About Conception and Contraception (available for viewing on A/V Geeks. Also available for download on Veoh).

This 70s sex-ed film, made by the National Film Board of Canada, shows us a male silhouette and a female silhouette, both of which look like they escaped from an optical illusion. They get it on, resulting in the female silhouette getting knocked up. Bummer, eh? Then we are shown various forms of birth control that this couple can use to prevent this from happening again, and the couple helpfully demonstrates all of them in a slow, turgid fashion that makes sex look about as much fun as adding peripherals to your computer. All of this is shown without narration, and to the accompaniment, inexplicably, of calliope music, which ups the weird factor considerably. But who am I to judge the turn-ons of 2-dimensional Canadian silhouettes, eh?

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.

The Adventures of Ellery Queen – The Hanging Acrobat (film #3 on Side A of Disc #1 of Best of TV Detectives DVD Megapack (Mill Creek Entertainment, 2007)).

This very early TV adaptation of the famous detective just screams early TV, with its cheesy organ soundtrack, its primitive production values, and its sponsorship by Kaiser-Frazier, a make of car that doesn’t exist anymore. Somehow, it’s all appropriate, though, as the plot involves Ellery solving a murder mystery at a cheap, sleazy carnival. The story is pretty ordinary, but this really makes you feel like you bought one of the first TVs in town and will watch anything that’s on, due to its novelty value.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.