PATHS OF GLORY (1957) - Col Dax (Kirk Douglas) is first seen in his trench quarters, bare-chested, washing his face in a bowl of water.
SPARTICUS (1960) - Roman senators sit in a public bathhouse and talk. Antoninas (Tony Curtis) attends to Marcus Crassius (Lawrence Oivier) in his bath.
LOLITA (1962) - While being given a tour of the house, potential boarder Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is shown how the old fashioned plumbing works by Charlotte Haze (Shelly Winters). During their brief marriage, Humbert is taken to spending time in the bathroom for solitude. After Charlotte's death (being hit by a car) Humbert is consoled by his friends as he soaks in the bathtub. Bathrooms are glimpsed regularly while in a motel and in his later houses. While in the service station bathroom, through the window, Humbert sees Lolita (Sue Lyon) talking with someone in a car.
DR STRANGELOVE, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - General Buck Turgidson (George C Scott) is described by his secretary, Miss Scott (Tracy Reed), as "...being in the 'powder room.'" He emerges and speaks on the phone. General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) retires to his bathroom and 'blows his brains out' before being interrogated for the recall code. Colonel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tells General 'Bat' Guano (Keenan Wynn) the, "...the court of inquiry will give you such a pranging that you'll be lucky to be wearing the uniform of a bloody toilet attendant
2001, A SPACE ODDYSEY (1968) In the opening sequences the apes battle over a watering hole. In deep space, Dr Heyward Floyd reads the instructions for using the Zero Gravity Toilet. Exchange between Floyd and his daughter, 'Squirt' (Vivienne Kubrick); "Where's Mommy?" "Gone shopping." "Who's watching you?" "Rachel." "Where is she?" "She's gone to the bathroom." After the 'stargate' sequence, the astronaut (Keir Dullea) walks into the ornate bathroom of the elaborate room he ends up in and views himself through the door, many years older and having dinner.
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) - After an evening of sex and violence, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is glimpsed urinating in his bathroom. While soaking in Mr Alexander's (Patrick McGee) tub, Alex sings 'Singing in the Rain,' revealing himself to be the leader of the gang that brutally raped and killed his wife.
THE SHINING (1979) - Danny (Lloyd) has conversations with the 'man who lives in his mouth' while in the bathroom. Jack (Nicholson) encounters a female ghost in the bathtub of a room in the resort. Jack has a long conversation with another ghost, Grady (Philip Stone) in the public men's room. Jack eventually goes crazy and chases his wife (Shelly Duvall) and his son into a bathroom.
FULL METAL JACKET (1987) - Private 'Pyle' (Vincet D'Onofrio) kills the marine DI (Lee Ermy) and then himself in the barracks latrine.
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999) After the opening credits, Dr William Harford (Tom Cruise) walks through his apartment and into the bathroom, with his wife (Nicole Kidman) sitting on the commode. At the party a 'good time girl' is sitting naked in a bathroom coming down from a drug over dose. Dr Harford then has a long conversation with the girl's boyfriend (Sydney Pollock).
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) - Lou Costello enters Larry Talbot's (Lon Chaney, Jr) hotel room and nearly encounters him as the Wolfman...but, he is lurking in the bathroom.
L'AGE D'OR (1930) - The experimental/surrealist film, made in France, featured a scene of a woman sitting in a bathroom, brooding over her lover while staring at the toilet.
ALONG CAME POLLY (2004) - The TV promotional footage is entirely made up of Ben Stiller's antics in a bathroom; including no toilet paper, a ferret running around the floor and water streaming out of a backed-up commode.
ALPHAVILLE (1965) - A bathroom is the scene for some strained action in Jean-Luc Goddard's 'futuristic,' cum, film noir semi sci-fi thriller. Super secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is led into the bathroom of the room assigned to him in the computer run mega city (which suspiciously looks exactly like Paris). At first he's treated to an attractive babe (listed in the screenplay as the 'seductress') in the bathtub but soon has to fight his way out against a few counter agents.
AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) - Much conversation (plus liberal applications of 'zit cream') occurs in the girls' and boys' bathrooms during the dance at the gym.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS (1997) - Tom Everett Scott stands by a urinal talking at length with himself.
ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA (1974) - Dracula (Udo Kier) is seen at one point in the story sitting on the floor of the bathroom. Nearby is something not often found in American bathrooms, a bidet.
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) - Soldiers casually urinate in the open behind the LZ beach steak barbeque.
ARSENE LUPINE (1932) - A men's room of the famous Louvre in Paris figures in the plan to steal a painting. In disguise, John Barrymore, as the lead character, switches identities with another man in the room marked 'hommes' to make his getaway.
