Groupie Girl

Bizarrely viewed as one of those 70`s "sex films" now (due to some nudity) but actually a classic example of a late 60`s youth film. The plot is simple, girl wants to meet pop stars, becomes groupie, moves from band to band.

Has a brilliant (but sadly unavailable) soundtrack and has been reissued on video as "Groupie Girl". If you are into the 60`s, the music and are vaguely broadminded, I recommend this film wholeheartedly. It`s closer to 60`s culture than most of the more famous titles that often spring to mind.

This movie has it all... terrible bras, incomprehensible dialogue, bad Mick Jagger imitation, jiggly bare butts, Beatle-esque rip-off sequence, kit, groovy clothes, swinging sex party, characters with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, the longest cat-fight in cinematic history (complete with breast exposure), unforgettable theme song... what more could you ask for? The movie opens with a van cruising around the streets of some British city, with the credits painted on the side while the catchy theme song "Groupie Girl" plays. Upon closer inspection of this footage, and using the slow motion feature, we noticed that the van hits a pedestrian, who falls to the ground in the van's wake! I can't believe this footage was left on the film. That scene alone makes "Groupie Girl" worth watching.

This British film is a less racy, but equally depressing (albeit less melodramatic) than the German film "I, a Groupie" with which it is sometimes confused. Unlike the German film, this movie doesn't have an incendiary sex star like Ingrid Steeger, but its lead, the never-to-be-seen-again Esme Johns, is reasonably pretty and way too good for the douchebag rockers in this movie who use her for a sperm dumpster. Her introduction to groupie-dom is rather strange. She goes to a concert with her provincial mates and then for no particular reason stows away to London in the group's van. After she shags the lead singer rotten, she ends up getting in a catfight with his regular girlfriend and is kicked to the curb. But this doesn't dissuade her from the masochistic groupie lifestyle as she is passed from group to group, at one point literally through the windows of two moving vans.

The director Derek Ford would go on to a pretty lengthy career in the British sex industry, but this might be his best film, even if it's probably his tamest (by the late 70's he was doing hardcore porn flicks). The producer Stanley Long was also active in the industry and directed stuff like "Sex and the Other Woman". The infamous Collinson twins, Madeline and Mary, from Hammer's "Twins of Evil" make a cameo appearance in a bizarre scene at a swinging party where the guests couple up based on assigned animal impersonations (don't ask). The Collinsons have virtually no dialogue, but they offer up some fleeting nudity (and, after all, they weren't exactly known for their brilliant line readings). The music is all by obscure, third-rate British Invasion bands, but still its pretty good for the soundtrack of a cheap exploitation flick like this. I liked "I, a Groupie" better, but this better than other groupie-oriented films I've seen like "Bummer" (or, for that matter, "Almost Famous"). Worth seeing I guess.

Infamous British sexploitation scion, Derek Ford's remarkably gritty, dingily downbeat drama about painfully naïve, strikingly statuesque runaway, Sally (Esme Johns) who fatefully stows away in the back of gigging rock group, Opal Butterfly's transit van, and not long thereafter endures a grotty number of sordidly initiatory sexcapades, the 'turned on', Sally finally 'makes the scene',man!!! Ostensibly being serially abused by various brutish, self-absorbed, pot-raddled musicians, and in one expressly terrifying scene, Sally is callously manhandled through the windows of one fast-moving van into another!!!???

For all its conspicuous grubbiness, hilariously quaint, faux-hippie badinage, and gruesome promiscuity, Ford's prosaically presented smut is a surprisingly compelling decent into the banal hedonism of touring bands, and the group's no less predatory, carnally corrupted, money-grubbing managers. While the beleaguered busty waif, Sally, is a deliciously Rubenesque protagonist, her lot, sadly, is a far from happy one!! Groupie Girl's sprightly soundtrack is the film's undeniable highlight, with some exquisitely funky contributions from, Alan Hawkshaw & John Fiddy, and, surprisingly, the performances are all credible, with a Baronic-looking, Donald Sumpter being splendidly vile as the venal, smugly abusive, blithely boffing pop singer, Steve! While seasoned smut-maker, Derek Ford's lurid 70s rockarama, 'Groupie Girl' won't pop any buttons on ya' raincoat, it's right proper gear, mayte!

Just saw this for the first time recently and was very impressed as this theme hasn't been tackled much really thus resulting in an interesting journey on the 'Groupie Girl's' rocky road ahead. If you like early Seventies films about music of that time this is pretty good and the music isn't the normal cack you come to expect from most of the other late 60's psychedelic films.There's no psychedelia here though apart from a small bit where the 'Groupie Girl' eats some hash in order to dispose of it quickly; this resulting in her REALLY dropping out man,but,luckily saving her bacon in the process-you'll have to see the film. I found the bit where one of the roadies' vans crashes straight into a stationary tipper lorry on the hard shoulder very well done and unexpected at this point in the film.You don't see the point of impact though! The only down side is the price you may well have to pay in order to view this rare gem-it really is rocking-horse s...!