Mike Vraney
Acting
Biography
Something Weird Video was founded in 1990 by Mike Vraney in Seattle. He was inspired by his teenage job as a theater projectionist. His love for the obscure films that never made it to video prompted him to transfer hundreds of ancient reels of film to VHS videotape and DVD. On the company website, Vraney explains the label's genesis: In my mind, the last great genre to be scavenged were the exploitation / sexploitation films of the 1920s through the 1970s. After looking into this further, I realized that there were nearly 2,000 movies out there yet to be discovered. So with this for inspiration, my quest began and wouldn't you know, just out of the blue I fell into a large collection of 16 mm girlie arcade loops (which became the first compilation videos we put together). Around the same time I received an unexpected phone call that suddenly made all this real: my future and hands-down the king of sexploitation Dave Friedman was on the other end of the line. This would be the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship for both of us. Dave's films became the building blocks for our film collection and he has taught and guided me through the wonderful world of sexploitation, introducing me to his colleagues (Dan Sonney, Harry Novak, H. G. Lewis, Bob Cresse and all the other colorful characters who were involved during his heyday) and they've been eager to dive into the business again. On January 2, 2014, Vraney died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.[4] The company continues under the leadership of Vraney's widow, Lisa Petrucci.
Known For
The Story of X takes you to the earliest days of adult films when men peddled stag reels and projectors out of the trunks of their cars, then through the movie house years to the arrival of the home video business, and now the Internet. Meet the men behind the camera, such as "King of Sexploitation" Dave Friedman and the preeminent breast man Russ Meyer. Considered pariahs at the time, they're now hailed as pioneers in the fight against censorship. The Story of X visits the 60s when women's rights, not nudity, became the issue and recounts porn's arrival in Hollywood, led by director Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. In the 70s, several groundbreaking films, including Behind the Green Door featuring Marilyn Chambers and Deep Throat featuring Linda Lovelace, took the genre to a new level.
Playboy: The Story of X
Sandra Bernhard hosts "Reel Wild Cinema" an exploration into the cheesy and wacky world of "B" Horror Movies. Each episode welcomes a new guest: Director Russ Meyers and his star Tura Satana, (from his film "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill"), musician Dweezil Zappa, comedian Dana Gould and Robert Jacks (Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre) to name a few.
Reel Wild Cinema
This film covers the early history of post World War II educational films, especially those involving traffic safety by the Highway Safety Foundation under direction of Richard Wayman. In the name of promoting safe driving in teenagers, these films became notorious for their gory depiction of accidents to shock their audiences to make their point. The film also covers the role of safety films of this era, their effect on North American teenage culture, the struggle between idealism and lurid exploitation and how they reflected the larger society concerns of the time that adults projected onto their youth.
Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films
Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.
That's Sexploitation!
A documentary about the history of exploitation films that focuses on the careers of legendary producers David F. Friedman and Dan Sonney.
Mau Mau Sex Sex
Compilation of clips relating to nudism, including restored footage from 'Nudes on Tiger Reef' and outtakes from 'Sandy, the Reluctant Nature Girl', plus a few shorts and loops.
Nudes, Nudists & Nudism: Volume 4
VH1 and SPIN magazine teamed up to present 'VH1 News Special: Grunge', an in-depth look at the Seattle-born movement that transformed popular music and the major players who made it happen.
VH1 News Special: Grunge
Feature film.
Driver's Ed Scare Films Vol. 5
Listen up, students! It’s time for another round of those watch-your-ass short subjects that you only thought were good and gone. Pay attention to this sixth volume of Classroom Scare Films and you just might learn something!
Classroom Scare Films Vol. 6: Kids in Trouble Video
A series of Christian propaganda films, by Something Weird Video
Christian Youth Scare Films Vol 1
It’s a movie & music memorial celebrating the patron saint of weird! Get ready for a Rock ‘n’ Roll rumble! Thrill-Hungry, always Reckless and Willing! The Gangs and Go-Go Girls Who Go TOO FAR! Mad Doctors! Mayhem! Girl-Crazed Monsters & Goofy Gorilllas! Can You Take It?! We DARE You To Sit Thru It All!
Howie Pyro Rock ‘n’ Roll Monster Mash!
This is a video compilation of trailers from Grindhouse, horror based movies between 1950's and 70's. Includes to many - The Terrornauts, The Vampire and the Ballerina, The Devil's hand, Carnival of blood and some many, many more.
Shiver & Shudder Show
Too Naughty for other shorts compilations, these are the ultimate collection of exploitation and sexploitation naughtiness!
Twisted Sex: Volume 26
Trailers of such movies like Sex Wish, My Fair Baby, Count The Ways, Frankie & Johnnie Were Lovers and more.
