Poseidon Quickies: Yo, Adrian!

One post seems to lead to another these days and such was the case with this one. Intent to Kill led to another Richard Todd film, Why Bother to Knock, and a costar in that one, Rik Battaglia, led me to come across Nature Girl and the Slaver (1957), which is known by a couple of titles thanks to international marketing of this German product. 

Nature Girl was a sequel to Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956), which burst onto the scene with a screen newcomer -- one Marion Michael. The German girl was but 15 when she landed the part of Liane and the first movie was filmed when she was 16. Her mother was present throughout the filming (much of which was done in an Italian tropical park!) and didn't seem to take issue with the fact that her nubile daughter was topless for a huge chunk of the run time. It must be said, however, that topless nudity was never as much of a thing in Europe as it had been (is?) in America. Needless to say, the movie was a runaway success, generating much income at European box offices.

Michael was touted as Germany's answer to Brigitte Bardot and sought to vary her image with movies of entirely different kinds, but the fact remained that viewers mostly thought of her as Liane. Meant to be a string of movies, the second installment came in 1957. This time, though, Michael was only semi-topless. Her earlier necklace had apparently grown in a year's time and was now longer and two shells were somehow permanently adhered onto her nipples! The film was rather a fizzle, especially when compared to the rip-snorting success of the original. 

Audiences didn't get quite the same effect in the second film when the previously topless teen now had become "shell"-acked.

She did, in the sequel however, perform a vigorous native dance, a moment of which is depicted in this poster. Now, I'm no expert, but Michael was supposedly a devoted student of ballet and I just don't see those legs as ones belonging to a ballerina of note. Maybe it's just the camera angle.

Now don't be mistaken. Even with her shells adjusted, Michael still showed off a startling amount of pert, young flesh for 1957. This was way more skin than one would ever have seen in a Hollywood film from the same year. Trouble is, as the story went on, she eventually became dressed in regular (albeit abbreviated) attire...

Seen here with Battaglia, who was the one drawing us to the film in the first place, Michael is far more covered up.

But if you hadn't noticed, the title of this post is "Yo, Adrian!" Thus we're about to really get to the meat of the matter, chiefly a bit of hairy-chested beefcake. 

In her second cinematic outing, Michael is introduced to a jungle explorer played by Austrian actor Adrian Hoven.

As a longtime fan of shirts open to the waist, Hoven caught my eye immediately.

Under his shirt lurks another jungle! And don't neglect that bulge on display.

Later in the film, a wounded Hoven is shown recuperating in a hospital bed. He's almost wearing a pajama top to go with his shorts...!

We've always had a soft spot for handsome, hairy-chested men of this sort.

And Hoven was good looking, too. Possessing a thick, wavy head of dark curls, he sort of seemed like a mix-master combination of Maximilian Schell, Horst Bucholtz and Richard Beymer. 

A daring soldier during WWII, he was a paratrooper who was seriously injured at one point. Later, after being used as an extra in a war film, he gave acting a try as a career and found three decades of success. American audiences didn't get to see very much of him, but he did have roles in cult favorites like Mark of the Devil (1970) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Fox and His Friends (1975.)

Battaglia, who wore a teensy bikini in Why Bother to Knock this same year, was all buttoned up in Nature Girl. He's seen here (on some stairs) towering over Hoven. But you don't really think that a shirt open to the waist and a barely fastened pajama top was going to be all that led me to generate a post about Hoven, did you? If you've been a devoted diver at Poseidon's Underworld for any considerable length of time, you know that I typically unleash a torrent of shower pics each April. Well... I'm not waiting in this case. We need all the eye candy we can get these days. In the initial movie, Michael was subjected to her first ever shower, an upturned can with holes poked in it. This time, thankfully, it is Hoven who takes one like it!

Back at the camp with his associate, Hoven is invited to wash up under the makeshift shower located inside a tent.

Much to our delight, he begins shucking off his khaki shirt.

Before we've completely calmed down from that, he starts in on the trousers...

Even this seems a skosh further than many U.S. films of the era would have gone in terms of viewing a man undress.

Not often you'd see a zipper down that far and what the hell is under there? Certainly not the anticipated tightie-whities.

I honestly wasn't sure what in the world I was about to be in for at this point. And I was indeed surprised...

Under his khaki pants was the scantiest little pair of light brown briefs with a dark waist band. Almost a glorified jock strap!

Oh Lort...!

I really had no clue what Hoven was going to have on if the camera kept rolling, but this was certainly not anywhere on my list of imagined articles. But the big surprise was the tan lines! He obviously had been out and about in the sun quite a bit with just a pair of briefs on.

This look was all at once sexy and not sexy. Unexpected, though, in any case.

The questionable apparel was made less appealing when he was clearly removing a wedgie just before stepping into the shower. But he was still undeniably sexy in a rugged, manly way.

And I remain ga-ga over the tan lines whether its considered healthy or not.

"What a fee-lin'!"

During a quick spin around, we can see that Hoven has a scar on his back, likely from that awful injury in WWII.

Nice side view!

The biggest question/confusion about the scene is why he was wearing anything at all in a supposedly private shower room separated from everyone by canvas?! Yet, had he been naked, the camera shot would have had to remain a lot higher than it did. So we're not gonna complain.

Alas, all good things must come to an end...

I did find it strange that he put his pants on right over those sopping wet briefs, but maybe it's a cooling technique for the jungle that I'm not aware of?

See how wet his pants got??

I enjoyed the artwork on this poster. Incidentally, the first two movies (there was never another new one filmed after the second) were edited together into a makeshift third installment called Liane, Daughter of the Jungle (1961.) (Shower scene at the 33 minute mark!)

I like discovering new performers I was previously unfamiliar with and I hope you do, too. Mr. Hoven died prematurely of a heart attack in 1981 at only age 58.

His son Percy has grown up to become a media producer and German television host. He clearly inherited a number of his father's traits including the eyes and lips.

Ahhh.... so this is how he achieved those cute li'l tan lines...!

The End!