Old films that are sexy without being explicit

Most film noir from the 1940s. It helps when you had flesh and blood men like Robert Mitchum starring in them…..

You've sold me on Mademoiselle, OP, going to watch it tonight

R1 good point. Another excellent example I can think of is Thieves' Highway (1949) with Valentina Cortese‘a seduction of Richard Conte.

Also The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and the Italian predecessor Ossessione (1943)

Of course La piscine (1969) has to have one of the hottest and sexiest opening scenes ever. The voyeurism of watching Alain and Romy so intimate.

Double Indemnity is hot. I love the line where Walter sees Phyllis walking down the stairs and notices her ankle bracelet, 'cutting into her ankle'. He knows they'll be fucking soon.

Also, The Postman Always Rings Twice. James M Cain wrote great sexy dialogue and the casting in his movies was perfect.

When I was a kid, The Thomas Crown Affair (Dunaway and McQueen) did it for me. Not sure how well it might have held up, though.

The only reason why they didn’t show nudity and sex is because of the codes. Hollywood was well on their way to doing it.

Any movie scenes with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, More recently Out of Sight with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, before he became super famous and she became JLo.

Salo

My straight sister swoons and fans herself and squirts over any Brando, but especially his rather quaint wooing in 'Sayonara'. I think for her it's the Air Force uniforms, the inter-ethnic romance, and the gentle kissing scenes.

Brando was pure sex in Streetcar

The implied relationship between Thomas & Henry in ‘Becket’ is presented in a way that’s casually sexy, with only a bit of skin and a few little allusions. It’s the passion of their bond that gives it that feeling.

Some of Ernst Lubitsch's best movies epitomize the concept. TROUBLE IN PARADISE (32) is tops.

Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS (46), famous dinner on the balcony scene.

Preston Sturges' THE LADY EVE (41): Stanwyck seducing Fonda.

Three great directors who thrived under Code restrictions.

OP! I have an original poster of Mademoiselle above my mantelpiece. Spanish version so it's Fuegos de Verano. Jeanne Moreau, Tony Richardson, Jean Genet, and the delectable Ettore Manni - this movie would have been endlessly discussed had DL been around in 1966!

Nudity was extremely common in pre-code movies, it was why the code got instilled in the first place. And in European movies….much earlier than American ones. People who act like sex scenes and nudity are a sign of societal decay are bizarre. We seem to be back in the Hays code era. There’s barely any sex on screen, and no, I don’t count that teenage drug addiction HBO show.

Purple Noon

......

Old (1933) and explicit - Ecstasy. Hedy Lamar has the first onscreen orgasm, getting her pussy eaten.

It's Hedley!

Not so fun fact: Hedy's pussy eater, handsome German actor Aribert Mag, died serving in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in 1941.

^^^ Correction: Aribert Mog.

R18, Was that before Hedy Muppet Face Lamar got her face stretched to both ends of a bus?

The "seduction" scene in Baby Doll (1956), mainly because of Eli Wallach. And John Garfield and Joan Crawford in Humoresque (1946).

Murnau’s Faust kissing Gretchen’s hand gets a bit intense for half a minute. You think it’s going one way.

On the whole their romance is pretty chaste though.

I cant get over Brando's horrible southern accent in Sayonara....acting genius but his accents were always terrible.

I'd say Streetcar but it almost feels like cheating because while they didnt show everything, it wasn't exactly subtle either....Stanley staring at Blanche's tits without even hiding it and a confused Blanche trying not to orgasm on the spot when they 1st meet...the stair scene with Stella...the even had to switch some music in some of the scenes because the censors thought it was too sexy.

Another one with very sexy but subtle moments is The King and I....the scene where she teaches him to dance..I'll let the scene speak for itself

Sorry link doesnt work, this one should...its about halfway through

R26 that dress is basically putting Deborah's tits on a platter, it's hard to look anywhere else.

Yul's tits peeking out of his open jacket are also quite titillating and distracting from the, uh, meat of the scene.

R5 ate you referring to the 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice? It has an extended sex scene of Nicholson basically attacking Lange, badgering her pussy, squeezing her tits and her riding his smelly vagrant cock. I swear it went on for almost 5 minutes and was no unnecessary and vulgar.

Pat & Mike was supposed to be about female lesbian tennis players but the studio forced one role go to a male.

The Merchant-Ivory 'Maurice'? The 1980s doesn't really count as vintage yet, but it was still 40-some years ago. And while the film shows heated kissing in various states of dress as well as a few glimpses of bare arse etc., it isn't very full-on at all.