THE BOY FRIEND [1971 / 2017] [Warner Archive Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] The Bravura Stylings of Busby Berkeley – As Only Filmmaker Ken Russell Can Reimagine Them!
The star has injured an ankle, but the show — and inexperienced stage assistant Polly Browne — must go on. Break a leg, kid. And don’t let the presence of Hollywood director and talent scout Mr. De Thrill add any pressure.
And so begins this colourful tale of theatre hopefuls with stars in their eyes and greasepaint in their veins, a work that, under the guidance of director Ken Russell, is not just an affectionate filmization of Sandy Wilson’s London/Broadway stage hit but also an homage to the movie staging’s of Busby Berkeley — complete with imaginative use of kaleidoscopic top shots and rows of leggy chorines.
Fashion icon Twiggy makes her screen debut as sweet-natured Polly Browne, a role played earlier by Julie Andrews in her Broadway debut.
Curtain up! Maybe someone will be discovered tonight.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1972 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score by Peter Greenwell and Peter Maxwell Davies. 1972 Golden Globes: Win: Best Actress in a Motion Picture in a Comedy or Musical for Twiggy. Win: Most Promising Female Newcomer for Twiggy. Nominated: Best Motion Picture for a Comedy or Musical. 1972 National Board of Review, USA: Win: Best Director for Ken Russell. 1972 Writers Guild of America: Nominated: WGA Screen Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium for Ken Russell. 1973 BAFTA Awards: Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Max Adrian.
FILM FACT No.2: James Aubrey, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, ordered 25 minutes to be cut from the film for its U.S. release. Michael Laughlin, director of the film ‘Chandler, ‘which also was cut by James Aubrey, claimed Ken Russell said he was going to Los Angeles to “murder Jim Aubrey.” Ken Russell denied this, claiming to have said he was going to Los Angeles to murder film critic Rex Reed (who had been critical of Ken Russell), and pointed out he was making his next film, ‘Savage Messiah,’ for M-G-M. Ken Russell said if Jim Aubrey wanted to cut the film that was his prerogative. Among the material cut by M-G-M for the U.S. release was: two songs: “It's Nicer in Nice” and “The You-Don't-Want-to-Play-with-Me Blues.” A seven-minute sequence where the character played by Twiggy imagines the entire cast in a bacchanal and a running gag involving the wife (Anne Jameson) of a two-timing actor. Ken Russell wrote the cuts meant “all the relationships in the last reel became completely meaningless.” Ken Russell later claimed he should have cut the film and said, “during the script stage but, determined to be faithful to the original show, I kept in everything! It was left to M-G-M, who financed the film, to do the job for me. A gorilla in boxing gloves wielding a pair of garden shears could have done a better job.” Ken Russell was just one of several directors during this time who complained of M-G-M and James Aubrey re-cutting their films. The film ‘THE BOYFRIEND’ had simultaneous premieres in London and New York. The film had a debut premiere at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Models wore period fashions from the film on stage to introduce the film. Actress Susan Hayward made an appearance on stage during introductions.
Cast: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle, Murray Melvin, Moyra Fraser, Georgina Hale, Sally Bryant, Vladek Sheybal, Tommy Tune, Brian Murphy, Graham Armitage, Antonia Ellis, Caryl Little, Anne Jameson, Catherine Willmer, Robert La Bassiere, Barbara Windsor, Imogen Claire (uncredited), Susan Claire (uncredited), Peter Greenwell (uncredited), Cheryl Grunwald (uncredited), Glenda Jackson (uncredited), Steven Longhurst (uncredited) and Petra Siniawski (uncredited)
Director: Ken Russell
Producers: Harry Benn and Ken Russell
Screenplay: Ken Russell (screenplay) and Sandy Wilson (based on the musical play)
Composer: Peter Maxwell Davies
Costume Design: Shirley Russell
Cinematography: David Watkin, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision) (Anamorphic)
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 138 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ [1971] is the story of the assistant stage manager for a rundown English theatre running a musical revue of sorts. Forced to take up the lead role in a production of their original stage musical “The Boyfriend,” Polly Browne [Twiggy] is then thrust into a massive musical theatre production in which she not only hardly knew the words, but has slowly fallen in love with the man she’s supposed to act against on stage. Further complicating matters, famous Hollywood director and talent scout Mr. De Thrill [Vladek Sheybal] has chosen this particular matinee to observe the troupe of actors and actresses at this show, putting pressure not only on Polly Brown, but on the entire theatre company as they stop at nothing to highlight their talents and outdo each other on the stage. The resulting performance is a slight theatrical mess of the most spectacular style, as their struggle for attention and thirst for stardom threatens to destroy all of their careers in one fell, but incredible swoop of musical mayhem.
