When Silent Films Had Adult Themes #2: Saturn Films Plus TRAFFIC IN SOULS

In the early 1900s, Johann Schwarzer became a portrait and family photographer and chemist. To supplement his income, Schwarzer began making erotic photos.

In the early 1900s, Johann Schwarzer resettled in Vienna and became a portrait and family photographer and chemist. To supplement his income, Schwarzer began making erotic photos which were used on naughty postcards common to the era.

In 1906, he became interested in the men's-only theatre nights organized in Austrian cinemas that showed adult films, so-called Herrenabende ("night shows for men"). Schwarzer organized the Saturn-Film company in 1906 to produce such films himself, which he directed. Saturn-Film was the first native film production company based in Austria. Schwarzer produced and directed the first Austrian erotic feature films, with basic plots (artist and model, bath scene) which allowed for voyeurism and female nudity but not pornography.

Unlike his predecessors, Schwarzer conducted his business as a public company, advertising in local newspapers, motion picture trade journals and adding a logo to his films like any other European producer. Saturn-Film also published a regular film catalog within its first couple years of existence. Despite this effort, Saturn-Films often appeared shorn of their logos and rendered anonymously like other, similar subjects once they got further afield of Vienna.

In 1911, Saturn-Film was raided and closed down by the police as a part of a crackdown on erotic materials in Vienna. The authorities destroyed the main film vault which at that time consisted of 52 productions.

Censorship prevented Saturn from rising again. Johann Schwarzer tried to get a fresh start in film distribution, but without the 'spicy' films he had become famous for. After three months, he abandoned the effort and left Vienna for Africa. He resurfaced in April 1914, when he married the young Olga Emilie Jarosh-Stehlik. Schwarzer was an army reservist who was called up with the outbreak of the Great War on 28 July 1914. He was made a second lieutenant by the time he perished in battle at Wirballen, Poland on 10 October of that year.

Jugendspiele AKA Games of Youth Click here to watch

A short film made in Paris by Louis Feuillade in 1911. It shows the wicked life style and assassination of a Roman Emperor. In the first scene he is with a bevy of girls, in the second with a bevy of boys and in the third, we bring in the lions. Try to count the extras in this film, all playing individual roles,and then there were the lions. Enjoy:

Watch Roman Orgy by clicking here

back to Saturn Films Watch Der Traum der Bildhauers AKA The Sculptors Dream

Der Traum der Bildhauers AKA The Sculptors Dream click here

Watch Baden verboten AKA Bathing Forbidden by clicking here

Traffic in Souls (also released as While New York Sleeps) is a 1913 American silent crime drama film focusing on forced prostitution (white slavery) in the United States. Directed by George Loane Tucker and starring Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, William H. Turner, and Matt Moore, Traffic in Souls is an early example of the narrative style in American films. The film consists of six reels, which was longer than most American film of the era.

A copy of Traffic in Souls is preserved at the Library of Congress and the Film Preservation Associates. In 2006, the film was added to the National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress because it "presaged the Hollywood narrative film" and drew attention through its riveting depiction of the methods used to entrap young women into prostitution.

Behind the paywall: Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies