When it Rains, it Pours...!

Don't we know it! As I type this, we're in a national "shelter-in-place" situation thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic (and it even happens to be raining.) Wild times we're living in at the moment. But at Poseidon's Underworld, we're striving to carry on with what we do best which is to distract, entertain, perchance educate (in terms of entertainment history) and maybe even arouse. So we're trudging onward with our annual salute to April showers, the kind that take place indoors. Shout out to our cover boy for this edition, Mr. Alain Delon. It's always difficult to cough up new examples, but I've rooted around for some that are sprinkled about below. Here they are, so turn that valve and let's begin!

Now I can't lie. I have posted pics from this one in the past. Butt, er, But... I found a sharper, cleaner version of the movie, so it warranted an update! This is glorious Olympic champion swimmer-turned-actor Buster Crabbe in Search for Beauty (1934.) This is one of the last Pre-Code films to actually depict nudity on-screen, which is a treat for classic movie buffs.

As a recruiter approaches Crabbe right after a swim meet he's just nailed, he peels out of his one-piece and hops in a nearby shower.

The water is apparently cold as he ferociously hops around and scrubs himself off. Take note of where his next-door neighbor's eyes are drifting... Who could blame him?!

The gents in this set of pics are Captured! (1933.) They are detainees in a WWI German prison camp.

The film's star is Leslie Howard, an actor not known for showing much skin (and he doesn't here either.)

He's captured alongside his burly pal William Le Maire.

The angle here makes the man in front look twice as big as he is. It's actually the man next to him causing an optical illusion.

You can see in this cap that the actor is wearing a skimpy garment in the scene.

Hi cohort at the far right may be bare, at least in back, however...

Now I bet practically all of you have never seen these next ones. They are from a 1954 German film called 08/15, which was one of three movies based on books concerning the lives of common soldiers just prior to WWII.

Concerned less with the action of war or the horrors of  it, the movie focuses on the experiences of the conscripted men. We soon find out that these three are not alone.

Oh, if I had a buck for every shower scene that has a strategic wall or railing in place...! LOL

I had never, ever even heard of this movie, but I was alerted to it when I happened upon a publicity photo that was for sale online.

The photo in question reveals that the actors were wearing skimpy briefs while filming the sequence. (But why is it that the publicity people couldn't crop this so that the illusion wasn't given away?? Makes little to no sense...)

On the subject of publicity photos a) leading me to shower scenes in movies and b) giving away behind the scenes info, I give you this pic from 1967's A Guide for the Married Man. Walter Matthau and Robert Morse show more here than they do in the film!

The scene takes place in a snug locker room at their club.

The camera floats over a man getting a rubdown and heads towards our stars taking their showers.

Afterwards, we're meant to believe that they are trotting around the locker room naked on their way to get a towel... but we know better thanks to that publicity still!

The two (conspiring over how Matthau can cheat on his incredibly gorgeous wife!) are often thrown together in close quarters.

I bet you don't know which movie these steamy shower scenes are from...

They're part of a flashback sequence to life in the U.S. Army as experienced by one particular (and unusual) recruit.

Oddly enough, the horseplay going on in the corner doesn't involve the subject of the movie, but he is in the room there with them to the right, off-camera.

He becomes an object of derision because he isn't interested in joining his fellow G.I.s on their trip to a whorehouse that evening. The star of the film is one John Hansen in his on-screen debut (which also effectively wrecked any chance of an important career.)

He plays George Jorgensen Jr, who would soon be transformed into the title character of The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970.) Jorgensen made headlines as the most publicized early example of a male-to-female sex change.

Hansen was a nice-looking guy who bore more than a passing resemblance to Troy Donahue (and had one incredible mane of silky, sun-streaked hair.) As I recall, Leonard Maltin's movie guide stated that he was prettier as George than he was as Christine (!) and I have to concur...! The styling for Christine was horrendous.

During a recent viewing of Torn Curtain (1964), I was surprised to see a shower scene with Mr. Paul Newman. I'd completely forgotten about it.

Then again, it's quite forgettable! This is the most we ever see of him in the shower and his flesh-tone briefs are visible...

"I'm ready for my close-up!" LOL And this is four years after Janet Leigh's famous shower in Psycho (1960!)

As the Blu-Ray reveals, Newman is photographed like a god at times, his legendary blue eyes blazing off the screen. He does have a few brief scenes with no shirt (or a very open shirt), but this shower was a disappointment.

1970's The Strawberry Statement, in which college student Bruce Davison is having a confrontation with an antagonist in the shower.

Sorry the quality of these couldn't be a bit better. Many of these films have fallen into relative obscurity now.

Recognize young and slender Don Johnson? This is The Harrad Experiment (1973), in which college students take part in trial marriages with preassigned mates, with sexual relations encouraged.

Johnson arrives on the scene late and scarcely misses a beat before dropping trou and heading into the shower.