Set on a decaying stage in front of an underwhelming audience, the bulk of ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ is told through a theatrical performance, with frequent cutaways to the backstage area, and occasional fantasy sequences that are used exclusively to help certain characters express their true feelings and desires parallel to the insane stage show they’ve been dropped into the middle of. Filled to the brim with intricate camera movements, and elaborate stage designs and choreography, the film uses those narrative settings to not only craft an engaging, 1970’s era expose film that engages us into the darkness that lingers behind the curtain, but also a bubbly, fun homage to the classic big budget musicals of the 1930’s and the 1940’s from RKO and M-G-M that took the world’s box office by storm. I mean expose in the lightest sense – at its core. ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ is a musical comedy in the truest sense, full of extravagant song and dance numbers, and a number of jokes mixed in that had me fully engaged and laughing for a little over two hours.
Although the advertising and packaging is clearly designed to emphasize Twiggy’s stardom as the driving force of the film. Populated with a vast quantity of British stage actors and musicians, almost every significant member of the theatre troupe brings a wealth of energy and intensity to their roles, almost making Twiggy seem plain in contrast as she, appropriate to the character, is just sort of there, constantly unsure of herself and how to inhabit the role she’s been assigned. She finds her way eventually, blossoming into a fascinating character, but she remains upstaged by the rest of the cast, who spend the entire movie constantly one-upping each other in more and more ridiculous ways in order to get Mr. De Thrill to notice them, leaving them ample room to stretch not only their vocal chords, but their comedic legs in a way that Twiggy never really gets to do.
Shot by British cinematographer David Watkin, the film is expertly shot in two distinct styles. Scenes that take place in real life, where actors and actresses are performing on stage and the camera follows them behind the scene, David Watkin’s adopts a handheld style with frequent movement that makes it feel like we’re watching the show from the audience. When the film cuts away to the fantasy sequences, there is a distinct shift to slower camera movements, and a more stabilized image to help sell us on the illusion. On both halves of the spectrum, colour is incredible, especially for a 1970’s production. It looks about as close to the classic Technicolor look as I’ve ever seen, something modern digital productions fail to achieve.
If I had anything to complain about, it’s that ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ is so jam packed with characters and narrative devices that in kind of sprints through to its ending, leaving the audience a tad bit unsatisfied. It isn’t enough however, to detract from the fantastic songs, adapted from the original Broadway stage show written by Sandy Wilson, or the delightful production values and editing that manage to condense such a broad range of material into such a short amount of time, especially when in the previous decade most major musical films stretched well into the three hour range to tell their full story. ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ is a rip roaring triumph, both technically and in the way it tells its story.
BONUS: At Chapter 22 and precisely 1:08:33 we get a nice musical Intermission that originally was used with early films had a practical purpose: they were needed to facilitate the changing of reels. The technology improved, but as movies became progressively longer, the intermission fulfilled other needs. It gave the audience a breather, and provided the theatre management an opportunity to entice patrons to its profitable concession stand. Intermission was very popular in the 1950’s, 1960’s and sometimes in the 1970’s. The built-in intermission has been phased out of Hollywood films; the victim of the demand to pack in more screenings, advances in projector technology which make reel switches either unnoticeable or non-existent such as digital projection, in which reels do not exist. But with this Intermission you get to view very British printed advertisements in the background that would have been totally alien to American audiences viewing this film.
THE BOY FRIEND MUSIC TRACK LIST
THE BOY FRIEND MAIN TITLE (Overture) (Music by Sandy Wilson)
PERFECT YOUNG LADIES (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Barbara Windsor and Girls]
THE BOY FRIEND (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Twiggy and the Girls with Barbara Windsor and Boys]
ANY OLD IRON (Written by Charles Collins, E.A. Sheppard and Fred Terry) (uncredited) [Performed by Twiggy and Bryan Pringle]
WON’T YOU CHARLESTON WITH ME? (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Tommy Tune, Antonia Ellis, and Girls and Boys]
FANCY FORGETTING (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Moyra Fraser and Bryan Pringle]
I COULD BE HAPPY WITH YOU (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Christopher Gable and Twiggy]
ACT I FINALE: THE BOY FRIEND (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Company]
INTERMISSION (Music by Sandy Wilson)
YOU ARE MY LUCKY STAR (Music by Nacio Herb Brown) (Lyrics by Arthur Freed) [Performed by Twiggy]
SUR LE PLAGE (Music by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Caryl Little, Antonia Ellis, Georgina Hale, Sally Bryant, Tommy Tune, Murray Melvin, Brian Murphy, Graham Armitage and Barbara Windsor] [Spoken by Catherine Willmer and Max Adrian]
A ROOM IN BLOOMSBURY (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Christopher Gable and Twiggy]
IT'S NICER IN NICE (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Barbara Windsor and Girls and Boys]
