Introduction

During the second half of the XXth century, nudity in films became more prominent and ceased to spark the outrage it did during the 40s and before.

The Hays Code began losing its relevance in the late 50s and was officially replaced by the MPAA rating system in 1968. The establishment of a legal distinction between sex and obscenity, the influence of foreign films, the works of controversial directors and the release of documentaries featuring nudity all contributed to the inevitable “explosion” of movies featuring sexy women either partially or fully naked.

In this article, I shall discuss the popularity of glamour home movies or loops, the emergence of sexploitation and the interesting phenomenon of British Hammer Film Productions having their actresses display cleavage (and later toplessness) in pratically all their movies.

Glamour Home Movies and Peepshows

Though illegal during most of the XXth century, pornographic films were nevertheless made. They were known as stag films, were of poor picture quality, contained no credits and were shown almost exclusively in brothels. Even so, they were rather popular, as were the “peepshows”, the latter consisting of porn or striptease films that could be seen in devices called mutoscopes in exchange for coins. Moreover, during the 60s, erotic home videos became easy to make thanks to the invention of the Super 8 format. Considering all this, it should come as no surprise that there are countless small films (often called “loops”) featuring busty women taking their clothes off. Several were directed by Harrison Marks, such as “The Four Poster” (1964) starring Margaret Nolan and “Nightmare at Elm Manor” (1961) with June Palmer.

To get an idea of how many loops exist, one need look no further than “Something Weird Video”, a film distributor founded by Mike Vraney in 1990. Their website contains compilations featuring countless hours of busty models of the 50s, 60s and 70s stripping and posing nude. Naturally, the proliferation of this kind of content can be considered yet more evidence of the popularity of large breasts during the aforementioned decades.

Other busty women you can find in loops include both models and burlesque artists such as Virginia Bell, Michelle Angelo, Ann Austin, Margaret Middleton, Paula Page, Dusty Brown and Gee Whiz.

Russ Meyer, Nudie-Cuties and Sexploitation

To conoisseurs of vintage breasts, the name “Russ Meyer” needs no introduction. More than any other director of his time (except perhaps Harrison Marks), Meyer was responsible for introducing to the world the most gorgeous busty women of the 60s and 70s. Making no secret of his love for large bosoms, many of his movies unapologetically featured voluptuous models in lead roles.

In 1959, Meyer directed “The Immoral Mr. Teas”, the first so-called “nudie-cutie”. These were light-hearted comedies featuring goofy male characters and attractive women.

The busty women Meyer chose as actresses for his movies include (but are not limited to) June Wilkinson, Uschi Digard, Ann Peters, Babette Bardot, Lorna Maitland, Abundavitta, Candy Morrison, Pat Barrington and Tura Satana.

A couple of interesting nudie-cuties for lovers of large breasts would be “Bell, Bare and Beautiful” (1963), starring none other than Virginia Bell, and “The Lullaby of Bareland” (1964), also featuring Bell and the equally gorgeous Anne Howe, whose picture I showed in my article on burlesque.

Nudie-cuties were soon followed by sexploitation movies, which tended to have darker plots and featured women being abused and/or humiliated. A prime example of this are the “women in prison” films, where female prisoners are subjected to strip searches and engage in catfights, among other things. A well-known busty actress who appeared in several of these flicks was Pam Grier.

However, there were certainly cases of (busty) strong women in exploitation movies. One example is Tura Satana, who starred in Meyer’s “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (1965) as Varla. Another is Dyanne Thorne’s infamous Ilsa, who appeared in four films (two of which, incidentally, also featured Uschi Digard). Finally, we have Chesty Morgan, who starred in two of Doris Wishman’s movies, “Deadly Weapons” (1973) and “Double Agent 73” (1974).

Hammer Film Productions

Founded in London in 1934, Hammer would go on to make its mark in the history of horror by producing numerous gothic, vampire and psychological thriller films mainly during the 50s, 60s and 70s. A noteworthy constant in their movies is the generous display of cleavage from the female characters, including the leads. As early as 1957, actress Hazel Court showed a bit of cleavage while wearing a dress in “The Curse of Frankenstein”, as did Valerie Gaunt in 1958’s “Dracula”. However, this was nothing compared to 1959’s “The Man Who Could Cheat Death”, which had Hazel appearing topless in a scene where the male lead sculpts a bust (no pun intended) of her. Sadly, the film was heavily censored and the uncut footage is now considered lost, apart from a few stills.

As the 70s were more open to nudity than the previous decades, Hammer decided to make movies more explicitly sensual than ever before and include lesbian scenes. Thus, they released their “Karnstein Trilogy”, a series of vampire films based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella “Carmilla”. The first and best-known entry, “Vampire Lovers” (1970), starred Ingrid Pitt, who not only showed her fully naked breasts, but also everything from the waist down, including a bit of her bush during a bath scene. A few other actresses (Madeline Smith, Pippa Steel and Kirsten Lindholm) appeared topless as well. The following films, “Lust for a Vampire” and “Twins of Evil” (both released in 1971) feature several more nude pairs of breasts, though Ingrid refused to reprise her role of Carmilla, believing they were made just to show gratuitous nudity.

Other actresses with nice breasts include Valerie Leon and Veronica Carlson, though neither appeared topless in their movies. June Palmer, who I showed in part 3 of this series, did have a bit part in “Taste the Blood of Dracula” (1970), but probably the bustiest Hammer babe by far was Marie Devereux (not to be confused with the also bosomy but enhanced Monique Devereaux), who appeared in “The Stranglers of Bombay” (1959) and “The Brides of Dracula” (1960).