Sex in Cinema: Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes

Sex in Cinema: In the following collection, excerpted from the Mini-History of Sex in the Cinema at this site, here are some of the most significant milestones, and most influential and memorable sexual/erotic scenes and films on the big screen through cinematic history. Most of these films, with portrayals of sex and/or nudity, were considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time.

Sex in Cinema: In the following collection, excerpted from the Mini-History of Sex in the Cinema at this site, here are some of the most significant milestones, and most influential and memorable sexual/erotic scenes and films on the big screen through cinematic history. Most of these films, with portrayals of sex and/or nudity, were considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time. HISTORY OF SEX IN CINEMA - INDEX (chronological by film title) Intro \| Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 \| Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10 \| Part 11 \| Part 12 \| Part 13 \| Part 14 \| Part 15 \| Part 16 \| Part 17 \| Part 18 \| Part 19 \| Part 20 \| Part 21 \| Part 22 \| Part 23 \| Part 24 \| Part 25 \| Part 26 \| Part 27 \| Part 28 \| Part 29 \| Part 30 \| Part 31 \| Part 32 \| Part 33 \| Part 34 \| Part 35 \| Part 36 \| Part 37 \| Part 38 \| Part 39 \| Part 40 \| Part 41 \| Part 42 \| Part 43 \| Part 44 \| Part 45 \| Part 46 \| Part 47 \| Part 48 \| Part 49 \| Part 50 \|
Sex in Cinema: Part 5 Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological by film title) Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous
Movie Title	Brief Scene Description	Example
Red Headed Woman (1932)	This huge pre-Hays Code box-office hit starred sexy Jean Harlow as unrepentant, promiscuous golddigger Lil "Red" Andrews - a calculating, man-baiting, morally-questionable, flirtatious home-wrecking 'bad girl' who traded her physical charms to get up the business and social ladders - it was considered lurid and sensational because its content included marital infidelity, lots of implicit sex and promiscuity, violence, and sadism; in the opening scene, she asked: "Can you see through this?" - and after being told yes, she replied: "I'll wear it", and soon after bragged: "When I kiss 'em, they stay kissed for a long time"; in another scene after she had been face-smacked by married lover William 'Bill'/'Willie' Legendre Jr. (Chester Morris), she snapped back: "Ah, do it again, I like it, do it again!" and then forced a kiss on the outraged suitor; after gaining his sympathy by sobbing (with her breasts heaving) and being put on her bed in her locked apartment, she hid the key in her blouse - as he approached and the film faded to black; the film outraged moral purists and sped the enforcement of the Production Code only a few years later, due mostly to its final sequence in which "Red" was again fleecing another rich old sugar daddy at the race track -- complete with a chauffeured limo driven by her lover Albert (Charles Boyer) after she had shot and wounded her rich husband a few years earlier during a quarrel- without any recrimination or punishment for her open sexuality
Scarface (1932)	In 1932, this film was one of the boldest, most potent, raw and violently-brutal gangster-crime films ever made - its release was delayed for two years due to director Howard Hawks' and co-producer Howard Hughes' squabbles with industry censors over its sensationalism and glorification of the gangster menace; the film was heralded as an example of the kind of protection the Hollywood Production Code of Ethics could provide to the movie-going public when implemented in 1934, although it contained muted hints of an incestuous attachment between the title character (Paul Muni) and his sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak) - when he expressed extreme jealousy over her dating of other fellas; in the film's final shootout scene, Cesca expressed her oneness with her brother: "...you're me and I'm you. It's always been that way"; this film's sub-themes supposedly went uncontested - possibly, because some the most obvious references to incest were removed by Hawks himself
Shanghai Express (1932)	This was the fourth of the seven Dietrich/von Sternberg films together, with Dietrich starring as "coaster" Shanghai Lily on a train hurtling through war-torn China - she is a woman of easy virtue known for saying to ex-lover army surgeon, Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Clive Brook): "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily" after she changed her name from Magdalen
The Sign of the Cross (1932)	Cecil B. DeMille's spectacular, pre-censorship epic displayed Rome's sins and depravities (homosexuality, orgies, nudity, and murder) in multiple ways and scenes; debauched Emperor Nero's (Charles Laughton in his first American film) wicked mistress Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) bathed unabashedly in asses’ milk with her breasts bobbing on the surface, and there was an attempted corruptive seduction scene of virginal, blonde Christian Mercia (Elissa Landi) by Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner) during a lesbian-tinged dance of the "Naked Moon" that visibly aroused its audience; using a religious plot line, DeMille was able to film erotic scenes of semi-naked women condemned to slaughter in the Arena - including one rope-stretched female victim awaiting hissing crocodiles, and another flower-garlanded-tied nude female Christian martyr awaiting a devouring death in a Roman arena from a menacing silverback gorilla; the film's most decadent and debauched moments were cut by censoring boards, and deleted for the film's re-release in 1944, but then reinstated in the mid-90s video version
