This Jewish Woman Was the Queen of Sex Exploitation Films

Film directing has a boys’ club problem. Women have been fighting for their place behind the camera since the beginning of the medium, and thankfully some have been able to add the title of “director” to their resumes, despite the sexism in the industry.

In the silent era you had Mabel Normand making comedies alongside Charlie Chaplin, and then later you had a few actresses who became directors who made their mark on cinema, like Barbra Streisand. But there is one woman who has directed more films than each woman in film history. You’re probably guessing by now: who is this woman? Maybe it’s Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director? Or maybe it’s someone from overseas, like Céline Sciamma? What if I told you that this woman is someone you’ve probably never heard of? What if I told you that the woman who holds the record for directing the most feature films was a Jewish widow who started directing sex and nudity films in her mid- to late-40s?

If you think I’m kidding you, I promise I’m not. Doris Wishman is the woman who holds the record for directing more feature films than any other woman in the history of motion pictures.

The life of Doris Wishman, like many women of the 20th century, can be told in two acts. The first act of Doris’ life can be described as “the Jewish girl next door.” Born on June 1, 1912, in the Bronx borough of New York City, Doris dreamed of becoming an actress, even taking lessons alongside future screen legend Shelley Winters. While trying to make it as an actress, Doris married her husband Jack Abrams. Jack and Doris’ marriage would end abruptly in 1958 when Jack died of a heart attack. Not knowing what to do with herself, Doris decided she would pick up a camera and a pen—and from there began the second act of her life, as Queen of the Nudies.

Doris released her first film, “Hideout in the Sun,” in 1958. Her career, which continued into her 90s, went through many underground incarnations. She began making nudist films in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then moved into the sexploitation and softcore pornography genres of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Doris has never said (as far as I can find) why she decided to make what were then called “nudie cuties.” If I had to guess, I’d say part of the reason is that she already had connections in the underground film world. In the 1940s and early 1950s, she worked as a film booker for her cousin, Max Rosenberg, who was an independent film distributor specializing in arthouse and exploitation films. The other reason I think Doris got involved in this underground film world is because she saw a lack of exploitation films made with a female touch. The exploitation market in general was dominated by men who were making these films for the male gaze. I imagine Doris saw this problem and thought that with her point of view—the female point of view—she could bring a perspective to the genre that was lacking. For example, when the main character in her 1965 film “Bad Girls Go to Hell” was sexually assaulted, her abuse was not seen as “entertainment” but as a serious crime with serious consequences. When you watch a Doris Wishman film, you see a woman’s naked body, but it never feels like you’re supposed to look at her with lust, but rather with admiration. Doris wanted the viewer to see the power of a woman’s body, even with her clothes on.

Doris Wishman’s most infamous films are her semi-action films “Double Agent 73” and “Deadly Weapons”..” Both films star Chesty Morgan, a Polish Holocaust survivor turned burlesque and exploitation star known for her 73-inch breasts. Doris could have put Chesty on display simply to be desired, but instead she makes Chesty’s breasts a superpower. In “Double Agent 73,” her breasts are implanted with a camera so she can go undercover and photograph underground mafia crimes, and in “Deadly Weapons,” Chesty’s breasts are used to suffocate evil men as revenge for the murder of her boyfriend. Both storylines are, yes, camp, but they demonstrate how the genre can be used to empower the cisgender female body, rather than to fully exploit the bodies of its female stars.

In a later-in-life interview about Conan O’Brien, Wishman sits next to legendary film critic Roger Ebert as he notes how Wishman’s films have an almost prudish quality. He’s not the only man to describe Doris as “prudish” — in my research, I found several men who said the same thing. Personally, I don’t see Doris as prudish. I see Doris as a woman who saw a space that needed to be filled and made films that were softcore films for the female gaze. She was ahead of her time; these films go against the anti-porn stance of second-wave feminism. She showed women and femme people how to take ownership of their sexuality and bodies, which is more in line with the intersectional feminist movement and modern 21st century feminist values.

Doris Wishman’s feminism resonates so well with my own Jewish identity. Being Jewish made exploring my sexuality a natural fit, because of a core belief in Judaism that is to never stop questioning. This belief instilled a sense of endless wonder and a desire to understand myself as a whole person, especially sexually. Doris never spoke about her Jewish identity and the connection of her Jewishness in her work, but as I learn more and more about her, I can’t help but think that she had a similar vision, since she made such a leap in her life when she entered the exploitation genre. This need to explore and grow is not only very feminist, but also very Jewish. It makes me feel close to Doris in our shared curiosity and Judaism.

Doris once said she would “make movies in hell.” I don’t know if hell exists, but if it does, I will watch whatever Doris makes there.