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The Boy Friend

  • 1971
  • Tous publics
  • 2h 17m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
Twiggy in The Boy Friend (1971)
When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.
Play trailer2:50
1 Video
88 Photos
ComedyMusicalRomance

When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the p... Read allWhen the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.

  • Director
    • Ken Russell
  • Writers
    • Ken Russell
    • Sandy Wilson
  • Stars
    • Twiggy
    • Christopher Gable
    • Max Adrian
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.8/10
    3.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ken Russell
    • Writers
      • Ken Russell
      • Sandy Wilson
    • Stars
      • Twiggy
      • Christopher Gable
      • Max Adrian
    • 69User reviews
    • 28Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 4 wins & 4 nominations total

    Videos1

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    Trailer 2:50
    Trailer

    Photos88

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    Top cast27

    Edit
    Twiggy
    Twiggy
    • Polly
    Christopher Gable
    Christopher Gable
    • Tony
    Max Adrian
    Max Adrian
    • Max
    Bryan Pringle
    Bryan Pringle
    • Percy
    Murray Melvin
    Murray Melvin
    • Alphonse
    Moyra Fraser
    Moyra Fraser
    • Mme. Dubonnet
    Georgina Hale
    Georgina Hale
    • Fay
    Sally Bryant
    • Nancy
    Vladek Sheybal
    Vladek Sheybal
    • De Thrill
    Tommy Tune
    Tommy Tune
    • Tommy
    Brian Murphy
    Brian Murphy
    • Peter
    Graham Armitage
    Graham Armitage
    • Michael
    Antonia Ellis
    Antonia Ellis
    • Maisie
    Caryl Little
    • Dulcie
    Anne Jameson
    • Mrs. Peter
    • (as Ann Jameson)
    Catherine Willmer
    Catherine Willmer
    • Catherine
    Robert La Bassiere
    • Chauffeur
    • (as Robert La'Bassiere)
    Barbara Windsor
    Barbara Windsor
    • Hortense
    • Director
      • Ken Russell
    • Writers
      • Ken Russell
      • Sandy Wilson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews69

    6.83.7K
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    Featured reviews

    8ptb-8

    truly hilarious

    As hilarious today as it was in 1971, this much loved comedy is probably to musicals what Blazing Saddles is to westerns. I know that might sound odd but the analogy describes how much of a very funny send up of Busby Berkeley musicals and wobbly British seaside theatre this film really is. I saw the longer 139 min version in a 1997 reissue in Australia, and it actually is not as tidy as the shorter 109 min version originally released, It is too excessive and impromptu (cast laughing etc) whereas the shorter version does work better. However it does allow for 2 more songs and some extras in the dance numbers that you will want to see... Twiggy is gorgeous, the art direction superb and the end result hilarious and charming. Interestingly it was made because MGM fumbled the possibility of a straight stage reworking with Julie Andrews (she made Thoroughly Modern Millie instead), and by 1968 the world went to hell in the Vietnam war and street riots. The Boyfriend has aged well, and so has Twiggy. Alert viewers will see some of the same clothes previously in Women In Love because Shirley Russell used to buy the real 1920s garments from London markets and used them in several films her husband made. BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS is a good 2003 equivalent in art direction and style.
    9TheLittleSongbird

