Sue Ane Langdon discussion thread

[qwerty17]

Originally Posted by marktheshark

Well, despite the fun shennanigans she did with some of these films, I think it's safe to say she stayed a good girl.

You're probably right. On the other hand,Tony Curtis famously claimed that "the only leading lady he hadn't slept with was Jack Lemmon." (Sue Ane was his leading lady in The Great Imposter). Maybe that's just him bragging, but he was a notorious ladies' man...

[qwerty17]

Just stumbled across this entertaining article/interview from 1967, the year they released “Guide for the Married Man.”

So at the time, Sue Ane was “best known as the girl with the delectable derriere”? AMEN to that!! (Gotta love it…)

Here’s the link to the scan of the original newspaper article:
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1...ith-sexy-roles

And here’s a transcription:

SUE LANGDON HAPPY WITH SEXY ROLES — By Norma Lee Browning

HOLLYWOOD-What’s a nice girl like Sue Ane Langdon doing wiggling her hips, romping in the nude, and exposing her posterior on the movie screen? Having fun, that's what.

“I’m all for sex when it's happy sex,” Sue Ane says. “My last three parts have been sexy roles but what’s wrong with that? Let’s face it, sex is here to stay. Why not see it in a beautiful light rather than a sick one?”

In her current movie, “Guide for the Married Man,” Sue Ane has no nude scenes but the clothes she wears leave little to the imagination. The movie is the tale of an extramarital caper, American style. Sue Ane’s flippy hips are what the married man, Walter Matthau, wants to be guided to. You can see why from the very beginning of the movie, because the titles are superimposed on the shapely Miss Langdon as she walks away from the camera.

“Guide for the Married Man” was the first picture under the new Motion Picture Association of America Code to be labeled “suggested for mature audiences.” Sue Ane has very definite opinions about that, too.

“I think it’s very wrong,” she stated firmly. “The picture is great fun and it has a moral. It says that if there is genuine beautiful love, there's no need for adultery. I don’t see anything wrong with kids seeing it. After all, mothers let their kids watch death in all those westerns, and that's worse than sex.”

How about the other two movies in which she did appear nude? In “The Rounders,” with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford, Sue Ane emerges from a swim au naturel and quickly dons a chef's apron to cover herself. The apron worked quite well in front, but when Sue Ane turned around — well, you know what an apron looks like.

“The scene was censored for American audiences,” she said. “I was very upset about it because it was done in good taste. There was nothing dirty or prurient about it. Europeans admit sex is part of their lives. Here they think it’s naughty.”

In “A Fine Madness,” a madcap comedy starring Sean Connery, Sue Ane has a nude scene with him. This, too, was censored for American audiences, tho Playboy magazine did a layout of the cut scenes.

“There was nothing pornographic about any of them,” says Sue Ane. “If people are sick enough to think so, that’s their problem. I did it in fun.”

“There’s a difference between a ‘nudie’ film, which is produced expressly to excite a certain type of sick person, and nudity in a good movie, where it’s done for fun or for a purpose. I think it’s time for Americans to start having a healthy attitude toward sex.”

Sue Ane is a Texan of Scandinavian ancestry — which accounts for the old family spelling of her middle name, pronounced Ann. Her father died when she was two. Her mother was a retired opera singer, whose first job had been singing at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Sue Ane followed in her mother s footsteps — her first job in New York was singing at Radio City Music Hall.

From there she was hired for the chorus of several hit musicals, soon was signed for leading roles in national touring companies, then to Las Vegas in “The Ziegfeld Follies” starring Jane Morgan, who introduced her to her future husband, writer-director Jack Emrek. Three months later they were married and came to Hollywood.

Sue Ane made her film debut opposite Tony Curtis in “The Great Imposter.”

Tho currently best known as the girl with the delectable derriere, Sue Ane does have other assets, including a pert nose and wide blue eyes, a genuine flair for comedy, but an ambition to do straight dramatic roles, and a surprisingly serious approach to her work.

“The important thing for me is that whatever part I play must have some sort of significance,” she says. “I’ll play a lady of the streets — but she has to be a real person with a reason for doing the things she does.”

Off-screen, sexpot Sue Ane is a homebody whose hobbies are cooking and breeding Arabian horses on her five-acre ranch above Glendale.

[marktheshark]

Originally Posted by qwerty17

Just stumbled across this entertaining article/interview from 1967, the year they released “Guide for the Married Man.”

So at the time, Sue Ane was “best known as the girl with the delectable derriere”? AMEN to that!! (Gotta love it…)

Here’s the link to the scan of the original newspaper article:
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1...ith-sexy-roles

And here’s a transcription:

SUE LANGDON HAPPY WITH SEXY ROLES — By Norma Lee Browning

HOLLYWOOD-What’s a nice girl like Sue Ane Langdon doing wiggling her hips, romping in the nude, and exposing her posterior on the movie screen? Having fun, that's what.

“I’m all for sex when it's happy sex,” Sue Ane says. “My last three parts have been sexy roles but what’s wrong with that? Let’s face it, sex is here to stay. Why not see it in a beautiful light rather than a sick one?”

In her current movie, “Guide for the Married Man,” Sue Ane has no nude scenes but the clothes she wears leave little to the imagination. The movie is the tale of an extramarital caper, American style. Sue Ane’s flippy hips are what the married man, Walter Matthau, wants to be guided to. You can see why from the very beginning of the movie, because the titles are superimposed on the shapely Miss Langdon as she walks away from the camera.

