When the scare film Teenage Mother (1967) was released, promotional posters billed it as “The film that dares to explain what most parents can’t.” Why parents couldn’t explain contraception or teenage pregnancy remains a mystery, but let’s chalk it up to the conservative social climate of the time (and the filmmaker’s desire to market controversy). Directed by cult exploitation figure Jerry Gross, and starring 15-year-old actress Arlene Sue Farber whose character did “her homework in parked cars,” the film’s most scandalous element is a graphic childbirth scene (excluded in this trailer). Unfortunately, the scene can be found on YouTube, and features excessive forceps action. As the gravel-voiced narrator says, “Teenage Mother: Nine months of trouble.”
