User Reviews

Originally X rated version of Allen Funt's Candid Camera TV show. This involves people running into naked women (and men) in the most ordinary situations. One involves a totally nude woman trying to get help with her car that broke down. Another has a nude woman in an office building casually waiting for the elevator. Another has a nude statue of a man that starts talking to a secretary at work.

At first this was funny but it gets tiresome. It's basically different variations of the same joke done over and over again. The reactions are hilarious however, the movie has a very light-hearted tone and all the nude people (men and women) are attractive. This was cut down in 1982 to get an R rating and that's the version I saw...but it was long enough. My favorite reactions: a guy looking at a nude woman up and down while waiting for an elevator casually says to her, "Nice outfit"; a secretary while on the phone tells a nude talking male statute near her desk to be quiet! So it is fun but it's just the same thing over and over. I'd love to see the complete X version someday.

Did you know that Allen Funt became friends with a singing duo named Boyce and Hart. These singers wrote and sang a song "Hey! What do you say to a naked lady?" Allen Funt loved this song so much that he took it one step further and made this movie from their song. Later he even got them an appearance on the TV show "Bewitched" where they sang for a TV audience for the first time. The song writing duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart went on to write hundreds of songs for various performers and wrote many television scores. When this movie came out in 1970 many theaters were closed down for showing "obscene material". This created a backlash so much that people started showing up at the theaters with only a raincoat on or naked with a big purse. The movie is not great for content, but is wonderful for telling us about our history in the 70's.

This is one of those films where you come expecting titillation and end up getting educated. As mentioned in the other post, people are set up in situations where they unexpectedly encounter nudity-- elevators, classrooms, roadside, etcetera. Then Funt discovers an interesting thing, that when people ARE expecting nudity, in an art class or museum gallery, when the rules change people get flustered. In the art class, for example, the women who were calmly drawing the male nude seem unable to have a conversation with him when he talks to them.

There is an unexpected section of the film, one that Funt admits in the film even surprised him. It is a frank discussion with a call girl, Funt and the woman sitting by a hotel pool talking about prostitution. Funt was posing as a client; the woman is surprising and refreshing in her candor.

People may wonder why the film was rated X. At the time the Film Ratings board had a firm rule that if penises were shown, the film was given a X rating.

How often does one remember only a few brief scenes from a film and find on re-viewing years later that it was only those few moments that are worth remembering? NAKED LADY, one might think, being a film of individual moments, could well be such a film. Happily, this is not the case. (Only the little kids on the lawn and the extended reprise of faces and "smile" moments at the end seemed at all tacky.) The passing years have only added to the film's value, for it turns out to be a revealing portrait of changing attitudes to sex in the late sixties, when people of all ages with open minds were receptive to new ways of thinking about sex. The film has an innocence and a hopefulness, a simple charm that we've all lost today for many reasons. It's Funt's film all the way, of course, and it's his masterpiece! His personality dominates the film; his voice constantly heard, challenging his subjects to say what they think and to think about what they say. The naked ladies in unusual places are there to sell the film, to provide entertainment value, but people are what endlessly fascinates Funt. He really likes people, and he loves to talk to them. The core scenes are all talking heads; the co-eds talking about guys on the dorm, the young people and their parents talking about sex, the woman who "prostitutes" for free because she likes it, his interview with a prospective model, even the "man in the street" comments about "how birds do it." It's no accident that the film is interracial, because Funt's belief is that you can't judge a person by their looks. Sometimes people are true to type, but just as often they're not. An IMDb viewer says that, based on his recollection, the current version differs from the original release. I wouldn't have remembered the changes he mentions, but my own recollection suggests an excision of a character in the greatest sequence in the film in which Funt, as a bus ticket clerk, feels people out on their feelings about an interracial couple. I recall clearly that there was a young, long-haired hippie type who was very outspoken against the couple, who was contrasted with the older man who says, "what's the difference, it's a big world," and prefers love to war profiteering. I did misremember that great line of the passing English bicycler at the beginning which I recalled as, "What you got there, Charlie?" when it's actually, "Charlie, how'd you get caught with that one?" But I can't see how I made up the young long-haired hippie; I'm certain he was there in the original release. The comments of the older man whose son married a Mexican girl, his difficulty in accepting the marriage so touchingly mixed with his pride in his grandchildren, again brought a lump to my throat. Moments like this must have been what Funt lived for. In his earlier days, going way back to "Candid Microphone" before TV, the emphasis was always on human interaction. (I remember, for example, a theatrical short where Funt, as a travel agent, insisted, with total courtesy and friendliness, on selling a customer a fancy vacation when they wanted something plain and simple.) The TV show had moved away from that to sight gags like cars splitting in half. This film was Funt's attempt to return to his roots. It's a very serious film by a very serious filmmaker, Funt challenging his audience to examine their own feelings and beliefs, and gently urging tolerance for the infinite variety of mankind. It's a far better, more enduring film, in fact, than some of the documentary "classics" (GREY GARDENS, for example) that were made in the same era.