“Guide for the Married Man” was the first picture under the new Motion Picture Association of America Code to be labeled “suggested for mature audiences.” Sue Ane has very definite opinions about that, too.

“I think it’s very wrong,” she stated firmly. “The picture is great fun and it has a moral. It says that if there is genuine beautiful love, there's no need for adultery. I don’t see anything wrong with kids seeing it. After all, mothers let their kids watch death in all those westerns, and that's worse than sex.”

How about the other two movies in which she did appear nude? In “The Rounders,” with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford, Sue Ane emerges from a swim au naturel and quickly dons a chef's apron to cover herself. The apron worked quite well in front, but when Sue Ane turned around — well, you know what an apron looks like.

“The scene was censored for American audiences,” she said. “I was very upset about it because it was done in good taste. There was nothing dirty or prurient about it. Europeans admit sex is part of their lives. Here they think it’s naughty.”

In “A Fine Madness,” a madcap comedy starring Sean Connery, Sue Ane has a nude scene with him. This, too, was censored for American audiences, tho Playboy magazine did a layout of the cut scenes.

“There was nothing pornographic about any of them,” says Sue Ane. “If people are sick enough to think so, that’s their problem. I did it in fun.”

“There’s a difference between a ‘nudie’ film, which is produced expressly to excite a certain type of sick person, and nudity in a good movie, where it’s done for fun or for a purpose. I think it’s time for Americans to start having a healthy attitude toward sex.”

Sue Ane is a Texan of Scandinavian ancestry — which accounts for the old family spelling of her middle name, pronounced Ann. Her father died when she was two. Her mother was a retired opera singer, whose first job had been singing at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Sue Ane followed in her mother s footsteps — her first job in New York was singing at Radio City Music Hall.

From there she was hired for the chorus of several hit musicals, soon was signed for leading roles in national touring companies, then to Las Vegas in “The Ziegfeld Follies” starring Jane Morgan, who introduced her to her future husband, writer-director Jack Emrek. Three months later they were married and came to Hollywood.

Sue Ane made her film debut opposite Tony Curtis in “The Great Imposter.”

Tho currently best known as the girl with the delectable derriere, Sue Ane does have other assets, including a pert nose and wide blue eyes, a genuine flair for comedy, but an ambition to do straight dramatic roles, and a surprisingly serious approach to her work.

“The important thing for me is that whatever part I play must have some sort of significance,” she says. “I’ll play a lady of the streets — but she has to be a real person with a reason for doing the things she does.”

Off-screen, sexpot Sue Ane is a homebody whose hobbies are cooking and breeding Arabian horses on her five-acre ranch above Glendale.

Interesting that it says some scenes in A Fine Madness were censored and released in Europe. So my original theory must've been right that these shots in Playboy were out takes for a slightly racier version of the film where Sue is totally naked instead of having panties on. Love to see the clipped scenes.

[qwerty17]

Originally Posted by marktheshark

Interesting that it says some scenes in A Fine Madness were censored and released in Europe. So my original theory must've been right that these shots in Playboy were out takes for a slightly racier version of the film where Sue is totally naked instead of having panties on. Love to see the clipped scenes.

If only!!

But alas, as she herself mentioned in her interview with Tom Lisanti (in Drive-In Dream Girls), the Playboy shoot was a separate sitting, after the scene was done. The photographer commissioned by Playboy (David Suttton) asked her to peel off everything for the photo shoot. In the movie, maybe since she has to get up quickly from the couch and the "movie" versions couldn't risk accidently exposing a bit of bush (which was "verboten" over there in those years too), she keeps panties on when the camera rolls. What the "European" version showed (actually, only the French version, which I saw on French TV in the 1980s, entitled "L'homme à la tête fêlée") was more of her areola (though not the nipple itself) when the camera pans away from the stereo player and closes in, over the back of the couch, on the two of them kissing, and also a bit longer (and better) view of jiggling side-boob when she sits upright and slaps Sean Connery.

One other important difference is at the end of the scene, when she starts screaming. In the US version you never see her in the background when the office employees crowd around Sean Connery as he exits the office through the foaming soap suds. In the French version you do see her in the background in a couple of shots, along with the crowd of employees in the foreground. However, in that version as well she is just clutching her underwear to cover her boobs, and has panties on. So in both versions, she keeps her panties and Sean Connery is completely clothed throughout. Ah, the idiocies of censorship!

Oh, and one more thought. I recall seeing Fine Madness when it first hit the theatres in the US but didn't see it again (it was a complete commercial flop and disappeared quickly) until the DVD was released 3 or 4 years ago. So I can't say for certain whether, in the US theater releases in 1966, the Langdon scene was perhaps cut out almost entirely, only to resurface (somewhat) 40 years later. So maybe that's what this interview with Norma Browning is referring to when she states "This, too, was censored for American audiences"?

I say that because I recall seeing The Night They raided Minksy's in its theatre release twice, once on the East Coast, then later in Pittsburg. On the East Coast the final "shocking" scene (when Britt Elkland lets her top fall and you see her bare breasts for exactly, maybe, one second) was there, but in Pittsburg that brief moment of boob flash was cut out, all you saw were the reactions and gasps of the other actors.

[qwerty17]

A higher-res scan of the cover (detail, obviously) and interior shot, from the1962 LIFE magazine featuring the relaunch of Jacky Gleason's "The Honeymooners" in his new variety show.