Percy

I've always been fond of this film. The seemingly intentional mis-marketing as a raunchy comedy is not uncommon for the time, and is really damaging to what is essentially a look at sexual relationships and sexuality. There's a sweet naivety about the films perspective, caught up in the era in which is was released. Not much raunchiness, innuendo base titillation is more the course. As for the comedy there are a few laughs, and they do help alleviate some of the melancholy moments. For me it's in the emotional twists and turns that the film really shows interest and variety.

The Kinks wrote and performed the soundtrack. The songs are well constructed with some touchingly sentimental moments. An appreciation of The Kinks would most certainly aid ones appreciation the film, the lyrics embellishing he drama considerably.

I'm really surprised this film has been rated so low. How much of that is related to the mis-marketing and an under appreciation of the soundtrack?

You might think that a movie concerning itself with a man getting a penis transplant and his adventures trying to find out about the donor would be a really raunchy affair. Surprisingly, the movie is extremely tame - there's almost no nudity, sex, or foul language. In fact, I am surprised this got an "R" rating even in 1971. Another surprise is that the movie doesn't try for as many attempts at humor as you might think. The second half of the movie is serious for the most part. As you might have guessed, this movie is not that much fun, and you'll get tired from it long before the end. The most curious thing about it is the score from The Kinks. It doesn't fit the movie for the most part, like how they play an instrumental of "Lola" when a woman is stripteasing for the main male character! Somehow this movie was successful enough to inspire a sequel several years later. Thanks, but I think I'll pass.

This film begins with an antique dealer by the name of "Edwin Anthony" (Hywel Bennett) on his way to deliver a chandelier on a busy city street. All at once, a man falls to his death from a skyrise building resulting in a piece of glass from the chandelier severing Hywel's male organ. In yet another strange twist of fate, there just happens to be a noted physician by the name of "Dr. Emmanuel Whitbread" (Denholm Elliott) waiting for the opportunity to be the first surgeon to ever successfully transplant a male organ onto another person. To his credit, the operation turns out to be a huge success--in more ways than one. Things change, however, when news of this event is released to the public and Edwin becomes obsessed with finding out the identities of everyone his unlucky donor ever slept with. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I was somewhat skeptical at first about this film but decided to give it a look just to satisfy my curiosity. Having said that, I must admit that my skepticism was justified to a certain degree as the humor wasn't nearly as sharp as it could have been. To its credit, there were a number of attractive female actresses cast in this movie with Cyd Hayman (as "Moira Warrington"), Adrienne Posta ("Maggie Hyde"), Elke Sommer ("Helga"), Janet Key ("Hazel Anthony") and Tracey Crisp ("Miss Elder") who certainly brightened the overall scenery. Unfortunately, their presence wasn't enough to lift this rather lackluster comedy, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

I agree with all who describe this film as poorly marketed. I'm not however sure what the correct marketing would be! The movie begins as a bawdy comedy and eventually becomes a rather sweet tale of people in pursuit of love, or a least a respite from loneliness or simple boredom. Some nice characters played by British stalwarts including Graham Crowden and Sheila Steafal. Cyd Hayman is stunning and charming in equal degree. Hywel Bennet is as reliable as always. Seems to be one of those films where a slightly confused script just seems to work. However my real weakness for this movie is that it captures London at the time beautifully. Like a swinging sixties movies (though released 1971 so presumably filmed 70 or 71) it catches the mood. Catch it if you can.

For a movie centering around the world's first successful penis transplant, "Percy" turns out to be considerably less raunchy than one might expect; in fact, it's downright melancholy at times. The hero spends half the movie trying to discover the identity of the (deceased) donor of his new "member", and the other half meeting the donor's past conquests; in the end he realizes that going to bed with a woman only gives him pleasure when he really cares about her. The film is meandering and short on big laughs, but Hywel Bennett gives a likable, low-key performance, as do most of the women, who are quite lovely to boot (be aware, however, that the biggest names, Elke Sommer and Britt Ekland, appear only for a couple of minutes each). So "Percy" does not rise to any great heights (ha!), but it is not completely limp either (ha!) (**1/2)