    So much fun and quite unique for a movie musical

    While not among my personal favourite musicals or films, The Boy Friend was immensely entertaining in almost every sense and certainly unlike any movie musical we've seen before. The dog scats on your spats joke would have been better left out because it did wear thin and it was more tasteless than funny. But actually that is the only thing in The Boy Friend that came across as that to me, particularly for a director like Ken Russell who has been known to resort to excess and have material that people can be easily offended by. Russell always was a controversial director who fascinated a lot of people and repulsed others, no matter what you thought of him there is no denying that his directing and style was unique. So how does Russell's direction fare here? Brilliantly actually(for an unlikely choice of director for a musical), the style he brings is extravagant as can be seen in the sets, lighting and costumes that burst with primary colours and the purposeful and interesting camera shots(sweeping and a case of awkward working in its favour) showing a virtuoso at work. The spectacle is big and very eye-catching but, despite how this sounds, for Russell while not restrained as such it's not excessive either. The musical numbers are all delightful and always catchy whether in a humorous or emotional way, and they're staged with a Busby Berkeley influence that is always engaging and over-the-top to a delicious degree. Where else in a musical would you find leprechauns in a world of mushrooms, nurses pushing their patients in kaleidoscopic circular fashion in wheelchairs, aeroplane dancing in the snow and swimmers in the ocean in identical attire? The Grecian Nymph fantasy and the nymphs being led off to save the day by Tommy Tune are also great touches that provide plenty of amusement. Despite all this visual spectacle, The Boy Friend is surprisingly also brilliantly written, the satire is sharp and the backstage intrigue is intriguing and insightful. You do have to love Maisie's ad-libbing and attempts at seduction as well, and there's a fair share of emotional impact too, at the end Polly is very easy to root for. The story may sound clichéd and concept-wise it is but execution-wise it was surprising at how unconventional and breaking-new-ground the storytelling was and it's all done with fun as well as non-stop charm and nostalgia. The cast really give their all, even if Christopher Gable's acting and singing doesn't impress as much as his excellent dancing. The best being Twiggy who is charming to the hilt, Antonia Ellis who will leave you in hysterics with her ad-libbing and seduction attempts and Russell regular/favourite Glenda Jackson whose hilarious performance is one that is not easily forgotten in the long run. Barbara Windsor is always great value too. All in all, a fascinating and immensely enjoyable movie musical unlike any other that you've seen before. It's not for everybody, like Russell himself it will delight numbers of people- where I fit in- and perplex others, both viewpoints of which are totally understandable. 9/10 Bethany Cox
    rwint

    Fantastic!!!!!!

    9 out of 10

    Excellent musical that should be the basis for all other musicals. Seamless, flawless, and visually stunning. A wide variety of backdrops and settings are used. There is everything from the conventional dance line to a fairy tale setting where the performers are dressed like ladybugs and living in giant mushrooms. There is also a fun take off on Greek mythology done in a scenic forest setting.

    By far the two best segments take place with them dancing on a giant record player and another with them made to look like characters on a giant playing card. The giant record player one as got to be the most impressive because they show them on not one, but two giant record players, side by side and from overhead. The dancers than dance on top of the giant turntables and , as a group, make unique symmetrical designs with their bodies. It's like a old Busby Berkley number and yet almost out does even him.

    This is a rare film that can carry itself on visual level alone. The story is at best just a standard musical plot. It involves a group of underpaid actors who put on a tacky low budget musical for a small group of people. The film than interweaves between the low budget numbers, which are all still really good, and their visual fantasies of what things would look like if they had a big budget. Twiggy plays the shy awkward crew hand that comes on as the star when the leading lady breaks her leg.

    Sure it is, at times, predictable, corny, and lightweight yet it also has a really good sense of humor. The songs ALL have a good score and the dances are certainly fun to watch. Twiggy may never score as a great actress, but she hits the mark here. She has a cute bob haircut and a constantly perplexed expression that is really amusing. All the other characters have amusing idiosyncracies also. Jackson is fun, of course, as the injured leading lady who comes back and is none too happy to see how successful her replacement is.

    Some of director Russell's films have been considered excessive and nonsensical. Yet that is not the case here. His visual flair and indulgence really work. This guy has talent. He use of primary colors in every shot is nice.

    This is truly a visual delight that is impressive even by todays standards. This is a really fun to watch.
    rossco-3

    From Bad to Brilliant!

    Interesting how the user reviews have shifted from the first entries which mostly HATE this film through to the current ones which mostly seem to LOVE it. That's some kind of cultural progress and sophistication at least.... Personally it's one of my favorite Russell films and I especially love the brilliant orchestrations by Peter Maxwell Davies. BOYFRIEND will reportedly be screened in Sept. by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles. Russell has been in LA over the past month and I recently saw him at a screening of WOMEN IN LOVE and THE MUSIC LOVERS at the Aero in Santa Monica. Richard Chamberlain was also at the MUSIC LOVERS screening. So can't wait to see THE BOYFRIEND on the big WIDE screen again at last. I seem to remember that at the original first-run screening in NYC the fantasy sequences were all in stereo. Hope they manage to get that print at the Cinematheque.
    MichaelCarmichaelsCar

    Musical farce, Ken Russell style

    Despite whatever intoxicated tangents Ken Russell has embarked on in some of his other works, 'The Boy Friend' is a particularly enchanting anomaly for this director. Working loosely from Sandy Wilson's Broadway musical 'The Boyfriend,' Russell's screenplay relegates Wilson's original work to a mere production-within-a-production -- 'Noises Off'-style, as it were. Set in1920's London, the owner of a decaying theater company in the East End realizes that a big-shot Hollywood director, Cecil B. DeThrill, has dropped in to watch a performance, and he instantly regrets thrusting the young Assistant Stage Manager, Polly (played by Twiggy), onto the stage to fill the shoes of the show's star (Glenda Jackson, in an uncredited cameo), who's laid up in the hospital after getting her foot stuck in a tramline while en route to the performance. As with 'Noises Off,' the movie is a farce dealing with a potentially disastrous stage performance, although the backstage drama is more interwoven with the onstage production itself, so that the play dominates the duration of the film while serving as a window onto the backstage chaos.

