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The Nine Ages of Nakedness | |
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Directed by | Harrison Marks |
Starring | Harrison Marks Rita Webb Sue Bond Cardew Robinson Howard 'Vanderhorn' Nelson June Palmer |
Distributed by | ORB |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Nine Ages of Nakedness (also known as The 9 Ages of Nakedness) is a 1969 British sex film, directed by Harrison Marks, and starring Marks as himself and featuring Bruno Elrington, June Palmer, Julian Orchard, Max Wall and Cardew Robinson. [1]
"World famous photographer of nudes" Harrison Marks visits an Indian psycho-analyst on Harley Street. While most male viewers imagine that Marks seems to have a dream job, his life taking pictures of naked ladies isn't without its downside, as depicted in the slapstick opening credits in which clumsy models knock over Marks' cameras, he gets a pie in the face for trying to touch up one of his subjects, and accidentally snapping a girl in a park causes him to be chased by her boyfriend Burt. Worried that his ancestors' bad luck is rubbing off on him, Marks tells the psychiatrist stories about how his ancestors have also suffered misfortune through the ages-mainly because of their involvement with nude women and "the arts".
Marks’ first anecdote takes place in the prehistoric age. Sculptor "Harry Stone Marks", fresh from carving Stonehenge, is employed to draw a cavewoman housewife in the nude (in slate) only to end up pelted with rocks when her husband takes a fancy to Marks’ blonde secretary.
In ancient Egypt, Harrison Hubergritz a lowly Jewish slave is ordered by Pharaoh Akenaten to spend a lifetime painting the Pharaoh's harem, symbolized by the accumulation of a powdered beard. After finally completing his masterpiece Hubergritz accidentally knocks his pyramid home down causing himself and the girls to be buried under a hail of boulders.
In Ancient China, the Fu-Manchu like "Ha-Ri-Son" an oriental offshoot of the Marks family, curses his wife when he finds her in the arms of the gardener (S'Zeto).
An elderly Greek scholar, who constructs nude statues, has the misfortune to fall in love with every model he meets.
Set during the Oliver Cromwell era. While staying at the manor house of Sir Rupert, Harrison De Chandelier, a renowned painter of nudes is asked to paint a portrait of the lady of the house. Unfortunately roundhead soldiers appear at the Manor, and their leader orders the painting be destroyed and its creator put in the stocks.
This is a semi-remake of one of Marks earlier 8mm glamour films called "The Bare Truth" in which Stuart Samuels played the Max Wall role.
In Victorian England, music hall impresario "The Great Marko", is down on his luck. However a chance meeting with a Cockney cleaning lady – who he imagines topless – provides Marko with the idea of presenting a show based around "Living Statues". A pre-striptease concept of women posing motionless in the nude. The show is a great success however on the verge of making his fortune Marko is arrested on obscenity charges. The mere mention of "Living Statues" causes the Judge in charge of the case to imagine himself running around naked – save for a judges wig – and ravishing one of Marko's models. Passing sentence on the buck-toothed impresario, the judge gives him a knowing wink and fines him 7’6 pence.
Marks distinct buck teeth and wig disguise in this episode was later re-used when Marks played Cornelius Clapworthy in Come Play With Me (1977). Marks’ daughter Josephine Harrison Marks plays the baby girl in this episode, and appears visibly distressed by her fathers made-up appearance.
Poet Byron Marks waxes lyrically about nudes.
Marks plays "Professor Frankenstein Harrison Marks".
Finally Marks imagines a space age future where women dress in leather and (in the context of the sexes) also wear the trousers. Men played by the same grunting cavemen seen in the first story, are whipped and forced to grovel at the feet of the Space Leader. This is the only story in which Marks does not feature in one of the roles.
Originally entitled The Seven Ages of Nakedness, a title inspired by John Gielgud’s one man show The Ages of Man , in order to increase the film’s running time two more stories/ages had to be added.[ citation needed ]
The film's publicity materials claimed the film featured "150 topless international lovelies." However, as several female cast members make repeat performances in several of the film's stories, that number might be an exaggeration.[ citation needed ]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A series of excruciatingly corny sketches involving Harrison Marks in a number of guises through the ages. The acting, much of it by Mr. Marks himself, is as feeble and embarrassing as the general level of invention – the Stone Age, for instance, has a girl in a topless loincloth turning from her stone television set to look up sculptor Harry Stone Marks' number (Stonehenge 3) in a stone telephone directory. A crass reference to Blow-Up at the beginning suggests a semi-serious intent, but what follows is no more than an excuse for the parade of topless models who figure prominently throughout." [2]
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Not long after he completed the film, Marks declared bankruptcy and sold all rights to it.[ citation needed ] The film is not owned by Marks's estate, and the current rights owner is unknown. A DVD of the film was released in America in 2006; however, this release was unauthorized.[ citation needed ]
The film was released on UK video three times during the early 1980s, the video releases contained a more explicit version of the film than had been shown in cinemas in 1969. However this version was also cut for length, reducing the running time from 95 minutes to 84 minutes. Omitted completely was the "Old Dark House" story as well as Rita Webb’s role. Footage from the "Future" sequence was also deleted, including the punch line. Clips of some of the missing footage in this story was used in the 1995 BBC documentary Doing Rude Things.
