Wednesday, December 1, 2021

It's Tub Time!

We've done many posts over the last dozen years regarding the art of on screen bathing. (A couple of early ones here and here.) Initial inspiration came from a 1975 book I have called "Movie Stars in Bathtubs," but I've gone on (and on) in an effort to provide further examples of the scenario. Any time I come across an appropriate instance, I save it for a future collection and I now have enough to put out yet another brief installment. Today's cover "boy" is Burt Lancaster, soothing away some of his troubles in a tinted lobby photo from 1963's The Leopard. And now we hurl ourselves back even further than that and work our way forward.

Bet ya weren't expecting me to go back this far! This sequence is from 1937's King Solomon's Mines. An African manservant is dousing someone with a bucket of water...



The joke here is that the person bathing (in a galvanized barrel) keeps his monocle on throughout the deluge!

Turns out it is Roland Young, who plays a clean-freak while exploring the wilds of Africa.

Quirky, bemused Young isn't the first person who springs to mind when referring to on screen flesh revealing.

Yet here he is, with costar John Loder, standing in his makeshift bathtub.

He somehow got in there all right, but is now faced with the prospect of how in the world to get out!

Loder determines that there's no better method than to just rock the barrel over onto its side and spill the naked Young onto the ground!

So that's just what happens.

Trouble is, that's just about the moment when Anna Lee has chosen to come and speak with Young about joining her on her quest to locate her missing father, who's gone off to search for the title treasure.

Presumably, she can see more from her angle than we the audience can and she is amused at the sight of the the bare-assed Young on all fours.


Later in the film, shortly after bathing in the river, Young is only partially dressed when his group is accosted by some hostile natives. But they decide he is a God when they catch a glimpse of his white legs!

In a similar vein, the assisted bath, we come to 1939's The Fighting Gringo. Note the large bucket way up high on the platform, but who's that in the tub?

Upon closer inspection, we discover that it's our beloved George O'Brien!

O'Brien had one of the most notable physiques of Hollywood's golden era.

We like his burly, beefy face, too.


Seems like there are worse ways to earn a living than to be the one washing and drying off ol' Gorgeous George!
Next subject is Mr. Ricardo Montalban in a 1951 swordplay saga called Mark of the Renegade. There are a few occasions in which he shows off his well-defined chest.

And then, as you might guess, he also takes a bath.

Like so many before and after him, his bath is only private for a brief while until it's interrupted.

Montalban maintained his fit physique for many years after this, including his turn as Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) in which he was wrongly accused of having used a prosthetic chest because some believed it couldn't really be his own! 
Flipping the switch for a moment to TV, we have a 1964 episode of Wagon Train. Denny Miller (inset) is trying to convince a filthy Noah Beery Jr. that it's time for his first bath in a long while. 

Beery is having none of it...!

So Miller and his pals take matters into their own hands. They pick him up, take him over to the lake and (off camera) shuck off all his grimy clothes.

Next thing you know, he's lathered up and being forcibly washed by the other guys.



The illusion that he's naked in the water is destroyed when he bucks a couple of times and the camera catches that the actor has on some flesh-toned briefs.


After his impromptu time getting a bath, Beery is also given his first shave in a while.


Then the final touches are applied to his makeover. If you haven't already noticed, former Tarzan Denny Miller had cute buns in his western trousers. He was billed as Scott Miller on Wagon Train because it was determined by producers that Denny wasn't "masculine" enough!

Before and after!

Now we come to Sergio Fantoni, bathing in the 1967 thriller Diabolically Yours.

Star of the film is an amnesiac Alain Delon.

Not sure if what he saw in the tub was memorable or not...! Ha ha!

This is Bud Cort in one of Robert Altman's all-star opuses, Brewster McCloud.

His offbeat character, who longs more than anything to fly, takes a bath in the film in a plastic-lined vessel.

His bath is observed by guardian angel Sally Kellerman (note that her wings are removed...!) This was not a particularly revealing trip to the tub, but the movie offered up one other interesting example.

