Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex: "The Movies and Sex" (1971)

I think this picture is supposed to be a kinky version of "Little Red Riding Hood."

NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).

The article: "The Movies and Sex." Originally published in Body & Soul (Pendulum Publishing), vol. 5, no. 3, October/November 1971. Credited to Edward D. Wood, Jr. 

Excerpt: "The camera, of the period, did as much as possible to reveal that something was happening. The couple got into the clinch, the kissing routine, then the camera dropped down to their legs as the girl's feet were lifted up off the floor. Or suddenly the lights went out and some moans of delight might have been heard. Then there was always the panning down of the camera to the side of one of the double beds, usually the girls, and her negligee slipped to the floor."

Reflections: Ed Wood must have been experiencing déjà vu in the early 1970s as he wrote the same basic article again and again, with only slight differences each time. "The Movies and Sex" is yet another quasi-historical essay about how the depiction of sex in the movies has changed over the years. It's basically interchangeable with the three previous articles in this collection and even uses some of the same examples. Once again, Eddie points to the forgotten Rex Harrison movie The Four Poster (1952) as a milestone in cinema history because it depicted a married couple sharing a double bed.

Lana Turner: Ed Wood's type of gal.

As with "Behind the Film Scene," Eddie again discusses the so-called "sweater girls" of the late 1930s and early '40s. These were simply attractive actresses such as Lana Turner who wore tight sweaters. For Ed Wood, sweaters were a lifelong obsession, so naturally he'd try to find some way to incorporate them into his writing whenever possible. In this article, he even gets to mention his beloved angora. This might be the first article in When the Topic is Sex to do so.

As before, Ed Wood sneers at conservative politician Will Hays (1874-1954), who used his position as chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America to keep salacious material off the big screen in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s with a set of rules informally known as the Hays Code. This time, however, Eddie also gives props to Eric Johnston (1896-1963), who succeeded Hays as chairman of the MPPDA and quietly attempted to undo much of what the prudish Hays had done to sanitize the movies. 

Another factor that sets "The Movies and Sex" apart is that Eddie uses plenty of real-world examples to make his case that sex—including kinky, deviant sex—has always been an integral part of the movies, no matter what the censors think. He points to both King Kong (1933) and Universal's The Wolf Man (1941) as examples of movies about bestiality. Another Universal horror film, The Mummy (1932), is cited as a story about necrophilia. And Eddie even name drops his idol Bela Lugosi while suggesting that Count Dracula was a hemophiliac. Here, the term "hemophilia" refers not to the blood-clotting disorder but rather to a lust for blood. I'd never seen the word used that way before this.

It's important to remember that Ed Wood was writing these articles decades before the internet existed. He did not have a world of information at his fingertips the way we do today. Some of Eddie's facts in "The Movies and Sex" are accurate, while others are dubious. Let's start with the accurate ones. Yes, the scene from King Kong in which the titular ape strips Fay Wray was censored. (It has since been restored.) And, yes, actress Hedy Lamarr did a celebrated nude scene in Ecstasy (1933), though Eddie mistakenly refers to her famous nude swim as a nude bath. 

Did All's Quiet on the Western Front (1930) or Hell's Angels (1930) originally contain nude scenes that were trimmed from later prints? Ed Wood contends they did, though I can find no evidence of this. (I'm willing to be refuted on this point.)

Likewise, I can find no corroboration for Eddie's story that actor John Barrymore (1882-1942) stuffed bananas and other phallic objects into his trousers. Maybe this is one of those urban legends that circulated for decades in Hollywood. If it's true, however, it would give new meaning to Barrymore's famous nickname, "The Great Profile."

What's really remarkable about "The Movies and Sex" is its defiant tone. Ed Wood contends that the efforts of the censors will always be futile because sex is a natural part of life and cannot be suppressed. You can cover up women's bodies and men's bodies—and the bluenoses have attempted to do both—but the face will always be the sexiest part of the human anatomy. At least, according to Ed:

The strangest part about the whole sexual censorship scene is the fact girls have been beautiful since the beginning of time and the movies would have to put bags over all their heads to keep the sight from the movie goers eyes. And the face is and always has been known to man as the greatest sexual "turn on" object. The face alone is the greatest of all sex symbols. If the face isn't pretty, few men will look any further. The rest is, as the movies have called their extra short subjects, the extra added attractions.

In a weird way, that's a beautiful thought.

Next: "Bedroom Scene" (1971)