Fifties Cheesecake Dance No. 25
PLEASE READ THIS - This is the first of two clips from the 1951 version of "Bird of Paradise". The film was directed by Delmer Daves and starred Debra Paget as Kalua, the island's princess; Jeff Chandler as her brother, Tenga; Louis Jordan as Andre, the French foreigner who falls in love with her; Prince Lei Lani as the Chief; Maurice Schwartz as The Kahuna; and Everett Sloane as The Beachcomber.
It is interesting to contrast these two clips with Thirties Cheesecake Dances Nos. 2 and 3, which feature segments from the Pre-Hays Code version of 1932 directed by King Vidor. In that film the native dancing is more passionate and abandoned, Delores Del Rio dances topless with only a lei of flowers around her neck to cover her breasts, and she is much more flirtatious and sensual than the demure Kalua portrayed by Debra Paget. The Hays Code, named after a well-connected Republican lawyer, Will H Hays, sentenced the American film audience to bland wholesomeness and the moral precepts of the religious right for more than 30 years.
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