# "Frankly my dear," take off your clothes! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795 "2005-05-27T18:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/21 "2005-05-28T01:26:37Z")
The restored version of [Metropolis](http://imdb.com/title/tt0017136/) (1927) has a nude scene. I saw it when it was re-released in theaters a few years ago. It’s in the “Pleasure Garden” scene; the woman isn’t actually nude, but is wearing a gossamer top thin enough that her breasts (including nipples, which are apparently the defining criterion) are quite clearly visible for quite a while. Nice rack, too. [Nell Shipman](http://imdb.com/name/nm0794109/) famously had a nude scene in one of the movies she wrote/directed/starred in, but I can’t remember which one it was… IMDb lists the tagline for _Back to God’s Country_ as “Is the Nude Rude?” but there’s no further info. Anyone know anything more about Nell Shipman? I know I read a fairly lengthy article on this not too long ago, but I have no idea where it was. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/22 "2005-05-28T11:18:01Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Marilyn Monroe actually wore a flesh-colored [bathing suit](http://www.geocities.com/melaniumom2/SGTG21.html) while shooting the swimming pool scene in _Something’s Got to Give_. She later [removed it](http://www.geocities.com/melaniumom2/SGTG28.html) to pose for still photos at poolside. With all due respect to your Geocities source, the photos there are not offered with any proof of context, and [every](http://glamournet.com/legends/Marilyn/movies/sgtg.html) [reputable](http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/movies/gottogive.html) [source](http://www.toldyouso.net/search/details.cfm?tblDVDReview.RMovieName=Marilyn%20Monroe%3A%20The%20Final%20Days) I’ve ever consulted says the scene was nude. Some sources, [like this one](http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/m/marilynmonroe_final.q.shtml), say that she was offered a body suit, but declined. There is even footage in the movie of her ass crack. I suspect that the Geocities picture is one taken during a rehearsal or something, in the very early days of filming, or before she stripped for the scene. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/23 "2005-05-28T17:13:04Z")
Some sources say _Blowup_ (1966) was the first mainstream post-code film to show a woman’s pubic hair. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/24 "2005-05-28T18:49:03Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Eve’s name is too short for the search engine, so I can’t find it. Well, there _ **is** _ a movement afoot to ask her to change her member name to **Eeeeeeeeeve**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/25 "2005-05-29T01:47:25Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > No, and no! > > \ > > _Gone With the Wind_ wasn’t even the first Best Picture Oscar winner to use “damn” — _Cavalcade_ (1933) beat it by six years. > > \ I bow to your well-researched answer. So, what about the “outcry” about Rhett’s language? What made _Gone With the Wind_’s use of “damn” that made people notice? Was it simply hype for the movie? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/26 "2005-05-29T01:47:29Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Well, there _ **is** _ a movement afoot to ask her to change her member name to **Eeeeeeeeeve**. > > 😃 I’ve heard that if you look at a picture of Louise Brooks and say “Come Eve, come” three times she’ll appear. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/27 "2005-05-29T03:42:02Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > The restored version of [Metropolis](http://imdb.com/title/tt0017136/) (1927) has a nude scene. But it wasn’t a Hollywood film; it was filmed in Berlin. > [@Drum God](#): > > So, what about the “outcry” about Rhett’s language? It was probably that it was the first major post-Hays film to prominently feature language that strong. It was also quite an event in its day. It was so heavily hyped that many people went to see it that otherwise did not regularly go to the theater exposing many who might have been shocked by it. Soon, however, war was to come and American mores were about to change more dramatically than ever before. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/28 "2005-05-29T10:52:35Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’ve heard that if you look at a picture of Louise Brooks and say “Come Eve, come” three times she’ll appear. Yeah, but then she slashes everyone to death with that hook-shaped piece of celluloid she had, and to my mind that’s quite counterproductive. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/29 "2005-05-29T13:32:26Z")
–droll glance-- Different strokes for different folks. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/30 "2005-05-29T14:10:27Z")
I was watching “Marihuana” the other day, and it had some nudity in it, IIRC. It was done in 1936 along with “Reefer Madness.” It’s not quite as funny, but it does come close. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/31 "2005-05-29T15:56:08Z")
