Mondo Lista

One of my favorite blogs has been idle too long. Rupert Pupkin Speaks is always lists of favorite films in various categories. I've done three film lists here, the infamous cavewoman movie list, cult westerns of 1971 and 1930's Old Dark House movies. Time for another.

Before there was reality TV, there were shockumentaries. From the earliest films, there have been movies intended to show weird and shocking things, like "In the Land of the Headhunters" in 1914 and Edison's own "Electrocuting an Elephant" in 1903. By the 1980's, we were back to films like "Faces of Death." The growth of the internet has made new films of this type all but disappear.

In 1963, a surprise hit was the Italian film "Mondo Cane," ("Dog's World") which had all the religious fanaticism, violence, cultural taboos and freakishness that most audiences could handle, plus a light-hearted feel that was new to the field and even a hit song ("More"). There were a spate of similar films released in the next few years, most from production companies that lasted about as long as the film's running times. Much of the interest in these films comes from deciding how much was staged for the films: e.g., the cult of the cargo plane appears to be real, but the shrine whose steps are cleaned by licking?

Here's every Mondo movie with "Mondo" in the title (sorry, Mundo Depravados... so close!)

Mondo Cane (1963) - still the one to start with.
Mondo Pazzo (1964) - ("Crazy World")  also called Mondo Cane 2. Looks like outtakes of Mondo Cane.
Mondo Balordo (1964)
Mondo Bizarro (1966)
Mondo Daytona (1968) - an early Girls Gone Wild on spring break.
Mondo Hollywood (1967) - aka "Hippie Hollywood" follows mostly the hippie counter-culture.
Mondo Mod (1967) - an instantly outdated film about new youth trends in England.
Mondo New York (1988) - a real late-comer in the genre; follows the art crowd.
Mondo Topless (1966) - Russ Meyers jumped on the trend and removed what little plot his films usually contained to show huge-breasted exotic dancers, many of whom cannot be seen on film elsewhere.
Mondo Trasho (1969) - John Waters' first full-length film, with his star Divine, this was filmed silently and had a rock and roll soundtrack added to punctuate the proceedings. One of his least interesting.
Mondo Violence (1976) - aka "This Violent World"
Mondo Weirdo
Mondo Lugosi (1986) - clips of the horrible films Bela did in the 1950's.
Mondo Magic (1972) - I've seen it, but don't remember it. Wasn't this a TV series?
Mondo America (197?) - Institutional "mondo," this includes a visit to a sex-toy factory.
Mondo Exotica
Mondo Infame
Mondo Keyhole (1966)
Mondo Macabro
Mondo Nudo (1979)
Mondo Oscentia (1966) ("Obscene World")
Mondo Rocco  (1970)- very tame documentary of no-name rock and roll bands
Mondo Teeno (1967) - aka "Teenage Rebellion," this film has an actual plot and doesn't fit the theme.
Mondo Elvis (1985) - a look at the sleazier side of all things Elvis.
Mondo Freudo
Mondo Inferno (1969)
Mondo Cannabile - aka Cannibal Holocaust 2
Mondo Sadismo (1967) - aka Sadismo
Mondo Erotico (1973)
and...
Mondo Candido (1975) - an intentional self-parody of Mondo Cane by the original crew!