Respectable: The Mary Millington Story (2016)

Pretty Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I have to say I only started researching Mary Millington upon hearing about this documentary/film and I have to say I am so glad Simon Sheridan paid tribute to Mary in this wonderful entertaining way. It is well worth a watch as I think it shows many aspects of Mary's life. I found it interesting to go on the journey from her young days into adulthood and also coming through was her open mindedness and caring side and I also found the interviews very interesting from family members to people in the Adult Industry I also think Simon Sheridan touched on Marys later life in a sensitive way regarding her mental health. I think it was a tragic end for Mary. I think the documentary/film was a fitting tribute to a much loved woman. Thank you.

This documentary provides insight into the all-too-brief life of Mary Millington, both celebrated and damned during her life because of her appearances in both "hard" and "soft" porn.Mary comes across as eminently likable, independent of spirit but also vulnerable.Offending "the Establishment" has never been a free ride, and although by the 1970s attitudes to matters sexual had become more liberal than in the early 1960s when the likes of Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies and Stephen Ward were prosecuted (one might say persecuted), with the well publicised efforts of Mary Whitehouse, Lord Longford and Malcolm Muggeridge, Mary's exploits were unlikely to go unremarked. And judging from the notes she left at the time of her death she clearly felt "they" - the police and the tax man in particular - were out to get her.With proper help (if she had been prepared to accept it) Mary might well have got through her problems, especially her relationship with her mother and the effect of her death, and gone on to make her mark as an actress or elsewhere, but sadly that is purely hypothetical.I felt very sad by the end of the film - at the loss of such a vibrant free spirit so early in her life. But also heartened at the reminder of this free spirit who refused to accept other peoples norms.As to the documentary as a piece of film making, I cannot see how it could have been improved. A truly excellent piece of work by Simon Sheridan and those with whom he worked.

Showing on Netflix, this is an informative documentary for those who do not know much about the 1970s British pornographic film industry and its one time leading light who lived every cliché before dying. I had heard of Mary Millington growing up in the 1970s because she got a lot of coverage in the newspapers that were published on Sundays, and her films were always advertised in the fronts of cinemas. The films themselves when seen on tape in the 1980s were rather bland unfunny smut fests than full on sex films. If it wasn't for magazines like Whitehouse and Playbirds being passed round school playgrounds the Mary Millington of porn legend would have been long forgotten.The film was obviously made by a film maker who likes his subject and keeps the tone of the film positive and zips through her life with stories and photographs of Mary Millington from her child hood through to her tragic suicide. There are lots of talking heads who were there during this time including the man who turned Mary into a publishing house and made David Sullivan a millionaire many times over.The documentary contains many clips from Marys rather explicit back catalogue and though not full on sex is displayed it manages to convey what her films were like outside of her soft porn career. Be warned there are brief glimpses of fellatio, rutting and girl on girl action from her porn loops and brief snippets and covers from the magazines she appeared in.It's interesting to see how mainstream celebrity at the time led to her downfall, and brought her into the world of cocaine and high living, whilst also battling depression. Even in her early days according to the film she was earning £200 a film (worth £4,000 in today's earnings), those 8mm loops cost £1,000 to make and could sell 300,000 units across Europe. Millington also appeared in porn magazines during the 1970s and these could sell upwards of a million copies per issue. This film is worth watching and it handles its subject with respect

This is a wonderfully moving warts and all documentary that shows the extreme ups and downs of the UK'S only real iconic porn star,the love and respect Simon Sheridan has for Mary shines through as much as that of her friends and family.Dexter Fletcher's narration is perfect and most of the major people in Mary's life have been interviewed,including David Sullivan, Francoise Pascal and the late Stanley A. Long.This is a must see for any one with an interest in British cinema or just an interest in a larger than life bundle of contradictions who fought against the strict censorship laws of the time..... She really did want to stick it to the man...