The Boy Friend (1971)

Let's be realistic.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

For once, it seems, Russell tones down the sexuality and violence and makes an ode to musicals and the theater. It is still full of his indulgences, Felliniesque numbers that go on and on. That's my problem with the film, too long. Cut it by a half hour or more. It's so obvious our heroine is going to make good by the end that there's no suspense or real drama. Too many characters who are mostly back stabbing jerks. Twiggy and Tommy Tune come off well.

A camp classic but also so much more. The critics came down like a ton of bricks on Ken Russell's musical comedy which was, on the one hand, a screen version of Sandy Wilson's show and, on the other, a comment on the 'putting-on-a-show' kind of musical popular in the early thirties. Russell's idea of opening up most of the numbers, as in a big Busby Berkeley production, worked brilliantly but didn't please either the critics or the public; still it made a movie star (of sorts) out of the model Twiggy who is charm personified while the former ballet dancer Christopher Gable is a delightful leading man. It's also got a great supporting cast of some of the best British character players of the time, including an unbilled Glenda Jackson - Go out there and be so great you'll make me hate you - and whatever happened to Antonia Ellis and Georgina Hale, both brilliant here, as well as Broadway's Tommy Tune whose dancing comes close to stopping the show. Unfortunately it wasn't really a commercial success and is seldom seen now but if, like me, you have any interest in the musical, catch it; it's absolutely fabulous!

I could be happy with this as the representation of the fluffy 1954 Broadway musical which introduced Julie Andrews to American audiences long before Eliza Doolittle, Cinderella, Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp. She didn't get to play in the film versions of "My Fair Lady" or "Camelot" (made before this) and was probably too old to take on the role in the 1971 Ken Russell adaption of that Sandy Wilson musical. Flops like "Star!" and "Darling Lily" also made her feel like Box Office poison, so Russell instead chose the aptly named "Twiggy" to play the role of the innocent Polly who finds romance amongst the more worldly classmates of a girl's school.This is performed as a "show within a show", and like "42nd Street", the understudy goes on for the star. Twiggy seems as far removed from the wheel-chair star who sits off stage rooting for her, and to cast that part, Russell cleverly made up his regular leading lady Glenda Jackson to play that part, albeit unbilled. Like Polly in the show-within-the-show, Twiggy falls in love with the leading man much to the consternation of the jealous chorus girls, and this leads to some fantasy sequences that take the stage-bound songs and open them up into huge Busby Berkley like spectacles.Max Adrian and Moyra Fraser are amusing as the older couple representing the character comics who play the staff of the private school, and Georgina Hale and Sally Bryant are fun as the rivals. Christopher Gable is the juvenile and does his best to add what he can to an otherwise dull part. Rising Broadway dancer Tommy Tune is most visible and is instantly recognizable in the "Won't You Charleston With Me?" number. While this certainly ranks as one of the oddest transfers to the screen of a Broadway musical, the fantasy sequences are so beautiful to look at that you won't soon forget it. Nostalgia had taken over Broadway in the early 70's, making this an appropriate film for its time, and that nostalgia still cries out today for even the younger generation to cry out for a more innocent time.

Oh, how I love this film! It is my favourite musical. I adore how it takes place in a run down, almost empty theatre with unknown actors who are all hungry to be discovered. They aren't above deceiving their colleagues in order to shine a little extra in front of the film director sitting in the audience! I adore the cast of British actors who really bring these second rate theatre actors to life! It's still charming to watch after all these years. My favourite character is Maisie played by Antonia Ellis.I first saw it on German television in the long version and recorded it on video. Lucky I did because the film was unavailable for so many years and when I did find a copy it was a much shorter version without many of my favourite scenes. The ones with the "Nicer in Nice" and "I got the you don't want to play with me blues" were missing. The musical numbers in the forest and when they are leprechauns were much shorter. Thank goodness that Warner Brothers have finally released the whole film in a complete remastered edition with all the scenes restored in a 136 minute version!! The picture quality is pristine. The DVD really could have benefited though from a commentary track with Ken Russell and Twiggy. I'm dying to hear how the film was conceived! It is such an imaginative and inventive film.It is a joy to watch. I am aware that some people can't bear to watch it or understand it. I enjoy every "overlong" minute of it! The dancing is amazing. Twiggy is so sweet and perfect for the part of Polly. She is a good dancer and has a nice pleasing voice. I wonder why she didn't make more films after the Boy Friend. I wish it had been more of a hit. A year later another backstage movie was released showing the shoddiness and decadence of theatre life. Cabaret is well known but the Boy Firend is a film no one has ever heard of…Please take the time to discover this light hearted gem!