# Movies made before 1960 with Dirty Jokes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2004, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634 "2004-11-19T09:24:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/41 "2004-11-20T17:27:50Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Robert Walker died in August 1951, less than two months after the opening of _Strangers on a Train_. I doubt he was giving interviews in 1951 about the gay subtext. Hmmm, didn’t know that. It was definitely a recent interview, but I saw it a number of years ago, so I am obvioulsy mis-remembering something. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/42 "2004-11-20T17:43:39Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#): > > On a Johnny Carson show, one of his guests was talking about some of the exotic foods she had eaten in China. The only ones I remember were “deer nose” and “camel hump.” She then asked Carson, “Have you ever had the hump of a camel.” > > Carson pauses, then says, “No. . . but when I was younger I was pretty good.” That was Letterman. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/43 "2004-11-20T19:45:30Z")
I’ve been beated to most of the good examples I know, but I think it is worth re-emphasizing that pre-Production Code films contained all sorts of “dirty” stuff that wouldn’t be seen in mainstream films again for decades. [This site](http://home.earthlink.net/~prodcode/) seems to have some good information on the topic, although the layout is kind of annoying. Just looking at the text of the Code and what it forbid should give you a good idea as to what sorts of things filmmakers had been including in their pictures! I don’t think my favorite joke from **Duck Soup** hasn’t been mentioned yet: “I’m going back to clean the crackers out of my bed…I’m expecting company.” It’s post-Code, but **Palm Beach Story** has a plot that revolves around divorce ( :eek: ), money, and how a good-looking woman could do her husband’s career a lot of good by being “friendly” to the right people. I can’t remember the exact line, but there is one scene where it sounds like an angry character says a _very_ naughty word. I think he actually says “Kluck”, which is the name of another character, but in context the mistake would be easy for the audience to make. I remember my sister turned to me in surprise and said “I didn’t know they could say that in old movies!” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/44 "2004-11-20T19:48:53Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Crypto-homosexual characters include Gloria Holden as _Dracula’s Daughter_ (1936), Lauren Bacall as Kirk Douglas’ bitter wife in _Man With a Horn_ (1950), Martin Landau as James Mason’s henchman with “feminine intuition” in _North by Northwest_ (1959), Mercedes McCambridge as a butch-looking gang member in _Touch of Evil_ (1958), Sal Mineo as a teenager with a photo of Alan Ladd taped inside his locker in _Rebel Without a Cause_ (1955), Paul E. Richards as a military school cadet in _The Strange One_ (1957), Jay C. Flippen as an affectionate gangster in _The Killing_ (1956), Farley Granger and John Dall as thrill murderers in _Rope_ (1948), Clifton Webb as an ascerbic columnist in _Laura_ (1944), and Judith Anderson as a much too devoted servant in _Rebecca_ (1940). In Dorothy Sayers’ 1937 novel _Unnatural Death_, there was a strong implication that the murderer was gay. I won’t be more specific, for the benefit of you who have not read this excellent mystery. In the “Bread and Circuses” episode of _Star Trek_, the Proconsul (Logan Ramsey) respects Kirk as a man, while denigrating the lack of manliness of Captian Merick (William Smithers). Exactly how Captian Merrick was “unmanly” was never specified, but the implication is pretty clear. The 1959 movie _Bell, Book, and Candle_ posits an urbane subculture of witches, who party in out-of-the nightclubs and can’t fall in love. It has been suggested that this is a metaphor for 1950s closeted gay life. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/45 "2004-11-20T20:06:52Z")
Oh, I forgot to add: in **Psycho** (which was not before, but during, 1960), that awful psychiatrist scene at the end briefly mentions transvestitism as a sexual fetish. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/46 "2004-11-20T20:43:24Z")
Oh, and the book of **The Big Sleep** is all about porn rings and gay sex. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/47 "2004-11-20T20:51:55Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > In Dorothy Sayers’ 1937 novel _Unnatural Death_, there was a strong implication that the murderer was gay. I won’t be more specific, for the benefit of you who have not read this excellent mystery. Not only the murderer, but there’s that whole backstory about the two old ladies–dead before the story begins–who had set up house together like a married couple and ran a horse-breeding ranch for about 50 years. With regards to subtextually or suggestedly gay characters in classic movies, take a look at Peter Lorre or the relationship between Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cook in _The Maltese Falcon_. A friend of mine who had just seen the movie for the first time recently exclaimed, “Everyone but Bogart’s gay!” ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/48 "2004-11-20T21:26:25Z")
