The Mini-Affair

I attended the MINI AFFAIR at the American Cinemateque in Hollywood with Director Amram in attendence. By the way, the U.S. title was THE MINI-MOB - though director Amram was hard pressed to remember WHERE or WHEN the film actually played in the USA.

One point which Amram made was that the Producers/Distributors lopped off the prologue of the film (I.E. The part which explains WHY these attractive ladies can't find a man without kidnapping them!). As it plays on screen in the release print, it DOES seem like the opening is missing. Right off, they're all hatching the kidnap plan - "Why?" is left unsaid.

Not that the strained silliness would have been made much better or more coherent anyway. This is one of those curios where the stuff in the margins (throwaway lines, goofball 'period' swipes & broad caricatures) are better than the main plot. And, the Bee Gees music and backing score aren't half bad as well. As slight as the film is, it should be released somehow on DVD. You'd think the Bee Gees alone would have warranted SOME kind of release by now.

Now we know why this truly jaw-dropping "swingin' '60s" artifact has languished virtually unseen since its fleeting release in 1968 - it's virtually unwatchable! Even die-hard fans of mod kitsch - like those of us who turned out for its ultra-rare screening at Martin Lewis's 2002 "Mods and Rockers" film series - will be hard-pressed to explain, much less defend, this thing. Obsessive UK pop fans should note that it features a brief clip of The Majority performing a song written (but never released) by the Bee Gees, as well as the first recording of the Bee Gees' later hit, "Words," covered here by pop star Georgie Fame, who plays a pop star named "Georgie Hart." The so-called plot (basically contrived on the fly by director Amram from a notion by producer Herland) centers on a scheme by a guy, his girlfriend, and three "dollybirds" to kidnap a pop star, a DJ from an offshore pirate radio station!, and a cabinet minister. Object: marriage! Perhaps it's no coincidence that the storyline roughly parallels that of "The Touchables," another equally rare and equally unwatchable relic of the era, albeit without the latter's truly bizarre "humorous" homoerotic subtext. One can certainly understand why Amram refused to authorize a screening of "Mini-Affair" earlier, but he was a good sport at this year's screening and cheerfully stood for questions afterward. Rebounding from this disaster, Amram went on to win two Academy Awards three years later for his short film "Sentinels of Silence," narrated by Orson Welles - proving once again that success is the best revenge.