The Accused (1988)

This thoughtful, fact-based drama from director Jonathan Kaplan was based on a real-life incident of a 1983 rape. It provided a provocative look at how the justice system treated victims who were often seen as worthy of blame. Jodie Foster in an Oscar-winning role portrayed Sarah Tobias, a sexily-dressed, drunk, working-class patron in The Mill, a seedy roadside bar.

The film opened with a bruised and half-dressed Sarah (Jodie Foster) running barefoot and screaming from a roadside bar where she'd just been raped. It would be later in the film when the entire rape episode was voyeuristically envisioned during the witness recounting (on Sarah's behalf) of college-frat student Ken Joyce (Bernie Coulson) - the one who had called 911.

At first, she passionately kissed Danny (Woody Brown), one of the rowdy customers. She resisted while his encouraging male friends cheered, yelled, and clapped, especially Cliff "Scorpion" Albrecht (Leo Rossi):

"Go, Danny! Fourth and one, my man, stick 'em!...Smell that new blood, baby!...That's it! Pump that little f--kin' college ass!"

Danny pulled down her top and began to kiss her nipples, while pinning her down on the glass atop a pinball machine titled: "Slamdunk." She was further humiliated when he began to have intercourse, against her wishes. And then she was held down and brutally gang-raped by others. Later, she was unfairly accused of enticing her attackers: "Raped? She f--ked a bar full of guys then she turns round and blames them for it?"

Sarah's (Jodie Foster) Gang Rape Atop a Pinball Machine

Action Jackson (1988)

This late 80s violent action film from director Craig R. Baxley was a formulaic throw-back to 70's blacksploitation films.

It featured Carl Weathers in the title role as Detroit cop Sgt. Jericho 'Action' Jackson. Formerly, he was a Lieutenant, but demoted to Sergeant in a botched case. Sean Dellaplane, the son of sexual psychopath and corrupt auto tycoon Peter Dellaplane (Craig T. Nelson), lost an arm and Jackson's 'unnecessary roughness' embarrassed the Detroit police department.

There were two female stars (both displaying gratuitous nudity):

• Patrice Dellaplane (pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone), Peter's gorgeous trophy wife
• Sydney Ash (R&B singer and Prince's ex-girlfriend Vanity), a lounge-club singer, Peter's mistress - and heroin addict

[Note: Vanity also posed for Playboy in April of the same year as this film. This was one of her best film performances, besides being in 52 Pick-Up (1986) two years earlier opposite Roy Scheider.]

Sydney was a needy addict, exchanging sex for drugs with corrupt industrialist Dellaplane - he provided her with a shiny hypodermic needle filled with heroin, as she laid back topless, and he told her: "Sweet dreams, baby." In part, Sydney also served as Jackson's 'unlikely buddy' during a few car rides and chase scenes.

Patrice Dellaplane (Sharon Stone)

After showing her nudity in a steam room, Patrice became her husband's bloody murder victim for speaking to Jackson. As she hugged and kissed her husband, he reassured her: "I'd never do anything to harm you, baby." But then she was killed at point blank range during mid-kiss. He laid her bloody body back on the bed, removed her expensive diamond ring, and calmly lit up a cigarette. He tossed the murder weapon (intending to frame Jackson) back to his bodyguard and uttered: "Works fine."

The investigating police officer commented on Patrice's bloody body: "Women this beautiful don't come around too often. I've always got to see 'em like this." Jackson was framed for murdering her and found himself on the run (with Sydney) from his own police.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

One of the most breathtakingly romantic and sensual entrances -- showcasing erotic, innocent femininity -- was the scene of the entrance of Venus in director Terry Gilliam's fantasy-adventure film. The live-action recreation paid homage to the famous The Birth of Venus painting of 1482 by Sandro Botticelli.

In the scene, a giant closed clamshell was slowly brought up from a watery pool by two angels. When opened, it revealed a fully nude, angelic-faced Venus (Uma Thurman), wife of Roman god Vulcan (Oliver Reed), in the same pose as her counterpart from the painting. Her long tresses and left hand covered her crotch and one arm covered her breasts.

She gazed at the visiting Baron Munchausen (John Neville) and his friends, and greeted simply with a melodic voice: "Hello" - the two angels then flew to her and wrapped her in pinkish silk to form her new dress.

Akira (1988, Jp.)

Japanese animated films (called anime) have often featured explicit and graphic content and unflinching explicit bloody violence. This form of animation and story-telling was heralded in the US with the release of writer/director Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988, Jp.).

One scene depicted the brutal attempted rape of Tetsuo's girlfriend Kaori by a biker gang in Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019.

And God Created Woman (1988)

The original 1956 French film featuring starlet Brigitte Bardot was remade over thirty years later with much more nudity and a completely different story, again by director Roger Vadim. It was the director's final film - and a huge failure. Many of the explicit sex scenes were cut to create the R-rated version. De Mornay was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award (Razzie) as Worst Actress.

The romantic melodrama told about a temptress:

• Robin Shea (Rebecca De Mornay), a wrongly-imprisoned and sentenced convict in a high-security New Mexico prison

She escaped (under the opening title credits sequence) and was picked up as a hitchhiker in a limousine by gubernatorial candidate James Tiernan (Frank Langella), an advocate of prison reform and an opponent of capital punishment - who returned her to the prison to break back in (a very odd circumstance).