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) - About to become the first human time traveler Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is thinking about key moments in his life and career. He reminisces about the time and event that gave him the idea for the flux capacitor. This occurred when he was hanging a clock in the bathroom while standing on the edge of the toilet. He subsequently slipped, fell and hit his head on the sink and the idea popped into his head, or, as he put it, "...I had a vision." Thirty years later this inspiration finally is developed into his DeLorean Time Machine. When Marty (Michael J Fox) instead travels back to Nov 5, 1955 he looks up the younger Doc Brown who greets home at the door, with a bandage on his head.
BASKET CASE (1982) - The mutant separated parasitic twin Belial eludes capture by hiding in the commode.
BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (vt THE BOYS FROM BROOKLYN) (1952) - Faux Martin and Lewis, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo are on an airplane heading to Guam. They both get up to use the 'powder room,' walk through the wrong door and drop in on the tropical island of Kola Kola. Luckily, they were both wearing parachutes.
THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES (1993) - In a poorly staged yet inevitable on-screen gag, Jethro plows the Clampet jalopy into and immediately demolishes the outhouse with Granny (Cloris Leachman) still inside.
BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE (2000) - In a scene usually deleted for television, Martin Lawrence hides in the shower of a bathroom while Big Momma noisily relieves herself on the commode.
BLUE COLLAR COMEDY TOUR RIDES AGAIN (2004) - Shennanegins involving sharing the bathroom in a moving mobile home.
BREATHLESS (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE) (1959) - Hood Jean-Paul Belmondo robs a man in a public bathroom. During the lengthy scenes in Jean Seberg's apartment, the bathroom is prominently displayed and even visited occasionally.
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003) - Features the spectacle of a dog trained to 'go' in a bathroom while sitting on a commode...reading a newspaper, no less.
BUSTER AND BILLIE (1974) - High school guys spend much time talking about girls in the boys' room. The conversation mostly centers on the loosest girl in the class, Billie (Jane Goodfellow). One boy (Robert Englund) is usually seen sitting on the toilet with his head poking around the stall.
CAGED HEAT (1974) - Sweeping shots of a women's cellblock - complete with glimpses of several inmates using the cell toilets - are featured along with other shots of particularly dirty public stalls. The warden's (Barbara Steele) fantasy sequence occurs amid a pseudo-psychedelically designed series of toilet stalls.
CALIGULA (1980) - Caligula (Malcolm MacDowell) casually urinates out the back opening of his villa while conversing with guests. Later in the film a prostitute joyfully relieves herself over the body of a slain man.
CATCH 22 (1970) - Chaplain Tappman (Anthony Perkins) enters the office of Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam), he flinches as he sees (as does the audience) him sitting on his toilet, pulling out toilet paper. Both Martin Balsam and Anthony Perkins previously appeared in PSYCHO ten years earlier. This has been reported as the first American film to show an actor sitting on a commode.
CHARLIE'S ANGELS II (2002) - Dying to pee, Cameron Diaz goes into the men's room and has a misadventure.
CHILD BRIDE (1941) - During class, the one and only teacher (in the one and only mountain school) allows two boys to be excused. Outside they approach two outhouses marked 'MA' and 'PA.' After correctly choosing the right one to use they enter.
CLAUDINE (1974) - The children of a single working mother (Diahann Carroll) are constantly bickering over who's 'hogging' the small bathroom in their cramped apartment, even calling her to complain while she spends time in bed with her lover (James Earl Jones).
CONEHEADS (1993) - After crash landing on earth the Coneheads (Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin) check in to a motel. Beldar (Akroyd) ventures into the bathroom and sucks up the entire roll of toilet paper. Later, the bathroom is referred to as the 'hygenic chamber.'
THE CONVERSATION (1974) - Surveillance expert Gene Hackman spends much time with his high tech snooping equipment in the bathroom. The image of him sitting next to the toilet was used in the film's promotion.
THE CROWD (1928) - First occasion in which a toilet is shown on the cinema screen. It is first shown through a door that won't stay closed and later the man (James Murray) attempts to fix it.
DARKER THAN AMBER (1970) - A thug (William Smith) attempts to attack Rod Taylor in a public bathroom. Instead, he slips on a soapy floor and ends up hung upside down in a commode stall.
THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1962) - At one point, while coming in out of the dense fog of London a couple's teenaged daughter is constantly interrupting with, "I have to use the toilet!" When the reporter (Edward Judd) is compelled to sleep in Jeannie's (Janet Munro) flat, the reality of sleeping in the bathroom - in particular, the bathtub - is much discussed. Needless to say, he ends up in her bed with her. Later in the story while trying to cool down in her bathtub Jeannie is menaced by wild British youths.
THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE (1968) - A German civilian mailman takes a 'relief pause' from his rounds by urinating over the side of a bridge. Commandoes stop to check him out, then allow him go on his way.