Bucky's '70s Triple XXX Movie House Trailers Vol. 17
Winter Sports (1970) Games Adults Play (1970) Beach House (1970) Love Is a Four Letter Word (1970) From Russia with Lust (1971) Sex as You Like It (1971) Supercharger (1971) Catered Affair (1971) Brute Therapy (1971) City Women (1971) The Couple Next Door (1971) The Doctor's - in! (1971) Ensenada Hole (1971) Masked Mischief (1971) See Me, Feel Me, Take Me (1971) Ward Sex (Short 1971) Diamond Doublecross (1971) Vice Versus Vice (1971) Love Muscle (1971) The Bet (1971) Specimen: Female (1971) Tail of the Bearded Clam (1972) Oh!...... Miss Bodie (1972) Lunch (1972) Bad, Bad, Gang! (1972) Dr. Yes! (1972) Pleasure Before Business (Short 1972) Jokers Are Wild (1973) Joe Rock Superstar (1973) Tina Makes a Deal (1973) Gold or Busts (1973) The Likes of Louise (1974) Two Hard Days (1974) Vicki (1974) Erotic Point of View (1974) Sweet Lust (1975) Big Split (1976) Paying for It (1976) Mary Flegus, Mary Flegus (1978)
Bucky's '70s Triple XXX Movie House Trailers Volume 7
Felicia (1969) Caught in the Can (1970) Get What You Pay For (1970) Hedonist Hypnotist (1970) Spread It Around (1970) On the Casting Couch (1970) The Flanders and Alcott Report on Sexual Response (1971) The Only House in Town (1971) The Session (1971) San Francisco Ball (1971) Bordellet (1972) Lord Farthingay's Holiday (1972) Sex in the Comics (1972) Everything Goes (1972) The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) All in the Sex Family (1973) Lialeh (1974) 3 Cheers for B.J.U. (1974) Marriage and Other Four Letter Words (1974) The Defiance of Good (1975) Justine & Juliette (1975) Confessions of a Teenage Peanut Butter Freak (1975) Felicia (1975) Then Came Ecstasy (1975) Once Over Nightly (1976) 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976) Captain Lust (1977) Reflections (1977) Tinseltown (1980) Object of Desire (1983)
Bucky's '70s Triple XXX Movie House Trailers Volume 2
Compilation of 70's porn trailers. Pornography: Copenhagen 1970 (1970), Booby Trap (1970), Red, White and Blue (1971), Room 11 (1971), The Altar of Lust (1971) Hard at It (1971) The Erotic Director (1971) Porno Mondo: An In Depth Study of Porno Films (1971) Belinda (1972) Lecher (1973) Demon's Brew (1973) The Love Witch (1973) Swinging High (1973) Tower of Love (1974) The Pleasure Masters: Kikko & Lil (1974) Perverted Passion (1974) Teenage Coeds (1975) The Journey of O (1976) Cry for Cindy (1976) Love Slaves (1976) Shocking! (1976) Échanges de partenaires (1976) The Nibblers (1976) Délires porno (1977) Young, Hot 'n Nasty Teenage Cruisers (1977) Suprêmes jouissances (1977), The Liberation of Honeydoll Jones (1977) 7 Into Snowy (1978), Chorus Call (1978), Frat House (1979), Sissy's Hot Summer (1979), Blue Ecstasy in New York (1980), One Way at a Time (1981), Skintight (1981), Inspirations (1982), That's My Daughter (1982) Moments of Love (1983), Thoroughly Amorous Amy (1984)
Bucky's '70s Triple XXX Movie House Trailers Volume 1
The Memoirs of Fanny Hill (1971) Prison Babies (1973) Angel Number 9 (1974) China Girl (1974) Beyond Fulfillment (1975) Summer Session (1975) M*A*S*H'd (1976) Sensational Janine (1976) The Joy of Letting Go (1976) Lollipop Palace (1976) Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976) Tapestry of Passion (1976) A Portrait of Seduction (1976) Perverse (1977) Oriental Baby Sitter (1977) Bangkok Connection (1977) A Little More Than Love (1977) SexWorld (1978) The Psychiatrist (1978) Josephine (1978) Woman in Love: A Story of Madame Bovary (1978) Bad Company (1978) French Finishing School (1979) Kate & the Indians (1979) Champagne for Breakfast (1980) Pandora's Mirror (1981) A Thousand and One Erotic Nights (1982) Never Enough (1982) Hot Pursuit (1983) Little Girls Lost... (1983) L'Amour (1984) Coming Together (1984) Nasty Lady (1984) Inside Olinka (1985) Scandalous Simone (1985) Sounds of Sex (1985) Babyface 2 (1986)