Pictures of Lily.........

Curvy: "In like Flynn" ??? :-)
When I was about 13, it seemed to be an urban legend amongst my mates that old Errol had had a massive todger. Presumably this was a fanciful embellishment of his reputation as a womanizer, but I think it was the very first time in my life that I became conscious of the possibility that some blokes might be better endowed than others :-)

Joe: Good topic :-)

What Curvy says is very true, but when analyzing the mystique of the Hollywood Greats, you also have to think about them in the context of the period in which they worked, and what society was like then. It was a period when censorship was even stricter than it is on the blogs today :-) and when nudity and graphic sex would have been totally unacceptable to audiences. People liked to dream and to use their imaginations, and because the stars had little opportunity to get their kit off (the swimming scene in "From Here to Eternity" was highly controversial at the time), personality and "allure" were paramount. Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart and Fred Astaire were short-arses and not exactly hunky, but they had gravitas and an aura. This they cultivated to suit audience demand: it was an art.

Later, in the 60s and 70s, as taboos were shattered and sexual issues became more open, audiences' tastes changed and cinema had to move with the times. This meant that "allure" became less important, as actors and actresses were able to become more overtly sexual.

Actually, from a male viewpoint, I think that there are many very attractive actresses in modern cinema, and there are also a number I respect very much as acting professionals, and not just from the viewpoint of sex appeal. Certainly the range of roles available for women these days is vast in comparison with the Golden Age. However, the mystique of Garbo, Kelly and Bacall lives on because they didn't have to stoop to anything tacky to get publicity, and I think people treasure that.

Forgot about Raquel Welch Ron & what about Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon A Time in the West? and I agree MissG a different league completely!

So it appears I'm not the only person who found the legends far more alluring and sexy than most of today's stars. Whether this was manipulated by the studios or not it worked. But there's gotta be some of you out there who don't agree!

But do you look at them as untouchable icons or can you still think " Phwoar wouldn't mind a hot, filthy, night of sin with (insert legends name here)........!"

1 word.. Marilyn

Salma Hayek........demure????
Hahahaha............ :-)


Talking of Italians.......
I've always had a thing for Sophia Loren. In my opinion, not only was she more gorgeous in her prime, but also an order of magnitude more sexy than Marilyn. If you've never seen her as the whore in Man of La Mancha with Peter O'Toole, I can recommend ;-)
Why she didn't shack up with me instead of that old fogey Carlo Ponti is something that will always baffle me :-)

I've always regarded Penelope Cruz as a sort of modern-day youngish Loren in terms of first impressions, but sometimes she can look very innocent, which was something Loren was incapable of :-)

Ginger: Absolutely agree with your take on modern male actors, and you make a good point about the number of "takes". Many of the scripts of the Golden Age classics were indeed brilliant.

Hedy Lamarr ! ( not Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles ).
She performed the first nude bathing scene on film.She didn't actually show very much but the scene was very erotic.
Also invented some sort of tracking device during the war,so brains too !
The sexiest scene on film was in my opinion,the dream sequence in " Singing in the rain " danced by Cyd Charisse.My God, that woman had fabulous legs and the whole performance simply oozes sex !

".....so brains too !"

Maybe that's why she was called "heady". Boom, boom !!! :-)

Agreed Cheryl Cole is the complete opposite of everything the greats had! How can you even compare her to someone like Grace Kelly? I think you'll be outnumbered on that one ff ;-)

Could I also add the unfortunate Jayne Mansfield & beautiful Faye Dunaway?

Ladies all we have had from you is Fred Astaire & Cary Grant.... No other leading male legends floating your boat?

Joe: Maybe Frisky is just "easily pleased", bless him :-)

Cinema reached it's apogee with Bert Reynolds and has been mostly drifting back to the bottom of the Atlantic since...

Ron: Wouldn't we all ? :-)
DrZ: Are you sure you didn't mean perigee?? :-) I always remember an interview with him in later life when he made the profound and significant observation that "you can only continue holding your gut in for so long" :-)

"with the old movies is when they kiss they just plant there lips on each other but theres no movement"

You should see some of the TV dramas coming out South Korea. It's like two space probes docking in orbit :-)

Clark Gable as my leading man back in the day Pwoarrrr.... oh no maybe Robert Redford or maybe Channing Tatum (Dear John ) Oh the dilemma can i please have them all Joe?

Steve McQueen is one of if not THE coolest bloke ever! And every single one of us wish ever had 1% of his charm, charisma and sex appeal.....

Ginger if you're having Omar Shaif I'm having Julie Christie ;-)

Of course you can SunShine just don't wear them all out!!!

Now you're talking ff!!!! One of the few modern stars who could be rightly compared maybe Natalie Portman as well....

Wilf: Point taken. Next time I'm back in my Yorkshire local, I'll simply stand in the doorway between the bar and the snug and project my sheer charisma. Shouldn't be too long before I get approached by the town bike, the lady next door who always smells of sherry, or a couple of pissed-up scrubbers looking for a free pass to the town's one and only after-hours club. Yes, Bogart has a lot to answer for :-)

I was going to utter "here's looking at you, kid" but as Operation Yewtree has now moved into a new phase, I thought it prudent to keep my mouth shut.

Curvy: A few whiskey highballs can work wonders......(time for bed, says Zebedee.......??)

