Our last few entrants struggled to the finish line of our blogathon of suggestively sexy movies, but they gave it everything they had and made it. (Click on the appropriate blog’s name to read his or her entry.)
The Flapper Damewonders how Tom Ewell can possibly keep his cool around Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch.
Outspoken & Freckledconclusively proves why silent-screen siren Clara Bow is It.
Flickers in Time says God only knows how Robert Mitchum got washed up on the same island as nun Deborah Kerr in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison.
Pop Culture Reverieechoes the sentiments of Patty O’Neill (Maggie McNamara) in The Moon Is Blue: “Don’t you think it’s better to be preoccupied with sex than occupied?”
Another sexy silent film, Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, is herein examined by Silent Wierdness.
And last but hardly least,Dell on Movies found his inner soundtrack playing Salt-n-Pepa as he watched the film-noir classic Double Indemnity.
Thanks to all of our wonderful blog guests for their time and contributions, and thanks to the readers who pored over the entries. May everyone have a summer that is sizzling in only the best way! And that wraps things up! (Now, Adrienne, the show’s over. Don’t think you can sneak in on us that way…)
Apparently, everyone was drenched in afterglow from the first day of our blogathon, because we received only two entries today. Hopefully, things will pick up tomorrow for the finale. In the meantime, we invite you to come hither and enjoy
If you missed the first day’s entries, click here: Day 1 Recap. And now, here are today’s sex-symbol bloggers. (Click on the blogs’ names to link to their blogathon entries.)
Love Letters to Old Hollywood examines the intricate intimacy between Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief.
And Reelweegiemidgetexamines what happens when friends become lovers in Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally.
Come back to this blog, because we supposedly still have nine bloggers left to submit their entries for the last day! Raquel, would you please drop your arm to signal the race to the finish? Raquel? No, no, the other arm…
Summer is starting off with a bang (ahem), as we get our first round of blogs featuring movies that suggest sex rather than overtly depicting it. Tap into our bloggers’ psyches as we present
(If you want to read any of the entries listed below, click on the name of the respective blog to link to their entry.)
Moon in Geminidiscusses how sexual chemistry makes Montgomery Clift take a turn for the worst (and for Elizabeth Taylor) in A Place in the Sun.
B Noir Detour details how Edward G. Robinson’s desire for Joan Bennett ends up bringing a dark shade into his life in the film noirScarlett Street.
Vivien Leigh’s sudden appearance in the lives of Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter adds to their sexual (and other) tensions, as Defiant Successpoints out in her critique of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Thoughts All Sorts bypasses film criticism and just lovingly states why the passion between Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice gives a “tingly” feeling to moviegoers.
Meredy.com shows us why Jean Harlow believes that, while blondes might have more fun, she’ll get further up the social scale as a Red-Headed Woman.
Even high-society people can’t always get what they want, as Pfeiffer Pfilms and Meg Movies points out in his take on Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis’ doomed romance in The Age of Innocence.
And lastly, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are unapologetic in their lust for, respectively, diamonds and muscular men, as your faithful correspondent points out in my genuflection to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
And we still have two more days of fun, sexy movies to go! Keep this blog bookmarked and check back with us, as further entertaining reviews shake up the blog world!
The following is my entry in this (my) blog’s 2nd Annual SEX! (now that I have your attention) Blogathon, being hosted here from June 19-21, 2016. Click on the above banner, and read bloggers’ critiques of movies that subtly suggest sexuality rather than graphically depicting it!
*
(The following blog entry is dedicated to former USA TODAY film critic Mike Clark — who, one day when he tried to switch the TV channel from a showing of Jane Russell’s The French Line, was chastized by his crying two-year-old son, who told him, “I want to see the big lady!”)
I am married to a newspaper publisher and editor, so I’d be a fool not to believe that women are the equal of, and in many ways far superior to, their male counterparts. What I don’t believe is that women can’t be feminist and sexy at the same time.
Unfortunately, women are so often forced to loudly confirm my first statement (in order to shout over the yahoos who try to drown them out) that the second statement gets lost in the confusion. But I think that director Howard Hawks — whose filmography is filled with bold, assertive women (see His Girl Fridayand Ball of Fire) — was trying to make this point, however subtextually, when he directed my all-time favorite movie musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
The movie stars Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, two American showgirls en route to France. The story makes it abundantly clear that these women want what they want, with no apologies, and each is given her own musical number to spell it out.
Dorothy is attracted to brawny, ripply men, and she lusts over acres of them in the hilarious “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?” (Naive moviegoer that I am, it took me years of sexual politicism to realize that there might be a reason why this roomful of muscle-bound males never give a second glance to buxom Dorothy.)
Lorelei adores anything with a dollar sign attached to it, particularly diamonds, and she makes this feeling explicit in the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Luckily, Lorelei happens to be engaged to Gus (Tommy Noonan), a rich, milquetoast man who is only too happy to appease her. Unfortunately, Gus’ father completely distrusts Lorelei and hires Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), a private detective, to tail Lorelei on her cruise to France. Too bad Ernie has a thing for women who look like Jane Russell.
At this point, I must make a full confession: I am not gaga over Marilyn Monroe as most red-blooded American males are. I can easily see why she became a star and the fantasy figure for so many people, but for me, she just sells “it” a little too hard. However, she does win me over for, at least, the duration of this movie. If you doubt the movie’s support of feminism, listen to Lorelei’s beautiful speech to Gus’ father near movie’s end — where basically, she upends the viewpoint of male chauvinists by saying, If you guys can have it both ways, why can’t we women have it, too?
Nevertheless, my heart — and let’s face it, my hormones — go out to Jane Russell. She is thoroughly winning as Dorothy — strong, brassy, and yet willing to let her heart melt when the right guy comes along. And for a woman who spent a large part of her autobiography apologizing for the skin she displayed in The Outlaw and The French Line, she has zero qualms about showing off her absolutely bitchin’ bod here — particularly in a short reprise of Marilyn’s “Diamonds” number that, for me at least, has it all over the original.
That’s right, Operator, I said “absolutely bitchin’ bod.”
Wouldn’t the world be a whole lot better off if each gender admitted to and embraced its weaknesses and strengths? One wonders how many moviegoers, if any, caught the feminist broadside of this smashing musical when it was first released in 1953. Six decades later, it’s still a message worth taking in, even if you have to root around in the subtext to find it.
Ready to usher in summer with some major hotness? Join us at this blog for the next three days, as bloggers chime in about movies that cleverly suggest sexuality rather than graphically depicting it.
If you are one of the blogathon entrants, please post the URL to your blog entry in the “Comments” section below, and I will link to it as soon as possible. Please have your entry posted by the end of the day on Tues., June 21 (and if I may, the sooner the better!).
If you are just stopping by for some great reading, please give this blog bookmarked, as entries will continue coming in for the next three days. Enjoy, and be sure to have a fan directed at you while you’re reading — you might get a little hot under the collar!
