George Weiss

Real-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton star as a vaudeville singing act whose act is failing until their manager stages a publicity romance between Dorothy and a sharpshooter in the show. The sham engagement turns real, the marriage ends in murder, and the film frames its story as a courtroom problem no jury was built to answer: how do you punish one sister when the other is innocent and cannot be separated from her? The Hiltons, famous from the sideshow circuit since childhood and later seen in Freaks, sing several numbers and get the rarest thing exploitation cinema offered them, a story told from their own point of view. Directed by Harry L. Fraser for producer George Weiss's Classic Pictures, it is in the public domain.

Drama

Umberto Scalli (Timothy Farrell) runs an illegal drug ring out of a women's health spa, peddling "bennies" and sleeping pills to teenagers and socialites alike while keeping one step ahead of the judge determined to shut him down. A classic post-war exploitation picture, The Devil's Sleep was directed by W. Merle Connell and produced by George Weiss, who later financed Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda. It is the first of Farrell's three turns as the shady Scalli, and features Lita Grey, Charlie Chaplin's former wife, as the crusading judge. The film was never registered for copyright and is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama