History of Sex in Cinema: 1964 |
Goldfinger (1964, UK) In the third James Bond 007 film Goldfinger (1964), James Bond (Sean Connery) delivered a number of sexy double entendres, one of his many traits. He first met pretty Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), the blonde assistant/escort of the film's main villain Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), when he entered the cheater's hotel room. He found Jill reclining on the balcony using high-powered binoculars to report on the cards of Auric's opponent through an earpiece. He cautioned her: "You're much too nice to be mixed up in anything like this." Bond threatened cheater Auric to lose $15K or he would call the local Miami police on him, and Goldfinger in rage broke his pencil in two. The free-spirited Jill then encouraged Bond: "I'm beginning to like you, Mr. Bond...More than anyone I've met in a long time, James." He invited her to "the best place in town" for dinner - and then Bond romanced-seduced Jill on the balcony. He later bedded down with her in his own hotel suite with room-service catering, including Dom Perignon '53 champagne. The couple were interrupted when he received a call from CIA agent Felix Leiter (Cec Linder) for dinner, and Bond declined: "I'm sorry, I can't. Something big's come up," agreeing to a 9 am breakfast instead. As Bond laid on top of Jill and commented: "It's lost its chill," he was referring to a champagne bottle on ice near the bed.
When he went to the refrigerator to get another freshly-cooled bottle of "passion juice," he was knocked out from behind by Auric's henchman Oddjob (Harold Sakata). When he revived, he staggered into the bedroom, finding Jill as an unfortunate victim of skin suffocation by gold paint as retaliation for her betrayal. She was sprawled dead and naked on the bed - an unfortunate victim of Goldfinger's revenge. He reported the murder to Leiter: "She's covered in paint. Gold paint." The film also featured Honor Blackman as sexily-named Bond Girl "Pussy Galore." See this site's section on Greatest James Bond Girls. |
Bond's First Comment to Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton): "You're much too nice..." She Was Using Binoculars to Help Auric Cheat at Cards Romance on the Balcony Jill Masterson's Ultimate Demise |
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(The film's title was verbally spoken, after this initial screen) |
Kiss Me Quick! (1964) Peter Perry's science-fiction, "monster nudie-cutie" film, from sleaze producer Harry Novak (his first produced film), was a zany, horror comedy - with exceptional cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs, who went on to shoot Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), Paper Moon (1973), Shampoo (1975), and Ghostbusters (1984), among others. The sexist film had an incredulous plot about effeminate and asexual Sterilox (Frank Coe), an ambassador from the Buttless Galaxy and the all-male planet of Droopeter. He was teleported to Earth, to the castle of demented Dr. Breedlove (Max Gardens) (a character similar to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964) with dark glasses, a neck brace, and a black-garbed left arm, and Universal Studios' Frankenstein films). Sterilox's objective was to find the perfect female specimen to breed a race of servants. Dr. Breedlove attempted to perfect a potion of Sex Fizz, offered to his three Sex Bombs in order to get them gyrating and undulating their hips and breasts ("Dance, dance, you little Sex Bombs!"). The three Sex Bombs, buxom burlesque dancing strippers to the tune of 60s surfing music, were:
He also watched a lengthy strip-tease performed by Breedlove's activated robotic Gertie Tassle (Althea Currier). Unimpressed by them, Sterilox asked to see more women, and Dr. Breedlove complied by switching on his Closed Circuit Television Peeper Vision Device. When Sterilox looked through a portal to check out prospective experiments in "Catacombe 69," he saw many more females, dressing, undressing, etc. and working out in an exercise room. Meanwhile, the Three Sex Bombs went swimming in a kiddie pool, while covering their privates with pool toys. Eventually, Breedlove's 'girl Friday' KissMe (Jackie De Witt) (who at the beginning of the film was in a supine position when she used Breedlove's sex machine without his permission) - after she took off her top - accompanied Sterilox on his journey home.
