Talking Sex: Classic Movie Sexual Innuendos

Mae West caused a stir with bawdy humor and sexual dialogue.

In the early 1930s, a morality code was created for the movies. Sex was of course deemed immoral. Mae West practically caused it all on her own with bawdy humor and sexual dialogue like; "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" To stay within the code, writers had to find ways of having characters discuss sex without being too obvious.

Gone With the Wind, 1939, has many scenes in which sex is the theme. One of the best is when Rhett (Clark Gable) pays a visit and gives a gift to Scarlett (Vivien Leigh). The following dialogue ensues; Scarlett; "If you think I'll marry you just to pay for the bonnet I won't." Rhett; "Don't flatter yourself. I am not a marrying man."

If Rhett's intentions are not clear enough for you, he says this line later in the same scene: "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That’s what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often and by someone who knows how." Is "kissing" really what Rhett is talking about?

In The Maltese Falcon, 1941, Humphrey Bogart exchanges this dialogue with Mary Astor: Bogart; "Haven't you tried to buy my loyalty with money and nothing else?" Astor; "What else is there I can buy you with?" Hmmmm, I wonder?

Gilda ,1947, has some of the best sexual dialogue of any classic film. After finishing a dance, with a Spanish man she just met, Gilda says; "I always say, there’s something about Latin men, for one thing they can dance for another thing....what’s your number?" I wonder what that other "thing" is?

The word "sex" is never used in the film but it gets talked about a lot. When Gilda's husband suspects his business partner, Johnny, was Gilda's previous lover, he asks him; "Did you teach Gilda how to swim?" to which Johnny responds; "I taught her everything she knows."

Dancing is later used as a substitute for sex. While slow dancing, Gilda tells Johnny; "You're out of practice. Dancing I mean. I could help you get in practice again Johnny. Dancing I mean." Sure she means "dancing".

Jane Fonda had sex and Jane Fondadid near nudity in Barbarella in 1968.

In 1954, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes referred to body parts that got Mae West into trouble 20 years earlier. After performing on stage, Loreli (Marilyn Monroe) tells her friend Dorothy (Jane Russell) that she thinks her boyfriend is going to propose because she could see that he has "..a bulge in his pocket." She then adds that she thinks it's a jewelry box containing an engagement ring. Yeah, that's just what I thought she meant.

Later in the movie, Monroe and Russell walk past some athletes while on board a ship. As the athletes are admiring the girl’s figures, one guy asks another. "Suppose the ship hits an iceberg and sinks. Which one of them do you save from drowning?" The other guy answers; "Those girls couldn't drown." What ever does he mean?

In the late 1960s, sex went back to the movies. Jane Fonda had sex and did near nudity in Barbarella 1968. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty did it in Bonnie and Clyde, 1967, and then discussed how well he did afterwards.

Sex is a part of life and the movies reflect and exaggerate life better than anything else. Yet, other than for titillation sake, does showing sex and or nudity actually make a movie any better? Would Gilda be a better movie if Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford were shown having sex? Maybe, but then all of that juicy dialogue would have probably been over looked.