Movie Ad of the Week: TO BE A ROSE (1981)

Filmed in the fall of 1973, William A. Levey's TO BE A ROSE - starring sexploitation starlet Sandra Dempsey - got picked up for distribution by Cinemation Industries in 1974, retitled THE PROSTITUTE, and submitted to the MPAA (which gave it an R rating). It was scheduled for a February '75 release that got pushed to June and then vanished from the schedule shortly before Cinemation filed for Chapter 11 in September. Company president Jerry Gross defaulted on loan payments of nearly $1.5 million the following March and two banks foreclosed, selling off Cinemation's library of 54 films at public auction (Sam Sherman's comments about that can be read here). Cannon acquired worldwide rights to the film at the 1981 Mifed Film Market and promoted it with this full-page ad in the October 14, 1981 issue of Variety. We don't know if the 1982 release from Cannon happened, but when Trans World Entertainment issued TO BE A ROSE on videocassette in 1988 the print that was used began with the Cinemation Industries logo and ended with the MPAA R rating tag.