A new shipment of females arrived on Breedlove's conveyor belt, to be labeled with rating stickers ("Choice," "Prime," "Kosher" (for the woman with panties) or "Reject" - like meat. |
Sterilox (Frank Coe) Dr. Breedlove (Max Gardens) In the Exercise Room with a Vibrating Belt The Three Sex Bombs In a Kiddie Swimming Pool The Conveyor Belt |
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Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) Now rated PG-13, this crude, satirically-biting and sordid film about debauchery (marital and extra-marital sex) and the obsession with fame from director Billy Wilder received a condemned rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency for its allegedly smutty and vulgar tale. It was the first major Hollywood film to be "condemned" by the League of Decency following Baby Doll (1956). To avoid controversy, UA shifted the film's publicity and distribution to their art-house subsidiary, Lopert Films. The foundation for the suggestive and farcical film was Anna Bonacci’s 1944 Italian bedroom farce L’Ora della Fantasia, which had been adapted into a play titled The Dazzling Hour. It was also based on the subsequent Italian film Wife For a Night (1952, It.), starring Gina Lollobrigida. This caustic sex romp told about an opportunist, amateur songwriter and neurotic piano teacher Orville J. Spooner (Ray Walston) (wearing a sweatshirt with Beethoven's face) who was insecurely married to beautiful wife Zelda (Jack Lemmon's real-life wife Felicia Farr), living in the town of Climax, NV - and they were about to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary. After his closing night performance at The Sands, drunken Las Vegas entertainer and suave playboy Dino Latino (a depraved, lecherous, self-parodying Dean Martin) left town and was driving to Hollywood. When the unsuspecting Dino stopped at the gas station of deceitful gas station owner Barney Millsap (Cliff Osmond), Orville's friend, the two aspiring and cluelessly-manipulative songsters plotted to sabotage Italian sports car convertible, in order to strand him for the night. In his company, aspiring amateur lyricist Barney was hoping to help his partner Orville sell his songs to the crooner Dino during his forced overnight visit. Barney hatched a plan - Orville would invite Dino to spend the night in his home (to coax him into becoming interested in their songs). But then, Orville became concerned that his marriage would be put in jeopardy. He feared that Dino's insatiable, horny amorous attentions would be focused on Zelda. (Zelda had a long-standing juvenile crush on Dino when she was 16, evidenced by her presidency of the Dino fan club in high school.) And one-track-minded Dino claimed he suffered debilitating migraines if he didn't get laid every night!
In order to ensure his wife would avoid the libidinous Dino - Orville provoked Zelda to pack up and leave the house in tears. Then, through Barney, he hired naughty Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak in a role similar to her imposter part in Vertigo (1958)), a buxom roadhouse cocktail waitress (and floozy prostitute) to pose as Orville's wife for $25 dollars for the night - to sweeten the deal for Dino. She worked in the Belly Button on the edge of town, and lived in the trailer out back. Everything worked as planned until Orville also became raucous and "got carried away" with Polly, at the same moment that Zelda returned home and watched the shenanigans through the window. She stormed off and ended up at the Belly Button where she began drinking multiple Bloody Marys. Concerned about her drunken state, she was led to Polly's empty trailer to sleep it off. Meanwhile, Polly had become amorous with Orville listening to his playing and singing of songs on the piano. But Orville also realized that he had a deal for Polly to be with Dino, so he reluctantly left with an excuse to go bowling. However, a few moments later, he was overcome with jealousy, returned after standing outside and seeing the lights go out, and confronted Dino - who was having sex with Polly on the floor (Orville: "So you're helping my wife with the dishes, ha! Who's washing and who's drying?"). He threw Dino out of his house for flirting with and molesting his 'wife' - actually Polly. Then it became a case of swapped identities and sexual partners between a housewife and a prostitute:
Dino explained to Zelda what had happened to him at her husband's place: "My car broke down. They put me up with some piano teacher...What an evening!...Ah, these amateurs, what they won't do to sell a song. He kept throwing his wife at me...Yeah. Get the scene?...Not a bad-lookin' dame, if you like home cookin', but me, I like to eat out, you know, Chinese one night, a little French cuisine another, and a little delicatessen in between." And then he propositioned her, assuming that she was Polly: "Well, it's my night on, Polly, baby, and if you're worried about money, I tip large." She succumbed to his kisses and her own adulterous desires.
