William Kerwin as unscrupulous magazine editor John V. Norwall and Harvey Korman as photographer Ken Carter.

Production

The script of Living Venus was purchased half-finished from Jim McGinn and Seymour Zolotareff after the pair had worked on it for three weeks. Herschell Gordon Lewis believed that their screenplay had more thematic substance than that of his previous work.

Lewis enlisted William Kerwin and Harvey Korman for the roles of John Norwall and Ken Carter, respectively. The director had previously worked with the pair on Carving Magic, a 1959 promotional short for Swift & Company. Living Venus is one of two Lewis projects with a cast composed of Screen Actors Guild members.

Living Venus was shot in Chicago, Illinois. Because of his background as an industrial filmmaker, Lewis experienced frustration with what he described as "foot draggers" rampant in the union crew. Lewis employed a non-union workforce on subsequent projects.

Lewis cut a nude scene involving Karen Black, who played a small, uncredited role in the movie, at her manager's request. The director later complained that Black's attitude contributed to production delays that were disproportionate to her screen time in the finished picture.

The film's score was composed by Martin Rubenstein. Bob Scobey, credited in certain promotional materials as Bob Scobie, contributed original music featured in the party scene. Harold Lawson composed the words and music to the song "Living Venus", which was performed by Robert Bell.

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