Get a load of this scene! William Windom, in the tub, plays a corrupt businessman. The man at the chessboard is his assistant William Baldwin.

Already through the film it was suggested though clothing and body language that perhaps this was more than a business relationship. (You can't see it, but Windom's black vest in the inset is fringed along the bottom!)

In this sequence, Windom is put out because a phone call (from a woman) has come in on his line for Baldwin.

So there's an element of petty jealousy involved.

The (implied) naked Windom strikes a distracting pose while Baldwin chats with the caller.

This is clearly not a set, but an actual locale and it's captivating. The spa part is only big enough for one or two people while the rest of the "pool" is also very limited in scope. Shouldn't we all have a mini-pool and spa in our master suite (with putt-putt carpet all around it!)??

Television again. This time a 1976 pilot film called The Quest, starring Tim Matheson and Kurt Russell. The young gents played brothers, one captured and raised by the Cheyenne, who are in search of their sister, still a captive.

At one point in their journey, the guys take time out for a soak at the local bathhouse. 

The establishment is run by Keenan Wynn (whose real life son created the short-lived show which sprang from this telefilm.)


During his bath time, Russell suddenly changes expression and begins staring intently at something over Matheson's way.

Soon enough he pulls a gun and aims it in that direction!

An oblivious Matheson is sitting in his own tub (with legs sprawled apart and out of the water) reading the newspaper.

Suddenly he's jarred out of his complacency by the shot having been fired!

Only afterwards does he realize that a deadly snake had been lurking on the shelf above, ready to drop onto him.

Warm sudsy water, guns, snakes... is it getting hot in here? Paging Dr. Freud!

Wynn is the one faced with cleaning up all the slimy less at the bathhouse. The Quest series was clobbered in the ratings by Charlie's Angels. Fifteen episodes were filmed, but only 11 aired in the U.S. Matheson had previously taken a similar bath in The Virginian years before.

Another TV-movie pilot was the ill-fated The Legend of the Golden Gun (1979.) A hideous rip-off of The Lone Ranger, it spent most of its running time demonstrating the origin story for a character who would not see the light of day again afterwards. Keir Dullea was a featured guest star, playing General George Custer, seen here in his bathtub.

As is so often the case, his bath time is interrupted by the arrival of a visitor.

Get a load of the pipe he can't seem to let go of...

The star of the telefilm, Jeff Osterhage, steps into the tent for a discussion with Dullea.

He's incredulous at the sight of this young man, all duded out in the white buckskin that once belonged to a notorious gunslinger.

Naturally, he wants to examine Osterhage's gun closely...


Then he wants to feel the buckskin, too...! With the glances and the positioning of the weapon, can it even be possible that any homoeroticism is unintentional?



Osterhage is front and center as Dullea exits the tub. Duellea loves this obnoxious pipe and is quite proud of it, even as it threatens to upstage him!

See what I mean? It's got to be one of the rare occasions when a performer uses a prop to draw focus, but as a result, obscures HIMSELF with it!

Osterhage was a neophyte actor and struck this sort of naive, deer in the headlights expression quite often. But at least his pants sometimes added some interest to the proceedings. This was only his second project. His next one brings us to our finale for today...

That's Osterhage in the second tub behind Mr. Chest himself, Tom Selleck. This was in the western TV miniseries The Sacketts.

Looks like it was a fun day of filming!

Not shown in this scene, but starring in the miniseries, is Mr. Sam Elliott, who also possessed a chest o'death. His presence would have generated a holy trinity of hirsute hellaciousness!

Apart from the hairy chests, this scene, along with others from Selleck's career, has made quite a few foot fetishists happy as well!

Looks like it was a great moment for author Louis L'Amour to stop by the filming. Wonder who the lucky boom operator was that day! LOL Selleck did precious little on-screen nudity in his career, but there was that fleeting moment in the culture clash comedy Mr. Baseball (1992) in which he shucked down in the team's bathhouse. Which brings us to...

