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.

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.

This is one of the best of the British sex comedies.This is particularly so when it satirises the British film industry.The American ffilm executive is meant to be Deke Hayward European head ofAIP.Interesting to see London in the sixties

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!

This is a very rare creature indeed--a British sex comedy that is actually funny! This movie, probably inspired by Mel Brook's original version of "The Producers" is about three young men--an aspiring director (played by "Mark of the Devil" director Michael Armstrong), his virginal penguin-obsessed screenwriter, and the screenwriter's lothario flat-mate--who are all trying to break into the British film industry. They meet a sleazy producer (Roy Kinnear) who wants to make a film version of the famous bawdy poem "Eskimo Nell". To raise the money though he gets them to sell three very different versions of the movie to three different backers: a foul-mouthed American ("Big Dick")who wants to make a hardcore porn movie, another guy who wants to make a "kung-fu musical" to showcase the two "talents" of his girlfriend, and an arty dilettante who wants to make a gay Western ("with a lot of bottom smacking") featuring his transvestite boyfriend.

It gets worse when the producer runs off with the money, and the director has to find a fourth backer (simply to avoid the lawsuits), and goes to his society girlfriend's mother (no doubt modeled on puritanical British busybody Mary Whitehead)who runs a "decency" society and wants to make a clean family film! Needless to say, the whole thing goes horribly, horribly awry. Reels from the different versions get mixed up, a guy's willie gets caught in a clapboard, and one character delivers the immortal line: "What's my motivation for having an erection?" The movie is quite funny both in its conception and in its execution. It doesn't slather on the naked dolly birds quite as much as a lot of other British sex comedies of the era perhaps, but an almost unrecognizable Mary Millington does show for a 10-second "Benny Hill"-style speeded-up striptease.

As far as the sex goes, this probably won't inspire all the hairy-palmed Michaelangelos out there to turn their ceilings into a scummy Sistine Chapel, but it is definitely FUNNY and pretty entertaining, which is a lot more than can be said of the vast majority of these films.