| Author | Message | ||
     John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.146.96 |
It’s time to fly the flag at Probert Towers again as another slice of ultra-obscure BritHorror makes it onto DVD and oh my goodness was this one worth the wait. Like The Frozen Dead, which I only managed to catch up with last year, Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly was one of those movies I grew up reading about and wondering what the hell was going on in the stills I saw. Well now I know. Ever wondered what it would have been like if Hammer had made The Young Ones? Well this is probably about as close as they would have got. Freddie Francis was to my mind unjustly maligned as his career headed into the 1970s for making pretty much nothing but rubbish but this is a little gem. The dysfunctional family of the title live at run down, dilapidated, gloriously rotting Oakley Court (where most of the movie was filmed). Every now and then Sonny & Girly pop out dressed in their school uniforms to bring home new friends to play with. After ‘Soldier’ (a drunk they find at the zoo) proves unsatisfactory and has to have his head chopped off they encounter a couple (Michael Bryant and Imogen Hassall) who they take to play in the park, where Imogen meets her death in her lovely white evening gown by falling from a slide. Michael’s too drunk to notice and so when they tell him he’s murdered her he believes them and heads back to Oakley to take part in their bizarre games and slowly undermine the household. This doesn’t begin to describe a movie that is one of a kind, featuring some superbly quotable dialogue courtesy of Brian Comport who would go on to write The Asphyx, some memorably insane setups, and some glorious performances, the best of which has to be Vanessa Howard as one of the most adorable psychotics ever to grace our screens. Even when swinging an axe she manages to be appealing and really rather scary at the same time. Even Bernard Ebbinghouse, who I’ve never really liked after his awful jazzy score for Tales That Witness Madness, provides some great music that pokes fun at plenty of nursery rhymes. This is going on our pile of movies labelled ‘watch again and again’ and if you love wacked out pieces of British eccentric cinema it should go on yours too. | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.155.78.166 |
This may well have to be seen to be believed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzaCVD4IMPI&feature=related | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.146.96 |
Believe me Steve - it lives up to the promise of its trailer! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.199.185 |
I saw this when it came out! Not sure whether it was the 'A' or 'B' film; I saw everything Imogen Hassall was in when I was a lad! | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.151.35.154 |
"The family that slays together, stays together!" Sounds great. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.146.96 |
I saw everything Imogen Hassall was in when I was a lad! Even Carry On Loving & El Condor?  (You just know I have don't you?) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Like you, JLP, I grew up reading about this one and have always wanted to see it. Where on earth did you source a copy? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Btw, Jon, I finally ordered Who can kill a child?...another one I grew up reading about and longing to see. Spider Baby next.  | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.199.185 |
Even Carry On Loving & El Condor? Of course! "Cooking fat?"... | ||
| Mark_samuels (Mark_samuels) Username: Mark_samuels Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.149.65.236 |
Who Can Kill a Child? Great Spanish film. Apropos of which... one of the bits from the film was a source that inspired a scene in a tale ("Xapalpa") from my next collection. Yes, unsurprisingly, the whole piñata thing is big in Mexico too, as it is elsewhere in Latin America. Said scene can be seen here. You can stop after that bit if you don't want to see some American guy talking about the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IBJ7AZOpYM Mark S. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.199.185 |
Spider Baby next. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAKyokwktsI | ||
| Mark_samuels (Mark_samuels) Username: Mark_samuels Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.149.65.236 |
Talking of Mumsy, I recommend the following, without reservation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo Mark S. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
I'm quite concerned — especially after viewing that trailer linked to by Steveduffy — as yesterday JLP was e-mailed with the question "What movies would you consider the 'must see titles' in Horror Cinema?" One wonders what the results of that request will be, and how many of them will be made during the period of 1968 and 1974, and featuring mad bugger plot structures like this one. Perhaps Ramsey would be a better one to enquire of? Well… a safer one, anyway. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.173.248 |
"The family that slays together, stays together!" I've heard/read that but not the title of the movie. Funny, that. I love that you can still find these old films and that the whole decade isn't dead and gone. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Like you, JLP, I grew up reading about this one and have always wanted to see it. Where on earth did you source a copy? It's just out on Region 1, with a Region 2 release coming soon but I've no idea if it'll have the same extras. Btw, Jon, I finally ordered Who can kill a child?. Marvellous! Just make sure you've watched it by the time my Prism column on the movies of Narciso Ibanez Serrador comes out  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Yesterday JLP was e-mailed with the question "What movies would you consider the 'must see titles' in Horror Cinema?" Oh my dear Sir Ian - you know I would need an entire book to answer that one | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
And a most interesting book it would make, for sure. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
I'm terrified that JLP will insist on writing said book, then pitch it to me, and I'll publish it. Perhaps I should just go and throw some money down the drain right now and skip the wasted labour and supplies making the books? Seems more ecological, really. | ||
| Mark_samuels (Mark_samuels) Username: Mark_samuels Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.149.65.236 |
Someone's put Mumsy, Nanny, Sunny & Girly up on You-Tube in ten parts... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbDLTEFzZiU Mark S. | ||
| Martin Roberts (Martin_roberts) Username: Martin_roberts Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.5.239.91 |
Great news John... i can now update my copy of this film! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Well, after decades of waiting I finally got to see Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly last night. Wow. It's a wonderful, mad, scary, funny and oddly touching romp through warped psychosexual relationships and utterly damaged lives. Like Hammer doing Shirley Jackson. Loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
ps - if I ever form a band it shall be called Friend in Five. | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.132.151 |
Am I right in thinking that MOMSY AND SONNY was originally a story in the Pan Horror series? It may be nothing to do with this movie, of course, but I think it concerned a family of demented circus freaks, who escaped the big top and set up home out in society. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
The two have nothing to do with each other, Paul, but yes, that was a Pan story, wasn't it? I remember nothing about it apart from the title. A common thing for me with Pan stories I'm afraid... | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
ps - if I ever form a band it shall be called Friend in Five. That's how Lord P and I refer to our neighbours in the flats opposite us.  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Paul - you're right about that Pan story and no it doesn't have anything to do with this film, the screenplay of which was novelised by Brian Comport & published by Sphere. Sadly copies seem only to be available for silly money these days... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Kate, remember that boy, Tony Chestnut?  | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Toe! Knee! Chest! NUT! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Marvellous. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Somehow I missed all mention of this during my Euro-Horror obsessed teens, but the reviews have me intrigued. May go and sample it on YouTube now in fact... | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Note to self: do not drink liquid whilst in the conversational company of Zed and Kate, lest said liquid erupts through nose. |