After she snuck back into the prison, and as she was changing back into a prison uniform in the gymnasium, she was spotted naked by the prison's handyman-carpenter Billy Moran (Vincent Spano). She seduced him by removing his toolbelt before having sex with him up against a wall. Afterwards, she introduced herself as: "The right girl in the wrong place. Bye." She phoned politician Tiernan to ask for his help - when he suggested and encouraged her to marry in order to obtain respectability - and an early parole from the prison - and she set her sights on Billy once again.

She made a "business deal" with Billy - she offered her inheritance of $5,000 if he would marry her. She would live with him for one year (a marriage of convenience) until her parole was up, and then she would leave him. He agreed, and they were promptly married during an in-prison ceremony. However, after she was released fairly quickly (with helpful support from Tiernan), she told an enraged Billy that their "business" deal didn't include sexual relations once she moved in with him - and with his brother Peter (Donovan Leitch) and Billy's son Timmy (Jamie McEnnan). (She teased him by showering within his view, however.)

She met up again with Tiernan, who was using Robin as a poster child for successful prison reform during his campaign. She had a brief sexual affair with him (including oral sex at the pool table and lounging by a spa), while Billy was also sleeping with someone else (he descriptively told Robin: "We didn't have time to sleep we were so busy f--king"). Robin decided to separate and stop seeing Tiernan, fearing that his wife Alexandra (Judith Chapman) suspected unfaithfulness.

Sexual Affair with Tiernan (Frank Langella)

She reconciled with Billy and resumed sexual relations with him during his restoration work at the Randall Davey Museum.

Robin Reconciled with Billy (Vincent Spano) at the Museum

Both of them were caught in a sexual position by surprised tourists, who took their picture and distributed the two Polaroid photos. She was threatened with having her parole revoked and being returned to prison. However, all was resolved when Robin publically praised Tiernan and received his support, and she happily accepted her married role with Billy - now sharing a marital bed.

Bull Durham (1988)

Writer/director Ron Shelton's definitive baseball sports film included sexy scenes between two of its characters:

• Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), veteran ballplayer catcher
• Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), sport groupie

In one striking scene, aging veteran, romantic-minded, minor leaguer "Crash" confronted the bold affections of part-time junior-college English teacher and sexually-seductive baseball groupie Annie Savoy. In her living room, he gave the female baseball devotee a classic, philosophical speech about what his beliefs were, including a kiss-related sentence, before opting out of her offer to be the baseball player she would choose to bed that year:

Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hangin' curveball, high fiber, good Scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, over-rated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there oughta be a constitutional amendment outlawing AstroTurf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve. And I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Good-night.

She responded with a breathless reply: "Oh my!"

Later, although Annie had chosen young prodigy, Durham Bulls pitcher Ebby "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) as her sexual conquest for the season, she began to realize that "Crash" might be a better-suited match for her sexual come-ons. She came to Crash's place and offered herself: "I want you," but when he declined, she flatly stated: "This is the damnedest season I've ever seen. I mean, the Durham Bulls can't lose, and I can't get laid."

She had another chance to sample his beliefs about three-day long kisses at the conclusion of the film when "Crash" was released from baseball playing altogether (although he might be a minor league manager) and he sought to retire with dignity. He looked up Annie and then over a drink, they kissed - and he used one hand to pull up her skirt and skillfully unsnap her black stocking garter, causing her to exclaim: "Oh, my!" followed by the unbuttoning of the back of her dress. She unbuckled his trouser's belt and undid his pants, and then kissed his slightly-hairy bare chest and sucked on his nipple.

They made love - and rolled over, tumbling from the bed to the floor, still kissing and locked together, as she grabbed for traction from a nearby table leg - moaning and shaking. Their love-making was followed by a bowl of Wheaties ("Breakfast of Champions") in the kitchen. Wearing his oversized sports jacket (while he wore one of her robes), she glowed at him: "God, you are gorgeous," and then asked: "You wanna dance?" He tossed his cereal bowl into the sink where it smashed into pieces, and he pulled her onto the kitchen table, where they resumed making love after he answered: "Yes." Annie responded: "I guess you do."

Sex Throughout the House Between Crash and Annie

They were then dancing in her living room, to the tune of the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man." In the next scene, Annie's arms were tied to the bedpost, as she succumbed to having her toenails painted red by "Crash." And then they were in the bathtub together - he was kissing her bare chest and embracing her while the two were surrounded by candles. Their wild sloshing and splashing doused the flames on the candles next to the tub.

Coming to America (1988)

Director John Landis' romantic comedy in the late 1980s marked one of the highlights of Eddie Murphy's film career, and was noted as the first of many films in which the comedian played multiple roles.

In the most unexpected scene of all (early in the film), wealthy, pampered, and sweet-natured African Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) was engaged in a bath in a large circular pool. His back was being sponged by a topless beauty (Felicia Taylor) while another naked attendant (Midori) stood by (viewed from the back) - when suddenly, a third Nubian bathing attendant (Victoria Dillard) declared after emerging from under the water:

"The royal penis is clean, your Highness."

