Topless mermaids, fantasy waterfalls, and boobs played for laughs. These movies might have landed a PG rating, but they've also managed to slip in a little more skin than you might expect.
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00:00Topless mermaids, fantasy waterfalls, and boobs played for laughs — these movies might
00:05have landed a PG rating, but they've also managed to slip in a little more skin than
00:09you might expect.
00:10As an edgy comedy with lots of adult themes and plenty of frank sex talk, 16 Candles doesn't
00:16feel like a family movie.
00:18And there's one scene that's wholly inappropriate for younger audiences.
00:21It happens when Sam spies on classmate Carolyn Mumford because she's jealous of her popularity
00:26and her stunning figure.
00:27Another scene takes place in the school showers, and there's a long, lingering shot of a naked
00:31Carolyn.
00:32A truly family-friendly film popular with kids and adults, Splash was rightly rated
00:37PG.
00:38Though there are some moments that get a little close to the line, most of it is innuendo.
00:42But there are several flirtations with nudity that honestly seem totally unnecessary.
00:46In several scenes when Madison is growing accustomed to human society, she's shown unclothed,
00:51with her long hair often used to obscure her breasts.
00:54But on at least one occasion when she's swimming in a tank at an aquarium, her naked top can
00:58be seen, albeit briefly.
01:00Why the filmmakers didn't give her something to wear, a la Ariel in The Little Mermaid,
01:04is anyone's guess.
01:05Even more perplexing, Splash is a Disney film, and decades later, the studio used CGI to
01:10hide at least some of the nudity before it was added to Disney+.
01:14Spoof movies burst onto the scene as their own genre in the early 80s with the now-classic
01:19Zucker Brothers' Airplane.
01:20The pair's later films would mostly be rated PG-13, allowing for nudity and more explicit
01:25depictions of sex and violence.
01:27But once again, Airplane predated the PG-13 rating.
01:30The movie's wacky humor feels pretty safe for all ages, and most of its more adult gags
01:35are likely to fly right over the heads of kids who are watching.
01:38Nevertheless, there's at least one moment that's impossible for children to ignore,
01:42a shot of the ample bosom of a random woman.
01:44And when we say you can't ignore it, they're literally in your face.
01:48During a chaotic scene where screaming passengers run this way and that, a completely naked
01:52woman runs into frame from out of nowhere.
01:54For a moment, her breasts are practically pressed against the lens, and to make it even
01:58more egregious, the shot is all boobs, no waist, no head.
02:02Kramer vs. Kramer might be one of the most acclaimed legal dramas of all time.
02:06Released in 1979, it stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as Ted and Joanna, a married
02:10couple going through a bitter divorce.
02:13Caught in the middle is their young son Billy, over whom they battle for custody.
02:16The film took home five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and trophies for both Hoffman
02:21and Streep.
02:22Kramer vs. Kramer isn't a very scandalous film, and its PG rating probably makes sense.
02:27But there are a couple of moments where we see a lot more of one of the film's stars
02:30than you might expect.
02:32It's not Streep or Hoffman, though, but supporting actor Jo Beth Williams, who plays Phyllis,
02:36Ted's co-worker with whom he has a one-night stand.
02:38Getting up in the middle of the night during their rendezvous, a stark-naked Phyllis bumps
02:42into little Billy.
02:43She tries to awkwardly cover up with her hands, but we see everything.
02:47The 1970s brought us some of cinema's most groundbreaking sci-fi classics, including
02:52the dystopian adventure Logan's Run, which is set in a future where the population is
02:56euthanized at the age of 30.
02:57"...keeps everything in balance.
02:59One is terminated, one is born.
03:01Simple, logical, perfect."
03:03The film follows Michael York's Logan and his companion, Jessica, played by Jenny Agata,
03:07as they try to escape their artificial biodome and certain death.
03:11They want to find a mythical safe haven called Sanctuary where it's said they can live out
03:15their natural lifespans in peace.
03:17It sounds grim, but while Logan's Run has some dark themes, it's a colorful adventure
03:21story and the PG rating seems about right.
03:24Nevertheless, Agata's costume leaves little to the imagination, and there is one point
03:28where she takes everything off as she changes clothes.
03:30"...let's take our clothes off first before they freeze on us."
03:33Also in the film is a surrealistic scene involving a group of nude men and women engaged in a
03:37kind of sensual dance meant to symbolize sex.
03:41It's hardly explicit, and it suits the movie's tone and themes.
03:44Shadows cover up much of the nudity, but it could provoke some awkward questions from
03:48your kids.
03:49Beastmaster
03:50Beastmaster was one of several sword-and-sandal adventures released in the early 1980s.
03:54The film starred Mark Singer in the role of a warrior named Da, who can communicate with
03:58animals and uses his powers to stop a diabolical madman.
04:01The film's cast also included model and Charlie's Angels alum Tanya Roberts, a slave girl Kiri.
04:06At one point, Kiri and another woman swim topless at the mouth of a waterfall, but while
04:11some parents may not have minded the relatively tame, non-sexual skin-showing, a later scene
04:15goes a bit further.
04:16In a very short love scene, Kiri fully disrobes and embraces Da with a passionate kiss.
04:21Before she turns to him, though, the audience gets a glimpse of everything Roberts has to
04:25offer, in an unexpectedly sexy moment that's out of place given the movie's PG rating.
