Keyword Risqu

Biography of the curvaceous and sharp-witted actress who scandalized Broadway and Hollywood in the 1920s-30s with her frank approach to sex.

This short, otherwise unremarkable feature is of some interest because of the way that it unabashedly caters to the tastes that it perceived in its audiences. Besides combining the elements of the risqué 'blue' movies of the era with the popularity of movies about fires, it also attempted to use the combination to get extra mileage out of it. The movie's title summarises the setup, and most of the footage shows firefighters using ladders to rescue stage girls, clad in portions of their costumes, from an upper level. Although it all seems pretty tame by today's standards, it no doubt provided its male viewers with some brief moments of excitement as the various women hurried down the ladders with their costumes in disarray.

A constable and a subway attendant are working late at night in an underground station when a well-dressed man with a cigar in his teeth enters with his arms around two women dressed in long skirts and jackets, gloves, and fancy hats. The trio laugh and stumble on the platform as if having a hilarious time, getting the attention of the policeman who attempts to stop their bawdy behavior.

A young man leers through a peephole in the wall separating two dressing rooms, but he is caught, and is humiliated by his victims, two pretty ladies.

Several men in a basement barbershop become excited by women walking past the window. The ankles and knees of the passersby are visible to the men below, causing pandemonium among the barbershop customers. Possibly released in 1901.

After a lengthy period of watching the dancers at the Folies Bergères, a fireman stops in for a drink. As he becomes intoxicated, his thoughts return to the dancers, and he begins to see images of nude dancers all around him. Whether he goes into the subway, rides on a streetcar, or returns to the fire station, he continues to see the same imaginary sights.

The stage of a vaudeville theatre. A lady in evening costume is performing on a trapeze. Two Rubes are seated in a box. The lady begins to disrobe, and here the fun commences. As she removes her garments one by one and throws them at our rural friends, they begin going through antics, which to say the least, are highly amusing. When the stockings come off, the climax takes place. The Rubes jump from their seats and make things lively for a short time in the theatre.

Three girls are taking a bath in a quiet, shady spot along a beautiful stream. Another young lady in bathing attire reclines on the bank. The latter suddenly discovers two hoboes coming toward the bathers and immediately gives the alarm. They throw water over the hoboes, who gather up the clothes of the fair bathers and make off, compelling the bathers to walk home in barrels. In order to conceal themselves as much as possible they hold the barrels rather high.

Kathryn Osterman was a legitimate actress who worked occasionally in the movies during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. This looks like a Mutoscope cut-down of an actuality released in 1900, "The Art of "Making Up"". In it, we see her from the rear, sitting in front of a dressing mirror, putting up her hair and powdering her face.

A man in civil clothes, and three men in army uniforms are inspecting seven women to be recruited.

Three woman playing a game of catch leads to one of them exposing herself as she gets stuck whilst peering out the window.

The formal name of the peep show machine was the Mutoscope -- at least when it was manufactured by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, which later became simply "Biograph" and is best remembered for the films directed by D.W. Griffith with G.W. "Billy" Bitzer as him cameraman. At this point, however, Griffith was a struggling stage actor and Bitzer was a leading cameraman for Biograph. This meant that he did all sorts of movies, including peep shows, and this is one of them. The title tells all and the show shows a lot as a woman exposes a shapely limb and is punished for her flouting of decent behavior.