Eskimo Nell

ESKIMO NELL is a one-of-a-kind British sex comedy farce looking at the workings of the film industry. It's certainly a rather jumbled production, full of hit and miss humour, in which a group of idealistic young men strive to make a film and come across various unscrupulous characters along the way.

There's a wealth of talent involved in this one both in front of and behind the cameras which alone makes it a worthwhile watch. The movie was directed by a youthful Martin Campbell, cutting his teeth decades before he'd direct the likes of big Hollywood blockbusters like CASINO ROYALE. Exploitation king Stanley Long came up with the story, while one-time infant terrible of British cinema Michael Armstrong (MARK OF THE DEVIL) wrote and stars.

There are many familiar faces in supporting roles, including a turn for later TV favourite Christopher Timothy playing a shy young virgin writer. Christopher Biggins is here alongside Katy Manning (DR WHO), Anna Quayle, Stephanie Cole, Derek Martin, Mary Millington (in a one-scene striptease) and the delightful Rosalind Knight (CARRY ON NURSE). One of the best of the lot is Roy Kinnear, lapping up his turn as a sleazy producer. The humour is rather broad and lowbrow, and as a sex comedy this doesn't really work despite lots of nudity, but as a send-up of the film industry in general it's quite fun and certainly more inventive than your usual CONFESSIONS sequel or rip-off.

This is not one of those tacky seventies sex comedies. It's tacky, it's definitely seventies but don't expect the usual gratuitous nudity. Allegedly this is a witty criticism of the state of the British film industry - although 'witty' is quite an exaggeration.

Director Martin Campbell eventually ended up making some of the world's biggest blockbusters but you'd never guess from this. In his defence, this was only his second film and the budget he had seemed to be financed by a couple of books of green shield stamps.

Although now this feels like a pilot for a late night seventies ITV sitcom, it's not without merit. It's plot is quite funny but its amateurish production and less than clever writing really lets this down. Since this thinks it's a cut above the typical seventies sex-com it really should have demonstrated that claim but it doesn't. Perhaps I was expecting something which actually lived up its reputation?

What is unforgivable is that for the first eleven minutes Katy Manning hasn't made an appearance yet! Dr Who fans will of course know that Katy Manning was the most gorgeous 'companion' ever, if not the sexiest woman ever to appear on tv. She doesn't have the biggest part, sounds like she's got laryngitis but she brightens the whole thing up. That's needed because despite it being a comedy, there's no sense of fun in this. The characters are either cold and uninteresting or unlikeable. Nobody on screen seems to be enjoying themselves so neither does the audience.

My poor review might just be because this isn't my kind of picture - give me some Marx Brothers any day!

Eskimo Nell (1975) is a sex comedy movie directed by Martin Campbell and it is on par with the first sex comedy movie Campbell directed.

Positives for Eskimo Nell (1975): For a movie that is kind of a porn, this one had a lot of plot attached to it. The performances from the cast are good enough for the movie they're in. The movie has a good pace to it. I also liked that the main characters did face some consequences for their actions at the end.

Negatives for Eskimo Nell (1975): This is still a porn and I barely got into it because I am not a fan of porn. I'm also not a fan of the movie's humor where they're making fun of women's breasts.

Overall, Eskimo Nell (1975) is another whatever sex comedy movie from Martin Campbell, but I would recommend it to fans of porn.

In the artistic wasteland of 1970s' British sex comedies (and arguably a good deal of British cinema at that time altogether) Eskimo Nell shines out as a modest beacon of wit, satirical in a way that still strikes a refreshing note. These days no doubt, Morrison and Tweedle would be assigned to work on several cheap UK gangster films at once, as that's the genre which has lately shown the greatest lack of nerve in the home grown industry. Back then, with UK's business in worse decline, it was such dire products as Come Play With Me (1977), that exemplified a depressing wave of home grown 'sex' films, neither sexy or arguably, real cinema at all: just the sad, exploitative effects of a restrictive lack of investment, and censorship. Together with the slightly more family orientated Confessions... series and the even softer saucy postcard world of the Carry On... series, this is what represented the officially sanctioned 'adult' industry at the time.

