A Drawer of Chests

Get it? Like a chest of drawers, but only better! Ha ha! Life is still effing insane around The Underworld, preventing me from delving into a certain film or star in the in-depth way I enjoy, but in order to bridge the gap between posts, I give you a small collection of chests (in many varieties) from our reserve supplies. This is by no means meant to be all-inclusive (and we've gone down this treasure trail before here, here, here and here), but hopefully you'll enjoy the view. Thanks to today's cover boy, a young Clint Eastwood. Now to pound on the other chests...

Always one to stay in shape even later in life (his chest in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan became the source of both speculation and amazement), Ricardo Montalban helps us to set sail today.

We don't often see a ton of Richard Denning sans shirt, but here he is in the company of a doctor from The Crooked Web, a drama about undercover agents trying to solve a WWII crime involving stolen gold.

Cornel Wilde, on the other hand, was something of a physique show-off in quite a number of films. (He barely wore anything in The Naked Prey, as the title suggests.) Here in Storm Fear, he's attended to by his real-life wife and frequent costar Jean Wallace.

We have no great love for the circus, but do tend to enjoy watching movies with high-flyers and acrobats, such as the case here with Tony Curtis in Trapeze.

Woody Strode's role in Spartacus as a towering gladiatorial opponent of Kirk Douglas no doubt inspired later casting choices (including, as a prime example, Peter Mensah in Spartacus: Blood and Sand.)

Strode, a former UCLA football star turned actor with an imposing stature, was lucky to be given a shirt in most of his films! He played in everything from Tarzan and Bomba movies to John Ford westerns.

Here we have Jeffrey Hunter in a makeup test for In Love and War, featuring some partially-healed wounds. The inset shows him in the film, wearing some pajama bottoms, on the side of his bed.

This test reveals (in more ways than one!) the design of Charlton Heston's loincloth for the galley slave scenes in Ben-Hur. Heston could often be found in abbreviated duds like this from the 1950s through the early-1970s.

Here we see the costume being utilized in the famous shipboard sequence (and in the inset, after the boat's sinking with Roman Jack Hawkins, who he saved from drowning.)

What was that? You wanted a bigger, better glimpse of the picture that was inset? Here you go.

It's tough to beat the dreamy John Gavin in color and in a towel from the aforementioned Spartacus. Had I been directing the movie, most of the action would have taken place within this Roman spa/bath!

Lee Van Cleef takes his turn at wearing almost nothing in the low-budget western Captain Apache. Quite a few actors found themselves in this state of (un)dress including Charles Bronson in Chato's Land the year after this one.

On a lighter note, I give you Edson Stroll of McHale's Navy. Click on his name to see a bit more of the well-toned Edson...

Speaking of the Navy, here is a publicity photo featuring several of the sailors - including Ken Clark at far right - from South Pacific. (They seem to have dames on their mind here.)

An alternate pose has our guys still determining that there's "nothing like a dame." Hmmm.....

Behinds the scenes of Cheyenne, burly Clint Walker breaks up his director and costar (Fay Spain?) during an otherwise serious moment.

For us, Clint baby is the ne plus ultra when it comes to handsome, brawny men with hairy chests. He's just IT as far as I'm concerned.

We all know what a superior football player Jim Brown was, but look how even he is dwarfed by Walker in this group shot from The Dirty Dozen.

Stuart Whitman wasn't in Walker's league, but he was still a pretty good looking man, especially in this film - Sands of the Kalahari - which I really love thanks to its combination of plane crash, beefcake, scenery and beautiful '60s color. Oh, and savage monkeys on the prowl, too!

Which is leaner, the surfboard or Robbie Benson? The last I heard, Benson was teaching in the theatre department of Indiana University.

Kurt Russell shows off his bare essentials from one of his movies.

It's sort of hard to move part all of Ricky Martin's hair to notice the torso, but you'll eventually see it.

I avoided Joey Lawrence like the plague when he was on Blossom, but once he cut his hair like this (for a short-lived show called Brotherly Love), I paid a bit more attention. This lean look was never my type, but I know it's someone's!

I might have seen maybe one episode, two at most, of Baywatch in my life, but from what I've ever seen from the show David Chokachi was my favorite. I really got to know of him through the tacky reality series Confessions of a Teen Idol, but also saw him on the (cheesy) retread of Battle of the Network Stars.

Who'd a thunk that pale, slim Zac Efron would eventually develop into this muscle-bound man? Again this is not my type, but at least he's got some hair on his chest and it may be of interest to some of you.

My jaw hit the floor the first time I ever actually saw Efron in anything after years of avoidance (That Awkward Moment) and actually enjoyed him! I've since seen other movies of his and been equally surprised at my lack of hatred. LOL

I leave you with this remarkable (and apparently real!) gag shot of another big favorite, Hugh O'Brian, having fun during a photo shoot for The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Love the strategic use of his marshal's badge! Till me meet again...!