Taking a look at the IMDb credits for Leticia Roman after recently re- watching Mario Bava's fantastic Giallo The Girl Who Knew Too Much,I was thrilled to discover,that along with Bava and Elvis,Roman had also starred in a very early Russ Meyer title.Opening my Russ Meyer DVD boxset for the film,I was surprised to ind that the title had been left out of the set.Deciding to search around the internet for the movie,I was thrilled when I stumbled upon a rare Pre-Cert Video of the title being sold on Ebay,which led to me excitingly getting ready to at last set eyes on Russ Meyer and Leticia Roman's team work.
The plot-
The 18th century:
Arriving in London from Liverpool with no money in her pocket,sweet,innocent Fanny Hill is relived to spot a jobs advert outside a building.Entering the building,Hill is met by a kind woman called Mrs.Maude Brown,who tells Hill that she runs a business which involves woman "escourting" the delivery of hats,to what are oddly all male customers.With Fanny not seeing the job for what it is,but instead viewing it as a job that can help men decide on what hat they should buy for their wife,Hill cheerfully accepts the job,and unwittingly enters the seedy underbelly of London with a huge grin on her face.
View on the film:
Made at the very end of his Nudie-Cutie era,co-director (who for the first and only time co-directed the film with Albert Zugsmith) Russ Meyer unexpectedly takes things in an extremely restrained direction for his first ever sound movie,and also his only period feature.
Despite the beautiful Leticia Roman (who is perhaps the only leading Meyer lady not to appear naked in a film of his!) still being able to give a delightfully charismatic performance as Hill,Meyer takes a huge dose of Roman's charm away by splattering the film with an ear- gratingly awful dub of Leticia's voice,which is also completely at odds with the rest of the clear "natural" soundtrack featured in the film.
Dragging Robert Hill's adaptation of John Cleland's infamous novel to a long 100 minute running time, (which would end up becoming Meyer's longest movie!) Meyer thankfully shows a glimpse of style with the film's appearance,thanks to Meyer and cinematography Heinz Holscher crisp black & white work allowing Costume Designer Claudia Hahne-Herberg's elegant work to be fully displayed,whilst Meyer also shows a fun fourth wall breaking side by separating the movie into "pages" which are shown on screen in a film where the girl sadly does not know too much.
The plot-
The 18th century:
Arriving in London from Liverpool with no money in her pocket,sweet,innocent Fanny Hill is relived to spot a jobs advert outside a building.Entering the building,Hill is met by a kind woman called Mrs.Maude Brown,who tells Hill that she runs a business which involves woman "escourting" the delivery of hats,to what are oddly all male customers.With Fanny not seeing the job for what it is,but instead viewing it as a job that can help men decide on what hat they should buy for their wife,Hill cheerfully accepts the job,and unwittingly enters the seedy underbelly of London with a huge grin on her face.
View on the film:
Made at the very end of his Nudie-Cutie era,co-director (who for the first and only time co-directed the film with Albert Zugsmith) Russ Meyer unexpectedly takes things in an extremely restrained direction for his first ever sound movie,and also his only period feature.
Despite the beautiful Leticia Roman (who is perhaps the only leading Meyer lady not to appear naked in a film of his!) still being able to give a delightfully charismatic performance as Hill,Meyer takes a huge dose of Roman's charm away by splattering the film with an ear- gratingly awful dub of Leticia's voice,which is also completely at odds with the rest of the clear "natural" soundtrack featured in the film.
Dragging Robert Hill's adaptation of John Cleland's infamous novel to a long 100 minute running time, (which would end up becoming Meyer's longest movie!) Meyer thankfully shows a glimpse of style with the film's appearance,thanks to Meyer and cinematography Heinz Holscher crisp black & white work allowing Costume Designer Claudia Hahne-Herberg's elegant work to be fully displayed,whilst Meyer also shows a fun fourth wall breaking side by separating the movie into "pages" which are shown on screen in a film where the girl sadly does not know too much.