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Director Stephen Frears' sexy period film illustrated French 18th century one-upmanship, game-playing, seductive passion, betrayal and romantic intrigue. The film was remade as the hip Cruel Intentions (1999). The entire film was composed of a devilishly wicked challenge or treacherous game, a series of 'dangerous liaisons' involving other people's lives, between:

• Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close), a bored, aristocratic, wicked and wealthy widow
• Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich), her rakish ex-lover

She challenged him to "Wa-a-a-a-r" - with her bed as the prize. She wanted him to vengefully seduce a virgin (the fiancee of her ex-husband Comte de Bastide). Valmont cruelly accomplished the bet - he seduced and 'deflowered' teenaged bride-to-be virgin Cecile De Volanges (Uma Thurman).

During his first nocturnal visit to Cecile's bedroom, he stroked her body as she slept, and then claimed he was there as a result of her invitation with a key. He started out: "I just want you to give me a kiss...That's all...Then I'll go." It was more than a simple kiss - he also stroked her breasts. He then complimented her: "Very nice." But he would not leave - and then he began untying her nightgown. He made an under-handed claim:

Valmont: "I promised to go when you gave me a kiss. You didn't give me a kiss. I gave you a kiss. Not the same thing at all."
Cecile: "And if I give you a kiss...?"
Valmont: "Let's just get ourselves more comfortable, shall we?"

Later, Cecile told the Marquise that she wasn't actually forced to give herself up: "But I found it almost impossible to defend myself...He just has a way of putting things. You can't think of an answer." She professed: "I kept on saying no all the time. But somehow, that wasn't what I was doing. I am so ashamed." The Marquise told the seduced Cecile: "You'll find the shame is like the pain. You only feel it once." She then advised that she should allow Valmont to continue his "instruction" - and that she could become cautiously promiscuous: "You can do it, or not, with as many men as you like as often as you like in as many different ways as you like. Our sex has few enough advantages, so you may as well make the best of those you have."

Seductive Sexual "Instruction" Provided to Virginal Cecile

The next time with Cecile, Valmont stressed the need to use the "correct polite vocabulary" - calling everything by its "proper name." And he described how he had been one of her own energetic mother's many lovers. As he caressed her chest and kissed her breast, he promulgated the need for sex education for her future husband's sake: "You asked me if Monsieur de Bastide would be pleased with your abilities. And the answer is, 'education is never a waste.' Now, I think we might begin with one or two Latin terms."

At the same time, Valmont also proceeded to corrupt, by seduction, the religiously-virtuous, married Madame De Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer):

"I want her to believe in God and virtue and the sanctity of marriage, and still not be able to stop herself. I want the pleasure of watching her betray everything that is most important to her."

Drowning by Numbers (1988, UK)

Director Peter Greenaway's black comedy of covered-up murders and conspiracy (sprinkled with numerology) was taglined:

"The great death game."

It told of water-borne deaths among different generations of related women, who each killed their husbands:

In all cases, middle-aged widower and local coroner Henry Madgett (Bernard Hill) was complicit in the water-related murders (by issuing 'natural causes' death certificates) after being bribed for sexual favors.

Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

When the sixth installment was devoid of any nudity or explicit sex, the seventh in the popular teen-oriented franchise, Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood (1988), had to make up for lost time, with its simplistic Puritanical morality code of sex (or planning on sex) led to death.

About half-way through the film, a sex-crazed couple, preppy Russell (Larry Cox) and flirty girlfriend Sandra (Heidi Kozak) (in a tight bra-less yellow half-top), conversed together hand-in-hand. He asked: "When did you first fall in love with me?", with her provocative reply:

"The first time I saw the enormous size of your beautiful -- wallet. This huge bulge in your pants was calling out my name. 'Sandra, Sandra, take me now'."

She dared him to go skinny-dipping with her, as she stripped down naked, calling out: "You chicken!" After she dove in to Crystal Lake, she added: "You need a formal invitation? Russell, party for two. Right this way, please." When she went underwater, Russell was confronted by hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) on the shore, and received an axe to the face with one swing. Sandra screamed when she saw Russell's corpse, and then as she struggled and splashed to get away (seen from an underwater, full-frontal Jaws-like view), Jason pulled her under by the ankle and she was drowned.

Death of Sandra (Heidi Kozak)

Two other African-American teens, Ben (Craig Thomas) and girlfriend Kate (Diane Almeida) received punishment for their sexual behavior - they were interrupted while having intercourse in a parked van outside the Crystal Lake cabin, and both killed soon after - by skull squeezing, and by a party horn thrust into her eye.

Another promiscuous and stoned young couple, Robin (Elizabeth Kaitan) and David (John Renfield) had just finished having sex in an upstairs bedroom. He was stabbed while looking for food in the darkened kitchen with a machete in the stomach (and then beheaded). She was grabbed by the neck and forcefully thrown from the window of another bedroom after she discovered David's decapitated head.

Gotham (1988) (aka The Dead Can't Lie)

Writer/director Lloyd Fonvielle's often incoherent, film-noirish horror thriller-ghost story was originally made for Showtime cable-TV, and in some ways resembled Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

The plot was about a rich and nervous husband Charlie Rand (Colin Bruce), who hired (for $10,000) down-on-his-luck NYC private detective Eddie Mallard (Tommy Lee Jones) to prevent his socialite ex-wife from harassing and tormenting him. He claimed that pretty femme fatale blonde Rachel Carlyle (pre-Oscar-winning actress Virginia Madsen, in a number of nude scenes) was stalking and haunting him and that he wanted to be left alone. Rachel claimed that he was a "scumbag" and a "thief."

