[Bounci]

This video comes from the Jessie Matthews film The Midshipmaid from 1932, and marked John Mills' film debut. Jessie herself was a hugely popular star back in the 1930's, both in the UK and in the USA, where Hollywood tried several times to sign her up. But British cinema knew they had a marketable asset that would sink their studios if she left, and kept hold of "The Dancing Divinity" as Hollywood dubbed her. This was in part due to her chirpy nature and somewhat saucy costumes she would wear, which were a big attraction for Pre-Code Hollywood, as was her trick of kicking her legs high up in the air over her head.

In this film, she plays the daughter of an MP assigned to seek cuts in the navy and ends up falling for the ship's captain (Basil Sydney), much to her father's disapproval. Banned from seeing him, she takes the place of a sailor (John Mills) for a stage show - complete with mask - to dance with Basil on stage, and at first not even he recognizes her. "Don't kick me during the dance," he tells her "otherwise you'll get six of the best in the place where there's most room for them." He then slaps her bottom and says irritably "Go on - stick your chest out and pretend you're a woman." He only realizes his mistake when she starts to giggle, and he whips off her mask. And there is no mistaking Jessie Matthews is a woman, believe me! I've skipped the dance on stage part to go straight to when Jessie hurries back to get changed after her father becomes suspicious of the dancers on stage. Here she finds John Mills and they agree to swap clothes, while a sailor agrees to stall her father. During this scene she pokes her head up over the cubicle and you can see she is topless behind the screen, which has a gap in the middle. I've slowed the footage down for you to get a good glance, as you can briefly see nipples as she bobs up before she then ducks back down again. Not something you expect to see in a UK film from 1932, but this is a Jessie Matthews film, after all!