# Statutory rape WWII movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 29, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869 "2023-11-29T19:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mislav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mislav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mislav)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/1 "2023-11-29T19:21:28Z")
NSFW It is a very unsual and niche (sub)genre of movies. But it is definitely out there. It seems more common in European cinema than American, and it more commonly involves boys and older women, though there are some exceptions. First, we have 1971 British movie “Summer of 42”, which involves a 15-year-old boy having an affair with a middle-aged woman whose husband has gone off to fight in the WWII (the age of consent in the UK having been 16 since 1885). > **[Summer of '42](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_%2742)** > > Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming-of-age film directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, and Christopher Norris. Based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman "Hermie" Raucher, it follows a teenage boy who, during the summer of 1942 on Nantucket Island, embarks on a one-sided romance with a young woman, Dorothy, whose husband has gone off to fight in World War II. The film was a commercial and critical success and was nominated for four Academy Aw... Then there is a 1995 Swedish war drama “All Things Fair” (“Lust och fagrig stor”), about a 15-year-old student having an affair with his High school teacher. The movie ends with him flashing her in front of the whole class, stealing her books and walking away (seriously). > **[All Things Fair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Fair)** > > All Things Fair (Swedish: Lust och fägring stor, literally "Desire and Great Beauty") is a Swedish film written and directed by Bo Widerberg. It was released to cinemas in Sweden on 3 November 1995, and was Widerberg's final film. It tells the story of a sexual relationship between a teacher and her 15-year-old student in Malmö, Sweden during World War II. Widerberg's son Johan Widerberg stars as the boy Stig and Marika Lagercrantz plays his teacher Viola. The original title is taken from th Th... Perhaps the most famous example is 2000 Italian erotic drama-comedy “Malena”, about a 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a war widow (portrayed by Monica Belucci). This one is dubious simce they never have sex, and the boy doesn’t even talk to her until the end of the movie, but the sexual element is obviously there. > **[Malèna (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%A8na_(film))** > > Malèna is a 2000 erotic comedy-drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni. It stars Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2001 Cabourg Film Festival. At the 73rd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. > On June 10, 1940, in the small Sicilian town of Castelcuto, a teenage boy named Renato experiences three major events: Italy enters World War II; he receives a new bik... And then there is a 2008 romance drama “The Reader”, where a 15-year-old boy statts a relationship with an adult woman, who is later revealed to be an ex-Nazi officer. This one is also a bit dubious since it doesn’t actually take place during WWII (their affair starts in 1958), but the WWII is obviously a central theme. > **[The Reader (2008 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reader_(2008_film))** > > The Reader is a 2008 romantic drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, written by David Hare on the basis of 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink, and starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Bruno Ganz and Karoline Herfurth. > The film tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a 15-year-old in 1958, has a sexual relationship with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. She disappears only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial ste... So, what is the reason/origin behind this? Is it because WWII is seen like an ultimate “innocence lost” (globally), so that seeped into the movies as well, in the form of illicit/inappropriate age-gap romances? Or was the first movie to tackle this subject so good that many others tried to emulate it? Or are these just coincidences? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/2 "2023-11-29T19:41:25Z")
Looking beyond movies, there’s Jonathan Safran Foer’s Holocaust-themed novel _Everything Is Illuminated_, where a boy becomes romantically involved with multiple older women. (I don’t think this plot point made it into the film adaptation.) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/3 "2023-11-29T20:00:56Z")
I’d balk at your description of **Summer of '42**. She wasn’t middle aged and they didn’t have an affair. He had a crush and they had one encounter that, IRL, didn’t include actual sex. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/4 "2023-11-29T20:19:46Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > ’d balk at your description of **Summer of '42**. She wasn’t middle aged and they didn’t have an affair. He had a crush and they had one encounter that, IRL, didn’t include actual sex. It did in the book. Don’t remember how they handled it in the movie. Her (husband? boyfriend?) died in the war, she got the “Greetings” letter in the mail telling her so, main character comes in, she’s distraught and gloms him, calls him by the boyfriend/husband’s name and hauls him to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/5 "2023-11-29T20:20:28Z")
Nothing like a trend that looks at the hundred thousand movies made since World War II by the entire production of all movie studios in the entire world and finds one actual example. There are probably more Lifetime movies on this theme about modern teachers. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/6 "2023-11-29T20:20:45Z")
[Sonny Wisecarver](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellsworth_Wisecarver) inspired the movie _In the Mood_ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/7 "2023-11-29T20:43:16Z")
It also wasn’t a British film… ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/8 "2023-11-29T20:54:20Z")
Yeah, it’s right there in the wiki description posted after his synopsis. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/9 "2023-11-29T21:22:14Z")
Right before it says they had sex. “They kiss and embrace, then move to the bedroom where they undress, climb into bed and make love.” Well, not _right_ before. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/10 "2023-11-30T00:07:01Z")
Don’t know if some of that is directed at me, but I siad In Real Life, based on the same wiki article. > Although both ultimately disrobed, contrary to popular perception, sexual intercourse did not occur. Raucher admitted this in a 2002 interview, saying it was mostly holding, but in the movie “We let you think what you want.” ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/11 "2023-11-30T00:45:16Z")
