Eskimo Nell (1975)

This is the story of bold Benny U. Murdoch (Roy Kinnear) – owner of B.U.M Studios and producer of naughty sex pics – who wanted to film the notoriously filthy poem Eskimo Nell and got into a terrible fix.

Charged with putting the film together, Dennis Morrison (Michael Armstrong) enlists his mate Clive (Terence Edmond) as producer and asks Harris Tweedle (Christopher Timothy) – who knows more about penguins than women – to script the film and the three set off with Murdoch to find backers.

Each of four backers insisted that the poem be filmed in a different way: as a Kung Fu musical; as a wholesome family film; as traditional hardcore porn; and as Britain’s first all-gay western. It’s a chaotic juggling act and funny in places with all genres spoofed.

A (slight) relaxation of censorship at the turn of the 1970s triggered a decade where the softcore sex comedy was one of the few surefire commercial bets for British cinema.

Most were neither sexy nor funny, and this one isn’t particularly erotic either, but it does cast a keenly satirical eye on how the sex-film business was run at the time.

Benny U. Murdoch
Roy Kinnear
Reverend Mother
Anna Quayle
Hermione
Katy Manning
Dennis Morrison
Michael Armstrong
Casting Girl
Sheila Bernette
Ambrose Cream
Richard Caldicot
Clive Potter
Terence Edmond
Vernon Peabody
Jeremy Hawk
Lady Longhorn
Rosalind Knight
Gladys Armitage
Diane Langton
Billie Harris
Beth Porter
Harris Tweedle
Christopher Timothy
The Bishop
Lloyd Lamble
Lord Coltwind
Jonathan Adams
Jeremy
Christopher Biggins
Big Dick
Gordon Tanner
Deadeye Dick
Nicholas Young
Dave
Max Mason
Brendan
Christopher Neil

Director
Martin Campbell

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