God bless Allen Funt.I grew up loving Mr Funt's gentle humor on CANDID CAMERA,a sharp contrast to the mean-spirited "humor" of today's reality shows.The movie is a documentary in the CC style where Funt explores how people feel about sexuality.From the opening images of a nude young lady confronting men in public places,where tittilation seems so naughty,the film instead shows us incredible imagery of folks confronting their prejudices and self-images.A crowning achievement.

This film is the famous "Candid Camera" television show in a feature format, and much more Risqu'e that could have been broadcast. But beyond the amusing laughs of Alan Funt's situations lies a surprising glimpse into the uncensored attitudes of American culture in the midst of social upheaval.

Prevailing sexual and racial attitudes are both surprising and tantalizing. Taboo subjects are tackled in an unflinching way, without comment by the filmmakers - leaving you an unobstructed view on our past culture.

• Andy Somers

My new wife and I saw "What Do You Say To A Naked Lady" in the theater back around 1970 when it was released. Thirty or so years later, I bought the VHS release of this film. Although I certainly don't claim to recall everything I saw in this film in 1970, I do recall some scenes that are omitted on the VHS release. Also, the VHS release seems to have more talking and other less interesting content, such as original reactions of the test screening audience.

In particular, I recall several iterations of the man knocking on the door, which falls in, to reveal a naked lady on the phone, who then asks him to put the door back. In the VHS release there is only one brief episode.

Also, the scene where the man is sent to wait in a room, and all other occupants are naked ladies. That is completely omitted in the VHS release. My complaint is that these scenes, which depict how different people react, contain much of the value of the lesson this film teaches.

I rate the VHS release only about 6 or 7 of 10 because of these omissions. Still, it represents a great lesson in how people react to these unusual situations, and worth seeing.

"What Do You Say To A Naked Lady?" is a fascinating look at the sexual-social attitude changes in the United States during the transitional late 1960s. Mr. Funt, the power behind the popular entertainment programs "Candid Microphone" and "Candid Camera", may not have meant it to be, but this film brilliantly documents the generation gap between the 1950s post-WW II parents/grandparents and their 1960s flower child progeny.

Dated to the extreme, it is a film of its time. (When a woman tries to sleep with a gay men, he's tells her he can't because he's 'queer'. A white grandfather type tells of his opposition to his son marrying a Mexican girl. The children, however, are wonderful and not 'too dark'.) If you are interested in where we were and how far the attitudes of the typical American have changed, this documentary is a must see.

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO A NAKED LADY is basically a risqué "Candid Camera" episode stretched out to feature length with, um, lots of full-frontal action from both genders.

But that's not (really) the interesting part. It's a fascinating glimpse into the public's newly relaxed attitude towards sex, circa the sexual revolution, covering the public's opinion towards everything from public nudity to interracial dating. Truly a time capsule, with wildly varied reactions from a cross-section of Americans - racial, ethnic and age differences are all included.

The most revealing segment was the one with the college instructor. (Do I need to mention she was naked?) Interesting that the "mature" older women were reduced to giggling schoolgirls while the young students kept their poise. Or were both groups aware of the ruse but the elders weren't compelled to respect authority as the kids might have been?

Anyway, my favorite victim was the woman who kept her cool while chatting with the nude male model. Loved her reaction when the jig was up. What a stitch.

I grew up with Allen Funt shows and this movie only proves how much laughter Allen Funt has brought to people and it has never been to make anyone feel anything but glad to be included in his wonderful work.

