The Sin Syndicate

Meet Granny Good, she's the head mistress at a finishing school for girls, where the curriculum includes reading the dictionary, taking showers for gold stars, and drawing Bob Cresse. Just don't go in the basement, where there's a werewolf cooking up death-proof elderberry wine.

The nudie-cutie genre is full of some incredible highs, and some incredible lows. We've previously confessed our love for the wonderfully mad monster-nudie, Kiss Me Quick! in episode 12 ("Too Much Sex Fizz"), and we're back to cover another entry from the same stupid source. You may know House on Bare Mountain for...

This house is not a home, but all our friends are here. For the first in our Haunted House Duology for the 2026 Halloween season, The Syndicate is joined by the artist formerly known as Spicy Goldman to discuss a mad and mysterious transitioner distributed by "The Professionals" and directed by a red Corvette driving Edward D. Wood Jr.

If you've never heard of The Only House in Town, there's probably a reason. If you have heard of The Only House in Town, you may be wondering what there is to say about this seemingly unfinished bump...

Few women in "the industry" left more of an impression than the young, squirrelly, sometimes buxom, Rene Bond. Born Rene Ruth Bond on October 11, 1950, the Queen of Porn was one of the first superstars of the nascent, still-illegal industry. In this episode we chart Rene's relatively short but memorable career in both the hard and softcore adult film industry, with a special emphasis on her role in the Ed Wood-scribed women-on-the-run sex 'n action film, Fugitive Girls. 

Directed by Stephen C. Apostolof, a friend and frequent collaborator of the down-on-his-luck Wood, the film features memorable performances by a bi...

I hope you haven't forgotten your girl. We sure haven't. It's true, we will never stop talking about The All-American Girl, director Mark Haggard's 1972 coming-of-age, sex positive, Southern California masterpiece. We discussed the film at length in Episode 20, "Don't Forget Your Girl," have long been clammoring for a new home video release, and thus, were more than a little excited when we heard that the film was being screened on 35mm at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles on Labor Day, 2026. Friend of the pod and enthusiastic Vinegar Syndromer Eli Olsberg was able to attend as our proxy, and...

Can you afford the price? The film might call them hookers, but there is no hooking. Instead, in the 1967 anthology film, The Hookers, we are treated to three different stories dealing with three different ways in which the female body is sold and commodified, either by choice, or by coercion. 

Fleurette Carter (Aroused) plays Callie Sue, Sharon Kent (Indecent Desires) plays Julie, and Monica Davis (The Swap and How to Make It) plays Barbara. Each woman is from a different station, and each approaches the salability of their womanhood in a different way. Callie Sue takes back the p...

Here at the Sin Syndicate, we love websites. Not apps, not Substacks, not ad-filled modern forums, but websites. One of our favorites is Mondo Digital, the long-running project of Nathaniel Thompson, a long-time figure in the scene, whether it be moderating the Mobius Home Video Forum, covering genre cinema online and in print, contributing to disc releases, or working at Image Entertainment (not in that order). It's that last thing we wanted to talk with Nathaniel about, specifically around his work as part of Image in the period of the early aughts, which also coincided with the LA-based distribution company's pa...

I know it's labeled a Short End, but it's actually not that short. But the spirit of the Short End is still with us. For this entry in our bonus episode series, we are joined by Austin Miller, film archivist and technical coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive (MARMIA), to discuss a short film he provided to the Vinegar Syndrome Archive for use on the recent, very sold out, Reviver 3 home video release (we will be saying the word "short" and "archive" a lot). That film, titled The Psychedelics, has been long-sought after by fans of buxom Sunset S...

The name Donn Davison might not be as well-known as Dan Sonney, Kroger Babb, Dwain Esper, or David F. Friedman, but he was a mighty Southern monarch in his own right, a multi-talented road showman, yo-yo man and official member of the Forty Thieves of classical film exploitation and distribution. Like many of the thieves, he started out in a carny circuit, the spook show, before deciding to try his hand at producing one of his own pictures to tour the mom and pop theaters and drive-ins of the Bible Belt.

One of those films was Shantytown Honeymoon, l...

The Sin Syndicate is taking a stroll down to the San Francisco massage parlor to visit future adult film superstar Serena during her brief softcore period. At the time, the striking blonde was still using her "Jen Gillian" pseudonym and just getting her foot in the door the film industry. Released in 1975 through Harry Novak (yes, again) and his Box Office International production company, Massage Parlor Wife is unique in that its director really had no business making sex movies, his background was in documentaries and experimental films. Nevertheless, the resulting work is a fiery, funny, and above all, still...

