Claudette Colbert
Nude

Born in France but an American since age three, screen siren Claudette Colbert‘s sex appeal was infused with just enough Old World cunning to make her quicken the American public’s taste for danger. A man could lose his sense, his pride, and his heart to the impertinent false innocence of those giant, dark eyes. Upstanding moral resolve could only melt away when faced with the constant supercilious simper that played upon Claudette’s lips. And what of the unblemished perfection of Colbert’s unfairly fair complexion? It was only natural that she should be pegged to play Poppaea, the seductive incarnation of cunning female evil, in Cecil B. DeMille‘s The Sign of the Cross (1932). While floating her baby feeders in a milk bath, Claudette inadvertently allowed her nipplettes to pop into view, creating the climax of the film and also of the decade. Believe it or not, Claudette’s only nude scene was overshadowed by a different show of skin that would be considered innocuous by today’s standards but shocking for the time. This occurred in a scene from 1934’s Oscar-winning classic It Happened One Night wherein Claudette’s character Ellie is hitchhiking with Clark Gable‘s character Peter. After trying in vain to hail a ride, Peter sits down and Ellie gives it a try. She hikes up her skirt a little and a car immediately brakes. Only Claudette’s upper thigh was visible, but it wowed viewers who were unaccustomed to such salaciousness in a mainstream movie. Hollywood’s Hays Code put an end to these skindeavors, which makes Claudette a revolutionary according to Mr. Skin.