In the re-released, restored version of the film (the original European version), Dino and Zelda presumably had sex after a kiss and the lights went out, and the next morning, she awoke naked under the sheets after he left. She saw that he had given her a generous $500 tip (5 $100 dollar bills). When Polly was driven back to her trailer by Orville, Zelda identified herself as the real wife of Orville: "You took my place last night, so I took yours." To be let off the hook for mutually-redemptive adultery, Polly admitted: "Whatever your husband did, he did it for you." Zelda admitted back to Polly: "Whatever I did, I did it for him." They both admitted it was "fun" to swap identities for one night. Zelda gave the money to Polly since she was entitled to it. Polly encouraged Zelda to return to Orville whom she claimed was a good man: "So when you find a good guy, you should stick to him. I deal with married men all the time, the heels. Believe me, you got a wonderful husband." The film concluded with Orville (threatened with fake divorce by Zelda as a trick) as he discovered that Dino had bought his song - and was singing "Sophia" during a nationwide program on a bank of TV screens in downtown Climax. Orville was shocked: "Why would he sing our song after what I did to him?" After the song finished, Dino explained how he had acquired the tune from two songwriters on his way through Climax, NV: "Which just goes to prove that if you've got what it takes, sooner or later, somebody will take what you've got, baby." As a result of her windfall of $500, Polly bought a car and was towing her trailer out of town for a new future. The almost-hysterical Orville admitted to Zelda that he was completely confused and flabbergasted by everything: "I can't figure out any of this" - (not knowing that Zelda had spent the night with Dino as a way to save her marriage - and her husband's fortunes). He mused: "I mean, the ring and the song and the car and Dino. How would you? When did she? Why would he?" - Zelda explained to her clueless husband in the film's last line of dialogue:
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Orville (Ray Walston) With His Pretty Wife Zelda (Felicia Farr) on Their 5th Anniversary Orville Inviting Dino (Dean Martin) to Spend the Night in His House Orville Pretending that Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak) Was His Wife, After Provoking Zelda to Leave Dino Flirting With Polly in Orville's House Orville Also Flirting With Polly in His House Zelda Drinking Heavily at the Belly Button Zelda: Waking Up The Morning After Dino's $500 dollar Tip to Zelda Final Scene: Orville Begging to Have Zelda Back Dino Singing Orville's Song on TV Polly Leaving Town Zelda: "Kiss me, stupid" |
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Lorna (1964) After an era of 'nudie-cutie' films from 1959 to 1963, sexploitation film-maker Russ Meyer turned to this low-budget 'roughie' rape-revenge film - a noirish melodrama starring 42C big-bosomed voluptuous star Lorna Maitland. Some states prosecuted the backwoods infidelity and rape film for obscenity. The rural sex film, a morality tale, was advertised with the tagline:
The film opened (a pre-title credits sequence) with a black-clad, over-coat-wearing, bearded Narrator (James Griffith), standing in the middle of a stark, two lane deserted road, and prophesying about retribution for sin:
From the POV of a car's driver, the Narrator let the vehicle pass, proceeding ahead into a small, nearly vacant Californian town (Walnut Grove, CA). Two local men, grouchy Luther (Hal Hopper) and Jonah (Doc Scortt) appeared from the front entrance to a bar named Al's Place, speaking derisively about women. As they strolled down the street, they accidentally bumped into a drunken female named Ruthie (Althea Currier). As she swiveled her hips while she walked to her home, the two followed her and she was brutally beaten up during an attempted rape inside her house by Luther, as his balding fat buddy Jonah watched from a window. As Luther left, she called him "you dirty bastard." On the porch, Luther told his buddy: "You know the broad I really want." The title credits then appeared to answer his question - LORNA, his co-worker's young bride. Also in town was the voluptuous Lorna (Lorna Maitland) - a lonely and unsatisfied newly-wed female (the ads said she was "too much for one man") - on the one year anniversary of her marriage. In their rustic riverside shack, her