You know... I don't think I have ever seen a shower set up with a curtain split in the middle like this! But I don't get out much (especially these days!)

The reed thin Johnson emerges and does provide a brief flash of Don jr. (Junior Johnson?) in the film.

Here's one that's not too common. Peter Fonda in Killer Force (1976.)

The shaggy protagonist, who was often unclothed in his late-1960s and '70s films, is joined by costar Maud Adams.

No, I mean joined by Adams! LOL A towel gets conveniently caught up in the action as he pulls her into the tub. This little-known actioner has a very eclectic cast that also includes Telly Savalas, Hugh O'Brian, Christopher Lee and O.J. Simpson!

Semi-Tough (1977) a football-oriented comedy finds Kris Kristofferson and Roger E. Mosley in the shower.

Often in scenes like this, it's the background extras who wind up showing more skin than the leads. (Unless things have changed, the pay is more for movie extras who appear without clothing in a film.)

When it comes to football, though, it's hard to beat the Texas A&M Aggies in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982.) I set the stage by showing you the removal of their uniforms as they prepare to clean up for a trip to the title establishment!

I think all musicals should have a scene included like this one.

The on-screen action soon leads into the gang shower.

It's a bonanza of butts in there! (And if I recall correctly, an occasional brief peek at more.)

We go now from college to high school. (Not that the actors are actually high school age!) Anyone recall the TV series The White Shadow, about an NBA basketball player (Ken Howard) who becomes the coach of an inner-city school team? In this shot, their on a road game with some higher grade facilities. (Take a look at the shower stand, though. Cozy...!)

Back at their own school, the showers are far less shiny and new.

The series became noted for occasional episodes in which the guys sang classic songs in the shower, such as "Duke of Earl."

Fairly revealing camera angles for a 1978 TV show (which if I remember right, aired at 8:00pm.) The actors were not nude on set, even as slim as the margins are sometimes here.

Timothy Van Patten, seen at left here, says they wore basically transparent skin-tone briefs and on shower room shooting days, every secretary on the lot would come by to observe!

On at least one occasion, Howard took a shower, too, but he had a private stall in his office.

It's practically a foreign concept today that there was a time when a coach would shower in front of a student and casually converse while drying off...

...not to mention the group showering dynamic, which, while it had it drawbacks for some of those with shyness or other issues, created a bonding experience. Even the actors on this show cite these as among their favorite scenes.

I know they meant a lot to me when I saw them! LOL The poor video quality of this shot, for example, actually makes it all a little better because in the sharper DVDs (which I ordered not long after seeing these scenes) makes it more clear that Van Patten is wearing something.

Here we find one Andrew Dice Clay interrupting the shower of a health resort worker in 1988's Casual Sex?

We really only get to hear rather than see the shower, but you know I try to be as inclusive as I can be!

The startled - not to mention intimidated - employee is played by David Sargent, who you aren't likely to see in very many things as his career was brief.

This movie - which stars Lea Thompson and Victoria Jackson - is brimming over with typically amusing '80s clothing and hair.

You know this face, I believe...

The movie is Prison (1987) and the actor is Viggo Mortensen.

Mortensen was looking decidedly scrumptious here, despite the wounds on his head. He has a lengthy scene in nothing but some white briefs as well in this one.

If you happened to see Eastern Promises (2007, which also contained plenty of bloody injury as well!), you know that there was virtually no square inch of his body that wasn't shown at one point or another during a vicious fight scene in a bathhouse.

Some of you know actor Aaron Paul, who took a shower in the 2018 thriller Welcome Home.

After a wild night in which he was unknowingly drugged, he discovers some love bites on his person...

Not a particularly revealing shower, but I deny no one entry to The Underworld...

Our final visit to the shower is a whopper. It comes from the U.K. television show Footballer's Wives, which made a splash in 2002. This is our introduction to the team from the eye-popping pilot episode!

British TV has long been more lenient with nudity versus American network television. There was a period in the 1990s when the U.S. networks began to allow some brief rear and side nudity, but it eventually subsided.

Here, however, the camera is loving and lingering and even includes at least one brief glimpse of a half-mast frontal (more than what I have here. Unfortunately, I do not include frontal nudity here at P.U. -- I know. It stinks! LOL)

This is the 'baller who showed his stuff (intentional or not), Gary Lucy.

This is his rascally teammate, played by Cristian Solimeno.

It was episode six before we were treated to another decent shower scene.

That time, though, it was revealed that there is also a fun, sudsy group bathtub in the same room! (Why couldn't I have been better at sports....?!?!) Shown here are two other principles from the first season, Nathan Constance and Daniel Schutzmann.

The eighth (and last from that first season) episode offered yet one more butt buffet in the shower room...

And that season went out with a bang as there was still another pop-eyed glimpse of a player's appendage. No wonder the show was a hit! LOL

The extra shown with his back to us was naked all the time and took an eternity to dry off. Even without all this, the show had campy, deliciously sassy merit.

The End!