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 ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu