Sex, Violence, Adventure: No, It’s Not Politics : Entertainment: Former office-seeker Mike Curb courts a new constituency with racy films that are global market hits.

An erotic thriller featuring hot young dancers with the hardest of bodies--with wild club dancetracks driving erotically charged dance sequences . . . .

From a promotional brochure for the film “Last Dance.”

A few years ago, “Last Dance” would have been an impossible film for Mike Curb to produce or distribute.

Once California’s fresh-faced, conservative lieutenant governor, Curb was climbing his way toward--but never into--the governor’s office. In virtually every campaign Curb’s opponents attacked his past affiliations with risque films or songs.

No more.

For Curb, political rejection in the ‘80s has meant artistic liberation in the ‘90s. His music company records some of the bigger stars in the business. And his film revenues are exceeding his expectations.

The formula? Curb’s four newest movie releases feature sex, adventure and violence-steeped fantasy.

“We don’t have to be prudes. We’re not running for anything,” said Curb, whose last campaign for office was a losing run for lieutenant governor in 1986. “What I’m doing right now is what I should have been doing all along.”

Much of what Curb is doing with movies is on display at this year’s American Film Market in Santa Monica--perhaps the world’s largest swap meet of independently produced films. The 10-day market continues through Friday at the Loews Santa Monica Beach hotel.

The setting is spectacular, overlooking Santa Monica Bay. Inside, the atmosphere at AFM is frenetic. Rooms of the eight-floor hotel have been stripped of beds and converted to miniature screening rooms and sales offices. It is a crammed mart of relatively low-cost films destined for theaters and videocassettes from Hong Kong to Harare.

The numbers: 208 companies are selling. Some 1,171 people, representing 47 foreign countries, have registered as buyers, according to the American Film Marketing Assn., the event’s sponsor. Reflecting their overall stature in the international economy, Japan and Germany have the largest number of buyers on hand--168 and 116, respectively.

Many participants view the market as the dominant event of its kind, more important even than the annual Cannes festival in France.

“At Cannes, there’s too much distraction,” said Frans Afman, managing director of financial services for the International Creative Management talent agency. “There’s too many parties going on. The real business is going on at AFM. It’s strictly business.”

Mort Segal, a spokesman for the market, said that last year’s event generated “approximately $240 million” in sales.

“It’s the biggest of its kind,” said Tim Kittleson, executive director of the market. “We’re a pure market. No starlets and swimming pools. A very efficient way to do business.”

Kittleson said the number of companies represented as buyers is up 12% over 1991, when the market was chilled by the Persian Gulf War. “I had originally thought that there would be a downturn, due to the world economy,” Kittleson said. “I had actually budgeted for a 10% downturn.”

There are a smattering of A-grade films for sale at the market. The critically acclaimed “Fried Green Tomatoes,” a surprise American box-office success, is the most recognizable name. Its foreign distribution rights--for theaters, home video and pay-per-view television--are being sold by a British firm, Rank Film Distributors.

“I think they will do huge business with this picture,” Afman said.

Other films for sale with name participants include “Christmas in Connecticut,” the directorial debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger; “Howard’s End,” starring Anthony Hopkins, a best actor Academy Award nominee this year for his role in “Silence of the Lambs,” and “Man Trouble,” starring Jack Nicholson, which was produced in Los Angeles by an Italian firm, Penta International.

And while the film buyers are looking for high-quality new releases that could become the next “Fried Green Tomatoes,” many are seeking product that easily will transcend the awkwardness of subtitles or foreign-language dubbing.

The recipe is not a new one: Sex, violence and escapist adventure.

“Although everybody says we’re getting away from action/adventure, when push comes to shove, the action picture is going to sell,” said David A. Jackson, president of Curb’s production company, Curb/Esquire Films.

If the hive-like activity around its two sales suites on opening day last week was a barometer, it could be a successful market for Curb/Esquire. Most of his films, Curb said, cost $2 million or less to make.

“They’ve got what appears to be an art movie, ‘Ramona.’ I just saw the primer (a clip of highlights). I liked it,” said Jimmy Pereira, a buyer from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

Pereira said he is a regular customer at AFM, where he purchases films for distribution throughout southern Africa. “I normally walk away with 40 to 50 films for the South African market,” he said. “I have no budget. It depends what I find.”

Curb, who runs his music and movie businesses from Burbank, said Friday that early sales at the film market exceeded his most optimistic hopes.

“We’re probably the hottest company in the market,” Curb said, explaining that he was relying on reports from his staff. “It’s unbelievable. Our sales are almost quadruple our projections.”

As for the sexual explicitness of the movies that he is producing or distributing, Curb said that none would merit an X rating.

“We want to be into R, but not into hard R or X,” said Curb, who sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1982. “I think the titles to the films are much more aggressive than the films themselves. . . . If we have a problem, it is that our customers want more exotic stuff.”

In addition to “Last Dance,” other films being sold by Curb/Esquire include “Life After Sex,” the story of a “wild and passionate female” and her lover, and “Wishman,” described as a “romantic fable of magic, mystery and mayhem.”

For Curb, criticism of aspects of his entertainment career dates to 1978, his first race for lieutenant governor. It continued into the ’86 campaign, when Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy accused him of having helped write “absolutely disgusting” lyrics in the 1960s.

Curb, who also served a stint as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, has always pointed to his production of more wholesome records--including the hit “You Light Up My Life” for Debbie Boone. He also produced the records of the Osmonds and now has a stable that includes country singer Wynonna Judd.

No longer shackled by the role of conservative officeholder, Curb said that he nonetheless tries to produce films that he would not object to having his 12- and 13-year-old daughters view.

“By the same token,” said Curb, “we don’t go through a film with a microscope, removing every (sexually explicit) scene that relates to the script. If we did that, we’d have to go into the shoe business.”