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October 2007, Week 5

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From:
"Larsson, Donald F" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:02:38 -0500
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Another specific example that came to mind was THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (1949), with Randolph Scott as leader of a gang of bank robbers.  There's a scene in a "hotel" where John Ireland has a pretty racy interchange with one of the "hostesses."  Nothing by comparison with DEADWOOD, of course, but it struck me as pushing the Legion of Decency's envelope.

Part of the explicitness during the Code era has to be a matter of degree. Consider the racetrack exchange between Bogart and Bacall in THE BIG SLEEP, the clear indication of what Sam Spade "wants" from Brigid in THE MALTESE FALCON, or the exchange about guns and Swiss watches between John Ireland (again) and Montgomery Clift in RED RIVER. Students of these eras probably have more definitive studies, but somehow in the 1950s and early 1960s filmmakers were still able to give watered-down attention to prostitutes in such films as FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and BUTTERFIELD 8. Otto Preminger probably pushed the envelope as much or more than anyone during this era, with such notorious examples as the fight over the word "virgin" in THE MOON IS BLUE and the rape case that is at the center of ANATOMY OF A MURDER, among others.

Don Larsson
___________________________________________________
"When something is empty, fill it. When something is full, empty it. When you have an itch, scratch it." --Dieter Dengler

Donald F. Larsson, Professor
English Department, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Mail: 230 Armstrong Hall, Minnesota State University
        Mankato, MN 56001
Office Phone: 507-389-2368
________________________________________
From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of William Lingle [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 1:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCREEN-L] sexual explictness query

A place to start might be a comparison of the 1946 and 1981 versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice, although the signals are more visual than verbal, as I recall, and time range is a bit broader than you suggest. I haven't seen either film for several years, but the looks of lust in Turner and Garfield's eyes were riveting, as was the Nicholson-Lange wrestling match on the kitchen table.

W Lingle


-----Original Message-----
From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of Frank, Michael
Sent: Sun 10/28/2007 8:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SCREEN-L] sexual explictness query

[with the usual apologies for duplication]



in 1958 [north by northwest] eva marie saint says to cary grant
something like "i have no plans for tonight and my book isn't very
interesting" -- and we know she's inviting him to her bed . . . in 1971
[play misty for me] jessica walter says to clint eastwood "right, no
strings attached, but that doesn't mean we can't sleep together tonight
if we want to" . . . while this may fall short of the "let's screw"
which one might expect today, the increased explicitness clearly
reflects the changes [in both sexual mores and codes of representation]
that are a function of what have since come to call the sexual
revolution of the sixties



it would be interesting to trace these changes, which leads to the
question: can anyone cite earlier examples in mainstream cinema [i.e.
films aimed at a mass audience] of this kind of sexual explicitness - or
of later developments that raised the bar even higher [or lower,
depending on your POV] . . .



thoughts??



mike


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