What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?

This film is the famous "Candid Camera" television show in a feature format, and much more Risqu'e that could have been broadcast. But beyond the amusing laughs of Alan Funt's situations lies a surprising glimpse into the uncensored attitudes of American culture in the midst of social upheaval.

Prevailing sexual and racial attitudes are both surprising and tantalizing. Taboo subjects are tackled in an unflinching way, without comment by the filmmakers - leaving you an unobstructed view on our past culture.

• Andy Somers

I just watched the 1970 Candid Camera movie, What Do You Say to a Naked Lady, and there's a scene with a tailor who starts caressing women's asses while he fits them for pants and dresses. He really goes to town, he cups their butt cheeks and pats them repeatedly...nowadays, any five seconds of that five minute scene would have landed a bunch of people in prison for sexual assault! What do you think happened in 1970? Most of the women ignored it, a couple discreetly moved out of reach of the guy's grabby hands, and one young lady in a skintight pantsuit turned around and flat out asked the guy "Excuse me, are you French or something?" And then she presumably readjusted her pantsuit, signed the release, and ended up in the movie....things sure have changed ---

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO A NAKED LADY is basically a risqué "Candid Camera" episode stretched out to feature length with, um, lots of full-frontal action from both genders.

But that's not (really) the interesting part. It's a fascinating glimpse into the public's newly relaxed attitude towards sex, circa the sexual revolution, covering the public's opinion towards everything from public nudity to interracial dating. Truly a time capsule, with wildly varied reactions from a cross-section of Americans - racial, ethnic and age differences are all included.

The most revealing segment was the one with the college instructor. (Do I need to mention she was naked?) Interesting that the "mature" older women were reduced to giggling schoolgirls while the young students kept their poise. Or were both groups aware of the ruse but the elders weren't compelled to respect authority as the kids might have been?

Anyway, my favorite victim was the woman who kept her cool while chatting with the nude male model. Loved her reaction when the jig was up. What a stitch.

This is one of those films where you come expecting titillation and end up getting educated. As mentioned in the other post, people are set up in situations where they unexpectedly encounter nudity-- elevators, classrooms, roadside, etcetera. Then Funt discovers an interesting thing, that when people ARE expecting nudity, in an art class or museum gallery, when the rules change people get flustered. In the art class, for example, the women who were calmly drawing the male nude seem unable to have a conversation with him when he talks to them.

There is an unexpected section of the film, one that Funt admits in the film even surprised him. It is a frank discussion with a call girl, Funt and the woman sitting by a hotel pool talking about prostitution. Funt was posing as a client; the woman is surprising and refreshing in her candor.

People may wonder why the film was rated X. At the time the Film Ratings board had a firm rule that if penises were shown, the film was given a X rating.

Gem of a film that captures the humor of the original Candid Camera while setting the groundwork for Alan Funt's adult version for the Playboy Channel called Candid Candid Camera. There have been many mimics of Candid Camera (including the hybrid home video shows) but only Funt's projects had warmth and humanity, never laughing AT people being themselves. The audience laughs because it knows it would do the same thing or worse in the same situation. As Alan Funt used to say, 'We (as an audience) laugh at ourselves.' There was a certain gentleness and wholesomeness in Candid Camera and in this movie. Though "What Do You Say to a Naked Lady" deals with what ordinary people do when confronted by naked ladies and sometimes naked gentlemen, the same gentleness, same wholesomeness applies. The film was very bold for it's time not being tame with regards to how much nudity it showed (for it showed full frontal male and female nudity)...however...the film is not about sex, is not crude, is not offensive. It explores society's reaction to nudity in 1970 and the hypocrisies that society has set up for itself. People are nude, natural, beautiful. In one segment a classroom of students is surprised to find that a lecture on sexuality is given by a beautiful woman in the nude! Given the reactions of an older class (shocked and giggling, some leaving) versus a younger class (shock and giggling quickly overcome to reveal a poised and attentive class) says more in itself than any words the lecturer might say. Unlike sexploitation films of the era this film had something to say. I think this film should be made mandatory in high school sex education classes. Despite the fact that the film is thirty years old not much has really progressed regarding this subject and the film is quite appropriate today.