DIABOLIQUE (1955) - In Henri-George Clouzot's 'one better than Hitchcock' suspense thriller, the wife and the mistress (Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret) murder the husband (Paul Meurisse) in the bathtub, in a bathroom. He is transported to and dumped into another bathtub, in a bathroom in the dead of night. Along the way attention is called to someone visiting a 'W C.'
THE DIARY OF ANN FRANK (1959) - The bathroom (or 'W C') that everyone shares is referred to several times.
DIRTY DOZEN (1967) - One of the 'dirty dozen' (Charles Bronson) is confronted by two tough sergeants in a latrine. A fight with two more of the 'dirty dozen' (Jim Brown and Clint Walker) ensues.
DR GIGGLES (1993) - A used condom is fished out of a commode with a toothbrush.
EASY RIDER (1969) - The three 'easy riders' (Hopper, Fonda and Nicholson) stand side-by-side urinating on the side of the road. Later Nicholson quips, "I'm going to order kidneys. I think I left mine by the road back there."
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979) - When new prisoner, Butz, in the cell next to him is introducing himself, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) says, "Wait, I'm busy." Butz says, "How busy can you be in one of these closets?" After the sound of a toilet flush, Morris extends his hand through the bars for a handshake. Butz hesitates. Morris says, "Don't worry, I washed it."
FAMILY PLOT (1976) - Alfred Hitchcock's 54th and final film, the viewer is treated to a glimpse of the chemical toilet that was provided for the kidnapping victim while imprisoned for several weeks.
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) - Bathroom scenes and jokes galore.
FAT CITY (1972) - As a result of internal injuries from several fights, a fighter is shown 'peeing red' in a commode.
FELLINI SATYRICON (1970) - While walking with his young male lover (Max Born) through a housing unit of ancient Rome one of the main characters (Hiram Keller) briefly views one of the local resident 'tenants' squatting over his chamber pot.
FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY (1965) - Jerry and the Pacemakers are occasionally glimpsed practicing in a storehouse, in Liverpool, stocked with toilets and other 'WC' paraphernalia.
FINGERS (1977) - Harvey Keitel confronts Tanya Roberts in a public bathroom.
FIREFOX (1982) - Clint Eastwood engages in public bathroom fisticufs with the Soviets in a public bathroom.
A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988) - Michael Palin gets up off a toilet, with his pants up and the seat down, and calmly walks out of the bathroom while bemusing his observer.
THE FIXER (1968) - Non-hygienic toilet facilities in jails are evident. Prisoners in solitary are shown simply emptying wooden buckets that are provided in place of a facility.
THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (2004) - A scene in this remake answers a question that perhaps a few viewers of the original may have had as to ‘comfort station’ arrangements, since this second film included a woman in the cast. In one quick scene is shown a wooden sign with ‘Engaged’ written on it. A crew member comes up from behind a sand dune, turns the sign around to reveal the word ‘Free’ written on it, and moves out of the scene.
FLUSHED AWAY (2006) - Via the magic of CGI, a spoiled British mouse gets flushed down the toilet and plunges into an entire underground sewer world.
THE FLY (1986) - In David Cronenberg's remake of the 1950s classic, much action happens around brief visits to bathrooms. At one point, Geena Davis flushes her bathroom toilet while exiting her apartment. This causes an unwanted visitor taking a shower to get burned with a burst of suddenly heated water.
FOLLOW THAT DREAM (1962) - The acquisition of a 'john' becomes a cause celebre, with Elvis Presley. The dirt-poor southern homesteader family makes a point of the fact that they�ve climbed higher in social status with their new possession. After constructing an outhouse the father (Arthur O'Connell) is constantly getting a face full of water whenever he flushes it. His calm statement is always, "...Still too much pressure." A few other characters suffer the same fate before the film ends with the same gag.
FRANKENSTEIN (2004) - USA TV updating contains two bathroom scenes; in the beginning as a witness is relating discovering a murder victim (in between getting sick in the sink) and later as a potential victim awaits having a few of her bodily parts removed while she is tied, face down, over a toilet.
A FREE SOUL (1931) - Gangster Clark Gable and his free-spirited girlfriend Norma Shearer are suddenly being shot at with machine guns by a rival gang. They duck while the bullets destroy the windshield of his auto. The bullets also rip through the wall of a nearby men’s room, laving holes in the wall as well as the 'Men' sign. The occupant (Roscoe Ates) then sticks his head out the window and sputters, "Hey, what's going on?!"
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) confers with his informant, relieving himself in the process, in a bar men's room.
FRENZY (1972) - An obvious body double of Anna Massey - photographed only from the neck down - gets out of a hotel bed totally nude, visits the bathroom and gets back into the bed.
