Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Tarzan and Jane Skinny Dipping

By the early 1930's Hollywood movies were really pushing the envelope with very adult content, both theme wise and nudity wise. The complaints from religious fanatics and worried mothers grew so numerous that a thing called the Hays Office was created to censor movies. Censorship lasted until the 1960s when the lid came off and we began down the path that led us to the vulgar state of too many of today's movies. And TV.

I'd long known there was a skinny dipping scene in Tarzan and his Mate. I did not know that Ted Turner restored the censored scene in 1986. In the infamous scene Tarzan throws Jane into a pond with her dress getting snagged on a tree branch, rendering Jane naked. Tarzan jumps after Jane. Tarzan and Jane then swim for quite a long time under water. An Olympic swimmer named Josephine McKim temporarily replaces Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane during the skinny dipping. With Maureen back being Jane she gets out of the water and has to tell Cheetah multiple times to "Give it to me, Give it to me." Cheetah holds her dress hostage while he laughs at her.

Watch the video to see what disturbed Depression Era religious fanatics. And prudish mothers.

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