One of the most popular sex scenes of all time is the kitchen scene from the 1981 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice. But many people find the more implicit parts of the 1946 version to be sexier. These people include the earlier film’s female lead, Lana Turner, who wrote in her autobiography, “[The makers of the 1981 film] didn’t have to worry about the censors. I’d had to project a rather intense sexual presence, but always with my clothes on. I was amused to read that [NY Times film critic] Vincent Canby considered the remake a pale, rather sexless imitation of my version.”

Yes, a film with neither nudity nor simulated lovemaking can be quite sexy, likely sexier than an explicit remake, for innuendo and other teasing maneuvers around either the Hays Code or the MPAA ratings board’s restrictions are far more tantalizing than any bare and balls-out displays of graphic sex common in movies today. Though many classic implications of sex on the big screen were rather obvious and quick, giving the audience a nudge but hardly a rise (think the Eisensteinian metaphors of a train entering a tunnel in North by Northwest or fireworks exploding in To Catch a Thief), loads of films turned up the heat through the use of careful camerawork, daring dialogue and more subtly suggestive actions. Sometimes such sexy moments of tension and/or playfulness are definite forms of foreplay and serve as lead-ins to actual sex acts, on or off screen. But not always.

Everyone has his or her own ideas of what’s sexy, so feel free to disagree with our choices and/or suggest your own (I can guess what the first suggestion will be). Consider our list simply a starting point for discussion.
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