MovieChat Forums > Take Me Out to the Ball Game Discussion > Simulated pudendal cleft outline: An Am...

Simulated pudendal cleft outline: An American mainstream cinema first?


First of all, let me say that I was quite impressed by Esther Williams's performance in this film. I'd heard of her for years, but had never seen any of her movies; and I was surprised at what a believable, natural, modern acting style she displayed. By contrast, I find most English-language film actresses of the thirties, forties, and fifties to be more or less intolerable, with their irritatingly artificial, affected, self-conscious performances.

At the same time, I couldn't help but notice that in the early scene where Williams's character K.C. gets out of the pool and talks with Denny, the center seam of her swimsuit has been sewn with a slight inward puckering in the crotch area, creating an impression, though a distinctly non-realistic one, that the wet material is riding up into her pudendal cleft. It's obviously not a real pudendal cleft outline, because it extends higher than any such outline would really do, particularly if the top of the woman's cleft were covered by pubic hair, as was of course the case with virtually all women back then. Nevertheless, it's a startling and very suggestive effect. I had trouble paying attention to the dialogue during that small portion of the movie.

Since the early days of the talkies (and maybe before that, too--I wouldn't know), one of filmmakers' favorite female pseudo-nudity effects was to have actresses wear thin blouses, dresses, nightgowns, or other garments that slightly revealed their areolae and/or the outlines of their nipples. This shot in Take Me Out to the Ball Game seems like an attempt to one-up those earlier shots. Was this the first time a pudendal-cleft-outline shot, whether simulated or real, had been attempted in American mainstream cinema? Can anyone here name any other examples?

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You know what? You may be right - but I can't confirm that because anything that even hinted at THAT made me want to close my eyes lest I'd have NIGHTMARES!

What an AWFUL GROSS STOMACH-TURNING THOUGHT OF AN IMAGE!!!!

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

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Without a doubt, the best thread title on this site. Bravo.

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