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)	The first Tarzan talkie starred Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller as the 'ape man' Tarzan; it also featured Maureen O'Sullivan as lovely English girl Jane Parker who arrived in Africa for a dangerous expedition with her father (C. Aubrey Smith); in one of her earliest scenes before meeting Tarzan, she changed down to a revealing slip, and cleansed her face while looking in a mirror with cold cream to "preserve that schoolgirl complexion"; after being kidnapped by Tarzan and sleeping overnight in a tree (and supposedly enjoying sex with him), she got to know him (with their famous "Tarzan...Jane" dialogue), and she joined Tarzan for a swim in very brief attire; she flirted with him as he swam with her, dunked her again and again, and tried to coax him to return her to the bank; she also engaged him in a suggestively intimate and flirtatious scene, in which she caught herself: "I don't think you'd better look at me like that?...Far too attractive...I love saying things to a man who can't understand, who doesn't even know what kisses are?"; it was remade in a nude version with Bo Derek in 1981
Trouble in Paradise (1932)	This produced/directed Ernst Lubitsch film, about a pair of sophisticated Parisian thieves (played exquisitely by Herbert Marshall as Gaston and Miriam Hopkins as Lily), opened with a scene in which sex and success in robbery were equated during a romantic, erotic dinner between the two; the pair's polite and quick-witted, but seductive game/duel of dinner-table pickpocketing and mutual theft stretched on further, as they declared their love for each other while returning precious purloined objects. Their obviously unmarried association was fueled by illicitly-acquired possessions that served as an aphrodisiac during foreplay, and the erotic attraction between the two criminal soul-mates heated up considerably - and led them to recline on the couch where he professed his love: ("I love you. I loved you the moment I saw you. I'm mad about you - my little shoplifter. My sweet little pickpocket, my darling") - the scene ended when the couple's images slowly dissolved, and magically vanished and disappeared, leaving an empty sofa in the twilight; the room's light was switched off, and a sign was hung on the door: "Do Not Disturb" - this was something that wouldn't happen in films after 1934
Baby Face (1933)	Barbara Stanwyck starred in this lurid, potent "fallen woman" pre-Code melodramatic film as Lily "Baby Face" Powers - a saloon bar-maid in a steel mill factory town (Erie, PA) who suffered a brutal upbringing in a speakeasy; in one startling scene, Lily's breasts were groped from behind by sleazy and corrupt local politician Ed Sipple (Arthur Hohl) - one example of how her abusive bootlegging father (Robert Barrat) prostituted her to perform sexual favors; one of the film's censored lines delivered to her angered father (in italics) was explicit: "Yeah! I'm the tramp and who's to blame? My father! A swell start you gave me! Ever since I was 14 what's it been?! Nothing but men! Dirty rotten men, and you're lower than any of 'em. I'll hate you as long as I live"; after her father's death, she used the principles of Nietzche's Will to Power and moved to New York after sweet-talking a railyard brakeman (James Murray) and offering him sex to get free train fare (after a sly and seductive grin at him, the workman's gloves came off before he dimmed his lantern in the boxcar); in the city, she used her provocative charms and feminine allure to land a job: (chubby Personnel officer Mr. Pratt (Maynard Holmes): "Have you had any experience?" Lily (rolling her eyes): "Plenty"); she became a carnal, calculating gold-digger, and literally seduced - and then discarded many male victims (including rejecting a young John Wayne as lowly office worker Jimmy McCoy Jr.) as she slept her way to the top (literally) of a banking corporation, the Gotham Trust Company, by going from floor to floor; she eventually married the bank president Courtland Trenholm (George Brent) on the top penthouse level; the "pre-release" version of the film faced Production Code censorship challenges almost immediately, and Warner Brothers had to make numerous changes for the theatrical version by reshooting several scenes and adding new ones, and re-dubbing dialogue (especially the scenes with local cobbler Cragg (Alphonse Ethier)); one censored line about seduction was delivered by Mortgage Department boss Brody (Douglas Dumbrille) to Lily: "Stick around after 5", and another line between secretaries implied adultery: "You'd never think he had a wife and three kids"; the earlier version of the film had an ambiguous ending regarding the outcome of Trenholm's suicide attempt, but the theatrical ending (tacked-on, preachy and phony) included punishment of the protagonists and a conclusion in which Lily learned her lesson -- but the film still retained its sensational nature and offended some critics and conservative audiences
