All Washed Up!

It's hard to believe that it's been more than a year since my post on men in the bathtub! It seems like only yesterday that I was stirring up sudsy pictures of various actors and others washing up. Thankfully, I've managed to amass another sprinkling of photos in this category that I can share with you. (Such as the divine Dewey Martin, seen here at right!) Consider it an early Christmas present! Ha! Now some of these moments may have been featured previously in The Underworld, but I think that the photos themselves are all new/unique to this post.

We tend to start in the past and work our way forward, so let's first take a gander at the 1927 silent film Bringing Up Father, based on a popular comic strip. The man in the tub is David Mir, who plays an effeminate secretary (a type that was prevalent back in the day as documented in the book and film The Celluloid Closet and elsewhere.)

Speaking of silent films, this rather stark shot is of Ramon Navarro, a major leading man of that era. It may have been (and probably was) posed, but it almost looks like a candid shot!

Next we spy burly movie superstar Walalce Beery in 1932's Flesh, a film about a German wrestling champ who also has to wrestle with a lady love who isn't entirely faithful. Here, he gets a big, soothing bath and a gargantuan stein of beer in the wake of one of his matches.

That same year saw the release of But the Flesh is Weak, a movie about a father and son pair of gigolos who live off the generosity of wealthy women (this was Pre-Code, obviously!) Here, father C. Aubrey Smith gives son Robert Montgomery (later the father of Bewitched's Elizabeth Montgomery) a helpful hand with his back scrubbing, likely in preparation for a date.

In 1936, Montgomery made Trouble for Two, about a prince evading an arranged marriage and heading to London with his pal Frank Morgan only to find romance (and danger) with mysterious Rosalind Russell. He and Morgan share a bath, but not a tub, in this publicity still.

You'll find in the movies and on TV, folks rarely get to take a bath alone or in peace! Such is the case with Cary Grant in The Howards of Virginia (1940.) I've posted pics from this scene before, but not this exact one.

John Garfield certainly doesn't seem to mind the interruption from wife Anne Shirley in this shot from 1940's Saturday's Children, a romantic drama about newlyweds. Incidentally, his character name in this one is Rims Rosson!

That same year, Cesar Romero has his bubble bath interrupted in Lucky Cisco Kid, one of a series of films Romero did as the title character.

Speaking of Lucky, Cary Grant is back in the tub again already in 1943's Mr. Lucky. There actually seem to be four lucky misters in the bathroom here!

Fortunes seem to have shifted now that we're up to 1945 and Laura. Dana Andrews has interrupted the bath of snippy Clifton Webb.

This pair of shots, also from 1945, are from the movie China Sky.

Recognize the bather? It's Anthony Quinn, in Asian makeup, taking a not-very-private bath. The film's stars were actually Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick, as doctors in war-torn China, based on a novel by Pearl S. Buck.

In 1948, John Lund starred in Miss Tatlock's Millions as a Hollywood stunt man coerced into posing as a clumsy, halfwit heir to the title fortune. The real man has died, but Monty Woolley wants everyone to believe he's still alive. Virtually forgotten, this slapstick comedy has an extremely strong reputation with those who have seen it, including raves for the normally rather uninspiring Lund.

Edward G. Robinson “cheated” and clearly has on white boxer shorts in this publicity photo from 1948's Key Largo.

The 1955 film House of Bamboo starred Robert Ryan as an organized crime boss working in Tokyo. Another Robert, Robert Stack, arrives to complicate matters. Here, he simultaneously enjoys a meal and a hot soak with the help of a female attendant.

One of the inspirations for my initial post about men in the tub came from a book of mine called “Movie Stars in Bathtubs” and it featured a still from this 1957 movie Forty Guns. I'm not that hot on Barry Sullivan, but Gene Barry looks pretty good directly behind him and I definitely dig this old west, makeshift communal bathhouse!

'40 & '50s star Glenn Ford seems to have been encroached on during his bath in this still from a movie I haven't been able to identify.

I'm afraid I also don't know the source of this still of '50s (and beyond!) actor Ernest Borgnine. It could be from either McHale's Navy or one of the movies based on that series.

In yet another example of a crowded bathroom during the leading man's soak, we have Montgomery Clift and four onlookers in 1957's Raintree County.

William Holden found the bath water chilly (or was it too hot?) in this shot from 1958's The Key.

It seems to have been remedied in this second still from the same movie.

Who in the HELL decided to put this sponge where it is in this still photo from 1958's A Time to Love and a Time to Die?! I know we still wouldn't get to see any more of the drop-dead handsome John Gavin, but hope springs eternal...

The 1959 comedy Don't Give Up the Ship had Jerry Lewis in multiple roles. Here he is in one of them enjoying a bubble bath and a toy boat.

More inviting, perhaps, is hunky Rock Hudson in yet another still photo from his and Doris Day's 1959 blockbuster comedy Pillow Talk.

This TV bath managed to make the papers! From a 1961 episode of Rawhide, guest star Brian Aherne helps star Eric Fleming with his bath and is apparently ready to help shave him, too. (Just leave his chest alone, please!)