“Europa, Europa” - the main character is in his mid-teens and has sex with a Nazi matron who is attracted to him because he looks like a young version of the Fuhrer…which is amusing since the teen is Jewish and in hiding as a Hitler youth. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/12 "2023-11-30T01:09:15Z")
Also in [The Tin Drum.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tin_Drum_(film)) Quite the brouhaha over that one ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/13 "2023-11-30T02:13:26Z")
I think it’s reasonable to assume that while the war was on, there was a shortage of available men between ~17-30 in all participating countries. Which is a fairly highly sexed age group for women. And young almost-men looking forward to being drafted into the war as soon as they’re old enough might be real interested in at least trying that sex stuff before they get shipped off to their at least potential, if not almost certain, doom. The sum of all that is to suggest that in the real world, not the cinematic one, a relative LOT of age-inappropriate but fully consensual sex occurred during the war. Setting aside for a moment the modern question of how much meaning we can attach to the consent of a minor. This would have been far more common than it was pre-war in the same culture or even after post-war demobilization was complete. Whether the 20-something women were doing the few old men or the few almost-men available, many of them they were doing somebody. Given that likely open secret, it’s hardly surprising it showed up in a few movies. IMO it’d be more surprising if it didn’t. As said upthread, I think these few movies represent a rather tiny fraction of all wartime films. I also think that in the 1930s - 1950s the laws on age of consent and statutory rape may have been written gender-neutral in some (many?) countries, but I really don’t think they shared our current attitudes about just how outré and wrong is sex between underage pre-men and adult women. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/14 "2023-11-30T02:36:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I also think that in the 1930s - 1950s the laws on age of consent and statutory rape may have been written gender-neutral in some (many?) countries, but I really don’t think they shared our current attitudes about just how outré and wrong is sex between underage pre-men and adult women. The age could also have been lower or even not there. In many cases, those might not have been illegal at all. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/15 "2023-11-30T03:22:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I also think that in the 1930s - 1950s the laws on age of consent and statutory rape may have been written gender-neutral in some (many?) countries Canada’s most definitely were not. See the _Criminal Code_, RSC 1927, with extensive coverage of males having illicit sexual relations with young women. At least, illicit sexual relations with young women of “previously chaste character”. Not a virgin, young lady? Well, too bad, but the law can’t help you. Short of rape, maybe. Unless under 14; “previously chaste character” was not a required element of the offence for those young’uns. Unless they were married to the fellow, of course. That was a full defence. > [@](#): > > **Seduction of girls between 16 and 18** > **211.** Every one over the age of eighteen years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to two years’ imprisonment who seduces any girl of **previously chaste character** of or above the age of sixteen years and under the age of eighteen years. > > 1. Proof that a girl has on previous occasions had illicit connection with the accused shall not be deemed to be evidence that she was not of previously chaste character. > > 2. On the trial of any offence under this section, the trial judge may instruct the jury that if in their view the evidence does not show that the accused is wholly or chiefly to blame for the commission of said offence, they may find a verdict of acquittal. > > **Seduction under promise of marriage** > **212.** Every one, above the age of twenty-one years, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to two years’ imprisonment who, under promise of marriage, seduces and has illicit connection with any unmarried female of **previously chaste character** and under twenty-one years of age. > > **Carnally knowing girl under fourteen years** > **301.** Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life, and to be whipped, who **carnally knows any girl under the age of fourteen years, not being his wife** , whether he believes her to be of above that age or not. > > **Carnally knowing girl between 14 and 16** > 2. Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for five years who carnally knows any girl of **previous chaste character** under the age of sixteen and above the age of fourteen years, not being his wife, and whether he believes her to be above the age of sixteen years or not; but no person accused of any offence under this subsection shall be convicted upon the evidence of one witness, unless such witness is corroborated in some material particular by evidence implicating the accused. But what about the boys? Got them covered: > [@](#): > > **Indecent assault on males** > **293.** Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to ten years’ imprisonment, and to be whipped, who assaults any person with intent to commit sodomy or who, **being a male** , indecently assaults any other male person. It was apparently an impossibility in law for a female to indecently assault a male. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/16 "2023-11-30T03:40:36Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. On the trial of any offence under this section, the trial judge may instruct the jury that if in their view the evidence does not show that the accused is wholly or chiefly to blame for the commission of said offence, they may find a verdict of acquittal. I think this was known as “the little tramp” defence. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/17 "2023-11-30T03:41:18Z")
Thank you. And Canada was probably one of the more foresightful and civilized countries on Earth at that time. Overall I find the OP’s framing of the issue as “statutory rape” to be wildly excessive. We now have wildly excessive concern about this in 2023 and trying to export that current moral panic to 75 years ago is even nuttier. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/18 "2023-11-30T03:42:29Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And Canada was probably one of the more foresightful and civilized countries on Earth at that time. I would not put money on that. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/19 "2023-11-30T13:46:18Z")
To expand on that last point, I don’t think these provisions requiring “previously chaste character” for girls to be protected from predatory adults were abolished in Canada until the late 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869/20 "2023-11-30T13:54:20Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I would not put money on that. _Shakes head, thinks of residential schools, walks away quietly_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statutory-rape-wwii-movies/993869.md?page=2)