Old movies that touched lightly on abortion

Shirley Temple had an abortion in one of her movies.

The shot of Lucy waving around a coathanger before she breaks into “It’s Today” in Mame.

In "A Place in the Sun," it was clear that Shelley Winters' character went to the doctor to seek an abortion. In "Mildred Pierce," though, they paid off Veda to go away and not marry their son, because it would have been scandalous. It was hush money that would have been enough to support the baby.

Gone With the Wind-Scarlett wanted to abort Rhett's baby.

Darling 1965

"Blue Denim," from 1959 with Carol Lynley and Brandon DeWilde was about a teen girl who discovers she's pregnant. She and her boyfriend discuss abortion as one of the options.

I wish Brandon DeWilde had made me pregnant.

Blossoms in the Dust

'Bad girls don't have babies!'

Peyton Place, but it’s a major theme, not just touched on lightly. That being said, I’m not sure they ever use the word abortion.

R3, what I never understood in MP is why Veda didn't get a replacement check after Mildred tore up the first one. "Hello, this is Veda. Send me a replacement check."

The Godfather Part II

Who’s Afraid if Virginia Wolfe. the Honny character had a hysterical pregnancy, and after the wedding, it “went away”. I think she got an abortion. It would suit the movie themes very well:

George & Martha want kids but can’t have them, so they invent a fake one, then George kills it. The younger couple don’t want a kid, but get a real one, anyway. Then Honey kills it. They are almost mirror images of each other. In addition to the previous child, there’s also they theme of “truth, or allusion?”

"A Summer Place"---the result of Johnny and Molly being "bad".

"The Best of Everything" --Robert Evans making a sleazy attempt at seeming to be a good boyfriend ("it's like a real doctor")

"Love with the Proper Stranger" ---Natalie Wood has second thoughts.

The hysterical pregnancy in "Virginia Woolf" is a totally different thing. You know Dennis is is someone who only could have a hysterical pregnancy.

In "Beyond the Forest, " Davis incurs a miscarriage by jumping down a,hill.

In "Leave Her to Heaven, " Gene Tierney does the same, down a flight of stairs.

Cabernet. She pays for it with the fur that the Count gives her.

At the link, an ad for the 1936 Berlin Olympics narratted by Dr. Joesph Goebbels himself.

The things that strike me are that the City is quite handsome, but most of it was destroyed in the war. Also, the civilians who were wondering around with no clue of the shitshow that’s headed there way. Then lastly, there a large group of schoolboys. They’re in uniform. I imagine they are Hitler Youth. They’re just children, in 1936. They would have been drafted before the war ended.

[quote] Cabernet

Yes, that would be nice.

I love a man in a uniform.

Alfie

The L-Shaped Room

Was the coathanger flip-out in Mommy Dearest an oblique reference to abortion or totally unrelated?

On the Beverly Hillbillies, Granny was always whipping up a potus for Mrs Drysdale.

That's poultice, you dolt r20

R1, I think the movie you are thinking of is That Hagen Girl. Shirley Temple does not have an abortion. She does attempt suicide though.

R15, that was interesting. There will never be buildings or monuments that grand ever again. Wow.

R23, which monument in particular?

At 20 seconds in, the Victory Column is shown. Hitler had moved it from wherever it previously was, to this other spot. The new spot is in or near Tiergarten Park. Like Kew Gardens in London, it was the former Royal hunting grounds.

There was nothing nearby to the column of importance worth bombing, so it was never a targeted during WWII or hit accidentally, and the Allies left it alone because their bombers would use it to get their bearings when targeting other things. So, it survived the war.

It’s called the Victory column as it celebrates various Prussian wars. There was a drum added to the top of it following the Franco-Prussian war, IIRC. At the end of the war, the French wanted to dynamite it, but the Americans and British were horrified by the thought and persuaded the French to give it a good leavin’ alone. It stands there today.

Many of Berlin’s museums are clustered in the city center. Just by luck, I think, they survived the war, too. Berlin’s Pride is the famous bust of Nefertiti. There are a row of Greek Columns in the Museum area that survived the war, and are absolutely riddled with bullet holes. It’s really incredible to see. I’m glad they never repaired the holes, they’re as fascinating as the museums.