The End!

14 comments:

hsc said...

Yet another great trip to the tubs! These are always so welcome!

I particularly enjoyed the look at Jeff Osterhage-- and apparently, so did Kier Dullea! That pipe in the mouth thing is so odd, almost like an oral fixation. But at least there's a nice look at Dullea himself.

However, I don't think I would've recognized Osterhage (who I really only know from the famous tub scene with Selleck) in the shots with Dullea if you hadn't identified him-- did they not only bleach his hair, but also shave his chest?

That potential series was shamelessly intended to capitalize on THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER, which was announced as a big project by Sir Lew Grade in 1978-- and which promptly bombed on release in 1981.

The shots with Selleck from THE SACKETTS are great, though, with Osterhage well-matched to Selleck as a prime example of hirsute beefcake. If they had indeed included Sam Elliot in the scene, the TV sets across the country would've melted from the strain.

And the finale shot from MR. BASEBALL was the perfect capper!

Sorry to hear about your ordeal without heat in your response on the previous thread, Poseidon! Hope everything goes well throughout the winter months!

Thanks again for another great post! Be well and safe, everyone!

Poseidon3 said...

hsc, thanks for your comments! Glad you liked this. I got home last night and discovered that I had somehow left one bath time incident out of this post!! So I've added that into the mix this morning if you want to check it out. And, yes, I guess they clearly did trim down or shave young Osterhage's chest for that "Golden Gun" movie... perhaps to emphasize his youth or "innocence." :::sigh::: As seen later, he had a total CARPET usually! LOL I FINALLY saw the 1981 "Lone Ranger" about a year or so ago and it was horrible, of course. Just like "Golden Gun," the fabled costume was never seen until practically the end of the movie. "Superman" took its time getting the red cape & tights out, too, but it was GOOD...! I appreciate your concern about my heat at home. It's all fixed up now. Happy $1,000.00+ repair bill to me. LOL

BryonByronWhatever said...

Thanks for another great post and the Jeff Osterhage reminder!

Dan said...

Love the Selleck pics - he just looks so darn happy! I’ve always found cheerfulness sexy. I sometimes imagine him and Sam Elliott going chest to chest and getting stuck together like Velcro. Mmm...
William Windom was in everything in the 70’s. Just watched him in “The Detective” with Frank Sinatra in which he plays another gay character, but in this case a neurotically closeted one who does some unpleasant things.
I sympathize with your repair situation. We just had a new furnace and AC and some overdue plumbing repairs done. Ugh.

rigs-in-gear said...

I love cleanliness in movies and TV, but, as you point out, no one gets any privacy when taking a bath. The odd bath is the one with Ricardo Montalban. Where are his legs? At first, I thought it was deep, like the one Roland Young had to be tipped out of. But the guy who enters shows the tub only comes up to his knees... WTF?

Gingerguy said...

Keir is really acting up a storm with that pipe! I think for some Actors historical roles are really a challenge. I am thinking of all the parasols and hairpieces on tv actresses in "Roots" in 1976. I always had the biggest crush on Tom Selleck (his reverse morgtage commercials break my heart now). The most gorgeous man and so gay looking to my eyes with the stache and Hawaiian shirt. Sam Elliot and Tom in the same film, be still my heart.

John Berry (he/him) said...

Yes thank you for another great bath post!
Who would have expected to see Roland Young in the bath, although doesn't everyone keep their monocle on?
I have a bit of a thing about forced baths so will look out the Wagon Train episode!

Poseidon3 said...

BryonByron, I am stunned that so many people even know who he is! I had no knowledge of him at all before seeing that TV pilot for the "Golden Gun." Thanks.

