DVD Review: Spanish Fly (1976) Leslie Phillips and Terry-Thomas

The 70s were a wonderful time for British sex comedies. They all wanted to be "dirty" without having the guts to actually be so (not that the BBFC would have allowed it anyway). Spanish Fly is firmly in the old school camp, right down to its two stars, Leslie Phillips and Terry-Thomas. Think of an Ealing comedy and add a few boobs and some suggested bonking and you get the idea. All the elements of a good British sex comedy are there: the annoyingly bouncy theme tune and some well known TV/film faces, with the different ingredient: a foreign setting, in this case Minorca.

 Sir Percy de Courcy (Thomas) is doing what he does best, blagging his way around the continent, thinking of one scam after another, when he comes up with the idea of buying some really cheap Spanish wine and selling it to the toffs as expensive French. When the wine proves undrinkable, he tells his butler/companion Perkins (Graham Armitage, who was so wonderful as the mocking Louis XIII in Ken Russell's The Devils) to add something to it in order to make it more palatable. During this mixing process, some of the local insects get put into the mix, but rather than making the wine worse, it actually improves it and has the effect of an aphrodisiac. Cue Sir Percy's old school rival, Mike Scott (Phillips), who's been having a spot of bother in the bedroom department, and is on the island with a group of models (dolly birds, of course) to shoot a lingerie set. Sir Percy gives Mike a sample of the wine, and the results are instantly rampant.

 

While not as saucy as some of the other films in the genre, there's still plenty of flesh on display and the leads are always watchable (Thomas especially playing up to his caddish image with plenty of "absolute shower" quotes). Sue Lloyd (Crossroads, Corruption, The Ups and Downs of a Handyman) is able support as Phillip's sex starved, suffering wife who seems to be the money behind his fashion business. While billed quite highly, the recently departed Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served?, Keep It Up, Jack) appears only briefly as Phillip's doctor at the start of the film. The director, Bob Kellett was no stranger to this type of film, having made the Frankie Howerd Up! films (of which, Up Pompeii still ranks as one of my all time favourites), the wonderful Ronnie Barker sound effect classic Futtock's End and Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!

The trouble with Spanish Fly is it's not really rude enough to be a successful British sex comedy, and not necessarily funny enough to just be a comedy. For novelty value alone, and the chance to see the two great actors make the most of the lovely ladies, it's a interesting diversion at least. It's worth noting, it was around this time Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and he made very few films afterwards, and there's a very curious jump cut in a scene where Lloyd barges in on Phillips with another woman, and she takes away his bed sheet to leave him naked with just a pillow to quickly put into place. It certainly looks as though there may have been one or two frames which may have revealed more than the actor would have liked, but this cut was in the previous VHS version I have seen so it was no doubt done at the original editing stage, and not for this release.

Which brings me to the DVD, I really must applaud Network for even bothering to release this, as I'm sure the market is very small. And whats more, actually making a fantastic job of it too. Like their recent DVD of The House In Nightmare Park, this comes with the as-exhibited cinema ratio and 4:3 as filmed versions (which both look glorious, as they are from the original negative), as well as 50 mins from the films score. Re-live that awful theme tune again in glorious fidelity. It's hard to recommend the film on its own merits, but I would certainly recommend the disc for the curious, and fans of 70s kitsch cinema
6 out of 10

R.I.P. British Sexpolitation King Stanley A. Long

Sadly, legendary film producer/writer/director Stanley Long passed away on September 10th aged 78.
As regular visitors to this blog will no doubt have gathered, I have a fondness for the type of film Stanley became famous for. His Adventures series (Taxi Driver, Plumber's Mate, Private Eye) were always trying to emulate the success of the Confessions films, but were entertaining in their own right.
His early films as producer, exploitation documentaries West End London, Primitive London and London in the Raw all courted controversy. Yet, some 40 years after they were made were gaining praise thanks to their BFI Flipside releases. Most of his 70s output (both as producer and director) are now available on DVD. I reviewed A Promise Of Bed (aka This, That and The Other) a while back, and have had others lined up to do when I had the time. His final feature film, the 1983 portmanteau horror Screamtime was a favourite of mine from the VHS era, despite its limitations.
He directed and produced a 2007 TV series, The Other Side of the Screen which paired him with legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes, and director of The Mutations) and car boot botherer Paul Martin and looked at various aspects of film making.
As a cinematographer, Stanley was behind the lens of classic British horrors The Sorcerers and The Blood Beast Terror and apparently Polanski's Repulsion, uncredited.
His autobiography, X-rated: Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker (co-written with Simon Sheridan) is superb and well worth picking up.
My thoughts are with his family and friends. Thank you Stanley for all the fun.

Retro review: Keep It Up, Jack (aka Auntie 1975) British sex comedy

This is one of the more obscure of the British 70s sex comedies, with no re-issue and only dodgy copies from old VHS tapes doing the rounds.
Jack James (Mark Jones) is a music hall impressionist whose act is going down as well as a turd in a swimming pool. A call from a London solicitor (Frank Thornton) telling him to come to London for a meeting comes at the right time, as he's just been sacked. Assuming it's for a job he heads for the city, and after having a bit of knees up with the cleaning lady (Queenie Watts) he is told that an elderly Aunt has died and left him her large estate. Things are not what they seem though and it turns out old Auntie home was actually a brothel.

When Jack arrives at the mansion he finds Virginia (the lovely and reliable Sue Longhurst) pleasuring herself on the bed. Well, we can only assume she is hyper sensitive in the crotch area as she just has it there to cover her lady bits while she writhes around. It turns out she is unaware of Auntie's demise, and assumes it's business as usual at the house of ill repute. Jack comes up with a bizarre plan to impersonate his Aunt to keep the running of the house going. When more girls arrive, and start demanding some clients, Jack runs himself ragged 'being' the different people before he hands over the running of the business to Virginia.

