Thursday, August 24, 2017

By the Gods!

Liana Orfei in THE TARTARS (1961)

In this scene, the captured Liana is drugged and then taken advantage by evil Burundai, played by Orson Welles. Drugging people is a cliché in PEPLUM films. Always have been. But today, it would be a no no. This entire scene, with dancers and taking place in a spectacular setting, is the highlight of the movie. What's odd is that Liana and Orson never share screen time together, even is they are just a few feet away from each other. Really annoying!

1 comment:

Scott Ochiltree said...

Your observation about what is no longer acceptable in movies is most interesting. Prohibitions do change over time.

During the era of the Code there could be no mention whatsoever of narcotics. The bad guys in KEY LARGO (1948), for example, are smuggling counterfeit US currency rather that heroin into the USA. Now narcotics smuggling is perfectly permissible, as per THE FRENCH CONNECTION.

Recently I watched WAR GAMES (1983) and was surprised to see: (1) smoking by adults and (2) the two young stars riding a motor scooter without wearing helmets.

Reportedly smoking now automatically gets a new film an "R" rating. This means that even the bad guys no longer smoke.