Eskimo Nell's satire therefore had in its sights a ripe and obvious target, although it is still frequently overlooked as just another sex film of its time. Its a perception not helped by its small budget, mediocre (if enthusiastic) acting as well as a lingering air of titillation characteristic of the genre. Real life actor-screenwriter Michael Armstrong, whose previous film was the more predictable It Could Happen to You (aka: Intimate Teenage Secrets, 1975) - which would never the less make an interesting double bill with his Nell - made the hard to see crime factional drama Black Panther (1977) after this, before disappearing into TV and the humdrum. Greater things have come of the director Martin Campbell however, as he has since made such films as GoldenEye, Vertical Limit, as well as just being engaged on Casino Royale.

The present film falls into three main parts. First there is the setting up of the project, a period of the narrative dominated by the avuncular, disreputable Murdoch - a professional performance by Roy Kinnear, the sort of role at which he shined. Once he disappears and matters move onto the complicated matter of the filming, then character comedy is swapped for situational, the change bringing probably the funniest moments of the film. Finally, there is the anticipated premiere, the chase after film canisters and so on, providing a suitable wrap up. As others have pointed out, this last section changes the emphasis of the satire somewhat, from one focusing purely on the sex film industry as such to mimicking the strategies of the caper film.

Much of the pleasure of Nell comes from the incidentals, which have a real feeling of time and place, as well as a feeling that some of the principals had had first hand experience of the industry they spoof. As the guileless Morrison, Michael Armstrong makes an impression as a hopeful but little else; his pretentious cineaste-speak sounds hollow even as satire, especially when compared to the gloating, tit-centred obsessed speeches of Murdoch. Morrison's fazed expressions, to be replaced by that of creative concentration during the actual production, remind me of a similar innocent: that of Dennis Barlow, at the centre of Richardson's underrated The Loved One (1965). Both Barlow and Morrison share an initial bewilderment at encountering a strange society, and one tinged by aberrant sexuality. But while Morrison remains detached and never opportunistic (as well always slightly surprised at the brave new world in which he's suddenly found himself) Barlow is able, initially at least, to make headway of sorts. In fact one of the weaknesses of Nell is that its central trio contain no central dynamic, other than being desperate to salvage the situation in which they have been trapped. Even the penguin obsessed and virginal Tweedle, the most eccentric of the three, pales in significance compared to the outrageous characters surrounding him the sex film world.

Nell follows in the tradition of the British sex comedy in never being erotic, merely naughty. It gains an edge for us today from being so self referential, with an intelligence missing from other productions of the time, and some have compared it to Truffaut's Day For Night (1973). In truth it is far less accomplished than that, bearing more of a resemblance to Confessions Of A Blue Movie Star (1978), being less about cinema itself than the practical bluntness required for the production of porn. And its best moments appear as part of that production: the gay cowboy ripping a succession of skin tight jeans as he gets off his horse; the kung fu religious school with the bizarre juxtaposition of Sound Of Music with Bruce Lee, or just Christopher Biggins' cherubic face as he raises up a suggestively wrapped umbrella into our line of sight - with equally suggestive dialogue, naturally. The British DVD is barer of extras than a starlet's soliliquy.

The writer of this film is Michael Armstrong. He was also director/writer of a previous Tigon film 'The Haunted House of Horror'. During the making of that film he experienced some very unpleasant run-ins with an individual representing AIP (the American distributors). This resulted in Michael's script being re-written and a very different film to his original concept being produced as the end product. This film 'Eskimo Nell' parodies those experiences. Listen to Michael's voice over in the 'extras' section of the DVD of 'Haunted House of Horror' for a graphic description of his experience and learn who some of the characters in 'Eskimo Nell' actually represent!