Male Flesh!

silentmovies74 · Post by **silentmovies74** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:02 pm

In a sense, this follows on from the nudity thread...

I think it was on here that someone wrote that Ivor Novello appeared shirtless in just one film: Downhill. This got me thinking that the selling of male "pin-ups" through their films was very different back then to how we might have expected from, say, the 1950s onwards. Other than historical/biblical epics like Ben Hur, pirate or adventure films such as those with Fairbanks, and films with exotic elements such as those with Valentino or the craze for South Sea Island films, the exposure of male flesh was certainly not the casual thing that it came to be in later years.

This, in a way, links in with the work I am currently doing on gay representations in early film and is something I would like to develop as an offshoot to my thesis. As far as I'm aware, actors such as William Boyd, William Haines, Charles Buddy Rogers, Richard Cromwell, Jack Pickford etc rarely, if ever, appeared "shirtless" in films - which seems odd considering their fanbase would, assumedly, have been women. Am I missing something? Being blind? Comments/film titles welcome.

Also...tying both the thesis and this area together is Conrad Veidt. I would be very much interested in anyone known of any of Veidts films in which he appeared...less than fully dressed!

Apologies for the bizarre topic!

Jim Gettys · Post by **Jim Gettys** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:10 pm

Don't forget Sandow, who showed a LOT in some of the very earliest Edison films of the 1890s.

Be amazed, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWM2ixqua3Y

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcHzyzXsPUo

The Great Ziegfeld got his start displaying Sandow to the ladies of Chicago at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. (And for the men, there was Little Egypt.)

Jim Gettys

colbyco82 · Post by **colbyco82** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:51 pm

I often got the impression that while most of the leading men/juvenile leads of the 1920s and 1930 were usually very handsome in the face, most of them probably didn't have spectacular bodies. They were safer hidden behind nice clothing.

Daniel Eagan · Post by **Daniel Eagan** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:09 pm

colbyco82 wrote:I often got the impression that while most of the leading men/juvenile leads of the 1920s and 1930 were usually very handsome in the face, most of them probably didn't have spectacular bodies. They were safer hidden behind nice clothing.

Excepting athletic types like Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton, who often appeared in abbreviated attire.

LouieD · Post by **LouieD** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:11 pm

George O'Brien · Post by **George O'Brien** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:12 pm

This is very bizarre.

You are looking for Conrad Veidt beefcake?

Well, he appears in a black leotard in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"(1919), if that's any help.

silentmovies74 · Post by **silentmovies74** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:37 pm

I'm not sure the words Conrad Veidt and beefcake go together! lol

By the way, who is that in the picture????

LouieD · Post by **LouieD** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:39 pm

Warren Williams

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:03 pm

I guess the famous catchphrase "Women fight for Conrad Veidt" (in his British film period?) must have seemed plausible at the time!

Frederica · Post by **Frederica** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:59 pm

Daniel Eagan wrote:
colbyco82 wrote:I often got the impression that while most of the leading men/juvenile leads of the 1920s and 1930 were usually very handsome in the face, most of them probably didn't have spectacular bodies. They were safer hidden behind nice clothing.
Excepting athletic types like Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton, who often appeared in abbreviated attire.

And Norman Kerry, who did, and who shouldn't have.

Frederica · Post by **Frederica** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:00 pm

silentmovies74 wrote:I'm not sure the words Conrad Veidt and beefcake go together! lol

Oh yes, they do.

Post by **silentfilm** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 8:02 pm

Don't forget Francis X. Bushman, who was a model for several statues.

colbyco82 · Post by **colbyco82** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 8:16 pm

Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weismuller had a pretty good physiques early in their careers too, but both were Olympic swimmers before they went to Hollywood.

One surprisingly good body was Joe E. Brown. He stayed pretty muscular yet lean (a rarity in those days) even into his later years.

TempleDrake · Post by **TempleDrake** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:15 pm

silentmovies74 wrote:Also...tying both the thesis and this area together is Conrad Veidt. I would be very much interested in anyone known of any of Veidts films in which he appeared...less than fully dressed!

Conrad Veidt appears shirtless in a scene from King of the Damned (1935)

And another of our suave continental types, Anton Walbrook, appears shirtless in The Man from Morocco (1945)

You see, I keep this little list...

TempleDrake · Post by **TempleDrake** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:22 pm

Oh , how could we forget! Connie is half naked in that temple get-up in The Indian Tomb (1921)

greta de groat · Post by **greta de groat** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:16 pm

And don't forget John Barrymore in Tempest. Or Beloved Rogue.

greta

George O'Brien · Post by **George O'Brien** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:01 am

A few years ago on another site, to promote interest in Silents, I created a fun photo ID game I called SILENT SKIN. There are tons of photos of silent stars scantily clad, or even naked. I included a full frontal nude of Louise Brooks.

But, again, as I mentioned in another thread, these were usually publicity stills, not scenes from films.

"I will look to like, if looking liking move."

silentmovies74 · Post by **silentmovies74** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:38 pm

And Mr O'Brien himself wasn't against revealing his rather impressive physique of course!

silentkermy · Post by **silentkermy** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 7:16 pm

i cant think of any specific shirtless scene from the teens but from the twenties i know you can see valentino in the young raja and the son of the sheik.

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:17 am

George O'Brien, Charles Farrell, Milton Sills, jack Mulhall in his tight little shorts from THE POOR NUT.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:35 am

If we have Crabbe & Weismuller then we have to include the recently departed Johnny Sheffield.

Jay Salsberg · Post by **Jay Salsberg** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:09 am

IIRC, Conrad Veidt also appears shirtless in NAZI AGENT (1942).

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:00 am

Okay, this shot from King of the Damned is pretty funny, if not exactly beefcake.

greta de groat · Post by **greta de groat** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:26 am

Mike Gebert wrote:Okay, this shot from King of the Damned is pretty funny, if not exactly beefcake.

I liked the one that used to be on Chris Snowdon's blog with Veidt in his pajamas, presumably exercising.

greta

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:01 am

colbyco82 wrote: One surprisingly good body was Joe E. Brown. He stayed pretty muscular yet lean (a rarity in those days) even into his later years.

Very true. Brown was quite athletic and it shows.
A lot of the more physical comedians were wiry and tough, if not actually muscular. Check out Chaplin, Keaton and (yes) Al St John.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:34 am

And don't forget Harry Langdon baring part of his mustard plastered-chest in The Strong Man, then rubbing it with limburger cheese... what a tease!

Harlett O'Dowd · Post by **Harlett O'Dowd** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:31 pm

Nigel de Breulier in Salome.

Actually, most of the males in Salome.

silentstar5 · Post by **silentstar5** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:08 pm

Not that it would cause to many people to swoon but Max Davidson in Call of the Cuckoos.Naked as a jay bird in the bathtub scene.

pathe16mm · Post by **pathe16mm** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:46 pm

I've never actually seen it (it survives incomplete, I think), but I've seen a still from The Half-Breed (1918) with Douglas Fairbanks nude from behind. I believe it was in the book Pictoral History of the Silent Screen.

Chris Snowden · Post by **Chris Snowden** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:59 pm

greta de groat wrote:I liked the one that used to be on Chris Snowdon's blog with Veidt in his pajamas, presumably exercising.

1927: "Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Veidt arrive in America." (From a German postcard.)

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