Happy International Bikini Day!

 Today, we celebrate the women who put on itsy-bitsy bikinis! (As well as those with a little more fabric!)

It's June...

... for a few more days, and we're closing out the month with a film that features June Palmer and will make it clear why she was so beloved by the readers of men's magazines. (This is the first film of the 'nudie cutie' soft-core porn short-film genre to be featured here at Shades of Gray. I don't know if that marks a is a high point or a low point in the blog's history.)

Nightmare at Elm Manor (aka "Flesh and Fantasy" and "Nude in Dracula's Castle") (1961)

Starring: June Palmer and Stuart Samuels

Director: George Harrison Marks

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A young woman (Palmer) is terrorized by a strange man (Samuels) while spending the night at an isolated house.

 "Nightmare at Elm Manor" is a brief, silent horror film that was the screen debut of nude model June Palmer. In it, all of her assets are on prominent display. Her beautiful face and statuesque figure, along with her perfect breasts, make it obvious why she was so beloved by the editors and readers of men's magazines during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also seems to have decent acting abilities--or at least a talent for showing the sort of fear that is required for distressed damsels in gothic chillers and Old Dark House-type films. 

Based on what I am seeing here, I think it's a shame that she never broke into the mainstream, except for a few bit parts. Aside from a pretty face and a gorgeous body, June Palmer had something a little something extra--that something that causes her to light up the screen, even when fully dressed. If not for that extra bit of charisma on the part of Palmer, the lackluster nature of the villain stalking her would have annoyed me to the point where I might have marked a Star or two off the rating I ultimately settled on. Palmer (and, yes, her boobs) carry this film, almost entirely by themselves.

Palmer's screen presence is probably also why my imagination immediately began filling in holes in what passes for the film's storyline and/or explaining stupid actions on the part of her character. Why she was walking to the manor at the beginning of the film, why she is sitting around naked and putting on make-up before going to bed, why she goes looking for a drink of water in the middle of the night... all these things, I have thought up explanations for. I even have an idea for what the true nature of the creepy butler/vampire is. And I don't even feel like I should knock the film for the blanks and incongruities, because it entertained me in other ways. Or maybe I was just mesmerized by Palmer's big, beautiful breasts.

But maybe you can tell me if it was the nudity or something else about the film that sparked my imagination. If you're in the mood for an Old Dark House-style quickie, and not offended by lots of nudity, check out "Nightmare at Elm Manor" by clicking below. This is very much a "not safe for work" film, so don't make a mistake and open it there! Also, you will have to open the film on YouTube (as well as be logged into an account there, because it's for mature audiences only.

(But, hey, since you're going to be on YouTube anyway, that's a perfect time to check out my channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe and perhaps even come back every now and then. Sometimes, we watch cartoons or short films during live streams that ultimately end up being reviewed here!)

It's June!

June Palmer was an exotic dancer and nude model who graced the pages of many leading men's magazines during the early 1960s. Her rise to fame was aided by collaborations with photographer and adult filmmaker  George Harrison Marks.

After appearing in several short films for Marks and the mockumentary feature film "The Naked World of Harrison Marks" (1964), Palmer set her sights on breaking into mainstream film. During the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, she appeared in a handful of features and short films, in mostly very small parts, and usually in varying states of undress. Among these was a part in Hammer Films' "Taste the Blood Dracula" (1970), which featured all the lacy nightgowns and undies you'd expect.

Palmer's film career never took off, and she retired from life in front of the camera after one final nude pictorial in 1977. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 73.

It's June...

... June Palmer that is.

Born in 1940, British actress and model June Palmer got her start in showbusiness in her late teens, performing as an exotic dancer in London cabarets. By 19, she had "graduated" to modeling for men's magazines. Within just a few years, she had become a popular figure (or, rather, her figure had become popular) in Great Britain, throughout the Commonwealth, and in the United States. By the mid-1960s, the film industry was calling to her...

Check back in two weeks for another Picture Perfect Wednesday featuring June Palmer... with more pictures and more information about her career in pictures, both still and moving!