The two pioneering nude scenes of Marilyn Monroe’s career: “Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry”
Norma Jeane Mortenson, more commonly recognised to the rest of us by her stage name Marilyn Monroe, is one of the best-known and profoundly influential actors of all time.
Looking on reflection through today’s lens, Monroe’s filmography is defined by a handful of illustrious gems, including the likes of Billy Wilder’s incredibly fun comedy Some Like It Hot. Like a lot of movies she appeared in, even her early bit in John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, Monroe’s on-screen presence and star appeal were second to none, and it almost always shone even brighter when paired with the right screenplay.
However, Monroe, for better or for worse, became one of the most prominent sex symbols in America during the 1950s and ’60s and was quite often typecast within the film industry for playing the ‘blonde bombshell’ comic character archetype.
“Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered,” she once said, offering a fascinating glimpse into both Monroe’s personal struggles and he remarkable self-awareness of the time.
Because of Monroe’s problematic status, it was her physicality that was perhaps at the forefront of her fame, and throughout her career, she performed in what can now be considered a limited number of pioneering nude scenes, even though this was largely unheard of around the 1950s when feelings about sex were still hindered mainly by old-fashioned values.
Tight censorship rules meant that Hollywood in the Golden Age was unable to show explicit nudity in its studios’ films. However, by the time the 1960s swung around and attitudes towards sex, in general, had started to have more of a liberal air about them, there were a few stars who were ready to bare all.
“That’s the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I’m going to be a symbol of something, I’d rather have it sex than some other things we’ve got symbols of.”
Marilyn Monroe
Of course, one of the actors ready to push boundaries around the sexual liberation of cinema was Monroe, and throughout her career, she shot two explicit scenes, which were actually filmed just a year apart. The first arrived in the 1961 neo-western movie The Misfits, directed by John Huston, in which Monroe starred opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.
Interestingly, though, neither of Monroe’s nude scenes arrived in cinemas direct from the reel. In terms of The Misfits, the scene arose out of spontaneity between Monroe and Gable in a moment of passionate, acted lovemaking. Monroe is filmed in bed when she suddenly drops the sheets, and it’s all caught on tape. However, the scene did not make it into the final cut.
The second of Monroe’s nude scenes came in George Cukor’s 1962 film Something’s Got to Give, which is to this day unfinished. The project is a remake of the 1940 comedy My Favourite Wife and is Monroe’s final work, although its production was marred by the problems that were arising from her personal life.
In the film, Monroe’s character Ellen is set to swim in the nude in order to arouse her estranged husband, who watches on from his hotel room. Of course, Monroe died before the film was completed, leading to it being abandoned completely. There are several clips of the scene surfacing online now, however.
Had either of the scenes arrived in cinemas, they would have made Monroe the first Hollywood star to act in the buff since the Golden Age. However, because they did not, it was Jayne Mansfield who took the title in 1963’s Promises! Promises!.
It goes without saying that the scenes in question still propelled Monroe to a new level of fame and notoriety, something she struggled to deal with in the years that followed. Looking back now, we can see she was the frontiersperson of cinematic aspects we see so regularly on our screens today. While Monroe always tried to take life at her own stride, even she conceded that change was needed towards the end, “I don’t want to play sex roles any more,” she commented. “I’m tired of being known as the girl with the shape.”
