I thought the sexual innuendo with the movement and changing face of the clocks was sublime-but I guess the appearance of Big Ben outside the suites window,were too much for the code.The film wasn't reissued until 68'....
shareI really enjoyed this movie. In some ways it reminds me of the Thomas Crown Affair - not so much the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway but the remake with Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo.
I enjoyed the clock scenes too but I don't think that's what kept the movie from being reissued. Those scenes were very subtle so I suspect they would have been fine within the code. There were plenty more obvious scenes that would have been much more problematic. For instance, there was nothing subtle the first time Lily and Gaston are intimate. They're shown kissing on the sofa, him on top of her, the 'Do Not Disturb' sign goes on the door and the scene fades with them locked in an embrace. Their relationship itself is far from subtle.
There were many other very obvious scenes in the movie. Almost every scene between Mariette and Gaston has her offering herself to him. When he's not there, she is clear what her intentions towards him are. By code standards, there were far too many risque scenes in the movie. If they were edited out there wouldn't be much of a movie left. The movie was short enough; what would have been left after cuts would look more like Swiss cheese than a movie. The gatekeepers had no other option but to ban it from being shown during the code era.
The way the movie ends is also obviously pre-code. I don't think that would have been allowed afterwards. I'm glad all of that resolved; otherwise I would have never seen or heard of this little gem. It's funny how, by contrast with what's being made today, this once scandalous movie is very, very, tame.