Known mainly for being the first studio film to say the words "fucktard" and "cock gobbler," the tragic behind-the-scenes drama of "Sophocles and the Fall of Rhode Island" far exceeded the drama on-screen.

Written and directed by cutting-edge French playwright Michel Allant, "Sophocles..." dared to show a real marriage - warts, language, sex, murder and all - to a very prudish America.

Prudish America rejected it violently.

Manka Bros. studio chief Harry Manka received death threats before the premier and abruptly cancelled the screening. This so incense Michel Allant that he lit himself on fire with a cigarette (it was quickly extinguished by Army Archerd from Variety).