Kurzbeschreibung
A review of the history of the British sex film industry, with a filmography and interviews with selected actors. 140 illus. *Also appeared in October Buyer's Notes*
Synopsis
The British tradition of 'saucy postcard' humour - boobs, bums and boorish innuendo - is perhaps best exemplified by the long running Carry On movies. But as anyone who watches late-night television will tell you, there is also a forgotten cinema of saucier 'X certificate' movies. The people who would most like to forget these films are, of course, some of the better known actors who appeared in them - Leslie Ash, Joan Collins, Pauline Collins, Gabrielle Drake, Elaine Paige and Valerie Singleton all have credits that they probably leave off their CVs, while Robin Askwith, Fiona Richmond and the late Mary Millington all capitalised on their appearances in films that pushed the censors to their limits. Simon Sheridan traces the history of the British sex film from its beginnings in such coy nudist camp films as Some Like It Cool (directed by Michael Winner in 1960), through to its boom years with the Confessions films and their many imitators, to its demise following censorship clampdowns and the introduction of home video in the early 1980s. Sheridan compiles a definitive filmography for the very first time, and coaxes the facts from previously reclusive and reluctant interviewees. The result is the often funny, sometimes tragic, but undeniably revealing story of a forgotten genre.
