Yes, 1978, when even PG movies contained nude scenes.
This is a stereotypical “Old Hollywood” film about Hollywood itself. Billy Wilder wrote and directed, and the cast included plenty of Old Hollywood royalty, like Bill Holden and Henry Fonda. Nobody represented Old Hollywood more clearly than Wilder, who was nominated for 23 Oscars, winning six.
Some of his familiar films:
The Apartment
Sabrina
Some Like It Hot
The Lost Weekend
Double Indemnity
The premise of Fedora:
When movie legend Fedora (Marthe Keller) commits suicide, the world grieves, and no one more so than writer and old flame Barry “Dutch” Detweiler (Bill Holden). Two weeks prior, he had visited the reclusive celebrity on a remote Mediterranean island where she confessed she was effectively being held captive by a mysterious Polish countess. Now, with too many lingering questions still on his mind, Barry resolves to find out what really happened to her.
Fedora is quite similar to another, better Wilder film, Sunset Boulevard, which also starred Holden. Wilder was in his mid-40s when he wrote and directed Sunset Boulevard, but was already past 70 when he created Fedora, his second-last film.
IMDb 6.8
Tomatometer 71%
Popcorn Meter 63%
Conversation starter: what PG movie had the most or most explicit nudity?
I’m gonna throw Looker in the ring.
Sheena is my main choice (includes full frontal), with Beastmaster a close second. Can anyone tell that I’m a Tanya Robert’s fan?
You aren’t wrong on either. Or Tanya when she was at her top form.
Beastmaster just never should have been PG rated. Violent, gory, full frontal nudity. So damn good, though. God bless coscarelli.
I don’t remember a full frontal from Sheena. It was close though, with it being either a modesty patch or she was fully shaved and the camera border was precise.
I always think of Ragtime with Elizabeth McGovern when it comes to this.
“Logan’s Run” was surprisingly PG, with lovely Jenny Agutter.
And if you don’t mind widening the search to include French movies, PG-rated “Manon of the Spring” has a full-frontal Emmanuelle Béart frolicking in broad daylight.
Nuns on the Run had that surprising shower scene in the girls’ locker room. Return to the Blue Lagoon had some breast shots from a 14 year old Milla Jovovich. Although these were PG-13, not PG.
Another PG movie with surprise shower nudity was Sixteen Candles.
I cheated and looked it up on Reddit. The one that jumped out at me was 1984’s The Bounty (the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins version), with lots of native girls dressed as native girls tended to dress. Long scenes.
It’s a pity Billy Wilder didn’t embrace nudity in his films until nearly the end of his career.
We could’ve gotten naked Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch,” or nude Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina,” or full-frontal Barbara Stanwyck being slammed by a nude Fred MacMurray in “Double Indemnity…”
Eh, maybe the classics are best left alone…
Wilder did one in the early 70s called Avanti with a great skinny-dipping scene from Juliet Mills (Hayley’s sis)
He wasn’t allowed even if he wanted to. And if Audrey would’ve gotten naked, it probably would be on Breakfast At Tiffany’s since the actual novel did have a nude scene.
A nude scene was contemplated for Audrey Hepburn for the film Two for the Road in 1967. It was in the original script and for she was apparently prepared to do it. In the end though the scene was either never filmed, or filmed but not used (with the footage probably destroyed, as outtakes have never been found).
Her son has said that she herself indicated privately that it had been filmed, but there is no actual evidence of that. I think that if it was filmed, it probably was pretty tame, given the standards at the time and her image – maybe more ‘nude adjacent’ rather than an actual nude scene.
I do think that parents can adequately give kids some guidance about a bit of human nudity.
“The Woman in Red” had a gratuitous surprise bush shot from Kelly LeBrock, but that was PG-13.
My choice for best PG movie nudity is “She’ll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas”, an obscure 1985 flick that released after the introduction of PG-13.
Julie Walters gave us a well lit full frontal scene, plus another actress. Plus another fairly lengthy full nude scene elsewhere in the movie, plus yet another nude scene with yet another different actress.
I’m not sure if the MPAA was briefly invaded by France or whether they just slept through 2/3 of that one, but it’s a fun oddity nonetheless.
Everything ok? No updates in 48 hours
I haven’t really updated in a week. I’ve been on a family vacation, w/o the internet except for my phone. The last week’s posts were written in advance, posted on a timer. There will be a flurry of material in a few hours.