The “You-Don't-Want-to-Play-With-Me” Blues (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Moyra Fraser, Bryan Pringle and Girls]
SAFETY BY NUMBERS (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Antonia Ellis and Boys]
ACT II FINALE: I COULD BE HAPPY WITH YOU – PART I (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Christopher Gable and Twiggy]
ACT II FINALE: I COULD BE HAPPY WITH YOU – PART II (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Christopher Gable and Twiggy]
ALL I DO IS DREAM OF YOU (Music by Nacio Herb Brown) (Lyrics by Arthur Freed) [Performed by Twiggy]
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO FALL IN LOVE (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Max Adrian and Georgina Hale]
POOR LITTLE PIERRETTE (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by Moyra Fraser, Girls and Twiggy]
THE RIVERA (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by The Female Chorus]
ACT III FINALE: I COULD BE HAPPY WITH YOU (Music by Sandy Wilson) (Lyrics by Sandy Wilson) [Performed by The Company]
BOWS (Music by Sandy Wilson)
END TITLES (Music by Sandy Wilson) * * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Archive Collection presents us the film ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ with a fantastic job on the 1080p Metrocolor transfer of the film using a new 2K restoration and is of course shown off at its best with a 2.35:1 Panavision Anamorphic aspect ratio. Fans of the film should be very pleased with the meticulous attention to detail that this transfer has been given. This is essentially a film that was meant to be on a Blu-ray format, with large set-pieces and intricate shots. Shot in a style that is both attempting to give us a realistic glance into the experience of performing a stage show as well as a large scale colourful musical from the 1930’s. ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ is a feast for the eyes with beautifully saturated colours, an appropriately soft 1970s look that, accentuated by the classic Panavision lenses used for the production, and a light layer of grain that ties the experience together. The film is awash with heavily over exaggerated stage makeup, making skin tones pop right off the screen with a fantastic warmth and detail is excellent throughout the feature, emphasizing the intricate details of each costume and set piece dragged out onto the stage. Black levels resolve with excellent depth, and the image has been perfectly cleaned for its re-entry into the spotlight. So this is another excellent presentation from the Warner Archive Collection. So defiantly gets a five star rating from me.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Archive Collection brings us the film ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ with a brilliant 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience, but the surrounds sounds are used very infrequently. It’s a musical numbers and the composed music benefits the most from the surround treatment, with very little immersion outside of the music. This is a very front speaker heavy mix. Clarity is very solid. I did not detect any dropouts or notable hiss. The dialogue is clearly reproduced, although ears unaccustomed to Cockney pronunciations may require some adjustment for a lot of the American public viewing the film. But what is also really excellent is the fact that Sandy Wilson's songs from the stage musical have been artfully arranged by Peter Maxwell Davies to shift between lush orchestration and British music hall experience.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Vintage Featurette: All Talking . . . All Singing . . . All Dancing . . . [1971] [480i] [1.37:1] [8:40] This behind-the-scenes, making-of promo for the musical film ‘THE BOY FRIEND’ [1971] features cast and crew interviews, lots of behind-the-scenes footage of song and dance rehearsals, and some musical clips from the feature film. Much of the discussion concerns recreating the look and feel of the 1920's era and centres on the star actress Twiggy. Contributors includes: Ken Russell [Director], Twiggy, Tony Walton, Christopher Gable and Tommy Tune.
Theatrical Trailer [1971] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:47] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE BOY FRIEND.’
Finally, ‘THE BOYFRIEND’ brings us the filmmaker and British madman Ken Russell takes the popular Sandy Wilson stage musical about a backstage nobody with a theatre troupe in the 1920’s becoming a star when the leading lady breaks her leg and turns it into a head-trip. This is an ode and homage to Hollywood showman Busby Berkeley and goes giddily over-the-top, yet does so in a way that slightly alienates the material, still this is what you get from a Ken Russell film. Twiggy is appealing in the lead, Christopher Gable also fine as her on-stage suitor, but it's Glenda Jackson as the former star who really shines, too bad her role only amounts to a cameo performance. The nearly non-stop production numbers become wearisome, turning the picture into grotesque camp. After a solid, likable start, the editing flags, leaving sequences to go on and on slightly. It's a welcome spoof of Hollywood musicals of the 1920’s and 1930’s and especially Busby Berkeley dance routines in particular. Twiggy is ever so charming as the girl who has to step into the leading role and told to “come out like a star” when the show's original lead Glenda Jackson breaks her leg. Christopher Gable is the Busby-like character that Twiggy is in love with and wants to please with a good performance and of course Twiggy is really excellent and does some good singing and dancing, a real trouper. The music is appealing and the whole show moves along at a brisk, never relenting pace that is full of colour and energy. If ever a stage musical was transformed successfully into cinematic material, this is a fine example and all through the capable hands of the director Ken Russell. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
