Cars & Girls

Britt Ekland

World of Leather

Britt Ekland and Lord Lichfield, photographed by Terry O'Neill, 1970

Smoking Hot

Britt Ekland

Hanging On The Telephone

Britt Ekland in Get Carter (1971)

Britt

I especially love that top photograph, taken by the brilliant Terry O'Neill

Sellers and Ekland

Hanging On The Telephone

Britt Ekland in Get Carter

The Night They Raided Minsky's

The Night They Raided Minsky's is a hidden gem of the 1960s US cinema.The shots are beautiful and the scattergun editing by Ralph Rosenblum sublime.  Made in 1968, it's one of The Exorcist and French Connection director William Friedkin's earliest efforts, yet his direction here hits the mark perfectly and pretty much gives Fosse a template to use later in Cabaret. 

The Minsky Girls

I must admit it's not a great film to try and get screencaps from as there's so much going on per frame, not just in terms of action but in changing of lens and going from black and white to colour and so many effects that are integral to the ambience of the piece that it's impossible to get over in captures. Such is the greatness and flair in the direction, cinematography and editing.

Just an example of Friedkin's experimental shooting style

I do love films about show people because, in the main, there's a chance for the actors to shine as they imbue their performances with admiration for those who went before them. And this is no exception, the acting of all the players is first rate. I believe it to be Britt Ekland's finest performance as the naive Amish girl who comes to the big city with a dream to dance stories from the Bible, but inadvertently invents the burlesque strip tease instead! 
There are wonderful turns from Jason Robards (in a role originally earmarked for Tony Curtis) as the devious quick talk comedian, a self confessed 'First Class Bastard', and Britain's number one clown from the 50s Norman Wisdom, in his only American film role, as his comic foil -  Wisdom, on Broadway at the time, received glowing reviews and it's a shame he didn't go on to triumph in the US after this, indeed so good is he in this that it's a little beyond me (then again, I guess there wasn't much call for these kind of films even then, alas) Elliott Gould is also great in his movie debut as the young Minsky running the whole show and trying to keep his theatre one step ahead of moral watchdog, the brilliant Denholm Elliott. And there's sterling support from Joseph Wiseman and Harry Andrews as Gould and Ekland's respective fathers.

Britt Ekland as Rachel Schpitendavel

Jason Robards as Raymond Paine

Norman Wisdom as Chick Williams

Bert Lahr as Prof. Spatz

Elliot Gould and Joseph Wiseman as Billy Minsky and Louis Minsky

Denholm Elliott as Vance Fowler

Harry Andrews as Jacob Schpitendavel

I urge anyone to watch this classic. It is a piece of magic, greatly enhanced by the score that it wanders into Willy Wonka territory (albeit a magical world for adults!) and a wonderful evocation of New York and Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1920s. 

I love how Friedkin incorporates actual B+W footage from the time, occasionally kidding us that his own shots are archive footage, before bringing the colour up for the big reveal. His footage is so accurate you could never guess.

His recreation of a live Minsky show is also suitably realistic. The camera lingers and dwells and incorporates the baying and amused audience throughout, never more so than in the film's final stage immediately prior to the infamous titular raid when Britt's innocent young girl becomes 'Madame Fifi' and accidentally creates the striptease!

If I had to take anything away from this film it's the clear loss the story has in losing Bert Lahr (The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard Of Oz) who tragically died midway through filming. His character was clearly meant to have a prominent role but in the finished product it can only be hinted at. This doesn't seem to matter as much on repeat viewings though,  which this film holds up very well too. It's just such a shame it isn't so well known/remembered.

Biker Britt

Britt Ekland and Patrick Lichfield, by Terry O'Neill

Girls With Guns

Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight in the Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun

I like Bond films, I can't help it. I know they're sexist, misogynistic and plain dumb - and the books even more so! Genuinely cruel sadistic pleasures that only the upper class public school experiences of Ian Fleming could inform.

I know they're an insult to the spy genre - Bond has more in common with a super hero like Superman than a spy like Smiley say. But they always raise a smile and serve as an interesting cultural document. But I have to say The Man With The Golden Gun is atrocious. The lowest of the low and there's a really, genuine, jaw droppingly sexist bimbo turn from Britt. I mean, she's so staggeringly useless (and yet is meant to be an MI6 field operative!) that she unwittingly sets off a deadly laser....with her arse