The same cut down for length version was later released on US DVD.
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "exotic" or "burlesque" dancer.
Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model on the third page of mainstream red top tabloids. The Sun introduced the feature in November 1970, which boosted its readership and prompted competing tabloids—including The Daily Mirror, TheSunday People, and TheDaily Star—to begin featuring topless models on their own third pages. Well-known Page 3 models included Linda Lusardi, Samantha Fox, Debee Ashby, Maria Whittaker, Katie Price, Keeley Hazell, and Jakki Degg.
June Palmer, also known as "June Power", was an English model and actress who, along with Pamela Green, was the most famous Harrison Marks glamour model of the 1960s. Palmer was featured in Harrison Marks's publications Kamera and Solo, and in his short films that feature nudity.
George Harrison Marks was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films.
Linsey Dawn McKenzie is an English glamour model, pornographic performer, and television personality who made her topless modelling debut in the Sunday Sport tabloid newspaper on her 16th birthday in 1994. Known for her naturally large breasts, she went on to feature in a wide range of adult magazines, websites, broadcast media, and videos, including pornography productions after 2000.
Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is "skinny dipping".
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is known as barechestedness.
Nina Carter is an English model and occasional singer.
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, had to be justified as part of the story.
Bada Bing! is a fictional strip club from the HBO drama television series The Sopranos. It was a key location for events in the series, named for the catchphrase "bada bing", a phrase popularized by James Caan's character Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. The popularization of the fictional club benefited the real-life go-go bar, Satin Dolls, where scenes were filmed. The Bada Bing is loosely based on Wiggles, a strip club owned by New Jersey mobster Vincent Palermo before it was shut down.
Depictions of nudity include all of the representations or portrayals of the unclothed human body in visual media. In a picture-making civilization, pictorial conventions continually reaffirm what is natural in human appearance, which is part of socialization. In Western societies, the contexts for depictions of nudity include information, art and pornography. Information includes both science and education. Any image not easily fitting into one of these three categories may be misinterpreted, leading to disputes. The most contentious disputes are between fine art and erotic images, which define the legal distinction of which images are permitted or prohibited.
Nudity in American television is a controversial topic. Aside from a few exceptions, nudity in the United States has traditionally not been shown on terrestrial television. On the other hand, cable television has been much less constrained as far as nudity is concerned.
Child Bride, also known as Child Brides, Child Bride of the Ozarks and Dust to Dust, is a 1938 American drama film written and directed by Harry Revier, and produced by Raymond L. Friedgen. It was promoted as educational in an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states.
Nudity in religion deals with religious beliefs as the basis for modern attitudes and behaviors regarding nudity.
The nude, as a form of visual art that focuses on the unclothed human figure, is an enduring tradition in Western art. It was a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art, and after a semi-dormant period in the Middle Ages returned to a central position with the Renaissance. Unclothed figures often also play a part in other types of art, such as history painting, including allegorical and religious art, portraiture, or the decorative arts. From prehistory to the earliest civilizations, nude female figures were generally understood to be symbols of fertility or well-being.
Nudity is sometimes used as a tactic during a protest to attract media and public attention to a cause, and sometimes promotion of public nudity is itself the objective of a nude protest. The practice was first documented in the 1650s with Quakers "naked as a sign" practice. Later the tactic was used by svobodniki in Canada in 1903, and photographs of their nude protests have been published. The tactic has been used by other groups later in the century, especially after the 1960s. Like public nudity in general, the cultural and legal acceptance of nudity as a tactic in protest also varies around the world. Some opponents of any public nudity claim that it is indecent, especially when it can be viewed by children; while others argue that it is a legitimate form of expression covered by the right to free speech.
Come Play with Me is a 1977 British softcore pornographic film, starring Mary Millington and directed by George Harrison Marks. Its cast list contains many well-known British character actors who were not previously known for appearing in such films. The film is regarded by many as the most successful of the British sex comedies of the 1970s. It ran continuously at the Moulin Cinema in Great Windmill Street, Soho, London for 201 weeks, from April 1977 to March 1981, which is listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the longest-running screening in Britain. A blue plaque on the former cinema's site commemorates this.
Karen Jo Pini is an Australian actress, model, TV personality and beauty pageant titleholder. She represented her country at the 1976 Miss World pageant held in London, United Kingdom and finished first runner up. She was also the nude centerfold in the first Australian edition of Playboy magazine in February 1979. Pini also co-hosted the weekly televised New South Wales lotto draw for twelve years.
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