Janet Munro in The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Her brief topless scene earned the film an “X” rating in the U.K. and was snipped from the U.S. theatrical version.
The UK version of the film:
And a shot taken on set:
The other main difference between the UK and US versions of The Day the Earth Caught Fire is the ending. The American release added some church bells to suggest a happy ending, as nuclear detonations successfully stopped the earth’s orbit change. The British version (director Val Guest’s original intention) had an ambiguous, unresolved ending.
Both changes were required for America. While Americans get upset by sad thoughts, they get much more upset by bare breasts.
This is a more revealing still that I believe was in the DVD release.
Speaking of DVD special features, I was curious where this full frontal nude of Elizabeth Hurley came from. I purchased the DVD and while it included several nude photos of her, this particular shot was missing.
Your second link was broken.
If I remember right, the first pic was from the DVD special features, and was a still taken on set, not footage from any cut of the film.
The Liz Hurley pic has always been called a “publicity still” from ARIA. I suppose it could be from one of those deals where Playboy or some other mag takes photos on set, but I don’t know of such an article, and I don’t think Aria was ever covered in “Sex in Cinema.” Obviously that pic is from the set of Aria, and Elizabeth was totally nude in that scene, so there’s no reason to suspect a fake, but I don’t know who published it.
Holy crap. Had a thing for you ever since first seeing Darby O’Gill. Had NO idea she’d been naked before.
As a kid, I had such a huge crush on her in Swiss Family Robinson
The ultimate Disney girl gone “bad”. I saw all those films, at the lordly cost of 25 cents.
I found this picture with frontal boob, I assume that it’s real because it would be a weird thing to fake.
It’s real. Thanks, I’ve been looking for it. Somebody linked to it earlier, but the link crapped out. Because you found it, I was able to use Google Images to find a larger version and add it to the article.
Great! Though I’m surprised that Google Images could do anything. I’ve found it completely worthless since the update a year or so ago.
It’s not as good as it used to be, but I found the pic by clicking on “exact matches,” which returned the same picture at different sizes. (So not completely “exact”)
So they shot it twice? One with a towel covering her boob and one without? I wonder how that went during the filming…
“Ok, good! Now we’re going to shoot it again, but this time move the towel off of your breast. Yes! Ok, action!”
That reminds me of an old video clip of Simmone Mackinnon from a TV show called “The Lost World.” She was a guest star, and there is a scene where she rises out of a pool of honey/goop (it was a giant bee kind of thing), and in the U.S. version she had hair covering her breasts, but in another version her hair was slicked back. I also think it was the only time she ever had a topless scene too. But you gotta wonder how the reshoot went. “Ok, this time we’re going to show your tits” or something.
I assume it went the other way around. They shot the real one first, and then said, “Oh, we need a covered-up version for the Puritans. Those pantywaists fear the sight of naked women.”
I read somewhere that Janet Munro thanked the director for allowing her to do a topless scene. She wanted to change her image drastically.
She is incredibly beautiful so it’s a great find. Her story reminds of hearing from the beautiful French actress Genevieve Page. She did a full nude scene in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, but it was edited to only show her upper back. She said she was quite upset because it was the only nude scene she ever did and she modestly said she looked very good at the time. She said she’s hoping that they release a new cut someday with her unedited nude scene left in. I’m sure we all feel the same way.
This is actually very normal. I used to get a lot of dvds from Netflix and the extras told a lot of movie making secrets. It is very common for Hollywood and independents as well to shoot the same scene multiple times with the actress in different outfits. This is done because what is shown in different parts of the world varies greatly. Some of the extras showed the behind the scenes making of these scenes. I was amazed at how well the actors did the scene in the same exact way over and over. I guess that’s what makes them pros.
It was not unusual for them to do 3 takes back to back. The first take the woman might be nude. The 2nd take she would be in underwear. The 3rd time she’d be well covered. The people making movies are fully aware of all these things so they don’t think it’s strange. It’s a business, they all understand that. They are paid to do scenes and doing them over and over is a part of the job. They know that censorship rules are different all over the world so it’s just another day at work.
The US got religion the rest of the world got tits.
Yes, but looking back it is hard to believe how quickly things changed in the U.S.: from being unable to show a bare breast in theatres in a brief and pretty innocent way in 1961 to theatres showing hard core sex less than ten years later. Of course in 1961 there already were films otherwise available showing graphic nudity and sex – as there had been from the beginning of cinema – but they were underground.
Doris Wishman tried her best to promote nudist colonies.
Man, I always love seeing nudity from pre-late 60s films. Such a pleasant surprise!
I love that picture of Munro topless on the phone! What a beauty she was!
While we are on the subject of USA and European cuts, I found both versions of The Magician of Lublin starring Valerie Perrine in YouTube. Valerie’s nude scenes were published on Playboy but I believe Americans only saw her in lingerie onscreen. There was also several nude scenes from Maia Danziger who plays the female lead and believe it or not even Shelley Winters pops one boob out. Valerie’s lengthy topless scene is around the 13 minute mark and Shelley Winter’s brief flash is at the 18 minute mark. It’s interesting to compare the two versions.
The American cut.
the Uncensored Euro cut.
It’s been doing the occasional rounds of celeb sites for a few years. It’s fake. You won’t find it in any official repository of stills from the film.
Should also point out that there are two (I think) genuine on-set photos of her topless on the set (washing her hair). I have them here. No foreign version of the film has ever turned up extra topless footage (e.g. foreign BD or DVD releases, or TV showings). It’s a myth.
You know there’s a video in the original post, right?
Looks like she flashed a boob in a 1963 film.