It's listed here as NR (not rated), but curious how ratings were in 1959. Just watched it and was surprised for the time how strong the sexuality was in it. Even though she's wearing a dress, it appears that Monroe is nude at the chest. And the suggestions at the boat scene were also mature. Not sure what ratings were like then, but get the feeling for its time it seems this would be R
shareWhen I read your question the first thing that came to mind were the cold blooded mob shootings. Especially the second one towards the end, from what I recall they were practically close-ups with blood squibs bursting on the guys' chests. Completely tame now, but I'd bet it raised a few eyebrows in '59. If they had ratings back then I wouldn't be surprised if it was R for that.
shareYes, exactly. That too. Do you know how ratings were back then? Why the "not rated" for this, and would that have let kids watch it?
shareThe ratings system wasn't implemented until the late '60s. Before that, studios were expected to follow "The Hayes Code" which was kind of amorphous. You weren't supposed to show innocent people getting killed, but it was OK to show it happening to evil criminals. According to the code you were never supposed to see a criminal "get away with it," he had to get what was coming to him one way or another. All kinds of rules about what you could and couldn't show in terms of sex. If a man and woman were on a bed together, the man had to have at least one foot touching the floor. There was a great IFC documentary about all of this around ten years ago, sorry I can't remember what it was called.
EDIT: The title of the doc was This Film Is Not Yet Rated.