The Barbarian (1933)	This racy, pre-code, inter-racial romantic adventure MGM film (with a script by liberated screenwriter Anita Loos) starred Myrna Loy as American Diana 'Di' Standing who was vacationing in Egypt and attracting the attention of young Egyptian guide Jamil El Shehab (Ramon Novarro); it was noted for Loy's topless lounge-in-the-bathtub scene, although the actress later admitted in her autobiography that she was wearing a flesh-tinted body suit
Design for Living (1933)	Director Ernst Lubitsch's suggestive romantic sex comedy was based on Noel Coward's intelligent play about a sexy menage a trois among British upper-class bohemians; this film, released only six months before the Production Code began to be enforced, portrayed a young blonde, free-spirited 'modern woman' playgirl - a ravishing designer named Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins), who was in love and in an unorthodox relationship with two Americans while sharing a bohemian apartment in Paris: struggling playwright Thomas Chambers (Fredric March) and undiscovered painter George Curtis (Gary Cooper); because of its risky and unacceptable subject matter and sexual interplay for its time (although completely toned down and handled with Lubitsch's brand of innuendo, sophistication and subtlety), it was forbidden for re-release or re-make for its 'gross travesty of marriage' in the film's second half
Ecstasy (1933, Czech) (aka Ekstase or Extase)	This Czechoslovakian romantic drama by Czech filmmaker Gustav Machaty was once notorious, earth-shattering and scandalous - it told about a sexually-frustrated child-bride named Eva Hermann (19 year old Hedwig Kiesler, or later known as Hollywood glamour queen Hedy Lamarr) with an elderly, impotent, uncaring newly-wed husband named Emile (Zvonimir Rogoz); it was censored for Eva's nude bathing swim, naked forest romp through the trees to pursue her horse Loni (which had run off with her clothes), and love-making scene with virile engineer Adam (Aribert Mog) who helped retrieve the horse; it was the first theatrically-released film (non-pornographic) in which the sex act was depicted (although off-screen); it was unusual at its time for depicting obvious female sexual pleasure (ecstasy) during orgasm (simulated) from the effects of oral sex; the film was, arguably, the first to depict female orgasm on-screen; the orgasmic expressions were evident on Eva's face - caused by the director poking her with a safety pin; the film was confiscated by the Treasury Department (US Customs) when it was imported into the US - the first film to be blocked for censorship purposes
Employees' Entrance (1933)	Advertising copy proclaimed for this Warner Bros' audacious film: "See what happens in department store aisles and offices after closing hours! Girls who couldn't have been touched with a 100-ft yacht --ready to do anything to get a job!"; Warren Williams starred as Kurt Anderson - a ruthless, cut-throat scoundrel and the fanatical head of the Depression-Era Franklin Monroe & Co., the world's largest department store, who seduced much-younger, naive employee and model Madeline West (Loretta Young) when drunk, and then set out to destroy her secret marriage to top salesman and aspiring subordinate Martin West (Wallace Ford)
Female (1933)	In this daring, salacious pre-Code film from Warners and director Michael Curtiz, Ruth Chatterton - without apology - portrayed (uncharacteristically for its time) a powerful, sexually-liberated and unrestrained, man-hungry female auto plant executive named Alison Drake (known to her employees as “Miss D" and by her male assistant as a "superwoman") who used her handsome young male secretaries for leisurely one-night stand pleasures and seduction (served with vodka to fortify their courage) at her lavish house - and then discarded them; in one scene, a secretary asked the no-nonsense Miss D: "Now that I've met you socially, what shall we talk about?", and she responded coyly: "Do we have to talk?"; this film explored a major role reversal of typical stereotypes, and the dilemma professional women still face - the choice between career and marriage; eventually by film's end, Miss D came to the conclusion that women were "born for love and marriage and children" after coming up against a pipe-smoking engineer (George Brent); once the Code went into effect in mid-1934, Joseph Breen placed this film on his "no re-release" list, and the film was unseen until the 1950s
Flying Down to Rio (1933)	This south of the border musical-dance film marked the first pairing between Fred Astaire (as Fred Ayres) and Ginger Rogers (as Honey Hale) as supporting performers; since it was a pre-Code uncensored film, it featured lots of see-through dresses, skirts and blouses, especially in the large-scale and racy Carioca dance sequences, and in the memorable Flying Down to Rio number, with airplane wing-dancing/walking, skimpily-attired chorus girls (filmed in an airplane hangar with wind machines and a few planes hanging from the ceiling - enhanced with backdrops of Rio and Malibu Beach) atop biplane wings; even Ginger Rogers wore a fairly-transparent dress while singing "Music Makes Me"; the film also featured risque dialogue - early on in the film, one of the blonde chorus girls who was jealous of flirtatiously-successful Brazilian Dolores Del Rio (as Belinha DeRezende), asked: "What have these South Americans got below the equator that we haven't?"; in addition, the hotel manager character Hammerstein played by Franklin Pangborn was decidedly gay and played up the "sissy" elements of his role