As it turned out, Rachel had been deceased for ten years, after drowning in the harbor. Widower Charlie had possibly killed Rachel, and then after she had been buried naked with her jewels (at her request), he plundered her gravesite. A note to Charlie read: "In return for my jewels, I promise to leave you alone, Charlie" - and the jewels were returned (although they were revealed later to be paste).

Rachel (Virginia Madsen) Emerging From a Steamy Shower and Lying on a Wooden Floor

In the course of the case, the obsessed Mallard fell in love with the sultry specter himself, who told him: "Ghosts can't lie." During an intense night-time thunderstorm, she crashed through his bedroom window and cut her right hand (he wasn't answering his phone or door) and demanded: "Make love to me!" - and he obliged. The next morning, she suggested: "I love f--king in the rain, don't you?...I'd love to f--k you in the middle of Grand Central Station, stark naked in the middle of the floor. We could get away with it, too. Nobody would believe their eyes."

She overtly warned Eddie about her supernatural identity and their inseparable love: "Whatever they tell you about me is true. I'm worse than you can imagine. But don't ever say you didn't know...You chose me. And you'll go on choosing me as awful as it gets. You'll go on choosing me...because you love me. Because YOU love me." He realized that he was going crazy ("completely f--ked up" and "bonkers") - in love with a ghostly female. He found her naked in a refrigerator, and carried her naked body to a bed where he covered her with a silky sheet and kissed her. Shortly later when he returned, he found her submerged in an overflowing bathtub. In the eerie scene, she opened her eyes - and mouthed Eddie's name under the water.

Ghostly, Sultry Specter Rachel Carlyle (Virginia Madsen)
Falling Nude Out of a Refrigerator, Carried to a Bed

In one of the last scenes, she met Eddie on the Rand yacht, and on the deck, she recalled the night of an elegant party 10 years earlier - and her drowning death in the harbor, when she fell off the boat and no one saved her. He had a vision of her submerged in the water in her black gown and elbow-high black gloves, and reaching out to be rescued.

In the end, Eddie took the real jewels for himself and donated them to the church, leaving Charlie and Rachel with only paste. He used his $10,000 fee to take an escapist island trip to Samoa with his friends, while Rachel continued to pester Charlie for her real jewels at a bar. She delivered the film's final line to him: "What's the matter, Charlie? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Director Martin Scorsese's profound adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel was confronted and condemned with charges of blasphemy for its concluding "last temptation" sequence and for its portrayal of a very-human Jesus Christ figure (Willem Dafoe). The film attracted protests and boycotts from religious groups even before it reached the theatres, although Scorsese received a Best Director nomination, and the film clearly offered a disclaimer about its origins:

"This film is not based upon the Gospels, but upon this fictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict."

The major controversy concerned the 'last temptation' visionary/hallucinatory sequence in which a very human and suffering Jesus (Willem Dafoe) was tempted by Satan (portrayed as a young androgynous guardian angel (Juliette Caton)) as he hung naked during crucifixion on the cross (while uttering: "Father! Why have You forsaken me?"). He was offered an idyllic vision or dream by the angel, who claimed he had "done enough" after being tested by a pleased and merciful God. [Jesus' choice to follow Satan implied that he was a flawed, frail, questioning, tormented and self-doubting man who was uncertain of the path he should follow.] His crown of thorns was removed, as well as the spikes through his feet and wrists. He was given life and led away from an empty cross while he asked doubtfully: "I don't have to be sacrificed?...I'm not the Messiah." Onlookers at Golgotha didn't seem to notice his departure.

The vision included a normal earthly existence and mortal happiness, including the blasphemous idea of a sexual relationship with a woman. He was immediately married to tattooed prostitute Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey), who was earlier seen entertaining various clients in a brothel where Jesus had spoken with her and asked her for forgiveness. [She offered herself to him: "Here's my body. Save it. Save it," but he declined to be enticed by her before leaving for the desert.] Now married to him, she cleansed his bloody wounds as he laid naked in her arms, and then, in a non-exploitative sequence, Jesus made tender, physical love with her as she entreated: "We could have a child."

After she became pregnant, she appeared partially naked when at full-term pregnancy. When she abruptly died one day, the angel told him that Mary, Lazarus' sister, would serve as "Magdalene with a different face" and she was carrying his son.

Ultimately, however, after discussions with the apostle Paul (Harry Dean Stanton) and another intervention with Judas Iscariot (Harvey Keitel), he returned to the cross and its suffering for humanity's sake with his triumphant dying words: "It is accomplished."

Other Nudity in The Last Temptation of Christ
In a Town Square Outside a Brothel, a Topless Tattooed Prostitute	Chanting, Shaking and Dancing Worshippers with John the Baptist at the River Jordan

Little Vera (1988, Soviet Union)

"That Gloasnost Girl" - Natalya Negoda in Playboy Magazine

Director Vasili Pichul's romantic social drama was a milestone film for the Soviet Union - both permissive and ground-breaking. It was the first film from Russia with a Soviet actress who appeared nude and had a fairly explicit sex scene. The box-office smash hit was also one of the very first frank, realistic and honest films about the inadequacies of daily Soviet life - few jobs, bleak urban pollution, disillusionment, hopelessness, and pessimism.

The pretty Soviet star Natalya Negoda appeared in Playboy Magazine (in the May 1989 issue) to promote the actress and film in an article titled "That Glasnost Girl." The cover tauted: "FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: The Soviets' First Sex Star Natalya Negoda."

It told the coming-of-age tale of a troubled, unloved, restless, non-conformist and rebellious teenager named Vera (Natalya Negoda), sporting a short punk hairstyle of blonde streaked locks. She was in training after high school to work for the telephone company.

The title character had major difficulties within her dysfunctional, working-class family, while living in a cramped 3-room apartment with her parents in the bleak provincial industrial city of Zhdanov:

• Kolya (Yuri Nazarov), drunken and mostly-unemployed, abusive father
• Rita (Lyudmila Zajtseva), Vera's dim-witted, demanding and critical mother, worker in a sewing factory
• Victor (Aleksandr Negreba), her brother, a doctor who lived in Moscow

All that Vera had to look forward to was her friends, rock 'n' roll music, and then a boyfriend - womanizing, egocentric university student Sergei (Andrei Sokolov). After they made love, and Sergei moved into Vera's apartment with her parents and she became his fiancee-wife, the belligerent father disapproved, called Vera a slut (for claiming she was pregnant), and stabbed his son-in-law in a knife fight (causing Sergei's long hospitalization) - and Vera became despondent and attempted suicide with a drug overdose washed down with vodka (her doctor brother saved her). Part of Vera's problems arose when she learned that she was not a "wanted" child - her father wanted her as an excuse to get a larger apartment.

She was faced with the agonizing decision of claiming her father acted in self-defense, or supporting her detached and arrogant fiancee and possibly send her father to jail. The film ended on a downbeat note - the collapse and supposed death of Kolya in the apartment's kitchen.

Masquerade (1988)

Director Bob Swaim's R-rated, plot-twisting, psychological sex-filled thriller was about murder, greed, double-crossing deception and betrayal. The film's title referred to the name of a yacht anchored off the Hamptons. The film's tagline hinted at the plot:

An heiress.
A hustler.
A set-up.

A murder.
MASQUERADE - It's not a game anymore.

The main story centered around the fortune of wealthy Hampton heiress Olivia Lawrence (Meg Tilly), who was forced to live with her scheming and despicable stepfather Gateworth (John Glover), with his companion Anne (Dana Delaney). After graduating from college, Olivia met two possible suitors:

• Tim Whalen (Rob Lowe, just before he was involved in a sex tape scandal), a playboyish sailing instructor and yacht skipper with another lover on the side
• Mike McGill (Doug Savant), a grown-up children friend, now a police officer

One of the side plots was Tim's passionate encounter with his other lover:

• Brooke Morrison (TV's Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall), his wealthy boss' sex-crazed, bored and lustful wife

After their love-making in the film's most quoted scene, as he stood there bare-assed, he gave her a birthday present - a pair of black-lace panties, about which she asked: "Do you want me to put these on?" to which he responded: "I can't bite 'em off if you don't."

Tim Whalen and Brooke Morrison - Sweaty Sex

Olivia didn't know whether to trust Tim - did he love her truly, or was he marrying her only for her money? The plot was about various conspiratorial plans or plots to murder Olivia, to acquire $3 million of her trust fund. By the film's conclusion, although Olivia had thought that Tim had betrayed her, she learned otherwise that his love wasn't a masquerade.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

In the fourth installment of the horror film franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), teenaged Joey Crusel (Rodney Eastman) was in his bedroom (where he had a "Sweet Dreams" poster of a bikinied Pin Up Girl (Hope Marie Carlton, Playboy Playmate July 1985) above his TV). He was stretched out on his waterbed watching MTV (with headphones plugged into his stereo) and also reading Rolling Stone Magazine.

As his eyes shut and he entered a dream world, his bed began to undulate and rock back and forth in waves - he pulled away the comforter, revealing the poster's Pin-Up Girl, who had vanished from the poster, but was now naked and swimming underneath him inside the waterbed, pressing her hands against the plastic vinyl and gesturing to him.

When she disappeared and he called out excitedly: "Wait!", notorious killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) burst out of the bed, grabbed him by the neck, taunted: "How's this for a wet dream?", and pulled him under the surface of the water and struggled to drown him. Joey called out: "Kristen, help!" as he was repeatedly pushed underwater, stabbed, and eventually murdered.

Not of This Earth (1988)

This Roger Corman produced sci-fi/horror B-film by director Jim Wynorski, a remake of Corman's earlier 1957 film of the same name (with Beverly Garland), starred ex-porn star queen Traci Lords in her first legal and legitimate (non-X-rated) role, often nude. It would be her last bare appearance in a feature film.

The low-budget story was about an alien ("Not of This Earth") - an extra-terrestrial space vampire alien scientist with sunglasses named Mr. Johnson (Arthur Roberts), who came from the dying planet of Davanna. In the opening prologue, he approached a car at night where a couple (Belinda Grant and Robby Bointen) were making out in the back seat. He grabbed the male by the throat, then removed his sunglasses to project a deadly bluish eye beam at the topless female before preparing to siphon her blood. From his metal briefcase, he removed a blood-sucking device that he stuck into her neck to drain her blood.