good-hearted husband Jim (James Rucker) was up late at night studying to become a CPA, while Lorna slept nearby. When he entered the bedroom and climbed in bed next to Lorna, the couple made love, although he didn't satisfy her sexually - climaxing quickly. Almost immediately, he fell asleep, while she was left wanting more: ("Wham, Bam, thank you M'am"). She walked to the open window where she stood naked to cool off. On the porch, she heard her own thoughts: "Why can't he make love to me the way he should? If he could only make me feel the way he feels...I'm a woman, not just a tool!" She fantasized during an hallucination that she was in an exciting locale with neon and lights - a Hollywood nightclub - dancing naked and pleasing other men. The next day while Jim prepared to leave for his job at a salt mine during the day (with two co-workers from the film's introduction), Lorna remained in bed and neglected to prepare her husband’s breakfast or lunch. Afterwards, she left her run-down shack and strolled through a field (in skimpy, skin-tight shorts) to a swampy lake. As she stood by the water's edge, she removed her blouse and shorts and went for a nude swim. Afterwards, she climbed out, wiped herself dry, dressed, and then laid down in the grass to rest.
An escaped convict (Mark Bradley) from a nearby correctional facility came up to Lorna with a lascivious look on his face. She backed up to a tree before standing up, as he confronted her. He grabbed her and forced her to kiss him, while she resisted his advances. She attempted to run, but he ripped her blouse, causing her to stumble. He fell on top of her, ripped more of her clothing, and continued to try and kiss her. The music transitioned to a more jazzy tempo, signaling that she was succumbing to him - and enjoying the rape! Finally , she was sexually satisfied. Afterwards, the unfaithful wife took the convict back to her shack, where he cleaned up (and took some of their money from a jar), while she shopped in town for groceries to prepare a meal for him. Later, when he rested on her bed, she cuddled naked next to him, stroked his bare chest, and passionately kissed him - and soon they were making love again. When her husband returned home, she was still naked in bed with the convict. She hurriedly dressed and met her husband (and his two co-worker buddies) at the rickety boat dock, when he walked up to the house and was attacked by the convict wielding an axe. After furious hand-to-hand fist-fighting, the convict was about to kill Lorna's knocked-out husband with a bailing hook. As Lorna fought off the convict, Luther threw a knife into the convict's back to stop him, and he and Lorna both fell to the ground. The baling hook plunged into Lorna's chest - she was punished for her unfaithfulness, although Jim begged her to forgive him ("Please forgive me, I love you"), but she was already dead.
The Narrator appeared outside the shack to deliver the film's final moralistic warning:
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The Narrator ("Do you know where this road leads?") Two Locals Bumping Into Ruthie (Althea Currier) Ruthie's Attempted Rape and Beating by Luther After Quickie Sex with His Unsatisfied Wife Lorna, Jim Fell Asleep Lorna Sexually Unsatisfied Hallucinatory Fantasy: Lorna Happily Dancing as a Stripper in a Nightclub Remaining in Bed the Next Morning After Being Raped, Lorna in Bed With Convict in Her Shack Lorna Greeting Her Husband Jim Returning Home From Work at Dock Lorna - A "Pillar of Salt" |
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Marnie (1964) Alfred Hitchcock's tale of sexual perversity and obsession was billed as a 'sex mystery' with the questioning tagline:
It featured the prudish title character Marnie/Mary Edgar (icy blonde Tippi Hedren) who was sexually frigid. Her deep-seated problems were due to trauma when witnessing as a young 5 year-old (Melody Thomas Scott) her 20 year-old prostitute mother Bernice Edgar (Louise Latham) being attacked by sex partner and pedophile sailor (Bruce Dern)). Marnie was also a compulsive kleptomaniacal thief (who acquired power over men by stealing from them). The film featured handsome James Bond co-star Sean Connery as her blackmailing playboy boss and newly-wed husband Mark Rutland in a much-debated scene (was it passive rape or a case of frigidity?). During their honeymoon cruise to Fiji, he asserted: "I very much want to go to bed" - a euphemism for sleeping with her.
