Nus como a Natureza Manda

Naked as Nature Intended (1961)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Three female friends decide to take a weekend trip around Europe. Two of the ladies work in an office and are quite limited when it comes to naughty things. The other is a bit more open and before long the three end up at a nudist resort.

NAKED AS NATURE INTENDED is a pretty silly movie and it's a reminder than long before the internet came along, poor men had to sit through awful movies to just get a little peek and some nudity. This film here plays out more like a James A. FitzPatrick TravelsTalk episode as we get to hear about the various locations that are visited and only at the very end does anything of interest happen.

With that said, what does happen towards the end of the picture certainly isn't worth sitting through this film for. Again, it's pretty sad people would pay to see this film back in the day and hoping for something exciting yet they were given pretty much nothing. Most of the nude shots have the cameras so far away from the girls that you can't see anything. The nudist colony material is basically shot without any nudity. What was the point? I guess the point was to show that nudist colonies aren't full of weird or scary people. In the case of NAKED AS NATURE INTENDED, seeing would have been much more beneficial than hearing about it.

The first feature-length production from the man who took great delight in the female form, George Harrison Marks, and one of the most popular of all the British 'nudist' movies released at the turn of the 1960s. NAKED AS NATURE INTENDED is a short, hour-long travelogue in which a trio of young and beautiful women tour the English countryside and enjoy the sights of Stonehenge before making their way to a nudist beach.

For the most part, NAKED AS NATURE INTENDED is rather twee and old-fashioned; there's no dialogue from the leads, just a voice-over narrator intoning various stuff along the way. The nudist stuff is saved for the last twenty minutes and includes the usual beach volleyball antics and the like. The youthful starlets include Pamela Green, of PEEPING TOM fame. The American release saw the narrator replaced with a smug, know-it-all voice over that repeatedly takes the mickey out of the material, a la MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.

Although this his said to be a documentary, it is far from the truth. Less than 60 minutes, this enjoyable early 60's romp helped paved the way for the sexual revolution. This is a low budget simple skin piece which has stood the test of time. Back in the day, products like this would be banned if not hidden from most of the public. Midnight screenings in downtown cinemas that played certain adult themed movies would showcase movies like this for a dime a dozen. Unlike many of the forgotten films that show an abundance of t&a, this movie's attempt to be taken serious helps its longevity. Director George Harrison Marks wants to be an Artist but made his career in adult entertainment. The naked female form has always been the prime subject matter for all artists. With that said, Naked as Nature Intended can be considered art. All the characters in the movie portray themselves but are not non-actors. All have worked in the industry before. Still, they bring a fresh and fun portrayal of young women who want to be "free". All in all a fun time capsule of a movie that leaves the audience happy.

From it's original purpose (getting tits on the big screen) this film now stands as a view of a bygone England - Seasides, Stonehenge and so on.

The nudity is left for the last few minutes and is wonderfully innocent.

Nearly 60 years have passed and we live in a much harder world - I'll leave you to decide if we were better off then or now.

John Trevelyan became the secretary of he British Board of Film Censors in 1958.He began a liberalisation of the censorship of films.He allowed nudist films to be publicly shown with an "A" certificate provided that there were no shots of private parts.The films were shown in what were called "Continental" cinemas.These proliferated in the West End.There was one called the Cinephone which was almost opposite Selfridges.These films were looked upon as being quite daring.There was no nudity in mainstream films till "The Pawnbroker"broke the barrier.Now days they are rather quaint not to say exceedingly dull.There are plenty of towels and beach balls on display to protect modesty.It all seems so very nostalgic.