UPDATE: added four more scenes (in bold)
Berlin’s Elke Schletz was a true pioneer. As Elke Sommer, she did nude scenes in the early 60s, even in 1961 and 1962, when she was the only game in town. Her 1963 nude scene in Seduction by the Sea was arguably the nude scene of the year, since it included a distant full frontal, but it would not have won our hypothetical poll for that honor since Jayne Mansfield was better known. One nude scene, possibly her best, is lost. There was a European version of The Victors in which she did full rear nudity and exposed her pubic area in a scene with George Hamilton. That was in 1964. Unfortunately, nothing remains of that version except a couple of stills. No print is known to exist. Such a shame! She appears in a bra and jeans for the American version.
If our annual poll had existed at the time, and if the Euro version of The Victors were available to view, Elke would have been at or near the top in every single year, 1961-1964. She did additional nude scenes through 1979 and posed for Playboy in 1967 and 1970.
1961 – Daniella by Night
1962 – Sweet Ecstasy, AKA Sweet Violence
1964 – Seduction by the Sea
1964 – The Victors (European version)
1967 – December Rabbit Mag
1968 – The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz
1970 – The Invincible Six
1970 – September Rabbit Mag
1973 – Die Reise Nach Wien
1974 – Einer von uns Beiden
1975 – The House of Exorcism
1978 – I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses
1979 – A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Have you ever done putative top 10s for the years before your poll?
Nope.
I like the project, but it is time-consuming.
For sure. I am sure your readers would help. Maybe just one year at a time.
By the time you get to the 1950s, it’s prolly a short list of nominees. 🙂
Strictly European, but before WWII it gets scarcer
Back to Elke though, I’ve been crushing on her since I was a tweener. That cute accent and her penchant for going topless meant that if I saw a movie with her in it in the TV guide, I was spending a weekend evening with the volume down low in hopes of some Elke perkies. Bless you, you sexy thing.
Pretty sure Elke’s final nude scenes were not in “the House of Exorcism”, but actually in “I miss you, hugs and kisses”, although possibly not in the version released with that title.
The version on cable in the good old days was “Left for Dead”, which had her nude scenes for sure.
Close. She did one more after that; A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1980). She appears from behind in the shower and then from the waist up frontal when turning to exit the shower.
Thanks. Added them both, plus The Invincible Six.
“I miss you, hugs and kisses” is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and THE worst acted, outside of exploitation films. Elke was the best actor in the film! She seemed like Judi Dench compared to the rest of the cast.
Fortunately for me, the other two films were watchable.
My mother used to watch her art class on PBS during the mid eighties.
I had to look that up. “Painting with Elke”. Dang. I would have watched that.
This may not be the correct place but I’ll jump in anyway. The recent passing of Lauren Chapin of Father Knows Best fame got me thinking. I remember some raunchy explicit pics that were taken during her druggie hooker days that surfaced years ago. They seemed to have been scrubbed from the interwebs. Is that something that might still be in your database or am I delusional? Or both? Anyone else know what I’m talking about?
The nudity here is not all that great in comparison with what soon was to come, but I absolutely salute Ms. Sommer in being among the pioneers in bringing nudity (back) to our screens.
Elke was one of the first women that I ever saw topless. It was maybe in the letters section of my friend’s dad’s old playboy
Crap. Just came across one more; Die Reise nach Wien (1973). The good news is that it looks like a dark comedy that may be watchable.
I went through that and didn’t see the Elke nudity (Hannelore Elsner did a sex scene and another great nude scene – full frontal and rear in good light), but I breezed through it. I still have the film. Do you know where the Elke scene is what it is supposed to be?
I found it an Italian broadcast of the film! Gotta love the Italians.
One last thing for the astute nudophiles who may be a little confused. Lisa and the Devil (1973) and The House of Exorcism (1975) look like they have had the content mashed together. That would be because the former was edited into the latter. Elke plays “Lisa Reiner • Elena” in both films.
I think it has several other names as well. I kept running into them, and it was always the same film.