Tub Time: "Happy" Bathday

Y'all know that I'm always down for a bath scene in any movie or television show. Sometimes a sudsy still photo will lead me to a film and I'll watch the whole dang thing, just waiting for the bath sequence to appear. Today's movie is one I wouldn't ordinarily pick, but the poster was so focused on bath time that I had no choice but to check it out and see what's up. In true publicity form, the suggestions made on the poster did not come to complete life in the actual movie, but a certain amount did nevertheless. As I am a completist, I now share my findings with you. The movie Cry for Happy (1961) brought two of the actresses from Sayonara (1957) - Miiko Taka and Myoshi Umeki - back together for another look at US servicemen becoming involved with Japanese females. It's a light, situational comedy that is rather forgettable, but may be of interest to those who like Joe Flynn (of McHale's Navy) or Harriet MacGibbon (Mrs. Drysdale of The Beverly Hillbillies), both of who have supporting roles in it.

The gents here are in the US Navy and are played by Chet Douglas, James Shigeta, Donald O'Connor and Glenn Ford.

Douglas is so tall that the only way he can stand with his buddies in Ford's downstairs photo developing studio is to stick his head into an opening in the ceiling, ala Dino in The Flintstones' car! (Suspiciously, Douglas isn't QUITE this much taller than his buds later in the film...)

Due to a post WWII housing shortage, Ford and his men take lodging in a secluded home which they believe belongs to the relative of a friend, but is, in fact, a Geisha training site! As Ford tours the home, he finds the lead instructor and three of her charges bathing together in a large tiled tub.

Umeki, Michi Kobi, Tsuroko Kobayashi and Taka are glimpsed, ostensibly nude, by Ford, who is in disbelief at what he's seeing. (For 1961 studio cinema - filmed the prior year, actually - this brief moment was pretty racy.)

It's a really quick bit and moments like the one depicted here, used in publicity pics, did not wind up in the final cut...

Likewise, the melee shown in the poster's artwork, didn't show up precisely in the manner depicted. It's close, but not entirely accurate. Here, we see O'Connor in the tub and Ford on his belly on a table.

In the actual scene, O'Connor is in a large robe (being massaged by an older attendant, not one of the Geisha girls.)

This benign image hardly lives up to what the artist drew for the movie's poster.

In the movie, Ford is in the tub. Way down in the tub!

The actor, then in his mid-50s, seems to be angling to show as little chest (or anything else) as possible.

This was still, nevertheless, a slightly racy set up for the era... a man taking a bath in full view of an attending female.

And, again, this imagery was used to promote the movie. The angle of this shot shows more than we ever see in the finished picture.

Meanwhile, the other guys' scenarios match up to the poster's artwork. Douglas is draped in a towel as one of the gals (Kobayashi) walks on his back.

If you don't know Chet Douglas, you may be forgiven for he only made a handful of films with mostly minor roles. One was Two Rode Together (1961) and his fifth and final one was Requiem for a Gunfighter in 1965.

Shigeta's situation does compare to the poster's artwork. He's in a towel being washed and rinsed off by Kobi.

This is probably among the most skin-baring scenes from his career, which was just getting started at this point. It's his third movie.

So, while it remains a little edgy that this foursome of US navy men are bathing en masse with the Geisha girls, it's hardly a baby oil freak-off or anything.

Bath time draws to a fast close when the sailors' friend Bob Okazaki comes darting in with some news for them.

The camera obscures our view as the "naked" Ford emerges from the tub into a waiting robe. But notice how all the others peer on! No one turns his or her head.

And that's a wrap on this movie bathtub sequence.

But wait! Loyal readers who made it through this post can now see a bonus bath.

I've idiotically gone and forgotten the name of the movie, but I was watching this sword and sandal Italian-made epic last fall and stopped in my tracks when it came to this segment. A pair of weary travelers are given a bath and a rubdown. 

I was taken with the furry friend in the water, but was also intrigued by the burly hands, which were hungrily grasping at the shoulders of the muscled hunk...

...but as the camera drew back, it was revealed to be a female attendant.

It also amused me that the guy in the tub seemed to have a bird's eye view of what's under his friend's wrap - and seemed to like what he saw!

And with that I'll pull the plug on this one. Here we see even more of Shigeta in Cry for Happy, but it's also evident that he was wearing little black briefs under his skimpy towel. He certainly looks to be having fun, in any case!

A Bit of a Drain...

See what I did there? Ha ha! It's time for another selection of bathtub pics, though I really don't have hordes of them to share. We've been doing this a whiiilllee now. Our cover boy this time out is Mr. Burt Lancaster in The Leopard (1963.) I can't recall if he remains alone in the scene, but if he does, then it's a rarity when it comes to onscreen baths! Most of today's entries involve at least one other person on the scene.

While researching Miss Debra Paget a while back, I stumbled upon this bath-time instance.

It's Stewart Granger in 1956's The Last Hunt.

Not only is Granger enjoying a bath all to himself, but...

...he's dousing himself in bath oil in order to rid himself of the stench that has come from buffalo hunting and being prevented from a regular cleaning.

This is a pretty good'n. When I did a post on Jeffrey Hunter's No Man Is an Island (1962) a bit ago, this scene was also in the film and I deliberately held it back until I had some other bathing pics. This young hunk is one of Hunter's navy cohorts who is forced to go on the run when the Japanese invade their Guam outpost.

You have to look closely but he's visible behind the little boy, soaking in a large black barrel.

Here's a closer glimpse.

When the enemy arrives, he has to dart out of that barrel and get dressed in a big hurry!

Before that moment comes, though, we get the treat of watching him lather up. I think this young actor is Fred Harris II, but don't sue me if I have that wrong...

