RIO Theatre In Vancouver Screening Ed Wood’s ‘The Young Marrieds’

VANCOUVER, Canada—The RIO Theatre here will screen an X-rated copy of one of cult director Ed Wood’s final films, The Young Marrieds. Ed Wood finished his career with a string of dirty movies, which featured plenty of nudity and simulation, but no hardcore. But avid movie collector and “porn archeologist” Dimitrios Otis found the unique copy of 1972’s The Young Marrieds in Vancouver, Canada. The Young Marrieds was both written and directed by the legendary Ed Wood (using the pseudonyms Richard Trent and Hank Barnum, respectively), and he never directed another movie after it, dying six years later, a destitute alcohol. The movie features The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) actress Alice Friedland in a hardcore sex role. Now the world can see Wood’s hardcore action on 16mm film for the Storefront Theater circuit. The movie played a series of dates in 1974 in New York and Los Aangeles before disappearing for 30 years. It turns out several copies were shipped to Canada in various cuts, with the full-length 61-minute version surviving. Drawing on fears of “freaks and weirdos” to quaint suburban heterosexuality, The Young Marrieds is cunningly subversive to the straight porn genre, macho male sexual heroics, and the (supposedly) straight male audience that frequented the adult cinemas. What other director would dare end his movie with the line, “What’s the matter, Ben, haven’t you ever sucked a cock before?” The Young Marrieds screens at 9:15 p.m. May 15 at the RIO Theatre, Vancouver Canada. Dimitrios Otis will be in attendance and will participate in a Q&A. For more information, visit RioTheatre.ca.