MovieChat Forums > Sunnyside Up (1930) Discussion > Eskimo dance

Eskimo dance

posted 13 years ago by skiddoo
4 replies | jump to latest

Why do reviewers keep insisting the past was an innocent time? In the Eskimo dance the young women were gyrating in micro minis and boots not unlike later go-go dancers, then they stripped to panties and bras and gyrated some more, one of them apparently having sex with bananas and as this was a Freudian era with a lot of talk about repressed ideas...people knew what was going on. And finally in what appeared to be orgiasmic pleasure the women set the tropics on fire. They didn't call it the Roaring Twenties for nothing! lol And then the censors swept in like angry parents and broke up the party--for a while.

I have to wonder what would have happened to movies if they hadn't been muzzled and muted. Maybe we wouldn't have childish ideas about the past. I wish so many silents and early talkies hadn't been lost, too. That would have given us a better understanding. I watch as many pre Code movies as I can find.

[–] joyce-miller3-1 13 years ago

I'm watching too. Those minis and boots were to die for. ;)

Yeah, that Eskimo dance was pretty risque.

[–] Echo_in_big_sky 13 years ago

Amen to what skiddoo said.
Sex sold, even back then.

Just be truthful and if you can fake that you've got it made. ;)

[–] movielovrr916 13 years ago

Skiddoo, I completely agree! I love pre-code movies as well. I also agree that a lot of people think the movies from back then were very innocent but that just wasn't the case. Thank God some movies still exist before the censors took over and changed things...changed them temporarily anyway! ;)

[–] dzizwheel 13 years ago

I think that you would find exactly what you have today.

"Pushing the envelope" always includes finding the newest low, the ever greater shock. It never seems to be about making the best movie or elevating the quality of a piece.

You'd probably have gotten the f bomb sooner, the "nudity integral to the script" and the obligatory sex scene so important for "plot development" a lot faster.

No offense, but what is it you think was missed ? What was muzzled and muted ?

I worked in a store that had a substantial number of adult products and DVD titles and can assure you, the only time nudity is essential to any plot is in XXX.

Really: did anyone think "The Seduction" was made for any other reason than to get people in the theater to see Morgan Fairchild's alleged breasts ? Certainly not for her acting ability.

All I am saying is sometimes less is a lot more. And a driving reason why I like watching the oldies, the public domain stuff: they had to work harder. It's easy to be cheap and exploitive. It takes no artistry at all.

I finally saw the alternate ending of "The Letter" that Bette Davis had complained about for so many years that had been cut from the original. All I could think was: "That's it? I've been waiting for years to see what this movie "could have been" had the "butchers" and the code not gotten in the way and this is all it was ?"

Be happy. You're not missing a thing except a cheap and shabby way to get people to see a picture through shock value and pandering to the lowest common denomiator. That way you spend less on writers....