I think the cast was perfect and a remake would be great for younger people at this time. It was done with excellent taste as always by him. He has always shown great respect for all people. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys to laugh.

Gem of a film that captures the humor of the original Candid Camera while setting the groundwork for Alan Funt's adult version for the Playboy Channel called Candid Candid Camera. There have been many mimics of Candid Camera (including the hybrid home video shows) but only Funt's projects had warmth and humanity, never laughing AT people being themselves. The audience laughs because it knows it would do the same thing or worse in the same situation. As Alan Funt used to say, 'We (as an audience) laugh at ourselves.' There was a certain gentleness and wholesomeness in Candid Camera and in this movie. Though "What Do You Say to a Naked Lady" deals with what ordinary people do when confronted by naked ladies and sometimes naked gentlemen, the same gentleness, same wholesomeness applies. The film was very bold for it's time not being tame with regards to how much nudity it showed (for it showed full frontal male and female nudity)...however...the film is not about sex, is not crude, is not offensive. It explores society's reaction to nudity in 1970 and the hypocrisies that society has set up for itself. People are nude, natural, beautiful. In one segment a classroom of students is surprised to find that a lecture on sexuality is given by a beautiful woman in the nude! Given the reactions of an older class (shocked and giggling, some leaving) versus a younger class (shock and giggling quickly overcome to reveal a poised and attentive class) says more in itself than any words the lecturer might say. Unlike sexploitation films of the era this film had something to say. I think this film should be made mandatory in high school sex education classes. Despite the fact that the film is thirty years old not much has really progressed regarding this subject and the film is quite appropriate today.

I just watched the 1970 Candid Camera movie, What Do You Say to a Naked Lady, and there's a scene with a tailor who starts caressing women's asses while he fits them for pants and dresses. He really goes to town, he cups their butt cheeks and pats them repeatedly...nowadays, any five seconds of that five minute scene would have landed a bunch of people in prison for sexual assault! What do you think happened in 1970? Most of the women ignored it, a couple discreetly moved out of reach of the guy's grabby hands, and one young lady in a skintight pantsuit turned around and flat out asked the guy "Excuse me, are you French or something?" And then she presumably readjusted her pantsuit, signed the release, and ended up in the movie....things sure have changed ---

Just watched a rare showing of this obscure Allen Funt hidden camera movie on fancast.com. It lives up to the title when-in the beginning-a woman casually walks stark naked to an elevator asking for directions from various men walking by. From there, it goes on to frank discussions of sex to people of various ages and genders. There's also some interviews with underage kids who seem to think they know all but don't really. In fact, one of my favorite exchanges was when after Funt asked what a premature baby was, this boy said, "It's one who knows a lot for his age." LOL! I also loved seeing that scene with that red-haired woman when she faked an orgasm after getting spray-painted! And some of the reactions of the preview audience was priceless. So on that note, I highly recommend What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? P.S. Richard "Shaft" Rountree makes his debut here as part of an interracial couple seen kissing in order to get various reactions of people watching them.

This movie remained a hysterical look at sex that i could not help but enjoy. The editors cut the footage perfectly in the "Spray can scene" and made me break out in laughter just watching the difference between the girls' orgasms. Different sequences with different sex related themes made this a documentary great. This docu-comedy is pure genius ***1/2 out of ****

I love the first part where the elevator doors open and a lovely naked lady stands there to greet passengers. The candidly diverse reactions are amusing and at times surprising. The movie debuted in 1969, clearly maestro Funt's filmic response to the blooming sexual revolution of that unconventional decade. Mostly it's an entertaining collection of candid set-ups gauging people's responses to the new-found explicitness, both male and female. For example, there're women being suddenly situated with a nude male model, college kids being instructed by a nude female teacher, but mostly probing interviews with folks of all ages on changing sexual mores, some of which are over-extended, perhaps the docu's only drawback. At the same time, the setups with the elderly ladies may be the most entertaining and revealing of all. Then too, I'd love to see some of the out-takes that weren't included; I wonder what they would be.

Overall, there's not as much full frontal nudity as you might expect (strategically placed purses, etc.); nonetheless, it's a naughty and compelling Candid Camera of an unconventional era that's lost little interest over the intervening decades.