Introduction: In the following illustrated compilation are some of the most significant films in the history of sex on the screen. The influential film milestones and their memorable sexual/erotic scenes are thoroughly described. Including portrayals of sex and/or nudity, these films were often considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time. The following listing of these influential, memorable and classic sex scenes and films takes into account all of the available surveys of this type of material, and attempts to provide an informed, detailed, unranked, chronological (by film title) grouping of the most influential and groundbreaking films and scenes. Some of the most notorious (or infamous) films are quite mediocre, usually made as an excuse to display nudity or eroticism of a star performer.

See also the multi-part Sexual and Erotic Films in Cinema, The Most Controversial Films of All-Time and the Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses of All Time in Cinematic History.

Key to Icon Symbol:

- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous

Example

Goldfinger (1964, UK)

Kiss Me Quick (1964)

Kiss Me, Stupid! (1964)

Lorna (1964)

Marnie (1964)

This film was another of Hitchcock's tales of sexual perversity and obsession - billed as a 'sex mystery' with the questioning tagline: "Would his touch end Marnie's unnatural fears or start them again?", it featured the prudish title character Marnie/Mary Edgar (icy blonde Tippi Hedren) who was sexually frigid (due to trauma when witnessing as a young 5 year-old (Melody Thomas Scott) her 20 year-old prostitute mother Bernice Edgar (Louise Latham) being abused by sex partner and pedophile sailor (Bruce Dern)); Marnie was also a compulsive kleptomaniacal thief (who acquired power over men by stealing from them); the film also featured handsome James Bond co-star Sean Connery as her blackmailing playboy boss and newly-wed husband Mark Rutland in a much-debated scene (was it passive rape or a case of frigidity?) - on their honeymoon cruise to Fiji, he asserted: "I very much want to go to bed" - a euphemism for sleeping with her; he hungrily advanced toward her, kissed her, ripped off her nightgown (the silky garment fell to her feet), embraced her, laid on top of her on the bed and took her (his face filling the entire screen) as she stared upward in a frozen, paralyzed catatonic state - completely lacking any passion or emotion, but then the scene cut away; Marnie's mother admitted that at age 15, she allowed a boy named Billy to "have her" in exchange for his sweater

Beach Party (1963)

Pajama Party (1964)

Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

Beach Party was a musical comedy made by American International Pictures (AIP), a low-budget, exploitative, and successful film company, founded in 1956; it was their first "beach" film (mostly to drive-in theatres), starring popular 24 year-old singer Frankie Avalon, now-buxom 21 year-old ex-Disney Mickey Mouse Club Mousketeer Annette Funicello (as Dolores or "DeeDee" in later films), Robert Cummings, and Dorothy Malone; AIP realized the lucrative buying power of this new demographic group and advertised the fluffy film alluringly: "It's what happens when 10,000 kids meet on 5,000 beach blankets"; however, wholesome star Annette Funicello - still under contract to Disney, was legally forced to not appear in a bikini, and to express repressive sexual attitudes, although she wore a non-revealing two-piece suit!

The Beach Party series of youth films (i.e., Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)) included Pajama Party (1964), including more sexual innuendo; it starred Annette Funicello (as Connie) and poor substitute Tommy Kirk (her former Disney co-star), and Frankie Avalon only in a short, red-tinted cameo role as Socum; it was a low-budget teen film with lots of shimmying and shaking - about a teenage Martian named Go-Go (Kirk) who landed on Earth to study the lovemaking rituals of Earthlings and fell in love with Connie; these mid-60s films always featured stereotypes such as sexy virginal females and lusty males

The Pawnbroker (1964)

In Sidney Lumet's controversial drama, a Holocaust-surviving husband - a bitter old, upper Manhattan pawnbroker named Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger) anesthetized himself emotionally, even against a breast-baring black prostitute (Thelma Oliver), the girlfriend of his employee Jesus Ortiz (Jaime Sanchez); she offered herself to him ("I'm good, pawnbroker. I'm real good. I've done things you haven't even dreamed about before. Just twenty dollars more. I'll make you happy like you never know - Look!") - a fast series of clips alternated between shots of the prostitute, himself, and his brutal, intense flashbacks of Nazi guards sexually assaulting his humiliated wife Ruth (Linda Geiser) (also seen briefly topless) years before; after witnessing the cruelty of the concentration camp, he now interpreted sex as dark and evil - he covered the young topless woman with her raincoat, and gave her a $20 dollar bill; this controversial yet mainstream film was condemned by the Legion of Decency although the MPAA gave it a seal of approval; it was the first US film to show a woman nude from the waist up with bare breasts that was granted a Production Code seal because the nakedness was integral to the story - this ultimately broke the back of the Production Code's restrictions