According to Baxter Phillips’ **Cut: The Unseen Cinema** , Olympic diving champion Annette Kellerman appeared _au naturel_ way back in 1916 in a film called “Daughter of the Gods”. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/32 "2005-05-29T17:24:04Z")
A lot depends on how you define nudity. There’s a topless whipping scene in the 1917 Italian epic _Cabiria_ but the woman’s back is turned to the camera the whole time. There’s a scene in _Roman Scandals of 1933_ that has a bunch of nekkid cuties chained to what appears to be the second layer of giant three-layer cake, but they all wear falls that extend to their ankles, which hide their naughty bits while still revealing their womanly curves. I think American cinema was moving toward acceptance of nudity in film back in 1933 but was arrested by the imposition of the Hayes Code as a result of a Catholic-led charge toward censorship. (By Catholic-led I mean exactly that – there wouldn’t have been much public interest in censorship, or the imposition of the Hayes Code, if it weren’t for leaders of the Catholic Church who whipped up outrage against film and then volunteered to censor it.) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/33 "2005-05-29T22:04:58Z")
> [@Drum God](#): > > So, what about the “outcry” about Rhett’s language? What made _Gone With the Wind_’s use of “damn” that made people notice? There _wasn’t_ an outcry. It’s an urban legend. I’ve read numerous books on the making of _Gone With the Wind_ and its release, and none found any evidence of anyone other than the Production Code Office taking offense with the word “damn”, which as I said, was common in popular literature of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/34 "2005-05-29T22:18:48Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > [Nell Shipman](http://imdb.com/name/nm0794109/) famously had a nude scene in one of the movies she wrote/directed/starred in, but I can’t remember which one it was… IMDb lists the tagline for _Back to God’s Country_ as “Is the Nude Rude?” but there’s no further info. _Back to God’s Country_ (1919) is Canada’s oldest extant feature film. In one sequence, Nell Shipman is shown bathing in the nude. The movie is available on DVD and VHS from [Milestone Films](http://www.milestonefilms.com/movie.php/back2god/). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795/35 "2005-05-29T23:16:16Z")
Donald Spoto, _Marilyn Monroe: The Biography_ (1993): > [@](#): > > On Wednesday, May 23 [1962], no other actor was required on the set [of _Something’s Got to Give_] but Marilyn for the scene in which, as the long lost Ellen Arden, she was to take a midnight swim after her return home. As she did so, she was to be seen by her husband from his bedroom upstairs, where he was with his new wife; this was to lead to some silent comic interplay and gesticulating between them to prevent her being discovered. From nine in the morning until four in the afternoon of the twenty-third (with only a twenty-minute break for lunch), Marilyn remained in the pool, paddling, swimming, splashing and waving, while closeup, medium and long shots were taken again and yet again. In the script, she was to be swimming naked, with the illusion of nudity easily obtained by the flesh-colored, two-piece bathing suit Marilyn wore all day. > > There was, however, a problem. When cinematographer William Daniels gazed through his viewfinder at the long shot of Marilyn with her back to the camera, sitting at the edge of the pool towel-drying her hair, he noticed that the back strap of the bikini’s top was clearly visible to the Technicolor camera. This he reported to [director George] Cukor — who approached Marilyn, who in turn readily tossed aside her bikini top for this simple, quick, rearview image. In a few moments the shot was easily made. > > But then Marilyn had an idea . . . The shots she suggested were not in the script (and, she knew, would never be approved by the Motion Picture Production Code in 1962). But for publicity — to advertise _Something’s Got to Give_ all over the world — why not take several shots of her nude as she wrapped round herself the blue terry-cloth robe for the next sequence? . . . This would cost the picture not a cent, and it might bring in millions: Marilyn Monroe, soon to appear in _Something’s Got to Give_, and, it was (wrongly) implied, naked, just the way you see her now in a magazine. > > [Producer Henry] Weinstein and Cukor thought this was inspired, and things happened quickly. Two free-lance photographers (William Woodfield and Lawrence Schiller) were hastily summoned to join the Fox studio photographer (James Mitchell). For just under an hour, many stills were made of Marilyn from various angles — but with nothing like total nudity, front or rear. Spoto’s sources were interviews with _Something’s Got to Give_ producer Henry Weinstein and photograher William Woodfield. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankly-my-dear-take-off-your-clothes/305795.md?page=1)