Wrestlemania

You can't do much in a stuffed shirt

Rupert

Alright, let's strip and do it properly

Gudrun

Women In Love:

1970 Academy Award Nominations

Best Director: Ken Russell

Best Actress: Glenda Jackson

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Larry Kramer

Best Cinematography: Billy Williams

'The Wrestling Scene' from 1969's Women In Love is well known to most lovers of the nude male form in cinema. The scene has become a classic as it is one of the first times full frontal male nudity was seen in a major mainstream, Academy Award nominated motion picture. For those who have seen the scene, it is more than just a quick scene, but a long, hot, sweaty scene of two 'straight' male characters fully nude wrestling together.

I had seen images from the scene, and even clips, but it wasn't until TCM recently aired the film that I saw the entire film and understood the full context of scene and how it fit within the story. I must say, I was more than a little drawn to the incredibly sexy Alan Bates who plays Rupert. Bates, with the beard and co-star Oliver Reed (Gudrun) don't appear to hold back anything throughout the scene creating a physical and sexual intensity that I can only assume was quite shocking to many movie goers at the time.

My goal for this post wasn't necessarily to showcase images from the scene, they are easy to find on the net. I wanted to find some 'behind the scenes' type of info about how the scene was shot and anything about how the actors felt about stripping down in front of raging fire and going at it, especially given the time the film was shot. I started to put together some info when I came across an incredible interview with the films cinematographer Billy Williams.

Billy tells the whole story, with some great details, including which actor required a few drinks before filming and which actor kept talking about how his wrestling partner was much more well endowed than he was... Check out the clip below for more and if you haven't seen the scene, I also included it below.

'More than 40 years after Oliver Reed and Alan Bates writhed naked by the fireplace – the first time that many viewers had seen full frontal nudity in British cinemas – it has emerged that Russell was in cahoots with the chief censor, John Trevelyan, to ensure the scene did not have to be cut. He and producer Larry Kramer offered to take Trevelyan out to lunch and keep him involved at every stage of the creative process: eventually, Kramer offered to dim the lighting during the controversial scene after Trevelyan expressed concern that its homosexual overtones be "handled discreetly" and said he was worried about "clearly visible genitals'.

The Guardian

A little more Bates from Woman In Love