I know you've been up all night waiting for a glimpse of Tom Poston in the bathtub. So here you go! This is from the 1962 comedy Zotz! In it, he comes upon an ancient coin that allows him to inflict pain, slow down time or kill. I don't know exactly what he's trying to make happen during his time in the tub.

The 1963 war film The Victors finds George Peppard soaking luxuriantly as Melina Mercouri looks on. Do take note that her slippers (meant to be out of frame) have fur on them that unintentionally, but amusingly, coordinate with the fur rug she's resting on (and also take note of her ghastly unappealing ankles!)

Henry Fonda shows some rare (for him) skin in 1964's The Best Man.

Here we see Bob Hope in a 1964 vehicle of his called A Global Affair.

This wasn't the first time ol' Bob took a dip, as evidenced by this earlier shot from 1952's Son of Paleface.

Prior to that was 1942's Star Spangled Rhythm. Surprisingly enough, he isn't that unappealing with his shirt off in this one (and was already almost forty at the time.)

A running gag in the mammoth, over-produced comedy western The Hallelujah Trail (1965) has cavalry officer Burt Lancaster frequently interrupted during his bath. Lee Remick does it.

Then there's a fellow officer on hand.

Then Lee is back again! He also catches her in the tub at one point.

Peter Sellers played a criminal mastermind and master of disguise in 1966's After the Fox. He's seen here contemplating his next move while bathing.

Jean-Paul Belmondo did quite a few bathtub scenes in his movies. This one is from Thief of Paris (1967.)

The large-scale musical Camelot (1967) afforded Vanessa Redgrave the chance to rinse off Richard Harris in this scene.

Stage actor and producer Woodie King Jr made his film (and bathtub) debut in 1967's Sweet Love, Bitter, a now-obscure movie about the lives and romances of some jazz musicians.

Clint Eastwood had yet another of those crowded movie bathrooms in 1968's Coogan's Bluff. Not only is he entertaining a lady friend, but two fellow policemen have dropped by as well!

And while I have shown a couple of pictures of Charlton Heston in his little tub from Will Penny (1968) before, this is a different shot.

Speaking of Chuck, let's segue for a moment to the world of sports. This picture is from Heston's 1969 movie Number One, in which he played an aging, beaten down quarterback. (This actual scene is not in the movie, though he does take a shower and sport a jockstrap.)

Here we have real life sports legend Ted Williams (of baseball fame) taking in the hydro-therapeutic benefits of a whirlpool.

The more, the merrier, I always say, thus this amusing shot of famed Brooklyn Dodgers coach Tommy Lasorda sharing a tub with baseball player Jerry Russ.

Back to 1969 and the world of film, we come to Sam Whiskey, which starred Burt Reynolds.

As you can see here, sometimes a horse trough has to do when there's no tub available!

That same year gave the world the awkward and unsuccessful film Staircase to the world. In it, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, two of the cinema's most reckless womanizers, portrayed a torturesome, destructive gay couple.

Again in 1969 was the landmark film Easy Rider. Here, we find Peter Fonda bathing and shaving (and was he bathing with Tide clothing detergent?!)

1970 brought the film Watermelon Man, in which Godfrey Cambridge (in wig and full-body makeup) played a white bigot who one day wakes up as a black man (as Cambridge was in real life.) He attempts to return to his former self by taking a bath in white milk, to no avail.

This promotional still is from the 1971 film Wild Rovers and features William Holden (in front) and Ryan O'Neal behind him, about to submerge. I should have been a child actor...

Completist that I am, I have to include David Wayne, guest-starring on a 1972 episode of The Streets of San Francisco.

His wife in the episode was portrayed by the entertainingly distinctive Louise Latham.

One thing I loved about the 1978 war film The Boys in Company C was the brief glimpse of the GIs taking baths in small water holes. War is hell and I acknowledge that, but a clatch of naked soldiers is heaven.

1981's Arthur featured the bathtub prominently as rich alcoholic Dudley Moore would soothe away his troubles while the acerbic butler John Gielgud looked on.

Back to the locker room for another picture we find Magnum, P.I. star Tom Selleck. Something seems to be amusing to him at this particular moment.

A more recent example of cinematic bathing came with 2003's The Dreamers, a Bernardo Bertolucci film about a sexual threesome. Here, we see Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel (with his back to us) sudsing it up.

Things really aren't as fun as they might appear at first glance in this shot from the Jon Hamm/Daniel Radcliffe series The Young Doctor's Notebook. Radcliffe plays Hamm as a youth, who comes to him in spirit. Still, it might have been a fun day on the set!

As we pull the plug on this topic (for now!), I give you two more shots. One is of Jude Law and Ewan McGregor, enacting some sort of domestic scenario for a photo shoot. I love McGregor's expression here.

This final shot is from the set of the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Not a tremendous number of people know about this movie and even fewer have the star's name on the tip of their tongue, but once seen, Mr. Paul Mantee bathing in his makeshift Mars swimming hole cannot be forgotten! This was his shining hour and his chest o'death looks terrific here! The tan lines (which I can't deny that I LOVE) are gravy...