When he sees the immoral activities in reality, he objects and it gets worse when a naive young girl looking to make money turns up. He falls for Fleur (Maggi Burton) and does his best to make sure she is unsullied.
With the constant changing into different characters, the film has a feel of a typical Brian Rix type slamming door comedy, but sadly this has none of the laughs that those situations usually allow for.

Director/writer Derek Ford (A Promise of Bed, Groupie Girl, etc..) holds it together in this kind of re-working of Charley's Aunt, - but it is the flesh on display that keeps your interest rather than humour or even sex. Ford was infamous for adding hardcore scenes in for foreign markets, and this was no exception, apparently they even asked Sue Longhurst to get in on the act, but quite wisely she declined. Apart from the aforementioned appearances by some great 70s faces (Thornton and Queenie only appear for a few minutes sadly), there are not many familiar faces, and these types of films generally hold up better when you have more famous faces - even if it's only to see how low their career went! Sue Longhurst is the real star here, but it's worth watching out for Linda Regan - later a TV regular, and a yellow coat in Hi-de-Hi - as the annoying voiced Gloria (who wants to "get pennies"). It is, however, a film she does not list on her filmography on her official site, maybe due to the nudity? At the end of the day though, Mark Jones is no Robin Askwith, he's not even a Christopher Neil!

I could have done without the annoying "Keep it up, Jack" refrain that rings out almost every time Jack changes costume. Yes, sorry sex lovers, keep it up does not refer to keeping THAT up.
A rare relic, but just don't expect anyone to put the effort into unearthing it for a re-release for a long while.
3 out of 10.

Retro review: This - That and The Other! (1969) Stanley Long (aka A Promise Of Bed)

A typical sex comedy from the early 70s? Not really, this is an trio of tales, directed by Derek Ford (co writer of the classic Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper film A Study In Terror, and director of Groupie Girl and What's Up Nurse/Superdoc) and produced and photographed by the legendary Stanley Long (think of almost any 70s sex romp). As was usual, the meddling distributors at the time changed the name to "A Promise Of Bed" to emphasise the bed = sex angle. From a purely British sense of humour point of view, I think the original This - That and The Other adds much more of a double entendre to the thing. Anyway, the DVD in Odeon's "Best of British" collection is now fully restored with the correct intended title.

In the first part, "This", if you will, Vanda Hudson (Circus of Horrors) plays an over the hill actress desperate to get a role in the new film by a producer (Gordon Sterne - who would later turn up as David Kessler's dad in the dream sequence in An American Werewolf In London fact fans). So desperate in fact, that she seizes on the fact that the producer's son is a keen photographer.

When Dennis Waterman turns up to pick up the photography gear, she offers herself as a model, and much more. A fun little romp, this episode, with glimpses into what the Confessions.. films might have been if Waterman had accepted the role, before the legend that is Robin Askwith was approached. I think we had the right Timmy Lea in the end. Hudson is a wonderful MILF character and shows the most flesh of all the actress' in the film. (quite a game bird). The twist at the end of the tale is wonderful. 

 

In "That", Victor Spinetti is a depressed loner - who uses the speaking clock as company -who is just about to gas himself when his apartment is suddenly mistaken for a pad that is housing a 'happening' party. 

The first unexpected guest is Vanessa Howard (Blood Beast Terror and Girly in Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly), a quirky and likeable young thing. Seeing the way the flat is set up for his imminent suicide, she jumps to the conclusion that he has a 'suicide theme' for the party. So she insists every one who comes (and there are a lot of weirdo 60s types descending on his abode) dresses "as a suicide"

  

Amongst the rabble, are Alexandra Bastedo (fresh from The Champions) and the ever lovely Valerie Leon, who promptly jumps in the bath (for a drowning) and comes closer than ever to breaking her "everything but the nipple" rule with a nice see-through top. (see the following screen grabs for the dirty mac evidence)

 

 

 "The Other" sees taxi driver John Bird (the famous satirist) sloping off to watch seedy films (not unlike this) in the cinema when he should be working. He then goes to pick up a fare, played by Swede Yutte Stensgaard (Lust For A Vampire). He begins to imagine her stroking his face, when in reality she's dropping off in the back. He promptly crashes the car, and she leaves, and he follows "'ere! Me fare! That's 25 bob!"

 

When he follows her, he arrives at a strange subterranean  house will a woman swimming in a pool visible through one window, and semi naked women appearing and disappearing at random. A suave hip looking guy smokes and looks on as a woman Cleo Goldstein (her only screen role) performs a sulty strip with hand print stickers on her body..

 

A bizarre, surreal little episode this but entertaining never the less. You could almost imagine it being one of those Benny Hill interludes if he'd taken a ton of acid. 

While not one of the best or famous memorable of the 70s British sex films, it certainly is unique, and doesn't skimp on the flesh like some do. The common (tenuous) linking thread of the stories is how lives are changed sometimes by mistaken identity (although the final one is debatable as it's mostly fantasy). It's nice to see it presented on DVD in all it's luridly coloured glory.
7 out of 10

While on the subject of this type of film (a favourite genre of mine after horror) I can't recommend the books by Simon Sheridan highly enough. There's X-Rated: Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker, co-written with the legendary Stanley Long, and his own over view of the complete genre (and the final word on the subject, in my opinion) Keeping The British End Up. Both bloody good reads.