Scorpio Rising (film)

Scorpio Rising
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kenneth Anger
Starring	Bruce Byron
Release date	1963 (1963)
Running time	28 minutes
Country	United States

Scorpio Rising is a 1963 American experimental short film by Kenneth Anger, starring Bruce Byron (whom Anger asserts was "half-crazy") as Scorpio. Themes central to the film include the occult, biker subculture, homosexuality, Catholicism, and Nazism; the film also explores the worship of rebel icons of the era, such as James Dean and Marlon Brando (referred to by Anger as Byron's "heroes"). Like many of Anger's films, the film does not contain any dialogue; it instead features a prominent soundtrack consisting of 1960s pop, including songs by Ricky Nelson, The Angels, The Crystals, Bobby Vinton, Elvis Presley, and Ray Charles.

The film premiered in October 1963 at the Gramercy Arts Theater in New York City.

When the film was screened at an art theater in Los Angeles, it was protested by the American Nazi Party on the basis that it insulted their flag. The police were ultimately called to the site and arrested the theater manager for public obscenity and canceled the film's run. The case went to the California Supreme Court, where the case was settled in Anger's favor. Anger explained in an interview:

When Scorpio Rising was – we've forgotten, in a sense, that it was a groundbreaker, legally. Because there are only a few flashes of nudity, genitalia, whatever in the film, I mean, they're very, very short and, if you blink, you won't even see them. At any rate, when it was shown, at the Cinema – it was called the Cinema on Western Avenue in Hollywood – the premiere run, someone denounced it to the Hollywood vice squad and they raided the theater and took the print. And the case had to go to the California Supreme Court to be freed and then it became, like, a landmark case of redeeming social merit. That was the phrase that was used to justify that it wasn't pornography. And, indeed, there's nothing pornographic about it. Somebody had to break the ice and have that kind of case at that time to establish the freedom, because, before then, the police could seize anything they wanted to. What I was doing on the West Coast, Jack Smith was doing on the East Coast with Flaming Creatures. The two films happened at about the same time."