Main >> Food, Travel & The Arts >> Other Performing Arts

 
The Boy Friend

THE BOY FRIEND

[IMAGE]

CREDITS

1971, 135 minutes, Metrocolor and Panavision.
Producer, Ken Russell; Director, Ken Russell; Screenplay, Ken Russell; Cinematography, David Watkin; Music Direction, Peter Maxwell Davies, Ian Whittaker and Peter Greenwell; Choerography, Christopher Gable.

CAST

Polly, Twiggy; Tony, Christopher Gable; Max, Max Adrian; Percy, Bryan Pringle; Alphonse, Murray Melvin; Mme. Dubonnet, Moyra Fraser; Fay, Georgina Hale; Nancy, Sally Bryant; Maisie, Antonia Ellis; Dulcie, Caryl Little; Michael, Graham Armitage; Tommy, Tommy Tune; De Thrill, Vladek Sheybal; Hortense, Barbara Windsor; Rita, Glenda Jackson.

SONGS

The Boy Friend; Perfect Young Ladies; I Could Be Happy With You; Fancy Forgetting; Sur Le Plage; It's Never Too Late To Fall In Love; Won't You Charleston With Me?; The You-Don't-Want-To-Play-With-Me Blues; A Room In Bloomsbury; It's Nicer In Nice; Safety In Numbers; Poor Little Pierette; The Riviera by Sandy Wilson; You Are My Lucky Star; All I Do Is Dream Of You by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown.

PLOT

"The leading lady of a second rate British theatre troupe (Glenda Jackson) breaks her ankle and is quickly replaced by the pretty assistant stage manager, Polly (Twiggy). Secretly in love with her co-star (Christopher Gable), Polly's nervousness is compounded when the company learns that Hollywood director Cecil B. De Thrill is in the audience. His presence sets off a series of hilarious rivalries, on-stage and off."
- Liner Notes from MGM/Turner Laserdisc

NOTES

"sparkling, imaginative version of the stage musical with a twist. . .wonderfully inventive, delightful performing, and Twiggy's debut is sensational."
- Cue

"It is delightful entertainment, novel and engaging."
- Variety

". . .Ken Russell turned the Sandy Wilson show (first produced in London in 1953) into an anti-musical and destroyed most of the pleasure the audience might have had. Russell's greatest deficiency is that he doesn't understand the charm of simplicity. The glittering, joyless numbers keep coming at you; you never get any relief from his supposed virtuosity."
- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights At The Movies

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION:
Scoring (Adaptation And Original Song Score)

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD WINNER:
Actress (Comedy/Musical) - Twiggy

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW AWARD WINNER:
Best English-Language Film
Director

The was the film debut of Twiggy.

[IMAGE]

Return to The Great MGM Musicals Page