He hungrily advanced toward her, kissed her, ripped off her nightgown (the silky garment fell to her feet), embraced her, laid on top of her on the bed and took her (his face filling the entire screen). She stared upward in a frozen, paralyzed catatonic state - completely lacking any passion or emotion, but then the scene cut away to a porthole. In the scene of the revelation that Marnie had killed the sailor (although her mother stood trial in her place), Marnie's mother also admitted that at age 15, she had allowed a boy named Billy to have sex with her in exchange for his basketball sweater. |
Mark (Sean Connery) with Newlywed Wife Marnie (Tippi Hedren) The Approach Pre-Rape |
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The Beach Party
Film Series (1963-1966):
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Beach Party (1963) This musical comedy was produced by American International Pictures (AIP) - a low-budget, exploitative, and successful film company founded in 1956. It was the first "beach" film (mostly showing in drive-in theatres), starring:
Other stars were Robert Cummings as Anthropology Professor Sutwell and Dorothy Malone as his love interest, secretary Marianne. He was studying the sex habits of teenagers. AIP realized the lucrative buying power of this new demographic group and advertised the fluffy film alluringly: "It's what happens when 10,000 kids meet on 5,000 beach blankets." However, wholesome star Annette Funicello - still under contract to Disney, was legally forced to not appear in a skimpy bikini, and to express repressive sexual attitudes, although she wore both a one-piece black suit and a non-revealing two-piece pink suit! |
Frankie (Frankie Avalon) Dolores and Frankie Prof. Sutwell (Robert Cummings) and Marianne (Dorothy Malone) |
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Muscle Beach Party (1964) Now referred to as "Dee Dee" in this second AIP film or sequel to the original Beach Party (1963) film, Annette Funicello again starred opposite Frankie (Frankie Avalon) as two members of a beach party group surfing during Easter vacation at Malibu Beach. The main plot was about the encroaching threat to their secret surfing spot by a group of muscle-bound body builders, led by their trainer-coach Jack Fanny (comedian Don Rickles). Rich and sexy European Contessa Julie (Luciana Paluzzi) appeared on the beach lusting after Flex Martian, aka Mr. Galaxy (Peter Lupus, aka Rock Stevens) - telling him: "I want to be alone with you." She was easily persuaded to fund a new string of gymnasiums throughout the USA promoting Mr Galaxy's body and Fanny's training methods. However, she turned her attentions to Frankie after hearing him sing - thereby causing a brief rift between Frankie and his girlfriend Dee Dee. The Contessa enticed Frankie: "Oh, Frankie, I can show you so much. I can open the world for you. You'll see Tangiers in October and we'll cruise the Greek islands in the summer and Paris when the streets are wet with rain." However, by the film's conclusion, he gave up the manipulative and over-controlling Contessa, to stay with Dee Dee and his friends at the beach. He told off the Contessa: "You move fast....When there are moves to be made, I want to make them." |
Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) with Frankie (Frankie Avalon) |
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Bikini Beach (1964) In this third AIP 'beach party' film, millionaire Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Keenan Wynn) attempted to prove to his schoolteacher colleague Vivian Clements (Martha Hyer) that his chimp Clyde (Janos Prohaska) was more intelligent than 'feeble-minded' American teenagers ("the intelligence of you young people has fallen to his level"), who he claimed had an "abnormal preoccupation with sex - the only display of intelligence being of a carnal nature." His ultimate goal was to purchase 'Bikini Beach' and build a retirement home at the teens' favorite surfing spot. In a spoof aimed at Beatlemania and the British Invasion, Frankie Avalon played a dual role as British rock star The Potato Bug, a drag racing enthusiast, who wore a mop-haired wig and granny glasses.
