Something I thought odd...
When Molly and Johnny come to visit their parents, when Molly's dad is married to Johnny's mom, I thought it rather odd that they had seperate beds. Did anyone else??
shareI think it's just because of the decade this film was shot and released. If you watch "I Love Lucy," for example, Lucy and Ricky are always seen as having two seperate beds, despite having been married for years (the same is seen in their film "The Long, Long Trailer"). The 1950s were just more conservative years, and it was deemed improper to show anything intimate in the bedroom.
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But yet we see Molly dad and Johnny's mom holding each other down at the boat house.
shareBut they were fully clothed in the boat house, even though it was obvious they met there in order to have sex. Twin beds in movies were the established rule until the early 60's.
I also thought it was humorous, considering the two were stil newlyweds when Sandra Dee visited them.
It certainly is a funny kind of standard in classic, older movies.
I absolutely love classic movies and have quite a collection and the 'bed' arrangements always seem to vary.
For instance, some movies depict one big bed but it's really made up of two single/twin matresses (with separate sheets and blankets) so even though the couple is technically sleeping 'together' there was no touching without bedclothing inbetween!
And, I have seen double beds depicted (the first example that springs to mind is in 'The Women' when Norma Shearer is sleeping on her own (i.e. so I guess, since no man was present, then a double bed could be depicted).
Has anyone else noticed those sorts of things?
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My uncle and aunt had twin beds that were shoved together and held together somehow. It was before the development of modern spring mattresses that didn't sag in the middle when two people are in the bed. Also, I think one preferred a more firm mattress than the other.
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I think it's one of the requirements of the Hays Code, which was still enforced in 1959. No funny business even if you're married! There's a lot about the Hays Code there :
http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/censored/film.html
"The Hays Code forbid the showing of a married couple with a double bed. Some scenes from this popular 1950's sit-com show Lucy in "her" bed, clearly distanced from Ricky's. Another episode showed how "I Love Lucy" pushed the edges of the envelope by dealing with Lucy's pregnancy, a topic also previously forbidden. The script managed to carefully dance around the term "pregnant" for 30 minutes without actually having a character utter it. "
I have to correct people about "I Love Lucy". When the show started, a double bed is shown many times. They changed to two singles later but started out in bed together.
It wasn't the time period really. It was the movie code. By the way, this film bent a lot of the rules, resulting in lurid, somewhat smarmy moments.
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In many movies and TV shows, twin beds for a married couple were shown so often that they came to be called "Hollywood Beds." In real life, I doubt many couples had them.
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