MovieChat Forums > Days of Wine and Roses (1963) Discussion > Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

posted 17 years ago by ldetre
9 replies | jump to latest

I know this seems like a minor issue in the context of a film about alcoholism, but I was really surprised to see a film from the early 1960s that addressed breastfeeding. Can anyone think of an earlier film that depicts a breastfeeding mother? Again, this is a small part of the film but I wondered how audiences in 1962 received this topic.

[–] Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday 17 years ago

After 1959 the Production Code and the Breen Office censorship was starting to break down (in fact, the two major films to do this starred Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick--Some Like it Hot and Anatomy of a Murder), allowing inclusions such as breastfeeding.

But yeah, I was a little surprised, too. Kudos to the cast/crew for being so brave to push the envelope in so many ways.

Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you *exactly* what to do, what to say?!

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] noahtenzin 16 years ago

^ http://shareddarkness.com/2009/02/10/salma-hayeks-breasts-designated-u n-ambassadors.aspx

Ask and YE SHALL RECEIVE!

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 10 years ago

I haven't seen the entire film yet (I'll finish it tomorrow), but I'm wondering if there is any mention of fetal alcohol syndrome in this movie...if that sort of thing was even talked about in 1962.

~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) and Ellery Queen = 

[–] cpoet 9 years ago

There wouldn't be any mention of fetal alcohol syndrome in a 1962 movie. Pregnant women, like all the other women in a particular segment of society, dressed for dinner, filled the ice bucket before hubby got home, then had a cigarette while the two of them sipped their martinis during "the cocktail hour" before dinner.

(Somehow I don't find this as strange as the women in little pillbox hats and white gloves, accompanied by men in suits and ties, taking in a movie at the local cinema.)

[–] practicepiano 9 years ago

Can anyone think of an earlier film that depicts a breastfeeding mother?

There is a scene in Song of Love (1947), in which Katharine Hepburn, playing Clara Schumann, leaves out part of a piece she is playing on the piano, and rushes through the rest, to get offstage.

The scene cuts back and forth between her looking offstage, her servant holding her crying baby off stage and gesturing to her, and her husband's reaction in the audience.

As she rushes offstage, she unfastens the top of her dress, takes the baby from the servant, sits in a chair with her back to us, settles him into place and starts nursing him.

The shot ends with the baby gradually stopping his fussing, and we hear suckling sounds as the camera pans in on his cute feet relaxing.

It starts at about minute 53:

http://www.imovies.ge/movies/33507

[–] montebellomommy 8 years ago

This scene really had an impact on me emotionally. The husband as an alcoholic was cruel and belittled his wife for staying sober in order to breastfeed their infant daughter. He even went so far as to say that breastfeeding was runing her figure! But the wife was so invested in his love and she needed him to desire her and accept her that she started drinking again knowing that the booze would not be good for her milk and therefor she would have to start giving the baby formula....

[–] Foster (878) 2 years ago

Smoking and drinking During Pregnancy was VERY common in the 60s

[–] jcnyclv (1633) 2 years ago

The Group, 1966. Elizabeth Hartman was breast feeding.