The film's musical highlights included:
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Frankie with Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) Duet: "Because You're You" Solo: "This Time It's Love" |
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Pajama Party (1964) This follow-up film, actually a sci-fi musical comedy, included more sexual innuendo. It starred Annette Funicello (as Connie) and poor substitute Tommy Kirk (Annette's former Disney Mousketeer co-star) as Go Go, and Frankie Avalon only in a short, red-tinted cameo role as Socum. It was a low-budget teen film with lots of shimmying and shaking - about a stupid teenaged Martian named Go-Go (Tommy Kirk) who landed on Earth to study the lovemaking habits, idioms, and rituals of Earthlings. The Martians' plan was to prepare to invade Earth, but his plans were curtailed when he fell in love with Connie. When he first met her on the beach and as he applied sun tan lotion to her back, she didn't believe him when he stated: "I am from Mars." She quipped: "And I'm from Venus." He replied: "Most of the girls I met from Venus were green and had gills. Unlovely creatures."
Musical and other highlights included:
In the film's conclusion, sex became so metaphorically and orgasmically heated during the PJ party, exemplified by the ogling of Jilda's (Susan Hart) slow shimmy in a red teddy, that candles melted, shot glasses exploded, and the punch bowl bubbled over. |
Connie (Annette Funicello) Meeting Go Go (Tommy Kirk) - He Applied Suntan Lotion Go Go with Connie - Singing "There Has to Be a Reason" Connie Speaking to Go Go At Pajama Party, Connie Sang: "Stuffed Animal" Jilda (Susan Hart) Orgasmic Sexual Heat - Candles Melted |
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Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) This 5th AIP entry, a musical teen comedy-romance was the 4th film that featured the pairing of Annette Funicello (as Dee Dee) and Frankie Avalon (as Frankie). They were in a group of teen surfers hanging out at the beach, singing the opening song under the credits: "Beach Blanket Bingo" - with the familiar lyrics: "Beach blanket bingo…that’s the name of the game!" There were many familiar (and not-so) plot lines and characters in this one that included:
The film ended with Frankie and Dee Dee kissing under a moonlit sky at the beach, with Frankie asking: "Is there a moon? Is there a sky? Are there dreams?" |
Opening Credits and Song: "Beach Blanket Bingo" Sugar Kane (Linda Evans): "New Love" Sung With the Hondells Moonlight Stroll Between Frankie and Annette: "I Think You Think" After Skydiving Together Frankie with Dee Dee ("Is there a moon?") |
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The Pawnbroker (1964) Sidney Lumet's controversial yet mainstream film drama was condemned by the Legion of Decency although the MPAA gave it a seal of approval. It was the first US film to show a woman nude from the waist up with bare breasts that was granted a Production Code seal, because the nakedness was regarded as integral to the story. This ultimately broke the back of the Production Code's restrictions. It told about a Holocaust-surviving husband - a bitter old, upper Manhattan pawnbroker named Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) who had anesthetized himself emotionally. His breaking point came when a breast-baring black prostitute (Thelma Oliver), the girlfriend of his employee Jesus Ortiz (Jaime Sanchez), offered herself to him:
A fast series of clips alternated between shots of the prostitute, himself, and his brutal, intense flashbacks of Nazi guards readying themselves to sexually assault his humiliated wife Ruth (Linda Geiser) (also seen briefly topless) years before.