First Topless Victim (Belinda Grant)

He was on earth, portraying an eccentric millionaire, to get blood transfusions. Actually, his evil plot was to drain blood from various specimens to send a new blood supply to Davanna. In a clinic, he hired Dr. Rochelle's (Ace Mask) nurse, Nadine Story (Traci Lords), to be his sexy, private-care clinic nurse, assisting him in his transfusions for his strange blood condition. During the main plot of the film, Nadine appeared in various outfits: a nurse costume, a shiny blue bikini, a black strapless evening gown, lacy lingerie, and was briefly topless in one apres-shower scene to show off her large breasts (while drying off) - when she flirted with handsome pool-man and ex-con Jeremy (Lenny Juliano), who was hired to be Johnson's butler.

Jeremy proposed catching her (she compared herself to a "mermaid") in the pool with his prodigiously-sized "fishing pole," although she cautioned: "You'd better be careful, you just might land a barracuda." Nadine and her cop boyfriend Harry (Roger Lodge) became suspicious of Johnson and were alarmed that three busty prostitutes (Roxane Kernohan, Ava Cadell and Cynthia Thompson) entered the residence but never reappeared.

Traci Lords In Her First Legitimate Mainstream (non X-rated) Film Role
Flirting with Jeremy (Lenny Juliano)
With boyfriend Harry (Roger Lodge)

One of the live specimens for blood was a near-sighted Happy Birthday Girl (Becky LeBeau) who came to the wrong address to deliver a strip-o-gram - she was snatched, led to a blue beam, and transmitted back to his alien planet home.

The Happy Birthday Girl (Becky LeBeau)

Patti Rocks (1988)

This low-budget, independent comedy by director David Burton Morris, subtitled A Serious Adult Comedy, played mostly in arthouses. It initially received an X- or NC-17 rating (changed to an R-rating after an appeal) for its many extreme vulgarities, frank sexual language and obscenities. The tagline was:

Explore an entirely new sexual position ... honesty.

One of the main protagonists was:

• Billy Regis (Chris Mulkey), a mid-30s, blue-collar, sex-obsessed, misogynistic and chauvinistic Midwesterner living in Minneapolis, married and with two children, with an extremely foul mouth

Billy had a pregnant mistress - Patti Rocks (Karen Landry).

During a lengthy, all-night car ride to Patti's apartment, Billy delivered a smutty, gross, scatological, foul, demeaning and misogynistic discourse to his recently-divorced, estranged traveling companion-friend Eddie Hassit (John Jenkins).

When they arrived, Patti was not pleased to see them in the middle of the night, and she retreated to take a shower. When Billy joined her in the bathroom, she succinctly summarized for Billy the complete nature of their relationship:

All we ever do is get drunk, order pizza, and f--k.

There was some affection between them, however, but then she strongly asserted: "I'm keeping the baby, Billy." Patti appeared to be nothing like what Billy had described to Eddie during the ride.

Unable to directly deal with his dilemma, to talk to her seriously and take any responsibility, Billy left it up to Eddie to explain why he couldn't marry her because he was already married with two children. Billy's plan was to recommend that she seek an abortion, even though she wanted to keep the baby.

Intimacy Between Eddie and Patti

While speaking to Patti alone in her bedroom (she was naked and wrapped in a blanket), the love-starved Eddie soon found himself in a very intense and intimate discussion with her - they even kissed. He touched her naked breasts and rested his head between them, and she showed amorous and tender affection back to him, showing him that he was indeed loveable.

They began to have intercourse - slowly and sensuously, when Billy stuck his head in the door, and Patti motioned for him not to interfere. Then, Eddie noticed that Billy had become aware of their indiscretion - and appeared angry at his friend Eddie who apologized: "It just happened." This clearly signaled the end of Billy's relationship with Patti, although there might still be a future for Patti and Eddie.

A Short Film About Love (1988, Pol.) (aka Krótki Film o Milosci)

Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's compelling film was originally an episode (Dekalog 6: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery) from his Dekalog series of ten hour-long films (for Polish television) derived from the Ten Commandments - and expanded to a feature length film, but with a markedly different ending. The film's plot was about an unusual developing relationship between:

• Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko), a lonely and shy 19 year-old postal worker
• Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska), an older, pretty, and promiscuous artist

Tomek had a voyeuristic, romantic obsession with Magda whom he could spy at (by telescope from his bedroom) into her neighboring apartment. After stealing her mail, peeping on her, interfering with her romantic liaisons, playing cruel tricks and making prank phone calls to her, he confessed his feelings and mischief - prompting her to eventually seduce him in her place with taunting words:

"I have nothing underneath. You know that, don't you? When a woman wants a man, she becomes wet inside. I'm wet now."

After causing him to prematurely ejaculate in his pants when he stroked her thigh, she told the sexually-humiliated and embarrassed lad: "That's all there is to love...Wash in the bathroom" - after which he attempted to kill himself by slitting his wrists. Following the shocking incident, the perspective changed and the tables were turned when the guilt-ridden Magda turned her obsessive, infatuated attention toward him (with a pair of binoculars) and lamented his loss of innocence.