The credo of Ryan Verrill and Will Dodson's podcast network is "every movie is someone's favorite." To celebrate one-year of being a part of the Someone's Favorite Productions network, The Sin Syndicate are joined by 1/2 of SFP and the larger Antenna Releasing company, the Disc-Connected man himself, bossman Ryan Verrill, to recap the past year and play a game of pick five. What five are we picking? Five films we want to see get a high-definition, English-friendly home video release in the not-so-distant future. 

The rules were to keep it somewhat (s)exploitation adjacent, but we weren't going t...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. It all started with our discussion with fetish historian and author Jane Garrett about 1967's Venus in Furs (Trodden Underfoot). As a follow-up, we chatted with Nathan Schiff, Long Island filmmaker and longtime friend of Furs director, Joseph Marzano (Back to Marzanoland). I guess we're masochists, we didn't get enough Lou Campa, or I just wanted to close the loop, but here we are, definitely slamming the book shut for good on this mini-saga.

For those who have not been following along, Campa was the shady producer behind Furs, alo...

It's a Love Explosion! In an attempt to maintain our sanity amidst deadlines and life generally, we bring you another episode of our Short Ends series, which we've used in the past to feature additional discussions that have either gone long, didn't fit, or generally felt like they were worthy of standing on their own. We've slightly expanded this design to hopefully include more low-key and informal chats with friends, fans and listeners, without the pressure of one of our regular, deeply researched Sin Syndicate episodes (that you've come to know and love).

All that build u...

That’s right, we’re going Back to Marzanoland. If you’ve been a consistent listener, you’ll know that in Episode 38, “Trodden Underfoot,” we discussed the Joseph Marzano film Venus in Furs (1967) with author and fetish historian Jane Garrett. After the release of that episode, low-budget Long Island filmmaker and sexploitation super-fan Nathan Schiff reached out to us to share some stories about his own personal relationship with Marzano before his death. It’s fair to say, Nathan had stories. In fact, so many that this three hour podcast can barely contain them all.

A few sel...

Where else will you find a worldwide exclusive about what Christina Lindberg is going to wear on the Cannes 2026 red carpet? For Episode 39, "The Power of the Horn," The Sin Syndicate have connected with our brothers from another mother, the purveyers of Swedish Sin, Rickard Gramfors & Patrick von Sychowski, co-partners of the Stockholm-based multimedia company Klubb Super 8 and streaming platform Cultpix. With so much to cover, we didn't want to focus on just one film, although their most recent release for Melusine, Come Blow the Horn! does get some special love.

Other topics include, but are n...

Yes, we have this in a higher heel. Enter a world of suprasensual sexploitation with this week's deep dive into one of the earliest big screen adaptations of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s oft-referenced sadomasochism novella, Venus in Furs.

Muscle-hunk Shep Wild plays this version of Severin (named David), a shoe-salesman who is taken for a literal trip after a chance meeting with the striking Marina, played by Barbara Ellen, who is as much a creative force in this endevaor as director Joseph Marzano and producer Lou Campa. All three were coming off the sleazy success of the sinful bl...

Do you partake?

The Sin Syndicate are preemptively celebrating the Stoner's Holiday with this special 4/20-themed episode which is, let's be honest, just an excuse for us to talk about one of our favorite late 60s sexploitation hang out films, director/cinematographer Joseph Mangine's Manhattan-set story of celluloid swingers and black-clad moto bikers, Smoke and Flesh (1968). After cutting his teeth on quick and cheap nudies for Barry Mahon, the talented Brooklynite directed this directorial debut that more or less acted as a 35mm resume for his skills behind the camera. Never a gloryhound, and more comfortable molding tinfoil t...

The Sin Syndicate return with another of our Short Ends bonus episodes, this time spotlighting the second release in the Reviver mystery box series from Vinegar Syndrome's Film Archive team. But before that, we've got more sexploitation news, including another update on Secret Places, Secret Things (which was discussed in Episode 31: "Love Land"), a correction on Andy Milligan's Compass Rose (sorry Thrower daddy), a shoutout to a certain special feature on the upcoming Bunny Yeager double feature from Kino Cult, as well as a rare "what are we watching?" segment. If you don't want to be...

Before she was Valerie in Daughters of Darkness, actress Danielle Ouimet was Valérie in Valérie, a landmark Quebec sexploitation film from director Denis Héroux and producers André Link and John Dunning of the legendary Montreal-based Cinépix Inc. Valérie is a time capsule to a post-Expo 67 Montreal, a city looking to flaunt its new modernity, and with artists looking to stage their own révolution tranquille through boundary pushing, censor challenging works. One of the earliest and most successful of these works was Valérie, which at the time its release, was highest grossing Canadian film of all tim...