That's exactly the point of this blog Wilf! It is possible to be sexy with an attitude, look, style & glamour. A single sultry look will always stay in the memory for a very long time & the image will never fade ;-)

Maybe they just "wanted to be alone" for a while MissG :-)

Yes, a single sultry look from me, and now that sherry-swilling old bint won't leave me alone. Time to lie low for a while.... :-)

The first Bond, Connery, definitely the sexiest.. may not be the golden age of movies but sure he'd qualify... Yul Brynner I agree was also a looker, but only when bald! saw a photo of him with hair and 'no thanks' sprung to mind. Charlton Heston was also powerful and sexy.. and Rock Hudson, I hear, was also coveted guy-candy. Didnt do much for me mind

Pwoarrrr Sir Thomas Sean Connery ....even the sound of his voice turns me weak at the knees Mmm.
As does Samuel Pack (Sam) Elliot huba huba

Jimmy Cagney was a great dancer when he wasn't too busy pushing halved grapefruits into his GFs' faces or exercising his Thompson. For ladies who like to be dominated, perhaps a "dream combo" of a bad boy with happy feet? (OK he was a short arse too and didn't have a sleeve of pseudo-Celtic tattoos.......can't have everything I suppose :-)

"reminded me of myself when I was younger"

:-)

Something that's always struck me is how great a leather jock strap looked on Douglas senior, whereas Douglas junior would still have looked like Gordon Gecko even if he'd managed to crash diet his way into one :-) Sadly, I think senior would never have had the opportunity to fondly visualize himself in his offspring :-)

I have to admit i sometimes have a soft spot for 'Bad Boys' and top of my list has to be James Dean the original Rebel without a cause.

A few rebels without a clue here SunShine ;-)

Yep Joe the are a few Rebels of that sort......But i'm too busy thinking of Jason Stratham as my next in line Bad Boy Yummy!!!

Jason Statham even...

Even *I* like Jason Statham :-)
(cough, cough..........fidget......)
.....I mean he's a Brit, innee ? He's not as preposterous as the Old Guard action men. I really enjoyed The Bank Job: great Brit cinema.

"rebels without a clue"

Love it.

Slight case of "blogjack" perhaps, but........

I'm well aware that women are sexually attracted to bad boys, and that inevitably it all ends in tears (Skebbie's Third Law of Sexual Attraction).

However, referring back to my Jimmy Cagney post above, I was wondering about the extent to which our lady bloggers would be prepared to forgive or tolerate the antics of a bad boy if he had some kind of saving grace or talent (apart from being a god in bed :-)

For example, would they be happy shacking up with the local thug if he proved capable of dancing the tango like a wild stallion? Would they overlook being pistol-whipped and abused nightly if the guy was a brilliant lead guitarist? Would they be happy if the guy turned the loft into a drug factory if he was also a tortured artist who produced brilliant paintings ? :-)

The possible pros and cons are endless, but women are complex creatures so I guess only they can comment with any authority.

BBWL: I wasn't referring solely to the violent types: there are other ways of being "bad". Was just interested in the relative balance of sinstalents and the degree to which women size them up.

James Dean yes... forgot about the unforgettable *fidget *twitch

Maybe you've found a bad girl Wilf? ;-)

Surprised none of you ladies have mentioned Clint Eastwood ......

And a mention should definitely go to Honor Blackman....... Who doesn't like Pussy Galore?????

clint does nothing for me.. absolutely nothing

Monica Belluci is gorgeous

Hong Kong Phooey. Ever so sexy, but always modestly dressed. I often wondered what would happen if he lost his belt. ;-)

Rosemary his secretary was better Luv2.......

Hell no....has tio be Shrek for me ;-)

"Hell no....has tio be Shrek for me"

Suggest you give Wayne Rooney a call :-)

Joe, "Rosemary his secretary was better Luv2....... "

Rosemary was the telephone operator. Keep up will ya!

Same thing Luv2...... It was the glasses that did it for me PHWOAR!

...........opens a sleepy eye at the mention of the Julie Christie name..............

Don't Look Now - a film that I watched in a York cinema the day before I committed myself to HM service. Most memorable. The film that is.

I think the earlier films were just much better at portraying sizzling leading ladies - it seems that these days the penchant is for ladette leading ladies which whilst amusing do not get the pulse racing quite so much. Besides which their weapon handling skills are shite in most cases.

There are some memorable exceptions though. I could probably watch Milla Jovovich a lot more than I already do.

Joe, I'd hate to be though of as some sort of pedant, but can we get this straight ... Henry (aka HKP) was a cleaner (the mild-mannered janitor). He didn't have a secretary!

Riggs, what about Penelope Pitstop? She was a bit of a tomboy, but also very feminine as I recall.

Have to say the love (sex?) scene featuring Christie and Sutherland in Don't Look Now was one of the best in the history of cinema: explicit yet understated....affectionate but very horny.

Oh dear, Shrek was the result of a few 'whiskey highballs' minus the ginger ale (Up here in the wild lands we tend not to water down that liquid gold). So i will give Mr Rooney a miss,thanks all the same lol

Luv2 it was Penry who was the mild mannered janitor in a police station where Rosemary was the telephonist secretary........ "Hallo, hallo, this is Rosemary the telephone operator, the lovely lassie with the classy chassis"

Jessica Wabbit...hubba hubba hubba

.... jeez Joe, you clearly watched far too much TV.


He-man pwoarrrrr !

nahhh, he just loves Googling... Luv2 ;)

Did you mean to write Googling BGBF ? As if we drop the GO it is probably more in line with what he loves ;-)

Is that not so Joe? lol x

You may say that SunShine but I couldn't possibly comment ;-) lol