TCM Tune-In: The Little Drummer Gir

An American actress with a penchant for lying is forcibly recruited by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, to trap a Palestinian bomber, by pretending to be the girlfriend of his dead brother.

I think one sign you're getting older is when TCM starts airing movies that were originally released after you you were born.   Although it's certainly happened before, it seems I'm seeing more films from the 80's and 90's on the network.  I used to watch TCM quite a bit, but my viewing time has decreased over the last few years.  The main reason, thanks to the network, I've  now seen most of the classics on my 'to watch' list.

The second reason, and more FH related, there seems to be less and less scenes of male skin.  Male nudity on TCM you may ask, well yes.  There was a time when you could count on seeing a penis or two weekly.   That was when TCM used have programming like TCM Underground, featuring cult classics, independent films and campy b-movies.

They also used to have TCM Imports, dedicated to showing foreign, international and arthouse films.  Both TCM Underground and Imports used to regularly have films which included nudity.  For awhile, they seemed to vanish from the channels schedule, but recently, it seems they're making a return.

Last month, on June 30th, there was a night dedicated to director George Roy Hill.  Included in the line-up was A Little Romance, Slaughterhouse Five and Slap Shot.  Also included was the 1984 Diane Keaton led drama The Little Drummer Girl.  I'd heard of the film before, but never seen it, but given I always enjoy Keaton, and heard there was a nude scene, recorded it on my PVR.

For those who have seen the film, this wasn't your usual Keaton fair.  There were no rom-com staples, or hints of Nany Meyers, this was a gritty spy drama based on the novel by John le Carré.  Set primarily in the Middle East, the plot follows the Israel’s National Intelligence Agency attempt to flush out a PLO bomber named Khalil. 

To neutralize him, they first kidnap (and later execute) his brother, Michel.  Keaton plays Charlie, an anti-Zionist American actress working in England.  Charlie is lured to Greece where she thinks she's filming a wine commercial.  There, she meets and is seduced by Joseph, who deceives her into believing he is Michel.

Actor Moti Shirin plays Michel who is kidnapped early in the film, and later held captive.  In one scene, Keaton is brought in to see him to prove his identity.  The scene is certainly not erotic in anyway, as Michael is stripped to show his body and scares to Charlie.  This was Shrin's only nude scene in a short career that included 7 films over the course of the 1980's.