Fanny Hill

EDIT: This post has been updated. Thanks to Chris Poggiali for helping to fill in some blanks.

Moviezzz asked about the previous post:

Although just which version of FANNY HILL was that in the ad?

In 1964, Russ Meyer made a film based on the book, that was also called FANNY HILL: MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE. In checking, in 1968 there was a Swedish version.

That's a good question, as it's possible the Meyer film would still have been playing drive-ins in 1970.

Actually, it now appears that the Russ Meyer film, which was also distributed by International Film Organization, played with Roger Corman's HOW TO MAKE IT. However, the FANNY HILL that played at the Varsity one month later, replacing TOPAZ, is definitely, judging from the following ad, the 1968 FANNY HILL directed by Swede Mac Ahlberg.

The following ad is from the February 17, 1970 issue of the Southern Illinoisan.

So now we know. Thanks, Moviezzz.

The Swedish FANNY HILL was distributed by Cinemation, and the damn thing played forever in Southern Illinois. It came back to the Campus in May with I, A LOVER. At the nearby Anna Drive-In, the X-rated FANNY HILL played in June with the PG-rated THE LEARNING TREE!

I'm skipping ahead a bit, but FANNY HILL played its third run at the Campus in December 1970 with the Swedish INGA for two months. Its fourth Campus showing was in June 1971 with the X-rated GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES FOR ADULTS. You'd think everyone in Southern Illinois had seen FANNY HILL by then. The INGA/FANNY HILL tandem returned to the Campus Drive-In in June 1972, where it replaced Curtis Hanson's SWEET KILL (aka THE AROUSERS) and THE GIRL CAN'T STOP, a b&w Greek film (and was itself replaced by an Al Adamson double feature of DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN and HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS!).

For a few weeks in the summer of 1973, a third FANNY HILL movie, this one called THE YOUNG, EROTIC FANNY HILL, directed by Joe Sarno, played at the Roxy in the nearby small town of Coulterville, Illinois.

FANNY HILL--the 1968 film--and INGA eventually played the Marion Drive-In in June 1974. In August 1975, a "sequel," AROUND THE WORLD WITH FANNY HILL, which was also directed by Mac Ahlberg, played with THE CHEERLEADERS at the Marion Drive-In. I know I'm the only one still interested in this post, but in July 1976, both FANNY HILL and AROUND THE WORLD..., both being Ahlberg films, played together at the Marion. July 20, 1976 is the last date I can find for FANNY HILL playing in Southern Illinois--6 1/2 years after it opened on the bottom of a ticket with TARGET: HARRY. I wish I had owned the rights to it then.

By the way, the Russ Meyer version of FANNY HILL played in Southern Illinois as early as 1965, meaning the story played almost continuously down there for eleven years in four different films.