A spy thriller, a franchise sequel, a franchise starter, an adaptation of a stage play, a beloved actress going topless, and much more can be found on the films released on July 1 in Movie Nudity History!
2016: Our Kind of Traitor
On this day four years ago came this adaptation of John le Carré's 2010 novel of the same name starring Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris as a couple who befriend the wrong man on their vacation and end up involved in some international intrigue. Their first clue should've been the fact that the man they befriended was played by Stellan Skarsgård, and actor who almost exclusively plays men of dubious morals. Nevertheless, they soon getcaught up in a tangled web as the Russian mafia wantstheir new pal dead and he wants his new friends to help him attain asylum in the UK.
Intrigue is everywhere, but the film admittedly peaks at the 7 minute mark when Naomie Harris bares some terrific TA while having sex with McGregor...
2003: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
**Portions of the following text are excerpted from our SKIN-depth Look at the Terminator Franchise...
On this day 17 years ago we met the TX or Terminatrix, played byKristanna Loken, an actress who had consistently worked—mostly in television—since the mid-90s. Roles onPensacola: Wings of GoldandMortal Kombat: Conquesthad given her some geek cred prior to this film, but it was an entrance for the ages. If you saw the film in theaters and felt a twinge of disappointment that it wasn't a better nude scene, that's because the film's 2.35:1 format prevented you from seeing more.
The film was released in the Fall of 2003 on DVD in both Widescreen and Full Screen editions, because most people had televisions in those days which had a 1.33:1 ratio and they foolishly thought they were being cheated out of footage because on their televisions, a widescreen film looked as though it had its top and bottom chopped off. In actuality, it was typically because the so-called Full Screen version—more accurately referred to as Pan and Scan—that filled their entire screen was created by chopping off the left and right sides of the film.
In a case like this, however, it seems like director Jonathan Mostow opted to shoot the film in an open matte format—equivalent of 16x9 or 1.66:1—allowing him to craft the shots in the editing bay and only use what he deemed to be the best parts of the captured image. This is a common practice and likely gave him the ability to craft a less gratuitous look at Loken's body, as you can tell by these comparisons between the Widescreen version (top) and the Pan and Scan version (bottom)...
As someone who worked in a video store—another lifetime ago—and adamantly advocated for the Widescreen format in the nascent days of DVDs, I can say that I was wrong in this one instance. The open matte format allows us to see much, much more of Ms. Loken. Here's an even better example of widescreen (top) vs pan and scan (bottom)...
I mean, it's kinda no contest in this instance. This one instance. Continuing the proud Terminator franchise tradition, the female nudity ends here and we get more male nudity, once again courtesy of Arnold, who was in the midst of his first, ultimately successful campaign for governor of Cuhlee-fornia.
1992: Boomerang
Eddie Murphy's last full-on adult oriented box office hit for quite some time was this romantic comedy released on this day 28 years ago! Director Reginald Hudlin was hot off his debut feature House Party two years earlier andhelpedEddie flesh out this flick for which the funny man received a story credit. In it he plays Marcus, a womanizing advertising executive at a cosmetics company who meets his match in Jacqueline (Robin Givens), his new bossafter a merger. Jacqueline uses men at an even more alarming rate than Marcus does women, causing both his work life and his personal life to take a precipitous downhill plunge. Thankfully Jacqueline's assistant Angela (Halle Berry) is there to lend a sympathetic ear and hopefully get Marcus to change his evil ways.
Halle had just had a major breakthrough with several high profile roles the year before, but was still nearly a decade away from doing nudity on screen. Thankfully Robin Givenshad no such reservations—having just made her nude debut the year prior in A Rage in Harlem—and she goestopless for a sex scene with Murphy an hour and two minutes in...
The scene stealer of the film, however, is Grace Jones as Strangé, a model who becomes the face of the cosmetics company. Her brash and bold behavior make for some rather funny moments in the flick, and she's not shy about flaunting some TA in a pair of knockout nude scenes...
