It's an independent kind of day in movie nudity history, with five lesser known indie flicks that invaded theaters on this day over the last thirty-plus years!
2016: Shangri-La Suite
Four years ago today, this indie got released in theaters and has been flying under the radar ever since! Set in 1974, the film—also known as Kill the King— follows wannabe criminals Karen (Emily Browning) and Jack (Luke Grimes) who break out of a mental hospital with only one goal in mind... killing Elvis Presley. This broke dick Bonnie Clyde duo manage to meet up with the King in the third act, but I won't spoil how it turns out because it's a doozy! Speaking of which, Emily Browning goes topless for a doozy of a sex scene with Grimes only 18 minutes into the flick...
2011: The Rum Diary
This half-hearted attempt to get Johnny Depp back in the lead of another Hunter S. Thompson adaptation was greeted with total audience apathy upon its release nine years ago today. Depp plays another HST surrogate, awriter named Paul Kemp, who travels to Puerto Rico to take a job as a newspaper reporter. Here he gets involved with a dubious businessman (Aaron Eckhart) and falls for his fiancée (Amber Heard), which complicates his attempts to keep his work and home life separate.
The film is probably best remembered now for sparking the romance between Depp and Heard that eventually went down in flames and is currently winding its way through the legal system. At the very least, Amber Heard does go nude twice in the film, once while banging Eckhart in the water and again when hooking up with Depp near the end of the film...
2005: The Weather Man
Speaking of Johnny Depp, in between making Pirates of the Caribbean12, director Gore Verbinksi came to the Windy City to make this dramedy released on this day 15 years ago. Nicolas Cage stars as the titular meteorologist who is under a constant onslaught of food items being thrown at him by Chicago residents angry over his inaccurate forecasts. He also takes up archery at some point, it's a weird one. How weird? Well, the film's nude scene finds Cage dressed as Abe Lincoln and banging busy Robyn Moler as "Beer Girl!"
1994: The Road to Wellville
**Portions of the following text were excerpted from our SKIN-depth Look at Alan Parker's Films...
One of the most undeniably strange comedies of the 90s, Alan Parker's film about the real health facility created and run by cereal magnate and health guru Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) is an absolutely bizarre and often hilarious film. Based on T.C. Boyle's novel of the same name, with Parker handling screenwriting duties, the film centers around an upper-middle class couple played by Matthew Broderick andBridget Fondawho travel to Kellogg's health spa to help heal the divide between them following the death of their child. Kellogg runs the Battle Creek, MI sanitarium with an iron fist, promoting frequent colonics, vegetarianism, outdoor exercise, and strict abstinence from sex.
Of course, like any other place promoting abstinence from sex, the facility is overrun with lecherous guests who frequently sneak off for sexual escapades. For her part, Fonda hooks up with a swinging group of folks includingCamryn ManheimandDS9's Colm Meaney, who turn her on to the benefits of sex—all while Broderick spies her infidelity from a safe distance...
For his part, Broderick finds himself being (unsuccessfully) seduced by a randy nurse played byTraci Lind(below, top), but Broderick only has eyes for an obviously ill patient played byLara Flynn Boyle(below, bottom)...
The film takes a few too many detours and is overall something of an unfocused mess, but that is part of the film's shaggy dog charm. It would be impossible to do a sufficient takedown of Kellogg's many insane beliefs in a two-hour movie, but the film does the best it can with a sprawling cast filled with outstanding supporting actors—including a never better on film Dana Carvey as Kellogg's deviously disgusting son.
1983: The Wicked Lady
Based on the 1945 flick of the same name, this costume drama cameour way 37 years ago today from notorious schlockhouse Cannon Films and Death Wish 1, 2, and 3 director Michael Winner. With a cast including Faye Dunaway, Alan Bates, Denholm Elliott, and Sir John Gielgud, one might be forgiven for thinking this is an actual prestige production, but it's basically just a period drama with all the nudity and violence one had come to expect from Cannon.
The film centers around a 17th century wedding scheduled between commoner Caroline (Glynis Barber) and wealthy landowner Sir Ralph Skelton (Elliott) that gets upended when Caroline's sister Barbara (Dunaway) comes into town, seduces Sir Ralph, and marries him instead of her sister.Babs soon becomes fed up with high society living and takes to the roads as a highwayman, eventually falling for and teaming up with fellow highwayman Jerry Jackson (Bates). However, when her identity is exposed, she and Jackson must go on the lam lest she risk being returned to her boring husband and her stodgy life.
If you know anything at all about this movie or have seen the outstanding documentary Electric Boogaloo about Cannon Films, then you know that the film's most famous scene revolves around a whip duel between Dunaway and future TNG cast member Marina Sirtis. Marina plays Jackson's current lover when Babs arrives on the scene, leading them to this duel to determine who will have the honor of being Jackson's woman henceforth. It doesn't end well for poor Marina, but her top gets torn early on in the fight and she spends most of it whip dueling topless...
