The Boy Friend [Boyfriend]

London: Russflix / MGM, 1971. Original full-color film program for the 1971 film "The Boy Friend." Though not noted in any way, this copy belonged to screenwriter, director, and film ephemera collector Leonard Schrader.

Hal Erickson: "The Boy Friend" began life as Sandy Wilson's small-scale pastiche of British musical comedies of the 1920s. When the play was brought to America in 1954, its star was the teenage Julie Andrews. Because the musical required a minimum of sets, props, and costumes, it became a favorite of amateur theater groups throughout the world.

But director Ken Russell, notorious for his onscreen excesses, abandoned the film's simplicity, fashioning a humongous parody of the Busby Berkeley film musicals of the 1930s, staged on a scale that made Berkeley seem stylistically modest. Fashion model Twiggy plays Polly Browne, an aspiring musical comedy star, working as stage manager of a production. She is transformed into a star when she replaces leading lady Rita Monroe (Glenda Jackson, unbilled), who twists her ankle seconds before the curtain goes up. Christopher Gable, who plays Polly's on-stage leading man, also choreographed the lavish musical numbers.

8.5 x 11 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #137054]