The film's soundtrack was also quite a sensation, producing several major hits including Boyz II Men's "End of the Road," which spent 13 weeks as the number one song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Eddie would, of course, have several more major hits in the 90s with The Nutty Professor and Doctor Dolittle, but this was really the last time he headlined a successful full-on adult targeted comedy until last year's terrific Dolemite is My Name.
1986: About Last Night...
David Mamet's play Sexual Perversity in Chicago made its way to the big screen on this day 34 years ago, albeit with a name change. Brat Packers Rob Lowe and Demi Moore co-starred alongside Elizabeth Perkinsand Chicago's own Jim Belushi in this look at love in the modern age... or at least the modern age of 1986. The film was a modest success, banking almost $40 million at the box office and boosting Demi Moore's profile substantially. She was still a few years off from her major stardom years, but this definitely helped prove she could carry a film and look incredible while doing so!
Demi and Rob Lowe have an awful lot of sex in the flick, with Moore baring all during a series of sexy escapades, shower hookups, late-night fridge raiding, and everything in between...
1981: S.O.B.
**Portions of the following text are excerpted from our SKIN-depth Look at Blake Edwards' Films...
Released on this day39 years ago, Blake Edwards' second consecutive mid-life crisisflick takes a detour into the sublimely wacky with this incisive dig at the industry in whichhe made his livelihood. The crisis character this time around is frazzled movie producer Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), whose most recent film was a disaster and caused him to have a complete mental breakdown. After trying and failing several times to kill himself—in increasingly comedic fashion—Felix eventually determines that the lack of sex and nudity is what caused his last film to fail. He now becomes resolved to mount the sexiest film of his career, a softcore musical extravaganza, at great professional and personal risk.
While the film has a ton of inside baseball-type Hollywood humor, it's also drawn in broad enough strokes that your average audience member will hang with the references. Like all of Edwards' mid-life crisis movies, this one is chockablock with skin! The film marks the third film appearance ofRosanna Arquette, who whips off her top, exposing her breasts and starting her down a long and fruitful career going nude on film...
Circling back to the film's plot, Felix's big coup is going to be convincing his movie star wife Sally (Julie Andrews) to shoot a topless scene for his new film. This is despite the fact that—much like Andrews herself—Sally'sentire career is built around a squeaky clean and wholesome image that a topless scene would surely shatter.
Much of the film's tension revolves around whether or not she's going to do the topless scene, but Felix is finally able to convince her that the film will flop without it. On the day the scene is to be shot, Sally hits her mark and whips off her top, giving the audience the double thrill not only of the payoff for the character, but also the fact that those are Mary Poppins' tits...
1974: Death Wish
**Portions of the following text are excerpted from our SKIN-depth Look at the Death Wish Franchise...
While it went to some rather questionable lengths to prove its point, the originalDeath Wishwas not really an over the top spectacle to the degree that the series would devolve during its time at Cannon Films. Proving himself a surprisingly spry 53 year old, Charles Bronson reinvented himself as an action hero in much the same way someone like Liam Neeson did in the last decade, or the way Leslie Nielsen became a comedic actor after a career spent playing villains and genre leads. As the good roles began to dry up for Bronson, he became a bankable lead again thanks in no small part to his persona, which suggested real danger. A true powderkeg of an actor who wore a lifetime's worth of experience on his face.
Michael Winner cast Bronson in the role of respected mild-mannered bleeding heart liberal architect Paul Kersey, whose world is thrown upside down when his wife (Hope Lange) and daughter (Kathleen Tolan) are assaulted, the former succumbing to her injuries and dying. During the home invasion,Kathleen Tolangets roughed up by a guy who bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan...
This act sends Kersey on a vigilante spree that finds him hunting down and killing the men responsible for this horrific act. The film ends with the suggestion that Kersey, though he survived both his brush with the law and the thugs, isn't done cleaning up the streets.Despite the film's surprising box office success, the film's ending didn't necessarily portend a sequel on the horizon, but when the money hungry duo behind Cannon Films got their hands on the rights, a franchise was born. And it all began on this day 46 years ago!
