Saucy Seventies - Eskimo Nell [DVD] [1975]

I've seen this movie at the old ABC (paired with "The Cobblers of Umbridge" it was the first "X" I ever saw!)on VHS and now DVD.
It is a truly funny film; being the tale of a newly graduated film-maker (plenty of in-gags) who gets suckered into making a movie based on the old risqué poem "Eskimo Nell"...and later through the crookedness of others finds himself having to make four separate versions to please four different(very different!) financial backers. There is enough beautiful bare flesh to satisfy;but what makes this movie worth paying out for is the comedy; excellent gags beautifully timed by a stalwart cast of seasoned British veterans. There are a lot of well known faces in this flick, trust me!
Oh: for Dr Who fans, Katy Manning is in this one!!!

Yes most of us know the infamous Ballad of Eskimo Nell, but imagine trying to film it. Dennis has just got his first directing job at B.U.M. Productions and is given the task to make this film. Harris, who would much rather be doing a nature documentary has to come up with a script, but there is a problem. There are three backers to the movie, one wants a hard-core SM movie, another wants a musical martial arts movie, and the third wants a gay/spanking western.

If poor old Harris hadn't got enough problems with this, Benny the owner of B.U.M. Productions does a runner with the money. Dennis, Harris and their friend find that if they can't come up with a movie to please all three backers they are liable for all costs etc. Dennis' girlfriend thinks she has a way to solve the problem and so her mother, in league with her morality committee put up money for the film. Now Harris has to come up with a family version of the film. With four different backers each wanting something different the trio have to make four different versions.

Everything seems to be going alright, until the films get mixed up, will the boys be able to get back the wrong version of the film before the Royal Premiere? Yes, things are up the spout, the hard-core SM version has been delivered to be shown before royalty, instead of the family version. With a plan to switch films the men are on course to save the day, but could things be that easy?

This film falls somewhere between the Carry On movies and The Confessions of.... films. There is very little nudity considering the subject matter, this film mainly relies on double entedres and good old comedy. A prime example of the saucy films that this country put out in the Seventies, which lets be honest only the British can do sucessfully, after all I can't think of a Hollywood movie that has come close to what we were doing. Then again there is something distinctive about British humour, and that we are always willing to mock ourselves. All in all, if you like a laugh and some mild titillation, this film should be right up your street.

In the artistic wasteland of 1970s' British sex comedies (and arguably a good deal of British cinema at that time altogether) Eskimo Nell shines out as a modest beacon of wit, satirical in a way that still strikes a refreshing note. These days no doubt, Morrison and Tweedle would be assigned to work on several cheap UK gangster films at once, as that's the genre which has lately shown the greatest lack of nerve in the home grown industry. Back then, with UK's business in worse decline, it was such dire products as Come Play With Me (1977), that exemplified a depressing wave of home grown 'sex' films, neither sexy or arguably, real cinema at all: just the sad, exploitative effects of a restrictive lack of investment, and censorship. Together with the slightly more family orientated Confessions... series and the even softer saucy postcard world of the Carry On... series, this is what represented the officially sanctioned 'adult' industry at the time.

Eskimo Nell's satire therefore had in its sights a ripe and obvious target, although it is still frequently overlooked as just another sex film of its time. Its a perception not helped by its small budget, mediocre (if enthusiastic) acting as well as a lingering air of titillation characteristic of the genre. Real life actor-screenwriter Michael Armstrong, whose previous film was the more predictable It Could Happen to You (aka: Intimate Teenage Secrets, 1975) - which would never the less make an interesting double bill with his Nell - made the hard to see crime factional drama Black Panther (1977) after this, before disappearing into TV and the humdrum. Greater things have come of the director Martin Campbell however, as he has since made such films as GoldenEye, Vertical Limit, as well as just being engaged on Casino Royale.

The present film falls into three main parts. First there is the setting up of the project, a period of the narrative dominated by the avuncular, disreputable Murdoch - a professional performance by Roy Kinnear, the sort of role at which he shined. Once he disappears and matters move onto the complicated matter of the filming, then character comedy is swapped for situational, the change bringing probably the funniest moments of the film. Finally, there is the anticipated premiere, the chase after film canisters and so on, providing a suitable wrap up. As others have pointed out, this last section changes the emphasis of the satire somewhat, from one focusing purely on the sex film industry as such to mimicking the strategies of the caper film.

Much of the pleasure of Nell comes from the incidentals, which have a real feeling of time and place, as well as a feeling that some of the principals had had first hand experience of the industry they spoof. As the guileless Morrison, Michael Armstrong makes an impression as a hopeful but little else; his pretentious cineaste-speak sounds hollow even as satire, especially when compared to the gloating, tit-centred obsessed speeches of Murdoch. Morrison's fazed expressions, to be replaced by that of creative concentration during the actual production, remind me of a similar innocent: that of Dennis Barlow, at the centre of Richardson's underrated The Loved One (1965). Both Barlow and Morrison share an initial bewilderment at encountering a strange society, and one tinged by aberrant sexuality. But while Morrison remains detached and never opportunistic (as well always slightly surprised at the brave new world in which he's suddenly found himself) Barlow is able, initially at least, to make headway of sorts. In fact one of the weaknesses of Nell is that its central trio contain no central dynamic, other than being desperate to salvage the situation in which they have been trapped. Even the penguin obsessed and virginal Tweedle, the most eccentric of the three, pales in significance compared to the outrageous characters surrounding him the sex film world.

Nell follows in the tradition of the British sex comedy in never being erotic, merely naughty. It gains an edge for us today from being so self referential, with an intelligence missing from other productions of the time, and some have compared it to Truffaut's Day For Night (1973). In truth it is far less accomplished than that, bearing more of a resemblance to Confessions Of A Blue Movie Star (1978), being less about cinema itself than the practical bluntness required for the production of porn. And its best moments appear as part of that production: the gay cowboy ripping a succession of skin tight jeans as he gets off his horse; the kung fu religious school with the bizarre juxtaposition of Sound Of Music with Bruce Lee, or just Christopher Biggins' cherubic face as he raises up a suggestively wrapped umbrella into our line of sight - with equally suggestive dialogue, naturally. The British DVD is barer of extras than a starlet's soliliquy.