After there were two exotic servants (The Nude Vampire), but before there were two backpacking schoolgirls (Girls Without Shame), two shipwrecked ghosts (The Demoniacs), two runaway virgins (The Escapees), and two blind brats (Two Orphan Vampires), there were, according to Harry Novak’s English language trailer, “Two Devilish Nymphets” (also virgins).

For Episode 35 we are joined by the long-suffering Euro Cult expert and author of Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol, Jeremy Richey, to discuss Caged Virgins, a sexploitation import from producer/distributor Novak's Box Office International. It's an odd film in his catalogue. As Casey says, i...

To know her is to love her. Meet Francy. Or better yet, meet Curt Ledger, a name you may recognize as being attached to a notorious sexploitation film (often called the roughest roughie) called She Came on the Bus. While that film is a “classic” voice-over narration-style piece of artless trash, Ledger was also involved with another picture, a very different, and surprisingly, very good film, called It’s…Francy’s Friday, a coming-of-age dramedy about a not bad lookin’ chick played by the Teenage Tramp herself, Alisha Fontaine.
 
Joining us to discuss all things Ledger, Fontaine, male co-star Ken C...

A bold attempt by a smut publisher and an exploitation director at melding fetishism with general release melodrama, Satan in High Heels is a film that aims big with its sophisticated lounge jazz LP and its lesbianic novelization tie-in. But maybe the world wasn’t ready to get fully Bizarre just yet. A few years later, One Shocking Moment would open with a sharp heel to the back of a hand, among other sadomasochistic things, but in the early 60s, exploiteers were still testing the waters of acceptability, and legality. Olga and her House of Shame were still a few year...

Rip the curlers from your hair. Peggy’s gone. She was The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. For this episode we planned to discuss Anything for Money with Joe Sarno biographer Michael Bowen, but just an hour before recording we got the news that Peggy Steffans-Sarno had passed away the night before. She was 84 years old.

Peggy was many things: she was a New Yorker; she was a mother; she was a muse to artist Tom Wesselman, who was enraptured by her lips; she was a London trained actress that ran in the same circles as...

We've got more secrets and more things. In this Short Ends bonus episode, we have a few important updates regarding Secret Places, Secret Things, the film covered in Episode 31: "Love Land." What is Satin Lips? How much is rent for a studio apartment at the former Westgate Hotel where the film was shot? How cute is Debbie Osborne's senior yearbook photo? Besides all things Secret, the Sin Syndicate give an impromptu review of the entire February 2026 calendar for the New Beverly Cinema's "month of erotica." You best believe we...

Fasten your seatbelts, don't forget to pack your mother's diaphragm, we're heading to Main Street, USA for an evening in "Love Land." In Episode 31 of The Sin Syndicate, we are joined by author, brick-breaker and long-time exploitation film historian, Chris Poggiali, who personally chose the subject of this week's episode: actor/stuntman Gary Kent's directorial debut, the woozy, mysterious, sensual, Secret Places, Secret Things (1971).

Described by Casey as "a special experience," this underrated gem made for the Pussycat Theater chain and distributed by Fineberg & Miranda's Grads Corp feels like it s...

You asked, we answered, Part 2. Our new year Q&A concludes with the second and final installment, "Uta Go Home." In this episode, Casey once again rants about the missing footage from The Amazing Transplant, Alex throws shade at the non-gore Herschell Gordon Lewis films and Gentry would really like people to stop asking him where they can watch these films. If you enjoyed Alex's in-depth explainer from Part 1 about the cost of a sexploitation film, tune in for a history lesson on some important players in his native Canada's sex film industry. And if you want a...

You asked, we answered. We thought it would be fun to kick off the new year with a little Q&A, but that little Q&A unsurprsingly turned into a four-hour epic. So, we've broken it in two. If you don't hear your question answered in this episode, stay tuned for next week. But in the meantime, in Part One, "Radley Metzger's Ascot," we are joined by our Canadian youngboy Alex DiSanto to discuss all manner of sexploitation and sexploitation adjacent topics, including: our most wanted SWV HD upgrades, our favorite SWV releases, Bucky Beaver, Betsy Burger and...Howard Hughes...

It’s a Christmas miracle! It’s been a long time coming, but for the final episode of the year, The Sin Syndicate have been blessed with the immaculate presence of The Boss, Something Weird Video owner and operator, Lisa Petrucci. Ever since we started this podcast we knew we wanted to bring Lil’ Lisa on the show, but we were waiting for the right moment. Well, what better time than now, our last episode of 2025, where we talk with the multi-talented Ms. Petrucci about a subject near and dear to her heart—the Mighty Monarch of Exploitation, David F...