Dan, I love that image of Sam and Tom. Now that would be "Must See TV!" Ha! I almost mentioned "The Detective." Windom - who seriously worked ALL THE TIME - played every sort of person, but played gay a surprising number of times. I can't quite forget the episode of "Hunter" in which an aging, paunchy Windom was revealed to be getting it on with super-hot Sam J Jones (aka "Flash Gordon!") Thank you!

rigs-in-gear, you bring up a good point about Montalban! I have to assume he is sitting in there cross-legged (what used to be called "Indian Style") though it can't have been very comfortable. He must have been very flexible. I mean, he was doubtlessly in that tub forever due to the time it took/takes to shoot anything on film! Living alone, I get tons of privacy... too much! LOL But when I think back to various trips, conventions, etc... I do recall having someone or another come in to the room while I was in the tub or shower. Maybe it's not as foreign a thing as I thought, though so many people in this post and others are doing some sort of business during it. Ha ha!

Gingerguy, I usually find Keir to be very good or relentlessly bad. He had a fairly oddball career. My biggest pet peeve with period movies (even more - on stage) is when performers, usually actresses, make a big deal about being in the clothes. They forget that these items were part of that person's everyday life and they knew nothing else. So quit making a big deal over your shawl or futzing around with your skirt which is only a novelty to YOU... not your character. And, yes, those reverse mortgage commercials are awful. But they are better than Joe Namath and Jimmie Walker going on (and on) about Medicare benefits! LOL

John Berry, I was really startled when Roland wound up in that predicament, having only seen him in sparkling '30s tuxedo or drawing room movies and the like. The sad thing about the "Wagon Train" episode is that I had it on my DVR (INSP network) and could have tried to use that for pics, but then figured I could just find it online instead. But all the copies online were HORRIBLE, hence the ratty looking pics for that sequence... Thank you!

Godzillafreeway@gmail.com said...

Enjoying your site. Wondering if you have noticed Clint Eastwood tubby time in "High Plains Drifter"?

Forever1267 said...

If you haven't seen it yet, Bradley Cooper has a bathtub scene in the current "Nightmare Alley", and LITTLE Bradley can briefly be seen. About 15 minutes into the movie.

And it looks nice!

Selleck has always been a favorite, and there is never a bad time at looking at that chest.

Thank you again, as always!!!

Poseidon3 said...

godzillafreeway, I had a shot from that one back in 2011:

https://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-clean-fun.html

Forever1267, I almost never go to the movies, but I'll keep an eye peeled for "Nightmare Alley" when it begins to show up on TV. Thanks!

Ptolemy1 said...

I've always thought Dullea was a stunningly gorgeous man, I JUST watched him hold forth for his mother in "Madame X" last night. What a face and that chin cleft. I'm a sucker for a good chin cleft. I SUPPOSE he had a good career but except for people sort of kind of knowing him from "2001 a Space Odyssey", his career is almost unheard of now. Such a pretty but masculine man.

Poseidon3 said...

Ptolemy1, I can never get over Dullea's eyes in "Madame X." Oh, to be photographed in that old style. His tenderness with Lana is to die for, too. (And she did! LOL)

David Kenilworth said...


More Bracken's World trivia:

Tom Selleck was featured as Roger, one of the contract players in Laura Deane's talent school, in Season 1. He had speaking parts in "The Sweet Smell of Failure" and in "What Ever Happened to Happy Endings?"

Also in "The Sweet Smell of Failure" were Eleanor Parker and Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island (see below).

In Season 2, Selleck had one episode playing a different character, since Laura Deane's talent school had been dissolved in the Bracken's World shift from Season 1 to Season 2, reflecting the then current crisis in filmmaking and eschewing Dorothy Kingsley's vision of Bracken's World as a TV remake of Valley of the Dolls (for which she wrote the screenplay).

Ricardo Montalban was also in both season 1 (with Eleanor Parker, who flew in to Fantasy Island three times) and season 2. His lady from Star Trek., Madlyn Rhue, (Space Seed, S1.E22) was also in Bracken's World season 1, as the neurotic wife of Peter Haskell, and in season 2, when she was murdered by Ellen Corby's nephew.

And speaking of Ellen Corby, "John Boy" Richard Thomas played on the first season of Bracken's World, when he kidnapped Rachel (Karen Jensen).