Romance the Old-Fashioned Way

Most of you know that I love classic movies and books and anything involving WWII.  Something I’ve noticed as I read and watch older stuff is the way romance is presented.  Or more specifically, the way sex is presented.  Of course in the Golden Age of Hollywood, film studios had to adhere to the Motion Picture Production Code, which outlined what could or couldn’t be shown.  I’m glad that system was in place, because I can watch stuff with my family and not worry that something lewd will pop up.  Yet… they would sometimes skirt around the rules in ways that I think can be either inappropriate or tasteful.  Same thing in books, though I’ve discovered a real eloquence and beauty in older literature where sex is concerned.  This post contains some examples that I just thought you all might find arousing.  There might be spoilers in case any of the following are things you haven’t seen or read but would check out in the future, so just beware and enjoy!

1.  In the 1952 movie “Above and Beyond”, which follows the story of the pilots who dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, the two main stars have what I think is a sensual scene.  Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker play husband and wife and are enjoying a brief vacation in a cabin.  They’re stretched out in front of the fire, talking about how they haven’t actually lived together very much due to his military duties, and he says something like, “Ever get the feeling you’re up here with a stranger?” and she answers, “Down in Columbus, Georgia, no nice girl ever felt about a stranger the way I feel about you,” before they passionately kiss.  Then the scene changes, which is the usual way filmmakers had of letting you know (without letting you know) that the couple proceeded to make love.  To me that’s so steamy! And thankfully, it involves characters who are married.  I never like it when it’s an adulterous or fornicating situation, though they can be erotic.

2.  I’m sure lots of people have read the classic novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The topic is a delicate one (adultery and a resulting pregnancy), especially for that era.  Hawthorne’s goal was to expose the hypocrisy and judgmentalism of the early Puritans as they deal with the fallen heroine, Hester, and anyone else whose sin they consider damnable.  What caught me was how discreetly fiery it was when it came to the relationship between the heroine and the man she’d had her sexual encounter with.  It was sad, yes, and wrong, but in a way understandable.  Her husband was a cold man who caused her a lot of pain.  She evidently saw something noble in the sensitive minister, which resulted in their brief affair.  There’s actually very little interaction between Hester and the minister, though the time they meet in the forest to talk and plan to run away together is rather charged, I think.  Anyhow, Hester has a little daughter, Pearl, whose behavior is very peculiar, and it’s in one of the lengthy descriptions of her odd behavior that I found this rather intimate paragraph: “Hester could only account for the child’s character – and even then, most vaguely and imperfectly – by recalling what she herself had been, during that momentous period while Pearl was imbibing her soul from the spiritual world, and her bodily frame from its material of earth.”  To me…that sounds like the moment of conception, which of course evokes thoughts of the sex that just happened.  Hot!

3.  This is more vague, but it hits me every time I stumble over this phrase in old books.  These days, the term “making love” means having sex, but it used to be more general and meant things like courting or kissing or sweet-talking.  So it’s always a little startling to go along in a book, say from the 1800s, and suddenly someone says, “He was trying to make love to her,” or something similar, and I always think it’s so blatant! Then I remember this is an old tome and authors were more sophisticated.

4.  I thought of two more movies where sex is implied.  One is “Wicked As They Come” from 1956.  Stars Arlene Dahl and Philip Carey have a romantic moment in an apartment and they sink down to the couch while kissing.  The scene fades to black and returns to them in a slightly disheveled state, him smoking a cigarette while she lies with her head on his lap.  They kiss some more and talk and the movie goes on.  Second is a WWII movie, “The Red Beret” from 1953.  Alan Ladd and Susan Stephen are in her apartment as air raid sirens go off.  When bombing causes the power to go out, they begin to kiss tenderly by firelight.  As expected, the scene fades, returning to them lounging together by the fire, and you know they just made love.  It’s discreet and younger viewers would never know, but I always catch that kind of thing now!

5.  A favorite old TV show of mine is “The Fugitive” from the 1960s.  In an episode from the last season, David Janssen’s character, Richard Kimble, is rendezvousing with a woman on the run from the law.  She lets him in to her lakeside apartment and they kiss.  Then the scene changes, lazily panning through the open window to focus on the radio, which is playing soft music.  Kimble and the woman are snuggled in an armchair, his shirt partly open and his sleeves rolled back, her expression sleepy.  It perfectly captured that afterglow of lovemaking and struck me as very romantic.  To me, Richard Kimble is the epitome of a strong, noble man, the type I’d want to marry.

6 I love old-time radio programs, especially comedy shows like The Jack Benny Program and Our Miss Brooks.  There’s a great dramatic show starring husband and wife actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall called “Bold Venture”.  At the end of each episode, they usually banter suggestively with each other and share a kiss (which, since it’s radio, you can’t see, but you can guess by their comments and the ensuing moment of silence).  In one, they have an exchange to this effect:

Him: “What do you want, Sailor?”

Her, lightly: “Hmm, I think I’d like the moon.”

Him, meaningfully: “Come on outside and I’ll give it to you.”

Whew! And it’s even better knowing they were married in real life.

7.  I enjoy romantic books and have read from both Christian and secular authors.  I’ll state right now that I do not condone or approve of the premarital and extramarital sex that occurs in a lot of the secular books.  However, I find the prose to be very provocative and rich, especially in older works.  Plus, I want a rounded knowledge of sex should I ever get married and, well, worldly authors are a little more descriptive and free than Christians are apt to be.  I stumbled over pulp romance from the 1950s and 60s and actually like some of it.  If it’s about a married couple, then I can applaud the sex.  Here’s an excerpt of a love scene from “Motel Marriage” by Dee Winters, published in 1962:

“Rafe.” She said his name aloud, tasting it carefully. “Make love to me, Rafe. Make love to me until I’m sober.”
She remembered how he settled his weight against her, hard. His breath was hot against her face.

“Until you’re sober and drunk again,” he muttered.

She arched her body, raising her hips from the bed to meet his thrust.  “Make me forget,” she urged. “Forget every breath I’ve drawn, every man I’ve touched.”

It was enough to burn every memory of prior love from her flesh.

“Make it last,” she begged.

“Like dynamite with a long fuse?”

“Yes.”

“You’re greedy.”

“Very.”

“But sweet. Sweet and hot.”

“Burning up.”

“I know.”

His rhythm picked up, turned frantic.

“Rafe!”

“Wife. My pretty wife!”

The explosion came. It came to separate the world. To whip water over the earth. To split trees and melt rocks, to make their bodies ache and shudder.

Susie cried against Rafe’s shoulder. “Tell me I’m drunk,” she said. “Tell me it’s just the liquor.”

“No.”

“I want it to be the liquor. I don’t want it to be you.”

“Tough luck.” He took her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes.

“But it is you,” she sighed.

“Yes.”

“And it will happen again. I want it to happen again.”

“Yes.” He kissed her. The loss sent a flood of shocks through her body.

“I want it to happen now,” she whispered. “Once again.”

But this time it was different. It was slow and gentle. It filled her loins with a sweetness and a glow.  “It’s like a shaft of light,” she whispered, “moving inside me.”

The embrace stayed gentle to the end. When the sweetness had become sharp and the glow had increased to a sunburst, she clung to Rafe, sobbed against his shoulder and caressed his back.  “It was nice,” she gasped.

“It was a hell of a lot more than nice—and we both know it.”

Well, those are all the romantic moments from books, movies, shows, and radio I can think of right now.  I hope to have more.  It struck me how hot it would be to read and watch things like this with my future husband; it would get us both aroused and excited for each other and ready for our own steamy lovemaking!