Bill Osco

Bill Osco (born William Osco in 1947)[1] is an American film producer and director.

Bill Osco
Born1947 (age 72–73)
United States
OccupationFilm producer, director, actor

Career

Osco's first production job (in an uncredited capacity) was the 1970 film Mona, one of the first erotic art films, after Andy Warhol's 1969 film Blue Movie, to receive a national theatrical release in the United States.[2] The release of Mona is considered to be one of the watershed events that helped inaugurate the Golden Age of erotic art films in the United States,[3] and the film is known as one of the paradigms for theatrically released erotic art films.

That same year, Osco directed the documentary Hollywood Blue with Michael Benveniste (as Mike Lite) and Howard Ziehm. In 1971, Osco produced another erotic art film, Harlot, followed by the 1974 sci-fi spoof of Flash Gordon, Flesh Gordon, and the 1976 erotic musical comedy film, Alice in Wonderland. The film grossed over $90 million globally.[4] Produced as a softcore film, Osco later re-edited it into a hardcore pornographic version, utilizing footage not filmed during the original production.[5]

Osco produced three films by writer/director Jackie Kong in the 1980s, starting with 1983's The Being, which also starred Osco in the lead role under the pseudonym Rexx Coltrane. This was followed by Kong's Night Patrol in 1984 and The Underachievers in 1987, both of which featured Osco in minor roles. Starting in 1987, Osco began his own directorial career with the comedy special The Unknown Comedy Show, a vehicle for stand-up comic Murray Langston, also known as The Unknown Comic. Osco would go on to direct another four movies and shorts, only two of which had erotic themes.

In 2007, an Off-Broadway musical based on Osco's version of Alice in Wonderland was staged at the Kirk Theatre in New York City, to which Osco was credited with writing the book.[6] Set in a trailer park in Weehawken, New Jersey, the show was entitled Alice in Wonderland: An Adult Musical Comedy and flyers advertising it were designated "For Mature Audiences Only."

He was also the owner of a pornography bookstore, Niks and Naks, in Garden City, Idaho, and of the Desert Skies Motel, also in Garden City. He bought his Malibu, California home in 1986.[7]

Style

The style of Osco's erotic movies has been described as awful in the sense that the dialogues are plain, the costumes of poor confection, and the sex scenes disturbingly uninspired. This flat-out style is intentional and the provocative touch of Osco's pictures.[8] His movies are full of trash jokes about homosexuals, prostitutes, victims of rapes, ...[9] Vincent Canby qualifies his style as "consistent vulgarity".[10]

References
  1. "William Osco". Bfi.org.uk.
  2. "Pornography". Pornography Girl. Archived from the original on May 6, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2013. The erotic art film with a plot that received a national theatrical release in the United States is generally considered to be Mona
  3. "Flesh Gordon Interview 3". PicPal.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  4. Hollingsworth, Cristopher (2009). Alice Beyond Wonderland: Essays for the Twenty-first Century. Iowa City, IA: University Of Iowa Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-1587298196.
  5. "Alice in Wonderland (1976): What really happened?". Rialto Report.
  6. Dietz, Dan (2009). Off Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 12. ISBN 978-0786433995.
  7. "United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Betty Osco, Defendant-appellant, 985 F.2d 576 (9th Cir. 1993)". Justia.com. 7 January 1993.
  8. "Adult 'Alice in Wonderland' takes joy out of sex". Newstimes.com. 7 February 2004.
  9. Patrick Goldstein (8 January 1985). "Movie review: Night Patrol: Lower than Lowbrown".
  10. Vincent Canby (9 March 1985). "The screen: The Night Patrol". Nytimes.com.
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