Femmes Fatales | Mar 1 2022 |
You're asking to scrub my back? Where's your sense of adventure?
Above is a nice shot of U.S. actress Rhonda Fleming from the 1953 western Pony Express. She's looking a lot cleaner than in the image we shared back in 2010. The sequence from Pony Express is interesting because in another tub just behind a partition is the gorgeous Jan Sterling, who you see in the photo below. After Sterling has a peek over the partition, the two get out of their baths and do a little mutual hair touching. Fleming plays a classically feminine woman, while Sterling plays a short-haired tomboy. Standing there in nothing but towels, they briefly explore and discuss these differences. Subtle but deliberate bi-sexual subtext? We doubt it. Bath scenes were often inserted into Westerns to inject sex appeal. When there's something between the lines of scenes like these, only the filmmakers know for sure. In any case, it's a fun little sequence.