Jeanne Abel Movies
- 2005
Jenny Abel grew up with an eccentric father, to put it mildly. A film producer and occasional journalist for the likes of National Lampoon magazine, Alan Abel spent his life pulling off a seemingly endless series of elaborate media pranks, whereby he would repeatedly drum up insane causes - from banning human breast-feeding to slapping diapers on animals - and appear on news broadcasts under phony aliases plugging the oddball perspectives. At other times, Abel played practical jokes on the public by convincing them, en masse, of some fallacious truth. But the phenomenon was scarcely local in nature: Abel's hoaxes appeared on programs as institutional as Good Morning America and in publications as omnipresent as The New York Times (as when he planted an obituary in the paper, on January 2, 1980, erroneously indicating his own death from a heart attack). Abel also enlisted the top-drawer of talent as his accomplices - he recruited no less than Buck Henry to plug the "diapers on animals" campaign. All of this activity led various media pundits to brand Abel as one of the world's most brilliant satirists, and instilled in Jenny a lifelong fascination with her father's motivations and modus operandi. With the documentary Abel Raises Cain, Jenny Abel takes a long, loving look at her father's life and most unusual career. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Abel, Jeanne Abel, (more)
- 1976
It was open season on disgraced former President Richard Nixon back in 1976. One of the most vicious broadsides levelled against Tricky Dick was the faux documentary The Faking of the President. Famed Nixon imitator Richard M. Dixon appears in newly-filmed scenes, which are then strategically placed in context with existing news footage. In this pastiche, the audience is treated to a full confession from a tearful Nixon, not to mention such vignettes as the ex-president stealing flowers from the grave of Fala -- Franklin D. Roosevelt's scotch terrier -- and placing them on the tombstone of Checkers! Also making cameo appearances are actors pretending to be Ron Ziegler (dressed as a Nazi) and Donald Segretti. Filmmakers Jeanne and Alan Abel reportedly assembled this "mockumentary" for less than $100,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marshall Erwin Efron, Robert Staats, (more)
Alan Abel, best known as a purveyor of hoaxes, codirected this porno movie spoof with his wife Jeanne. Alan also stars as an itinerant sex specialist who travels around asking just-folks opinions about the possibility of post-mortem cohabitation. Among the guest stars are satirist Buck Henry and Marshall Efron (The Great American Dream Machine) as a dirty-movie director. Others in the cast are famed transvestite Holly Woodlawn and onetime Mad Magazine writer Earle Doud. Is There Sex After Death? originally earned an "X" rating, but has been pared down to a hard "R" for videotape release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