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)

This standard, slasher sequel to the first film, Sleepaway Camp (1983) was written by Fritz Gordon and directed by Michael A. Simpson.

It was five years later, after disturbed and homicidal Angela (or "Peter") Baker/Johnson (Pamela Springsteen, singer Bruce Springsteen's sister), rumored to have had a sex change (and electroshock therapy), had been released from a mental hospital after being committed there for previous crimes.

She had been hired as a counselor at Camp Rolling Hills (nearby to the original Camp Arawak), ready to provide lots of gore along with the film's frequent gratuitous nudity from others.

The supporting characters - many of whom ended up dead - were first-named after many of the Brat Packers of the time, i.e., Molly (Ringwald), Sean (Penn), Ally (Sheedy), Mare (Winningham), Rob (Lowe), Demi (Moore), Lea (Thompson), Brooke (Shields), Jodi (Foster), Anthony (Michael Hall), Judd (Nelson), Charlie (Sheen), Phoebe (Cates), Emilio (Estevez), Diane (Lane), Tom "TC" (Cruise) , and "Uncle John" (Hughes).

The puritanical Angela was disturbed when her fellow counselors engaged in numerous sexual and drug activities, including token slut Ally (Valerie Hartman) who often exposed her breasts and fornicated, and Mare (Susan Marie Snyder) who flashed the other females as she said:

"Remember ladies, nice girls don't have to show it off."

Ally (Valerie Hartman)

Prudish Angela quickly decided to punish the deviant and misbehaving counselors and campers, by many means, with snappy added one-liners:

• Phoebe - a brutal head bashing with a log and cutting off a tongue (Angela: "What a bad camper!")
• Jodi - cremated
• Brooke (Jodi's sister) - also incinerated with gasoline (as Angela intoned: "Say no to drugs")
• Mare - a lethal electric drilling (Mare: "What are you looking for, a gun?" Angela: "No, a drill")
• Anthony (dressed as Freddy Krueger) - a throat slashing with a razor glove (Angela was dressed as Leatherface)
• Judd (dressed as Jason Voorhees) - leg slashing and face chain-sawing (Angela: "Sorry, but once I start a task, I always finish")
• Ally - a screwdriver stabbing in the back followed by drowning in a feces-laden toilet, and covered with leeches (Angela: "You've been a shitty friend and a shitty camper")
• Demi - garroting with guitar string (Angela: "You talk too much")
• Lea - multiple knifing in the chest (Angela: "No more whining")
• T.C. - battery acid in the face (Angela: "Would you like a second cup?")
• Sean - decapitated or beheaded and head placed in TV (Angela: "Look who's on TV")
• Matt - knifed
• Charlie and Emilio - throat slicing, eyes gouged out
• Uncle John - hand dismemberment, machete throat-slitting
• Rob - machete in chest, followed by hanging
• Diane - twisted knife in stomach
• Truck driver - knifed in chest (Truck driver: "I mean, the way I see it, I am just too dumb to drink and I'm too fat to f--k")

Two Moon Junction (1988)

This well-photographed, R-rated, soft-core erotica drama (with a double entendre title) was produced by director/writer Zalman King (of Red Shoe Diaries fame, who also directed Wild Orchid (1989) and was the writer for 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)). It was followed by a sequel in 1994 called Return to Two Moon Junction, with Melinda Clarke (as a New York fashion model from Georgia who fell for a sculptor) substituting as the sister of Sherilyn Fenn's character in the first film.

Its cliche-filled tale was about sexual awakening in numerous well-orchestrated, hot tryst scenes between:

• April Delongpre (platinum-blonde Sherilyn Fenn), a Southern belle, Alabama heiress, and soon-to-be-married
• Perry (Richard Tyson), a lusty, long-haired, white-trash carnival worker

She was challenged by him when he remarked: "I thought you were just another tight-ass princess," and she fought off his kisses but soon succumbed. She took an arousing, auto-erotic long steamy shower intercut with scenes of the brawny carnival workers setting up and her subjective fantasy of watching nude men through an uncovered tile peep-hole. During one of the explicit, steamy sex scenes April had with the carny, her fiancée Chad Douglas Fairchild (Martin Hewitt) was at a bachelor party (presided over by Sheriff Earl Hawkins (Burl Ives)) watching a stripper dressed as a sheriff.

The erotic romance even featured a quick topless-nude cameo by Kristy McNichol (from the TV series Family) as bourbon-drinking, truck-driving floozie Patti Jean, who boasted about painting her nipples ("Now you know my secret. I put a little rouge on. Makes it easier to see through my blouse. It's a real 60's thing to do, but I think it's cute. Boys would just howl when I wore pink angora sweaters in junior high. I love angora. You ever put yours in the refrigerator?...It makes it real fuzzy"), and hinted at being bisexual. She asked April: "I'll bet you got great tits. I can tell. But you shouldn't cover 'em up or be ashamed of 'em...And that top would look so much better if you weren't wearing a bra."

Patti Jean (Kristy McNichol): "It's at moments like this I can see why guys like women so much."

She offered her own top to April, stripped topless, and encouragingly insisted: "You've got the perfect figure for it, perfect. Oh, come on, don't be shy. Just put it on and say goodbye princess" - until the pressured April obliged. She then admired April's form: "It's at moments like this I can see why guys like women so much."