If you’re looking for information on Hollyood portrayals of gays, the documentary _The Celluloid Closet_ has quite a bit of information and lots of clips from old movies. It was made in 1995 or so and covers some post-1960 movies too, but there’s plenty on pre-1960 stuff, including a bunch of the examples posted in this thread. It shouldn’t be too hard to find at video stores. I’ve seen it stocked in suburban Blockbusters, as well as actual good video stores. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/49 "2004-11-20T22:53:06Z")
> [@Miss Mapp](#): > > With regards to subtextually or suggestedly gay characters in classic movies, take a look at Peter Lorre or the relationship between Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cook in _The Maltese Falcon_. A friend of mine who had just seen the movie for the first time recently exclaimed, “Everyone but Bogart’s gay!” What about Mary Aster? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/50 "2004-11-20T23:58:48Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > What about Mary Aster? Or Miles Archer, who was hot for Mary? I have to admit, it is a little big creepy for Sydney Greenstreet to keep putting his hand on Bogey’s leg. And I really did think “gunsel” meant “armed thug”. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/51 "2004-11-21T01:37:01Z")
> [@Miss Mapp](#): > > With regards to subtextually or suggestedly gay characters in classic movies, take a look at Peter Lorre or the relationship between Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cook in _The Maltese Falcon_. Not subtextual at all. Bogart calls Cook (in a conversation with Greenstreet) “your gunsel.” The word did not mean “gunman,” but rather a young man who was kept sexually by an older man. Greenstreet did not deny the relationship. Bogart also remarks on the scent of Lorre’s business card – a flowery one that no “real man” would use in the 40s. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/52 "2004-11-21T03:20:20Z")
It was suggested to me once that there are homosexual innuendos in _Gilda_. I had seen that movie a dozen times and never noticed, but one more viewing convinced me. The song _Body and Soul_ has the line “I’d gladly surrender myself to you body and soul.” Very seductive song. From the 1940s? the 1930s? “Prisoner of Love” made reference to shackles and “chains that bind me.” Surely Perry Como wouldn’t have been singing about bondage. Nyah! In the mid-1950’s Little Richard shocked quite a few people with “Good Golly, Miss Molly! You sure like to ball!” I don’t think our parents could understand the lyrics and the girls my age had no idea what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/53 "2004-11-21T03:43:43Z")
Not a movie, but I remember _Mad_ Magazine, in a puzzle where everything was backwards, showing a newspaper whose headline read, “\*\*Liberace Wins By KO in 5th” \*\* I later realized that was as close as you could come in the 1950s to calling someone a homosexual. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/54 "2004-11-21T04:28:00Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > No offence **START** , but sexual innuendo was not invented by your generation! People have been people forever. > > PS- as a kid, I always thought the word “innuendo” was, well, an innuendo! But that was probably because of a bad Italian joke… Well, I never thought that but I do know that all these things like Sexual Innuenndo are a little harder to find in older movies. I knew dirty jokes existed in older movies but after reading each reply I was surprised because it seems to be more common than I thought. Anyway all the info is useful so far. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/55 "2004-11-21T09:00:18Z")
Another great Groucho blink-and-you’ll-miss-it double entendre from Duck Soup {to the woman he’s wooing}, “I can’t promise you anything but a Rufus over your head.” ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634/56 "2004-11-21T13:09:19Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > What about Mary Aster? > [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Or Miles Archer, who was hot for Mary? > I have to admit, it is a little big creepy for Sydney Greenstreet to keep putting his hand on Bogey’s leg. And I really did think “gunsel” meant “armed thug”. I understood my friend to be referring only to the men Mary hangs around with, which we agreed probably explained why she threw herself so deliberately at Bogie, knowing that her feminine wiles were utterly useless in manipulating the rest of the gang. Miles Archer (like the unseen Thirsby) is out of the picture so early on that we didn’t count him. I’ve wondered if the general movie audience of the day understood the word “gunsel.” I didn’t until I read the explanation in one book or another about gays in film (_The Celluloid Closet_, or something similar). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-made-before-1960-with-dirty-jokes/275634.md?page=2)