THAT'S HOT! 10 SEXY PERFORMANCES FOR A STEAMY SUMMER

Yes, it's hot here in my neck of the woods. Words like steamy and sultry and sizzling are bandied about and, while it should make me think of air conditioning, it is making me think of sexy movies (I know, I'm hopeless!). Because they all come rushing into my head like bargain hunters at a one-hour sale at Walmart, I need to put them in some order. Otherwise, I may just pass out from the excitement!

So, in no particular order, here are my top 5 sexy male and female film performances. This list is totally subjective and based upon my feelings today (things change on a daily basis here sometimes).

*** WARNING ***

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN ABOVE-THE-WAIST INTELLECTUAL DISSECTION OF WHAT MAKES THE LIBIDO TICK, MOVE ON!

Women

1. Clara Bow in "Call her Savage"

This poster pretty much says it all: "The throbbing adventures of a woman who unleashed her heart... so revelatory... so courageous in its searching depiction of the secret things in a woman's life that its burning words left a trail of readers breathless and amazed."

Clara is unbelievably sexy in this one, especially when she is horsewhipping Gilbert Roland's "Moonglow" (don't ask) and frolicking - clearly sans undergarments - on the floor with her Great Danes. Just outrageous pre-code stuff.

Clara, just 27, would only make one more film.

2. Rita Hayworth in "Gilda"

If you have never seen this, all I can say is fasten your safety belts. While my lists of top 5 may change ever so slightly depending on mood, this one will never fall out. 

This is one of the sexiest female performances ever committed to film. Rita is beautiful, daring and totally uninhibited. In other words, she is Gilda.

3. Louise Brooks in "Pandora's Box"

The legendary Louise Brooks is so unconsciously sexy as the conscienceless Lulu that it is impossible to take your eyes off of her.

Besides that face, that hair, that attitude, she also had a beautiful back and neck, with which Pabst was apparently fascinated!

4. Ingrid Bergman "Notorious"

I admit that I am a sucker for Hitchcock and Grant and think those 2 could make any woman feel and act sexy. However, for Ingrid, who was plenty sexy enough, this combo just upped the ante.

As the good-bad-girl who dabbles in espionage, she is all woman. Little girls need not apply for this role!

5. Eva Marie Saint "North by Northwest"

This one will never fall off of my list of tops, either. Eva is Hitchcock's sexiest leading lady in this film - bar none. 

Always cool, always a lady (no matter how many men she beds), but sexy down to her tippy-toes, she is a sweetheart underneath it all (not to mention a knock-out in those fabulous Edith Head costumes). She is fearlessly sexy in this film -  alarmingly, but charmingly, so.

Men

1. Rudolph Valentino in "The Son of the Sheik"

Unself-consciously romantic, macho and hot, Valentino lays it all out there for the world to adore.

Who needs subtlety when you look like that, kiss like that and have biceps like that? 


2. William Holden in "Picnic"

Need I say more?

Okay, if you insist. Aside from the fact that Holden was at the peak of his beauty and that the shirt kept coming off at the drop of a hat, when he and Kim Novak started dancing to "Moonglow," which segued into the "Theme from Picnic" there were never 2 more beautiful people on a lantern-lit dance floor.

3. Gene Kelly in "The Pirate"

Gene Kelly is a beautiufl, sexy man. Period.

In this film he gets to showcase his Fairbanksian charm, devastating smile and dangerous edge. His joie de vivre was never more evident as "Mack the Black" and he was never sexier. And that's saying a lot.

4. Laurence Olivier in "Wuthering Heights"

Again - you need more?

Okay, besides being impossibly handsome, earthy and sexy, his heartbreak over Cathy's demise was unutterably romantic. Great actor and great looks - some people get it all!

5. Cary Grant in "An Affair to Remember"

Notice how Cary crept into a few of the women's performances? Well, I can't help it and I really have a hard time just picking one, so I'm going with "An Affair to Remember," even though it is far from my favorite Cary Grant film.

I'm selecting this film because here Cary plays the pursuer. He is usually more the object of desire than the initiator ('though he always finishes up just fine). Here he is is the playboy who really wants Deborah Kerr. And what Cary wants, Cary should get! I can't think of anything sexier than being pursued by Cary Grant.

And finally, I am adding this photo because it looks fine on any day, but on a 104 degree day? I'd love to cool off with Cary, but I have a feeling you'd be able to boil an egg in that water!

Well, I could go on and on and on and on and have left out so many, but I did limit it to 5. Sorry Clark, Greta, Marilyn, Paul, etc.

So, how about you? Who steams up your glasses and sets you heart racing over the long, hot summer?