This one had been featured in a prior bathtub post (just a scant 12 years ago!), but I hadn't been able to identify the movie then. One of my kind readers was able to clear it up, so I did some further investigation.

The movie is the Canadian-set WWII release The 49th Parallel (1941.)

The man in the tub is a very scruffy Laurence Olivier.

Upon the arrival of old pal Finlay Currie, Olivier springs from the tub to greet him (ostensibly naked!)

There's attendant observing the action who seems to be pretty happy about it, too.

Next it's time for a long overdo shave...

...and soon enough Olivier is back to the suave leading man we're used to.

This still photo is promotion for the mid-1970s TV series How the West Was Won. Guest star Kay Lenz is helping series regular William Kirby Cullen (who was a brief sensation in the teen mags) get cleaned up and ready for action.

Still promotional photos led me to most of the sequences featured here today. This one is from 1970's Start the Revolution Without Me. In it, Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder play identical twins who wind up switched at birth and separated from their lookalike counterparts. (Think "A Tale of Two Cities" and Big Business, 1988!) having seen Donald getting his bath, I decided to look into this further.

The royal suite in which he finds himself is quite ornately detailed and he actually has two attendants making him ready.

He is doused with perfume and bath salts by the two helpmates.

He's truly in the lap of luxury.

Soon enough, as is often the case, he's interrupted, though.

It's his "brother" Wilder.

Trying not to forget my foot lovers out there...!

As they conspire, Wilder gets in on the sponge-down action himself!

We've long adored Italian actor Terence Hill. This photo of him enjoying a bath is from the "fish out of water" spaghetti western Man of the East (1972.) This movie used to be shown in an appallingly blurry, cropped print on Fox Movie Channel, but seeing this still led me to see if a better copy might be floating around.

I'm happy to say there was one and it afforded us a far better look at Hill.

As the title character, an Englishman deposited in the old west, Hill's trio of cowpoke friends (and we can't forget that little Yorkie, too!) are bemused by his unusual ways. He performs morning calisthenics in some clingy pants and also owns a bicycle, which they cannot master.

Then there's the bathtub.

I love how he has all his accoutrements laid out by it, presumably (but sadly unseen) stripping down to get inside it while his buds are all around.

I presume they helped go fetch all the water, but they don't seem disposed towards getting in it themselves.

Hill is having a great time, though, reading and munching on an apple while soaking.

Before long, some imposing riders appear on the scene.

Unfortunately, Hill's quick application of a white robe is not shown on camera...

A still photo (which I cannot post here due to a prominent watermark) also led me to this next one. You can spy a bellman pouring hot water into a deluxe marble bathtub.

Soon to partake is dusty trail rider Glenn Ford in the 1957 western Cowboy.

First he has to get some of those clothes off and check the temperature of the water.

Then he needs to have the other door closed so that he can strip all the way down and get in.

This is a movie, though, so chances are...

...someone's going to be bursting in! Note the bottles here, intentional or not. The visitor is wrangling around with the tip of one while another erect one is situated on the edge of the tub!

The visitor is hotel employee Jack Lemmon. Before it's all over, he will make an attempt to become a cowboy himself.

Ford looks skeptical...

Nevertheless, by the end of the movie, Lemmon has earned his place alongside Ford and they're back at the same fancy Chicago hotel.

This time they're sharing their bath-time together!

Lemmon has a second tub brought into the roomy bathroom and there are bellmen seeing that the hot water is kept flowing.

Lemmon has undergone a sea change from the beginning of the film.

That's not really the end of this post, however. I've got just one more for you. There's a fairly involved lead-up to the bath, but I don't think most of you will mind that to much.

Most of you are aware that I watch almost no contemporary movies or scripted TV. Every once in a while something will lead me to make an exception. This time is is a rather little-known French film from 2020 called Summer of 85. Set in - you guessed it - 1985, it details the surprise relationship between two young men. Here we see Félix Lefebvre asking permission from a pal to use his sailboat.

The inexperienced sailor sets out for an afternoon of seagoing.

Next he decides to shuck his jeans and relax in the sun for a while.

Unfortunately, he realizes too late that a severe storm is headed his way. As he scrambles to get the boat moving in the opposite direction, he capsizes it and lands in the water.

The good news is that he isn't left to flounder very long before a passing stranger comes to offer aid.

The slightly older Benjamin Voisin instructs Lefebvre on how to right the boat, then offers to tow him back to shore with his own craft.

Voisin brings the drenched, chilled young man back to his elegant house where his mother asks what has happened.

Insisting that nothing will help to rectify a capsizement better than a warm bath, she orders the foundling upstairs. (Though these characters are teens, the actors involved were 21 and 24, respectively, just in case there is any concern about that!)

Voisin's mama draws the water in her well-appointed bathroom.

Apparently considering the demure young man helpless, she next starts in on his wet clothing!

All of it!

The startled Lefebvre doesn't seem to have much, if any, say in the matter.

Having shucked him like an ear of corn and congratulated him on his pert young body...

...she, surprisingly enough, leaves him alone to enjoy his bubble bath.

The slightly dazed young bather likens the atmosphere and decor of the bathroom to that of an Egyptian sarcophagus.

And, naturally, he isn't left alone for long...! Voisin soon trots in.

He's brought in a drink to help get the lad back on his feet again.

The chemistry between these two new friends is palpable.

Voisin doesn't seem too disappointed in what he sees when Lefebvre does get back on his feet...

It's giving away absolutely nothing if I tell you that the relationship develops further than two strangers meeting during a boating mishap. Summer of 85 may not suit everyone, but I have to say that, for the most part, I found it really captivating (possibly because I graduated high school in '85!) I could identify with some aspects of it. It ran into understandable release issues during Covid-19. But I do recommend it.

The End!