FRIDAY AFTER NEXT (2002) - an agonizing (yet comic?) 'nut cracking' scene takes place in a bathroom during a party.
FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (1977) - After going through an armed robbery in a loan office, Jane (Jane Fonda) takes her husband Dick (George Segal) into their home bathroom. She sits on a commode and while relieving herself show him a thousand dollars she grabbed that the robbers dropped.
GEORGY GIRL (1966) - After getting an outrageous hairdo, Lynne Redgrave dashes into the nearest ladies' room to rinse it out. Reflected in the mirror behind her as she stands at the sink is one of the stalls as its current occupant emerges, pulling her pants up. Later, while searching through the apartment for Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates opens the W. C. door to see if she's 'contemplating in the loo.' The loo and the bathroom (usually two separate rooms in most British residences) are glimpsed throughout the rest of the story.
THE GETAWAY (1974) - Distraught over being forced to do things at gunpoint and watch his wife make it with a criminal (Al Letteiri), the husband (Jack Dodson) hangs himself in a motel bathroom. The criminal calmly sits down on the commode with him hanging next to him and 'does his business.'
HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968) - During their 'war in microcosim' on the Pacific island, the American flyer (Lee Marvin) urinates on the Japanese soldier (Toshiro Mifune) while hiding from him, above, in a tree.
GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD (1970)- Two pals review their lives and ponder their existence while sitting on the floor of a bar gents' room in this Canadian made film.
HI NEIGHBOR (1934) - In the Our Gang short, little Scotty Becket is first seen peering out from inside of an outhouse. A reverse angle reveals that the little building was being used as a rabbit hutch.
THE HILL (1965) - One of the duties of a black British soldier (Ossie Davis) in a military stockade is to clean the latrine. It is depicted as a particularly repulsive job by the look on the soldier's face and the sounds of the flies buzzing around the stalls.
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1970) - After his initial meeting with one of their intended victims, Ray Fernandez (Tony LoBianco) enters the house and makes a beeline for the bathroom with the comment, "Wait, I'm dying." In the bathroom, relieving himself, he tells Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) all about his intended plans.
IDENTITY (2003) - A cop (Ray Liotta) chains a convict he's transporting to a motel bathroom commode, who promptly escapes. A couple in another room of the motel has an argument and the wife retreats to the bathroom, just before the husband is murdered.
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932) - James Allen (Paul Muni) tells a guard, "Gettin' out here." Given the standard two minutes to 'brush his teeth' (as fellow con Bomber puts it), he goes behind a bush, slips off his ankle chains and makes a successful run for it. During a second breakout with Bomber, Bomber gets shot, but before he falls off the getaway truck he says, "Gettin' out here!"
IN COLD BLOOD (1967) - One condemned prisoner tells another condemned prisoner (Robert Blake) how when one is being hanged the neck snaps and, "...then you crap your pants." In his cell his toilet is predominantly displayed. Just before he is led to the gallows, and convinced by the, "For the love of God, man," plea of the chaplain, his jailers allow him to make a final visit to the toilet.
IN SOCIETY (1944) - Totally incompetent plumbers Abbott and Costello wreak havoc in an upscale bathroom that displays a sink and tub/shower-but no commode-during a costume party.
INNERSPACE (1987) - Even though he's spoken some memorable lines in films like THE THING, some critics have pointed out that one of Kenneth Tobey's most memorable lines were uttered to Martin Short (while he was using the urinal) in the men's room.
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) - Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) makes his break by going into a public bathroom and slipping out of the back window. Later, in a desparate, but failed, attempt to get away from destructive madman Pike (Jonathan Winters), Irwin and Ray (Marvin Kaplan and Arnold Stang) seek shelter in the Men's and Ladies' rooms of their garage as it comes crashing down around their ears.
JABBERWOCKY (1977) - The young man (Michael Palin) bids farewell to his plump lady love's father who is sitting/hanging out of a window and using the river that runs behind his house as a toilet.
THE JERK (1979) - At one point Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) moves in to a gas station bathroom to live.
JOE (1970) - A tete a tete in a bar men's room happens at side by side urinals between the two main characters. The conversation ranges from concern about finding the ad executive's (Dennis Patrick) daughter (Susan Sarandon), to the title character's (Peter Boyle) reflection of how relieving oneself is one of nature's true pleasures.
KISS ME STUPID (1964) - Occasional shennanegans spill over in to the bathroom.
THE LAST DETAIL (1973) - The 'can' and 'head' crop up throughout; on a train, in a hotel as one sailer (Randy Quaid) is seen standing from behind releasing the results of all the beer he's drinking and some memorable dialogue between two marines and Badass (Jack Nicholson) in the public mens room in NYC's Penn Station. Marine #1, "That sailor looks like he lost something." Marine #2, "He oughta have trouble finding it with those thirteen buttons." Badass, "Well, if I were a marine I wouldn't have to fuck with no thirteen buttons. I'd just take my hat off."
