Missed Opportunity

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tieler said:

This week the Parent Trap special edition dvd was released. Complete with commentary from Hayley mills and the director. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get confirmation on one of the great tickle (or is it) scenes of all time. I was hoping Hayley Mills would comment about pouring honey on Joanna Barnes' feet. I was hoping the director (or anyone) would comment on how this scene was filmed. Information like whether or not it was hard to film because Joanna Barnes was so ticklish and having bear cubs lick honey off her feet was unbearable (no pun intended). But no such luck, The only direct information we received was that the scene was hard to reshoot because the cubs ran away and took hours to find, and therefore retakes were difficult. Nothing about Joanna Barnes beinbg ticklish, or how such a kinky scene can appear in a family film, in 1961 no less! Oh well.

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When this film came out, I was 11 years old, and it became my favorite film, because of the scene you describe (the bear cubs licking honey off Joanna Barnes' feet), and also the scene near the end where Maureen O'Hara talks about how embarrassed she is to be seen in her bare feet by her ex-husband.

In that innocent era, before the current movie rating system (X, NR, R, PG, G) had come into being, there was something called the Hayes Code. It was quite specific in what it forbid, such things as bare breasts, the inside of a woman's thigh, a police officer being shot on screen, a crime being committed in the film but not punished, etc. [Off topic: That is why the little girl who commits several murders in "The Bad Seed" (1956) had to be struck by a bolt of lightening and killed at the end of that film, to satisfy the Hayes Code. In the Broadway play upon which this movie is based, little Rhoda literally gets away with murder.]

So script writers had to work around the Hayes Code, and put in things that were subtly erotic but not forbidden. Women's pretty bare feet were not subtle to me, but were often in films of that era. Likewise tickling was considered playful and not blatantly erotic, as long as it was not too near the breasts, genitals, or thighs.