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Co-writer/director Philip Kaufman's erotic epic, based upon Milan Kundera's novel, centered on the themes of freedom (sexual, personal and political). It was set in the late 60s in Prague, Czechoslovakia (and then in Switzerland), with open and liberated adult sexuality and many erotic scenes although little explicit sex (it was regarded by Rolling Stone as "the most openly sexual American film in ages"). It was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist).

It included an intriguing love triangle displayed between a playboy and two lovers (reversals of each other):

• Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), a Czech Don-Juanish neuro-surgeon
• Sabina (Lena Olin), a free-spirited, liberated lover and painter-artist
• Tereza (Juliette Binoche), a shy, bookish, waiflike and timid provincial waitress, also a photographer - and Tomas' wife

During the film, Tomas repeatedly and arrogantly entreated: "Take off your clothes," initially to co-worker Nurse Katja (Pascale Kalensky) and to Tall Brunette (Consuela De Haviland) who slowly stripped for him and sat provocatively in a chair, and then to his other lovers.

In an extended love-making scene in the film's opening, philandering Tomas was with longtime sex partner and kindred spirit Sabina ("the woman who understood him best") when she asked him: "Don't you ever spend a night at the woman's place?" He answered: "Never." She confided: "I really like you, Tomas. You are the complete opposite of kitsch. In the kingdom of kitsch, you would be a monster," as she placed her great grandfather's bowler hat on his head. He responded by turning her around on top of the bed so that her head hung off the side, while coupling with her legs completely spread-eagled and pointed outwards. He made her view themselves in that pose in her dressing-mirror reflection and then asked: "What am I now? A monster." Later in the film, they continued to playfully make love with the bowler hat and their mirror images, when she asked:

"Are you only searching for pleasure, or is every woman a new land whose secrets you want to discover? You want to know what she's going to say when she makes love? Or how she will smile? How she will whisper, groan, scream?"

He encouraged her to view herself with her distinctive bowler hat, reflected in the round mirror placed on the floor, before they succumbed to more love-making. Tomas was repeatedly torn between being dutiful to wife Tereza, and exercising his womanizing spirit with Sabina. He expressed the dichotomy to Sabina:

"If I had two lives, with one, I'd have her (Tereza) stay at my place. With the other, I'd kick her out. Then I'd compare and see which was best. But we only live once. Life's so light. Like an outline we can't ever fill in, or correct... make any better. It's frightening."

The film also included a sensual photographic session between erotic friends Tereza and Sabina - initially, Tereza photographed a nude Sabina, a long mostly dialogue-less scene during an impending thunderstorm. Afterwards Sabina ordered a reluctant and initially-hesitant Tereza: "Now it's my turn...Take off your clothes" (using Tomas' favorite line) as they seductively switched roles between photographer and subject, culminating in a hide-and-seek nude romp.

The Sensual Photography Scene Between Tereza and Sabina

At one point when Tomas returned to Prague and was blacklisted with no work, Tereza took a waitressing job. She was propositioned by an engineer (Stellan Skarsgaard) - and regretfully accepted a one-time unfaithful sexual liaison with him. In the end, Tereza and Tomas found marital bliss in the countryside, where they befriended a commune leader and his pet pig.

As the film concluded, Sabina learned some tragic "bad news" - the death of her two friends after a night of dancing when the brakes on their truck failed and they were killed instantly (just before their deaths, Tomas told Tereza what he was thinking: "I'm thinking how happy I am").

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Sexy, animated, femme fatale Toon Jessica Rabbit (voice of Kathleen Turner), the absurdly curvaceous bombshell wife of Roger Rabbit, made a dramatic entrance at the Ink and Paint Club in director Robert Zemeckis' part-animated, part-live action feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

Jessica's sexy leg and some of her ample breasts appeared first from behind the curtain, and then she emerged wearing a slinky, high-cut shimmering pink dress. She looked very little like a rabbit and more like a statuesque, cartoon-animated movie star -- a combination of:

• a well-stacked Playboy bunny
• Lauren Bacall
• 40s peek-a-boo blonde actress Veronica Lake

The buxom, red-haired chanteuse swept out onto the stage and sayshayed into the audience singing "Why Don't You Do Right?" (voice of Amy Irving) - the patrons hooted and whistled at her. She later cooed the immortal line:

"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."

Animators at Disney were accused of inserting dirty visual humor into this film - in particular, a panty-less Jessica Rabbit when she was flung to the side of the road from Bennie the Cab -- only visible in the laser-disc version of the film and cleaned up for subsequent video releases.

Also controversial was a brief scene early in the film (some of the images have now been modified) immediately after the "Somethin' Cookin'" cartoon. It was the shot of Baby Herman storming off the set. During his exit, he drooled and grinned lasciviously after inappropriately grabbing at a secretary (he lifted her skirt and extended his middle finger between her legs).

[See also The Little Mermaid (1989) entry.]

Working Girl (1988)

Actress Melanie Griffith's notable Oscar-nominated appearance came in this romantic comedy by director Mike Nichols, when she portrayed 'working girl' Tess McGill. She delivered a provocative one-liner, typical of the 1980s, to businessman Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) at the bar of a business function:

"I've got a head for business and a bod for sin. Is there anything wrong with that?"