THE LAST LAUGH (1924) - Appearance of the 'non commode' side of the hotel public bathroom in a major film produced in Germany. The main character's (Emil Jannings) job is reduced from hotel doorman to men's lavatory attendant. In this new lowly job capacity he is shown near the sinks, reluctantly handing out towels and occasionaly brushing lint off visitors' shoulders. The porcelain conveniences were never viewed.
THE LAST SEDUCTION (1994) - An intense conversation happens between guy and girl (Linda Fiorentino) in the men's room, with Fiorentino using one of the facilities.
LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1973) - Before entering into an impromptu sexual liaison with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider walks around an empty apartment, spots a commode and - Pavlov-like - immediately sits on it and relieves herself. Later, Brando lovingly sponges every inch of Schneider's body while in a tub of bubblebath.
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992) - While his all girl baseball team (including Madonna, armed with a stopwatch) observe from behind in a locker room bathroom, coach Tom Hanks performs a 'long pee' in a sink.
THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (1972) - A resident is observed, from outside through the bathroom window, sitting on the commode. Almost immediately, the Fouk monster howls from nearby, causing the occupant to flee in terror.
LENNY (1974) - The real life Lenny Bruce died from a drug OD while sitting on the toilet, naked. Reportedly, police photos show him there. Facsimiles of police photos show Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) dead in his bathroom, but lying on the floor in front of the toilet.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS (2004) - In the sequence, appropriately, involving working in a Stanley Kubrick film (DR STRANGELOVE, etc) Peter Sellers (Geoffrey Rush) wrestles with the problem of playing a fourth character, while in the bathroom.
LIFEBOAT (1944) - The first one to climb into the lifeboat from the sea (John Hodiak) comments to Tallulah Bankhead (who was already in the lifeboat) that he was in the bathroom, er, "washing his hands," when the boat was torpedoed. One wonders what bathroom activities were arranged among the men and women occupants of the lifeboat for the rest of the story.
LITTLE MURDERS (1971) - Characters have little conversations in brief vignettes in the men's room.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) - After avoiding capture from the police, Seymour Krelboin (Jonathan Haze) is seen popping his head up from inside of a discarded toilet.
THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL (vt, THE JUNGLE FIGHTERS) (1961) - British commandos in the Burmese jungles observe a Japanese soldier. He finds what he believes to be an isolated spot, puts down his weapon and then proceeds to drop his pants. He soon becomes a British prisoner of war, presumably after he has finished what he originally set out to do.
LOUISANA PURCHASE, (1941) - During the filibuster sequence, Bob Hope takes a brief bathroom break. The facility was not seen as he entered and exited, still talking into a microphone.
LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS (1970) - Gig young and Anne Jackson have several 'heart to heart' talks while in a bathroom.
MALE AND FEMALE (1919) - Reportedly, the movies' premier bathing sequence, in a major production.
MANDRAGORA (1997) - a Czech film dealing with a young runaway's dark adventures in Prague, getting caught up in a male prostitute/pornography ring. His father goes looking for him and in a corny (but it works) climax, happens to enter the train station men's room where his son is in one of the stalls. An overhead shot reveals the father using a urinal while just over the partition is the son shooting up, both oblivious of each other's presence.
MARRIAGE, ITALIAN STYLE (1964)- During the long career of sensual putana Sophia Loren, she is left alone with Marcello Mastroiani's bedridden mother and her bedpan. Later she coaxes one of her born out of wedlock children (who has eaten fruit with pits) to 'go' in a potty. As the child is shown in closeup, we hear the evacuation of the pits into the potty.
MEET THE FOCKERS (2004) - TV ads feature a cat luring a dog into a bathroom and managing to flush it down the toilet. Meanwhile, Dustin Hoffman, sitting on a toilet, has a brief conversation with Robert Deniro, poking his head out of a shower.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) - After being 'serviced' by a high school kid (Bob Balaban) in a 42nd Street movie theater, Joe Buck (Jon Voigt) confronts him in the theater's bathroom. In other brief moments in the film he is glimpsed watching television while soaking in the bathtub in his room and pouring perfume into his boots in the bathroom of his one and only paying sex client (Brenda Vaccaro). While in the religous fanatic O'Daniel's (John McGiver) apartment the door to the bathroom is opened to reveal a madonna attached to the inside.
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978) - Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) spends time in the Istanbul Airport men's room, adjusting his concealed drugs and wetting his face before his ill-fated and failed attempt to board the plane home.
THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976) - Much of the action takes place in frontier bathrooms in this Jack Nicholson/Marlon Brando farce.
