Natalie Wood and guy.

Charming picture of a young Patricia Highsmith who wrote the original material for several excellent movies (Strangers on a Train, The Cry of the Owl, the Tom Ripley movies etc.)

Simone Silva and Robert Mitchum at Cannes



The Cannes Film Festival, envisioned in 1939 after the censorships became more intense in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, was ironically created only after the war in 1946. This year it is 64 years old this year. Since its early years, stars, starlets, journalists and photographers would take a cruise from Cannes and spend a day on Ile Sainte-Marguerite. In the year 1954, Robert Mitchum and Simone Silva gave the world an iconic moment on the beach there.

Silva was a B-listed actress who did many pin-ups and was known for her ample bosom. Photographers shouted: “Take the top!” and Cairo-born Greco-French actress unhooked her bra and nested in her bosom in the hands of Robert Mitchum. Mitchum gallantly embraced the B-listed starlet, pressing her bare breasts against him. The photographers immortalized the moment; the photo was widely distributed, causing a big scandal in Cannes and in Hollywood. In the rush to take photos, a photographer broke his arm, another his leg, and many their lenses. Despite having being chosen recently as ‘Miss Festival’, Silva is asked to leave Cote d’Azur in the morning.

Silva reflected that she thought it would be good for her to be photographed with Bob Mitchum that way. People didn’t think so. Both Mitchum and Silva were denounced by cinema’s then restrictive moral codes, and the Congress even debated on whether to allow American films being promoted in Cannes. Publically vilified, Silva saw the studios turning their backs on her. She was found dead in her Mayfair apartment. She had suffered a stroke from a severe diet she took to return to cinema in perfect shape. Some said it was an inflicted suicide.

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