Nylon in film

Nylon in feature films

There are screenplays that fall flat because the story is decidedly too thin. One wafer-thin material that has nevertheless made it to the big screen is nylon. As the ideal backdrop for sex and crime, it underpins the plots of various films and short films: nylon stockings are an eye-catcher on the legs of female screen heroines – and also serve as a murder weapon in crime thrillers.

In the 1958 German comedy film *Scampolo*, set on Ischia, the young Romy Schneider plays a 17-year-old Italian orphan girl who views anything artificial with scepticism. When, before a date, she borrows some flesh-coloured nylon stockings and slips them on for the very first time, she extends her left leg towards her as if to examine it and asks in disbelief: “So this is supposed to be nice? And this is what drives men mad?!” Yes, it does, as can be empirically asserted – certainly not all men, but definitely those who founded the discussion forum ‘Films and Stockings’ at www.strumpfhose.net and, as cineastes, revel in stocking scenes from cinema history. The forum states: “Films in which stockings or tights are ‘simply worn’ are a dime a dozen. As they are standard items of clothing, that’s hardly surprising.’ What the forum members are interested in, however, is not everyday life, but ‘a somewhat more eye-catching presentation of tights’ – that special thrill, in other words...

On film posters aimed at the mass audience (slideshow), nylon stockings, paired with more or less lascivious poses, began to appear from around the mid-1950s and became almost ubiquitous in the Swinging Sixties – as a visual lure for potential cinema-goers, particularly in Germany, England and France. Fetishism aside, ‘sex sells’ was the motto, and actresses – even those in the leading roles – were only too happy to showcase their stockinged legs. Unforgettable are the revealing films starring Sophia Loren (‘Lady L’, ‘Arabesque’), Elizabeth Taylor (‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’), Marilyn Monroe (‘Bus Stop’), Ann Bancroft (‘The Graduate’), Romy Schneider (‘The Girl and the Inspector’), Liza Minelli (‘Cabaret’) and Helen Mirren (‘Hussy’, German title: ‘Zerstörte Liebe’). Renowned directors, too, repeatedly tackled this subject and its themes, such as François Truffaut (‘The Bride Wore Black’, ‘The Man Who Loved Women’), Claude Chabrol (‘Two Friends’), Brian De Palma (‘Dressed to Kill’), Roman Polanski (‘Frantic’) and Pedro Almodóvar (‘High Heels’).

Nylon was also a staple on TV: the fashion-conscious Diana Rigg became a style icon from 1965 onwards as Emma Peel in the British spy series ‘The Avengers’, and in German crime dramas such as ‘Der Kommissar’ (episode ‘Der Liebespaarmörder’) and ‘Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre’ (episode ‘Die Erbschaft’), attractive actresses were never seen without their nylon stockings. Not to be forgotten is the US series *Star Trek*, for nylon clothing belongs not only to the present but also to the future – at least the future as imagined by science fiction authors and costume designers. After all, even though they have long been established, synthetic fibres retain a futuristic quality from an aesthetic point of view, which the films ‘Barbarella’ (France/Italy 1968, directed by Roger Vadim), *Escape to the 23rd Century* (USA 1976, directed by Michael Anderson) and *Flash Gordon* (UK/USA 1980, directed by Mike Hodges) made impressive use of this.

Occasionally, nylon has made its way not only onto film posters but even into film titles. These were often B-movies or cheap sex films for local cinemas, yet here and there one can also find little cinematic gems that have been unjustly consigned to oblivion. Critics drew parallels between Hitchcock’s *Psycho* and the 1957 US thriller *The Girl in the Black Stockings*. The plot in a nutshell: A mysterious series of murders takes place in the vicinity of a holiday hotel in Utah, with young women being the main victims. A lawyer, played by Lex Barker – who would go on to become famous for his roles as Tarzan and Old Shatterhand – sets out on a hunt for the killer, aided by Ann Bancroft, who would later win an Oscar. Produced in Germany, the film “Black Nylons – Hot Nights”, made a year later, stars the then-celebrities Peter van Eyck, Horst Frank and Helmut Schmid in the leading roles – a crime thriller typical of its time, set in Tangier, Morocco, and centring on traffickers of young women and drug smugglers. Horst Frank also appears in “Geheimnisse in goldenen Nylons”. This 1967 spy thriller centres on a petty thief named Carlos, who snatches a suitcase from some gangsters, only to unwittingly discover secret CIA documents inside. Everyone is now on the hunt for these documents, and Carlos finds himself caught in the crossfire. We won’t reveal here what the title’s ‘nylons’ are all about. Even the original title of this international production (directed by Christian-Jacque) omits them entirely; it was simply ‘Deux billets pour Mexico’ …

It is not as an item of clothing but as a murder weapon that nylon finally makes its appearance in the German crime film “Die Nylonschlinge” (West Germany 1963), which was stylistically akin to the Edgar Wallace blockbusters, in whose wake director Rudolf Zehetgruber sought to follow. Alongside Dietmar Schönherr (as the inspector!) and Gustav Knuth, the Viennese actor and former wrestler Ady Berber (1913–1966) was cast in the film; he was known from the Wallace films ‘Die toten Augen von London’ (West Germany 1961), ‘The Door with the Seven Locks’ (West Germany/France 1962) and ‘The Indian Shawl’ (West Germany 1963). Berber was a regular in the role of the dim-witted, murderous monster, albeit one who was dependent on and controlled by the actual master villain. Behind the ‘nylon noose killer’, too, lies – ‘naturally’ – someone above suspicion … ‘In terms of suspense, this film beats most Edgar Wallace films hands down,’ declared an enthusiastic crime fan on the Edgar Wallace Forum. ‘The film has a dense atmosphere and thrives on the contrast between the two main settings: Elford Manor and the London nightclub, the Esquire Bar.’ ‘A convoluted crime thriller’, on the other hand, is the verdict of the Lexikon des internationalen Films. Our view: It can’t have been down to the nylon – it’s spun so finely that there’s hardly a single knot to be found in a 100-kilometre length of thread...