MR HOBBS TAKES A VACATION (1962) - A showering Mrs Turner (Marie Wilson) and Mr Hobbs (James Stewart) get trapped in a bathroom of an old house that was rented for the summer. After much ado concerning a dense cloud of steam (that was dispersing) and a lost doorknob, Mrs Turner gets punched in the nose by an inebriated Mr Turner (John McGiver), who in turn is 'flattened' by Mr Hobbs.
MONEY FROM HOME (1953) - In a train station men's room Bobby Barber has his toupee swiped and used as part of a costume by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
MY DOG SKIP (2000) - A toilet with the seat up is displayed prominently in the film's poster.
MURPHY'S ROMANCE (1985) - Murphy (James Garner) stops the toilet from overflowing in Sally Field's house.
MY FAVORITE MARTIAN (1999) - The two principle characters are reduced to mouse size. They find themselves inside of a toilet. They look up and are horrified by the sight of a particularly plump derriere slowly settling down on the seat. One character's not unexpected comment is, "Oh,oh! I think we're in trouble!"
MY SIX LOVES (1963) - Constant toilet flushing by a child (Barry Livingston) who 'just likes to flush toilets' becomes the running gag.
1941 (1979) - Slim Pickens spends time in a bathroom in an ongoing effort to retrieve a swallowed watch.
NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS (1958) - Pvt Will Stockdale (Andy Griffith) gladly becomes PLO (Permanent Latrine Orderly). At one point he wires the individual seats on the open bay toilets to all 'stand at attention.'
NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY (1968) - Victims of a serial killer (Rod Steiger), all middle-aged women, end up sitting on the toilet with their successive number drawn on their foreheads in lipstick.
THE PIANIST (2003) - Subversive literature is distributed in the Warsaw Jewish bathrooms, explained with the statement that the Germans would never go into a Jewish bathroom. Later in the story pianist Wladysaw Szpilman (Oscar winner Adrien Brody) observes German army goings-on through broken glass in a window while standing on a commode. Towards the end of the film he is hiding out in a crawlspace in an attic, aided by a sympathetic German officer. No explaination is even suggested as to what bathroom facilities he may have access to.
THE PIANO TEACHER (2001) - A passionate love scene is depicted on the floor of a public bathroom on the video/dvd cover of this French film.
PAPILLON (1973) - Non-hygienic toilet facilities in jails are evident. Prisoners in solitary are shown simply emptying wooden buckets that are provided in place of a facility. A meeting between two prisoners (Steve McQueen and Robert Deman) happens in the hospital latrine where details of an escape are discussed. One important detail is 'keeping the turnkey busy' in the very same latrine.
THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974) - In a reversal of the privacy/publicness of each activity, functional toilets are placed around a dinner table, while dining is done alone in little cubicles.
PINK FLAMINGOS (1972) - While sashaying around Baltimore, Divine takes a minute to casually relieve herself in someone's front yard.
PLAZA SUITE (1971) - Walter Matthau and Lee Grant are a middle-aged couple attempting to get their daughter (Jennie Sullivan) to come out of the bathroom and proceed with her wedding.
POLLOCK (2000) - The Artist (Ed Harris) uses a fireplace at a party as a urinal and is glimpsed sitting on the commode.
POLYESTER (1981) - Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is confronted by her mother while 'in the little girl's room' - in Odorama, yet. The mother's comment; "I don't know why you even bother, Francine. You always retained your water."
POPI (1969) - The dilemmas of an inner city family of a single Puerto Rican father (Alan Arkin) and his two precocious pre-teen boys (Reuben Figueroa and Miguel Alejandro) is illustrated as they suffer through a heavy rain in their small apartment in a crumbling building. As leaks spring up all through their place, Popi places pots and pans all around to catch the leaks. He heads for the miniscule bathroom where a major leak is happening into the commode. His solution? He opens up an umbrella, sits on the commode with it over his head. Later in the story, disguised as a janitor in a Miami hospital, he makes his way into a shared bathroom of the room his sons are in and speaks with them. As he speaks the irate elderly patient in the adjoining room pounds on the door.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) - The bickering ex-cop/ex-hooker couple's (Ernest Borgnine and Stella Stevens) argument continues through the closed bathroom door of their room as one verbal point is puncuated with the sound of a toilet flush. Later, during the small group's attempt to escape the inverted ship, the boy Robin (Eric Shea) discovers and explores an upside down gents' room.
THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST (1967) - While making a secret, desperate phone call in a bathroom, James Coburn has his conversation listened in on by a child with a 'Junior Spy Kit.'
PRETTY POISON (1968) - Upon confronting his girlfriend's (Tuesday Weld) Mother (Beverly Garland), the disturbed young man (anthony Perkins) immediately dashes into a nearby bathroom and vomits in the commode.
PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980) - During basic training, spoiled and bubbleheaded Private Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) makes several complaints about the barracks latrine; "There are urinals in there!" and consequently is ordered to clean around the commodes with her electric toothbrush.
THE PROFESSIONAL (1994) - Gary Oldman has a long, involved conversation with Natalie Portman in a public men's room.
PSYCHO (1960) - The movies' first on screen toilet flush, seen in close up. However, the contents going down the drain were torn up bits of paper. The bathroom and the director's attention to the toilet even turns up in the promo trailer. In interviews regarding the historical impact of PSYCHO (both the aesthetic and shock elements), Hitchcock was quick to point out that the producers were more disturbed with the appearance of the commode than with the graphic violence. Consequently, subsequent PSYCHO sequels and quasi-remakes (PSYCHO II (1983), PSYCHO III (1986), PSYCHO (1998) ad nausem) feature action happening in bathrooms, bathrooms viewed prominently behind action and mentions of bathrooms in dialogue. PSYCHO alumnus Martin Balsam and Anthony Perkins appear together in a scene involving a bathroom ten years later in CATCH 22.
PUTNEY SWOPE (1969) - Conversations happen regularly between characters in individual toilet stalls.
QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY (1965) - A threesome in a tub consisting of two women and one man, happens. At one point he relieves himself.
RED DRAGON (2003) - In this SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - HANNIBAL prequel bathrooms figure. The 'Tooth Fairy/Red Dragon' killer (Ralph Fiennes) smashes bathroom mirrors. Blind Emily Watson explores areas of the Red Dragon's bathroom with her fingertips. As part of Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins) punishment his cell toilet seat is removed from the commode. He sits on the floor leaning on it while having one of his confabs with FBI agent Graham (Edward Norton).
REDS (1981) - Commenting on journalist John Reed's (Warren Beatty) political affiliations, an observant cellmate quips, "This one even pees red."
ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) - While checking out the apartment in the 'Bloody Bramford,' Guy Woodehouse (John Cassavetes) checks out the toilet flush as he passes the bathroom. Significantly; later in the story he utters the screen's first "Shit!" expletive when their dinner is disturbed by their neighbor's ringing the doorbell, however, the brief shot of Rosemary (Mia Farrow) throwing up shows her (from behind) bending over the kitchen sink rather than a commode.
LA SALLE DE BAIN (vt THE BATHROOM) (1989) - A French film in black and white, a young man decides to live in the bathroom of his apartment.
SEVEN BEAUTIES (1976) - In a German concentration camp, one prisoner commits suicide by jumping into and drowning in a large open (and very disgusting looking) latrine, while someone is using it.
THE SEIGE (1998) - Bruce Willis is a two-star general who presides over the interrogation/torture of a prisoner in a men's room, in front of a row of urinals.
SERPICO (1973) - Serpico (Al Pacino) uses a urinal in a darkened bathroom. The darkness was because of another cop (Joe Bova) with binoculars spying on a girl in an apartment across the street. A supervisor comes into the bathroom and accuses him of 'going down' on the other cop, greatly irritating him. While sharing a bath with a girlfriend (Cornelia Sharpe) she tells him she's going to marry someone else. Later a 'bad cop' shakes down a black drug dealer by shoving his head in a toilet in a public bathroom.
SILVER STREAK (1976) - To get past the police, Gene Wilder practices to look - and act - black in the train station men's room.
SHALLOW HAL (2001) - Bathroom scenes
SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984) - A showing (at a dollar a head) of Molly Ringwald's panties in the school boy's room plus comments on the recent usage of the family bathroom - more specifically it's lingering aroma - happens. Standing outside the door is precocious Justin Henry warning all that, "Grandpa (Edward Andrews) was in there for a half an hour. It's totally polluted." Dad (Paul Dooley) calmly walks into the bathroom and promptly walks out in an apparent state of shock.
SIXTH SENSE (1999) - While urinating in the bathroom a strange kid (Haley Joel Osment) has a bizarre vision of a woman who has killed herself by cutting her wrists.
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) - Director Billy Wilder used the element of the 'men's room' and 'ladies' room' separation for comic effect. On the train from Chicago to Miami Josephine (Tony Curtis) and Daphne (Jack Lemmon) head for the bathroom. At first Daphne heads for the men's room but is pulled into the ladies' room by Josephine. There they encounter Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) sneaking a drink and become friends. Later in the hotel a joke involves a filled tub of bubblebath.
STALAG 17 (1953) - When the new prisoners are brought to the stalag, a table for tea is set. Animal (Robert Strauss) sets out two sheets of toilet paper as napkins. When describing how Lt Dunbar managed some sabotage he says that he "...just slipped into a bathroom and made a 'timebomb.'" An announcement is made about a yacht race in the cesspool. Dunbar is hidden in the water tank above the latrine. In describing the Germans' vain search for Dunbar, the narrator says, "They even searched the bathroom in the Commadant's office."
