What do fitness guru Jack LaLanne and Warhol protégé Joe D'Allesandro have in common besides last names with two capital letters? They were both early subjects of the physique photography produced by Robert Mizer's Athletic Model Guild. Run out of Mizer's home from the late 1940s on, the AMG published thousands of photographs of flawless male bodies. Ostensibly, these were model catalogues for artists or celebrations of health and fitness, but we all know what they were really used for. Mizer's LA pad was packed with "gassy young studs" sporting Wild West and ancient Roman props and little else. This being the '50s, the gig was soon up; after one of his models was caught soliciting sex, Mizer was tried for prostitution. Although he continued his devotion to the male form until his death, in the mid '90s, hardcore porn made his work obsolete.

Mixing fictionalization, re-enactments, interviews with former models (including D'Allesandro and LaLanne), and AMG stock footage, writer/director Thom Fitzgerald's film captures a sunny blend of naïveté and sexuality, freedom and repression, that's hard to imagine today. For Mizer, sex was secondary to his obsession with beauty. Beefcake, a fun and informative exploration of a bygone era, seems a similar labor of love.