Hippie Hotties: Rita Moreno Strips in Marlowe

Welcome to my new short series called Hippie Hotties where I plan to talk about a hippie-era movie that stretched the limits of free love and sex by showing off some sexy nudes on the big screen. This era of experimentation led to some pretty far-out films, so let's take a look!Today's Hippie Hotties film is a free-spirited private eye flick! Marlowe is sort of the hippie answer to James Bond. Is it explicitly hippie? Well, no, but the fashion and the music fits into this 1969 flick about a Los Angeles private eye named Marlowe who is hired to find a woman's missing brother. Seems simple enough right? Wrong! As usual with these kinds of films, the mystery is so much deeper than what is on the surface. Plus, thanks to sixties aesthetics, it looks cool as well. The film stars James Garner as Philip Marlowe and has an impressive cast that features Carroll O'Connor (aka Archie Bunker) as a police lieutenant, Gayle Hunnicutt as Mavis Wald, Sharon Farrell as Orfamay Quest, Jackie Coogan as Grant W. Hicks, and even Bruce Lee as Winslow Wong who absolutely destroys Marlowe's office with his fist and feet alone. That is quite the cast - and what a mix, too. You have former silence film child stars like Jackie Coogan and future TV icons all in one movie. It's like the cast alone tells a story about the history of Hollywood and how it shifted from barely playing talkies in converted Vaudeville theaters to broadcasting sitcoms in living rooms around the country. In the middle of this shift? It's Marlowe...and other movies of this time like Skidoo that features Groucho Marx, Jackie Gleason, and Carol Channing all in one hippie movie. The times they were a-changin' and major movies were reflecting that. Marlowe is filled to the brim with beautiful 1960s actresses, but it is most notable for having a fiery strip tease scene starring Rita Moreno. By 1969, Rita Moreno was not only already famous, but she was an Academy Award-winning actress. Remember how she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her stint as Anita in 1961's West Side Story? How could anyone forget? She absolutely shone in that movie, as she typically does in everything else that she appears in. This Puerto Rican princess was one of the few working Latina actresses in America at that time and she made sure to soak up every bit of screen time that she could. The best way to do that? Get down to some pasties! She does exactly that. She is stunning in this scene where she wears a stark-white wig that matches her silver panties and cropped white jacket. She shimmies and shakes onstage, sparkling with every move she makes. Sicne she is wearing a thong, we can really check out her backside as she bends over and poses. When her jacket shifts a little, it looks like we might even see her breasts! We don't really get to them, however, because some pasties are in the way. You might not know that in 1968 Rita starred alongside Marlon Brando in The Night of the Following Day where she ever so briefly showed the camera a nipple. Rita had previously dated Marlon for eight years, but she says that their affair ended when he refused to marry her. She has been very open about her lovers and spoke frankly about sleeping with Elvis Presley. She has joked that he was the king of everything - and she means everything! Related Video Rita Moreno in The Night of the Following Day Nude, breasts 00:33:00 Rita looks sweet-a as she throws on her robe in front of Brando . . . and what's that peeking out? Left boob-o! (18 secs) Marlowe is truly enjoyable to watch. Who doesn't love a vibrant, colorful private eye movie that also features a strip tease? It's a fun piece of trivia to pull out next time you're at a dinner part and someone starts talking about Rita Moreno - you know, how that happens!