This is something that really blows my mind - the fact that the sex tape taken in Bond's hotel room is an active plot point really is surprising. How the hell were they allowed to keep this in the story when this was released in the early 60s? Lol
shareEven in the strictest days of movie censorship, good filmmakers & scriptwriters knew how push the envelope just enough to get their point across without being called on it. And they also knew how to suggest just enough for the adults to understand, while it flew over the heads of the kids in the audience. Recall the scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Lawrence is captured & the soldiers tear away his upper clothes, revealing his bare chest, and the Turkish commander lasciviously licks his lips before the flogging with the cane begins. There's even lingering closeup of his tongue over his lips. Adults in the audience knew that there was a lot more involved there than just the flogging.
shareLawrence Of Arabia was a British film with some Hollywood funding therefore the silly Hays code didn't apply to David Lean's vision.
shareActually, although the Hays Code didn't apply to the making of British films, American film distributors had Hays-like standards (don't ask me for details). So foreign films that had more sex than the Hayes Code allowed might not be distributed in the US, or widely distributed.
Anyway, I don't think the sex film plot point in this film broke any rules. By 1964 the code had been relaxed, to the point where film characters could talk about sex, as long as they didn't show any of the wrong body parts or hump onscreen.
British productions could always get away with a lot more than Hollywood because there was no Hays code. Same goes for the fight Connery and Robert Shaw have on the train. It still looks rough and raw decades later. Hollywood would have softened it down.
shareThat Bond/Grant fight is still my all-time favourite movie fight. Two superb actors who looked as if they could do it for real. And the way they gradually build to it. From Bond's comment to Grant about how fit he looks, and just the way he is around him. You believe that Bond's thinking 'This guy would be a handful'. You know it's coming, and you're waiting and waiting for it to kick-off. And when it does... Fantastic.
shareIt is a belter.
shareWe weren't hung up on trivial things back in the 60's I suppose, plus, not having social media also benefitted
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