    The members of the theatre company are vain and starved to impress DeThrill, bitterly upstaging one another and overreaching for the Hollywood bigwig's attention. Amidst them, of course, is Twiggy's Polly, humble, nervous and in love with leading man Tony, who may or may not be carrying on an affair with one of the company's coquettish young actresses. Her feelings, at any given moment -- ranging from adoration to heartbreak, based upon what she half-observes -- dictate the course of her onstage performance and her ad-libs.

    Wilson's play deals trivially with class divide, and it's interesting to note how the company's performers, all unrefined East Enders, play on their slanted notion of the upper-class. The actresses Russell has cast have a particular big-eyed, blinking appeal, the wider their shark-like onstage smiles, the greater the underhandedness being masked. The farcical elements are well-played, and Russell's signature brand of calculated bawdiness is appropriate for this context.

    The brightest element of the movie, however, is Twiggy. Here, she is endearing and delicate, charmingly unsophisticated in an Eliza Doolittle fashion. Her performance in 'The Boy Friend' is unusually pure and sympathetic for something found in a Ken Russell film, and in a way, her character's predicament can be seen as a metaphor for Twiggy's appearance in this film. She is commanding through her gentle submissiveness, standing radiantly apart from the gloss of what surrounds her. Russell's strategy in establishing Twiggy's Polly as a most sympathetic protagonist seems to be directing her to perform, onstage, in the most naturalistic way possible, while every other member of the company performs in alternately forced, unnatural, and ham-fisted manners (pandering to DeThrill, of course, but at times reaching bizarre extremes of unnaturalness).

    Unfortunately, for much of the film, Twiggy is completely swallowed by Ken Russell's extravaganza, in which he either pays homage to or simply satirizes Busby Berkeley with quite glorious (but characteristically excessive) widescreen tableaux. He has his entire library of tricks on hand, expressed in 'fantasy' sequences, in which an American flag backdrop dominates the entire frame in one instance, and a black & white movie projected onto a screen, positioned squarely in the center of the frame, itself turns into a Berkeley-style number. Another fantasy sequence, shot in a rustic outdoor environment, is ugly and dated, and does not fit with the rest of the film. It should have been excised.

    Like most of Russell's films, 'The Boy Friend' looks and sounds great. The movie is often a joy to watch, particularly in its first hour. As much as I admired its visuals and the tight rhythms of its wit, I found myself longing, after it ended, for more of Twiggy's warmth and less of Russell's technical virtuosity. Still, a most enjoyable movie.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Though much more lighthearted than most of his films, according to Ken Russell, this was the most difficult film he ever made.
    • Goofs
      The pips on the large dice costume the dancers wear are not marked as proper dice would be. This costume's die shows 3, 4, 5, 6 on each side of the body (front, right, back, left). However on a proper die, opposite sides always add up to 7. (eg, if the front side shows 3, the rear side should show 4, not 5.)
    • Quotes

      Mme. Dubonnet: [singing] I am so good, At spreading mirth and joy

      Percy: But it's no good, With such a sulky boy

      Maisie, Fay, Dulcie, Nancy: I try, To play the game the other fellows all choose

      Percy: The other fellows all choose

      Maisie, Fay, Dulcie, Nancy: I sigh, Because you always refuse

      Mme. Dubonnet: What is a girl to do, With such a boy as you? I've got those

      Percy, Mme. Dubonnet, Maisie, Fay, Dulcie, Nancy: Dreary, Weary, You-Don't-Want-To-Play-With-Me Blues

    • Crazy credits
      Ken Russell's Talking Picture
    • Alternate versions
      CBS edited 38 minutes from this film for its 1975 network television premiere.
    • Connections
      Featured in Omnibus: Russell's Progress (1971)
    • Soundtracks
      All I Do is Dream of You
      Music by Nacio Herb Brown

      Lyrics by Arthur Freed

      Performed by Twiggy

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    FAQ17

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 14, 1972 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
      • The Boyfriend
    • Filming locations
      • Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
      • Russflix
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $2,300,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 17m(137 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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