04:31Somebody must've liked Tanya Roberts in Beastmaster because, just two years later, she returned
04:35to the sword-and-sandal genre, but this time she was playing the title role.
04:39Sheena is an action-adventure film based on the classic comic book Sheena, Queen of
04:42the Jungle.
04:43In the 1984 live-action adaptation, Roberts battles evil with her sidekick reporter, Vic
04:48Casey.
04:49Throughout the film, Sheena fights her enemies while wearing a tattered rawhide bikini, and
04:53even though Roberts is a heroine, filmmakers couldn't resist the opportunity to show her
04:57naked.
04:58As in Beastmaster, Roberts is once again bathing in a natural spring, but this time, she's
05:02completely bare.
05:03And in a very un-PG choice, it's an extended scene that's long enough to make her stalwart
05:08sidekick super uncomfortable, as any parent who brought their kid to the movie would probably
05:12be when the naked woman shows up for a really long bath.
05:16Just before the Beastmaster arrived, there was Dragon Slayer, a 1981 fantasy starring
05:21Peter McNichol.
05:22It tells the story of a sixth-century kingdom besieged by an ancient dragon.
05:26To keep its hunger at bay, the king has been sacrificing virgin women to the beast, but
05:30a sorcerer's apprentice believes he has what it takes to put an end to the reign of terror.
05:34A dragon, fire and stench, it is evil."
05:39Most of the film is focused on action and adventure, with plenty of fantasy violence
05:43that never gets too graphic.
05:44But there is one moment when we get a glimpse of both male and female forms with nothing
05:48on.
05:49It comes when the young apprentice finds himself in a pool of water and decides to take a swim
05:53in the nude, joining a young man named Valerian who's already there, having had the same idea.
05:58When he dives beneath the water, we see both men are stark naked, though the murky water
06:02obscures most of their naughty bits.
06:04What we do see, however, is that Valerian is really a woman, a rare case of nudity actually
06:09being important to the plot.
06:11The 1975 Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon, based on a novel by William Makepeace Slackery,
06:17is set in 18th century Ireland, where Barry, played by 70s sex symbol Ryan O'Neill, seeks
06:22to marry up by wooing a wealthy widow.
06:25Throughout the film, Kubrick explores the decadent lifestyle of the upper class, including
06:29the private life of noblewoman Lady Lyndon, played by Marisa Berenson.
06:33We see her expansive estate, her royal carriages, and, of course, her many servants.
06:37Though the film isn't as controversial as Kubrick's previous one, A Clockwork Orange,
06:41there is a nude scene featuring Lady Lyndon.
06:43In keeping with many other entries on this list, it's not a sex scene, and involves Lyndon
06:48in the bath.
06:49With Barry Lyndon not likely to be a kid magnet, the nudity is less awkward, though the story
06:53could have been told just as effectively without it.
06:56New sci-fi movies have been remade as many times as the 1956 classic Invasion of the
07:01Body Snatchers.
07:02In 1978's the first remake hit theaters, starring Donald Sutherland as a public official who
07:07uncovers a sinister alien conspiracy to replace humans with emotionless doppelgangers.
07:12While the film isn't all that graphic, it's a creepy, disturbing story that provides plenty
07:16of scares based on its dark tone alone.
07:18For that reason, it's really not an all-ages film, which is probably why the filmmakers
07:22felt comfortable showing one of the stars in the bath.
07:24At one point, an alien replicant of scientist Elizabeth Driscoll, played by Brooke Adams,
07:29is seen fully nude.
07:30More upsetting than the nudity, though, is the cold nature of the replicant's walk and
07:33her eerie gaze, which is enough to send chills down even the steeliest of spines.
07:38The Bounty, released in 1984, is based on the remarkable true story of the mutiny aboard
07:43the HMS Bounty.
07:44It starred Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Liam Neeson.
07:49Early in the story, the ship stops in Tahiti, and the crew goes ashore to enjoy the sights
07:53and sounds of the island, and also its women.
07:55During this sequence, nudity is fairly prevalent, with a number of topless women parading around
08:00the screen.
08:01But it's not just the indigenous characters calmly walking around in the bath.
08:04There's also a steamy sex scene between Mel Gibson's Fletcher Christian and one of the
08:08native women, whom he takes as his island bride.
08:11Though it never gets too raunchy or graphic, the scene plays out with little modesty, as
08:15the two young stars roll around naked in a romantic moment.
08:18It may not come as a shock to learn that an old B-movie contains some pointless nudity.
08:23In this case, it's Monster in the Closet, a tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy that's probably
08:27most famous today for featuring a very young Paul Walker.
08:30The film introduces us to a goofy-looking monster that lives inside people's closets
08:34and has been going on a killing spree.
08:35Amid the carnage, however, is a gratuitous shower scene where actor Stella Stevens is
08:39seen topless.
08:40A long, long shot allows viewers to gaze all they want as Stevens turns back and forth.
08:45It's incredible."
08:48Stevens was known back in the 1950s and 60s for starring in family-friendly fare like
08:53The Nutty Professor and The Courtship of Eddie's Father, but she wasn't new to on-camera nudity,
08:58having done nude scenes earlier in her career, as far back as Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad
09:02of Caleb Hogue in 1970.
09:05What's strange about Monster in the Closet isn't just that it's neared a PG rating despite
09:09the nude scene, but that the scene actually appears on the movie's poster.
09:12Add to the fact that Monster in the Closet was made in 1986, two years after the first
09:16use of PG-13, and it's even more befuddling.