After witnessing the cruelty of the concentration camp, he now interpreted sex as dark and evil - he covered the young topless woman with her raincoat, and gave her a $20 dollar bill. |
Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) in Concentration Camp Sol's Sexually-Assaulted Wife Ruth Nazerman (Linda Geiser) in a Concentration Camp Sol's Breaking Point |
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La Ronde (1964, Fr.) La Ronde (1950, Fr.) |
La Ronde (1964, Fr.) (aka Circle
of Love) Director Roger Vadim adapted Arthur Schnitzler's controversial 1897 play "Reigen" that provided the basis for an adults-only remake titled La Ronde (1964, Fr.) (aka Circle of Love). It also served as the source material for Max Ophuls' 1950 film of the same name. The original film almost fifteen years earlier, La Ronde (1950, Fr.) (translated "the round-dance"), Max Ophuls' studio-bound, multi-character romantic drama of love and infidelity, was taglined:
The romantic drama received two Oscar nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay (Jacques Natanson, Max Ophuls), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Jean d'Eaubonne). Ophuls was known for long, complex and innovative camera shots (via trolleys and cranes), and in this effort, the gliding camera swooped about gracefully. A Narrator/Raconteur (Anton Walbrook) dressed in a cape and top hat intertwined ten character vignettes (with interlocking affairs) set in Vienna in the early 1900s. Each stylish segment led to the next one when a new philandering character was introduced having an affair with a character from the previous scene. The guiding storyteller was depicted as the owner of a Vienna merry-go-round in 1900 (the film's centerpiece), who introduced each of the love affair episodes, involving:
The circular plot (a chain of romances) came full-circle by the end, when the Count encountered the prostitute from the first vignette. Prominent and rampant sexual misconduct appeared to transcend all class distinctions in French society. The remake was also about 'musical beds' (and a chain of sexual partners) and starred 27 year-old US actress Jane Fonda (Vadim's romantic partner at the time and future wife - and her first husband) in her 7th film. She was one of the first (or possibly the first!) major American actresses to appear nude in a foreign film - making the film more controversial than it actually was. It was the first of four films that Vadim directed with Fonda (she appeared nude or partially nude in three of the four films):
Vadim provided a more provocative tagline for his 1964 film:
The overtly-sexual, stylish, glossy and whimsical film (without overt nudity or vulgarity however, and horribly dubbed into English) was banned in New York (by the state's censorship board) for "immorality," and ended up being appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Vadim's film, considered very risque and naughty in the mid-60s, was charged with being obscene in Italy in 1967. According to news reports at the time, many "half-clothed" scenes of the sex farce were substituted for "nudie' scenes to comply with US censorship codes and regulations. A giant 8-story billboard in New York City's Times Square of Fonda reclining in the nude was draped with a canvas when an offended Fonda sued the producers for $3 million to demand that her image was covered. |
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3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964) Writer/director Tommy Noonan also starred as Himself in this unfunny and unusual low-budget sex comedy that was taglined: "The Screwiest Comedy of the Year." The ribald screwball comedy was heavily publicized by nude photos of Mamie in a bathtub in issues of Playboy Magazine (although she refrained from being nude in the film). It was one of the earliest films to have a big-name actress appear in various states of undress. It hoped for the success of Noonan's previous film Promises! Promises! (1963) with blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield. The mostly black/white film tipped off the viewer to the potentially sexy scenes - they were in color. Mamie Van Doren played the role of Saxie Symbol, calling herself "an exotic dancer" instead of a stripper (or an ecdysiast). She met a struggling out-of-work method actor/comedian Tommy Noonan (as Himself) in an unemployment line, and brought him back to her apartment, where she lived with two roommates (they called themselves "The Three Nuts"):
To save money, the three "nuts" hired the newest roommate Tommy Noonan to listen to their problems so they all wouldn't have to pay to see a therapist. Then he would relate their problems to renowned headshrinker Dr. Myra Von (Ziva Rodann) - and report back. He acted out their psychological neuroses during a one-hour appointment, in twenty-minute segments. When his recorded therapeutic sessions were accidentally aired on television, the viewing public became fascinated by his unique 'split-personality' and its problems. |
Saxie Symbol (Mamie Van Doren) Bikini Scene |