STATE & MAIN (2000) - Confabs occasionally happen in the bathroom
THE STING (1972) - Paul Newman and Robert Redford have a conference in a vintage bathroom.
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) - Joe Gillis (William Holden) has a brief confab with Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olsen) during a New Year's Eve party at the residence of Artie Green (Jack Webb) in what was referred to as the 'Rainbow Room.' The door stayed open with no porcelain convenience visible and they sat together on the edge of the tub playing out a corny scene.
TERMINAL INVASION (2002) - A fistfight happens in a public men's room, climaxing in the adversary falling in front of the urinals and turning into a (CGI effect) pool of liquid.
TERMINATOR 3 (2003) - In a battle between cyborgs that crashes into a corporate mens' room, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) cracks a urinal over the head of his foe, the T-X (Christina Loken), who casually brushes it off. Not unexpectedly, the entire bathroom ends up as rubble.
THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP (1970) - A telephone is kept in the commode and is seen (and heard) ringing as it's flushing.
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998)
THERESE AND ISOBELLE (1967) ‘Forbidden’ lovemaking (lesbianism) is practiced in a schoolgirls’ private school’s bathroom stalls by Therese (Essy Persson) and Isobelle (Anna Gael). At a point early in the story Therese looks at herself in the murky water of a commode in one of the enclosed stalls, before being joined by Isobelle. Later in a semi sleazy Parisian hotel (named the ‘House of Birds’), Therese examines the room’s bathroom. When they leave the lady concierge mentions the presence of a bidet.
THE TIGER MAKES OUT (1967) - Anne Jackson's conversation with quirky college representative Charles Nelson Reilly continues through the door after he retreats to the safety of his bathroom.
TOWN WITHOUT PITY (1961) - After hearing that the German girl (Christine Kaufman) that was raped by 4 GI’s has committed suicide, defense counsel (Kirk Douglas) immediately steps into his hotel room bathroom, quickly throws up in the toilet, flushes it, swipes his face in the sink and casually walks out. He walks past the journalist (Barbara Rutting) who gave him the news and says, "I forgot my toothbrush."
THE TRUE STORY OF LYNN STEWART (1958) - A gas station bathroom becomes the place to pass a message to the police. Betsy Palmer, as Lynn Stewart scribbles a message and attempts to leave it where someone can find it while being ‘held’ by on the run criminal Jack Lord.
TWENTY-ONE (1991) - At one point Patsy Kensit is glimpsed sitting on the throne.
THE UNDERGROUND COMEDY MOVIE (2002) - The cover art on the DVD/Video box features two young babes sitting on commodes next to each other. That, along with the fact that the cast includes Joey Buttafuco, is all one would need to know about the content.
THE UNINVITED (1944) - The bathroom, with a humongous bathtub, of the old 'haunted' house in is described as for 'Saturday night only,' complete with it's own fireplace.
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967) - Symbolism on at least two different levels figure in the dramatic/tragic catfight sequence in the ladies' room in a film that has reached the status of a true turkey. Neely O'Hara (Patty Duke) tears off the red-hair wig of Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward) and tries to flush it down a toilet. On one level, this could signify that the career of the 'older' performer at this point could be 'going down the toidy.' On another level, since so much time was expended on this key bathroom sequence, maybe director Mark Robson instinctively knew where this film belonged 'in the toidy.'
THE WARRIORS (1979) - The tough Brooklyn street gang does battle with another gang in a public bathroom.
WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? (2001) - Occasional sequences (in very static shots) take place in bathrooms, public and private.
WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD? (1968) - In a New York City filled with beatnicks, and other depressed types, after the opening credits, as the camera slowly moves in to focus on Greenwich Village one can be heard yelling; "Aah, yer mudda sleeps in pay toilets!"
WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN (1978) - A phony DEA agent, actually a criminal (Richard Masur), is greatly upset after being handcuffed to a toilet by Nick Nolte.
THE WILD ROVERS (1971) - In the old American West a young woman is quickly glimpsed squatting over a chamber pot then tossing the contents out of her window onto the drunken forms of two passing cowboys (William Holden and Ryan O'Neal).
WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (vt HAXAN) (1922) - Two old crone/witch-types are shown approaching the front door of a dwelling, relieving themselves in a bowl on the front steps, picking up the bowl, dancing in a circle and finally hurling the contents against the door. With a sequence that shocked audiences of it's day (still a bit of a shock today) the narrator explains the infernal/occult reasoning behind such an action.
WOODSTOCK (1969) - The 'Port-O-San' sequence, "Outta sight, Man."
This listing is constantly being updated and added to.