CLASSROOM FILMS BECOMING CULT HITS

CLASSROOM FILMS BECOMING CULT HITS

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- Remember those corny 16 millimeter instructional films that taught school kids everything from table manners to how to "Duck and Cover" during a nuclear bomb attack? Well, those so-called "mental hygiene" films are finding a second life as cult hits on the film show circuit. Classroom film buff Ken Smith -- who'll host an upcoming exhibition of the films in Los Angeles -- thinks the movies have become hits because of their unintentional silliness. One of his favorites -- titled "Seduction of the Innocent" -- is an anti-drug film where the protagonist ends up hooked on heroin and writhing in a jail cell just days after trying marijuana. Another film, "Last Date," is a driver's ed film that suggests that car crashes can make you so ugly no one will ever ask you for a date. Smith will be showing 22 mental hygiene films at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles this weekend (Oct. 28-29.)