Here are the columns. In the background, you see one of the museums as it is today. It was also shown in Herr Dr. Joesph Goebbels’ film. It must have been a hell of a place to be in April/May 1945.

The Wizard of Oz - Hunk knocks Dorothy up, and Dorothy says to Aunt Em, "I've having an abortion and I CAN'T WAIT!"

There was a teen romance with Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin that addressed abortion. First Love or something...?

In "Peyton Place" (1957), Selena Cross gets raped and knocked up by her stepfather, and the kindly town doctor puts his neck on the line to get her an abortion. In the novel, he does it, but I think in the movie she may have had a convenient miscarriage.

Cynthia Rhodes’s character has an abortion in Dirty Dancing

R24, are you implying something about Nefertiti?

Marian Nixon aborts Joel McCrea's baby in "Chance at Heaven" (fool!) It's treated in quite a lighthearted manner for 1933

One reference to Cabernet (cabaret! But my iPhone spell corrected as well!) - and we’re getting yours through prewar Berlin - narrated by Goebels no less! And on a thread about abortion in the movies? Sheesh! Think someone really has been at the Cabernet...

On the ferris wheel Rizzo says "problem solved" and tosses Sandy the coat hanger.

At the end of Mary Poppins when she suddenly leaves and the parrot offers Mary a vacuum and she says "Don't be silly, I'll get it done right"

Abortion is an important plotline in Clouzot's masterpiece "Le Corbeau" made during WWII.

[quote]The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part II didn't [italic]lightly[/italic] touch upon it, Kay makes a speech about it and says the word "abortion" four times:

[quote]t wasn’t a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that’s unholy and evil. I didn’t want your son, Michael! I wouldn’t bring another one of you sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!

All this talk about “Mildred Pierce,” is this a highly recommended movie that I should watch?

PEYTON PLACE. When Selena Cross (Hope Lange) becomes pregnant as a result of being raped by her stepfather, she asks Dr. Swain to "give her something" for it. Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) asked her doctor the same thing in A PLACE IN THE SUN.

My mother said Peyton Place was quite racy and scandalous when it was released along with A Summer Place and Psycho. Almost X-rated for that time.

Most of our home movies.

MGM's pre-Code medical drama MEN IN WHITE (released April 1934).

Helen Lawson in OLD ENOUGH TO BREED. The ageless Miss Lawson's dramatic turn as a worldly sixteen years old (she was forty five at the time, a Navajo blanket was used as a camera filter) Tangie Tartaglione when faced with the consequences of a ight in the back seat of Troy Donahue's Nash Metropolitan. "DOCKTAH! YOU DON'T EXPECT ME TO KEEP THIS LITTLE BEAST,DO YA?".

Rebecca. In the book the implication was that "the doctor in London that Rebecca sometimes went to privately" was an abortionist. According to the film commentary Hitchcock wanted to call him Dr. Butcher" in the movie and make his "office" a much shadier setting. But the movie ended up cleaning him up into "Dr. Baker, a well known women's specialist." The implication that Rebecca had actually been sneaking off for an abortion was still there though.

From the OP:

[quote][bold]Old movies that touched lightly on abortion[/bold]

I think some people don't know the difference between "touched lightly" and something that's a part of the story line.

Did Scarlett want to abort Rhett's baby in the film version of "Gone With The Wind?" I think on the staircase she said she didn't "want" his baby that's not really saying she wants an abortion. There's a scene in the book where she tells Rhett she's pregnant (with Bonnie) and tells him "I won't have it!" and implies there are "things" that can be done to remedy the situation. Did that scene end up in the movie? I kind of find it hard to believe that it did, since even the word "miscarriage" couldn't be uttered in this film, and it took a lot of doing just to allow Rhett to say "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" instead of "Frankly me dear, I just don't care."

In "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" the hard bitten, nasty Gloria ribs poor little pregnant Ruby about having a baby. Why bring another baby into this awful world? It makes Gloria angry just to see Ruby's pregnant stomach. Ruby's husband Jimmy tells Gloria to shut her mouth; she actually suggested to Ruby that she have her baby "cut out." I found Gloria's insufferable nastiness disgusting; I would have liked to see Jimmy punch her in the face.

That cabana in Fast Times at Ridgmont High