The Yes Girls (1971) - IMDb

The Yes Girls (1971) - IMDb

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068002/synopsis ...
Shulton's secretary
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Plot Keywords: Independent Film
Genres: Drama
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Details
Country: UK
Language: English
Also Known As: Take Some Girls See more »
Company Credits
Production Co: Lindsay Shonteff Film Productions Limited See more »
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Technical Specs
Runtime: 86 min
Sound Mix: Mono
Color: Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
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User Reviews
21 May 2007 | by gavcrimson (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews
*** This review may contain spoilers ***

With looks that suggested a seaside postcard blonde who'd hop, skipped into the real world Sue Bond was something special. Sue began her career in George Harrison Marks' 8mm glamour films at a time when GHM was making the jump from simple striptease films to soft core simulations. Sue managed to use her looks to good advantage, becoming quite the television comedienne by way of cheeky bit-parts in many a 1970s sitcom, and even spoofing her glamour film past in films like Freelance and O Lucky Man. Sue also enjoyed an unusually long, three year stint on The Benny Hill Show. Somewhere along the way Sue had her "Queen for a Day" moment, playing her only lead role in Lindsay Shonteff's The Yes Girls.

The Yes Girls opens not unlike a risqué Benny Hill sketch, Maria (Sue) stuck at a boring girls school wants out. A wink and show of knickers to the school's decrepit caretaker- who even looks like Hill stooge Jackie Wright- is enough for him to help her escape. A flash of Maria's breasts during her nighttime escape proves too much for the old codger though, who promptly has a heart attack and dies. Sod it, Maria goes on the run anyway.

Ending up in London, Maria hooks up with Angela (Sally Muggeridge) and Caron (Felicity Oliver) two resting actresses, of the kind that do more resting than acting. Though she's penniless they let Maria stay, albeit only because they know her buxom presence will save themselves from the lecherous advances of their landlord, less a sugar daddy than a sugar granddaddy. Maria gets an unexpected break when she accompanies the pair for an audition and gets the lead role in a film, despite not being able to act. Angela and Caron get the secondary roles. The medallion man producer promises the three girls the world, but the limousine, big budget and South of France locations never arrive. Instead they end up in a rainy Brighton resort making "The Flesh in the Fields" under the supervision of the marvelously monickered King Reiter (Shonteff regular Jack May). A frustrated Ken Russell wannabe artiste, who has been promised the chance to direct a film version of Julius Caesar, providing he'll turn out a skin flick featuring lots of shots of girls running round naked in a field first.

Sarcastically subtitled "the making of a high class film", The Yes Girls is a bit of an odd duck. Its ostensibly a comedy, a genre Shonteff did regularly (thinking especially of those silly James Bond spoofs dotted around his career), yet at the time he had just finished directing Night, After Night, After Night and Permissive. Two films whose downbeat atmosphere filters through to this one. Maria may have her conniving side, knowing a flash of boob can get her out of any tricky situation especially where dirty old men are concerned, but is sweet and naïve in other respects and like the heroine of Permissive is destined to be exploited by everyone she meets. From the clothes shop owner who catches Maria shoplifting, accepts sex off her to keep from calling the police but won't even let her take the clothes after, to the sleazy detective (Jack Smethurst) who accepts payment in kind, to the ultra-obnoxious film producer who rakes in the cash while putting Maria on a measly contract, ultimately there isn't a good egg in the entire film. While this bleak take on people suits the sleazy horror film that is Night, After Night After Night or the rock group expose Permissive, it tends to work against The Yes Girls as a comedy.

As with the likes of Cover Girl Killer and Eskimo Nell, its tempting to speculate whether the film world depicted in The Yes Girls, where the scriptwriter has his work thrown back in his face, and the producer schemes to make "a meat movie for the masturbating millions", has some taken directly from real life truth to it. Particularly given the horror stories you hear from the era of distributors who'd measure a films worth by how many boobs were in reel one and producers who'd tear pages out of scripts who get back on schedule. The irony is that the biggest proof the film offers that such a world existed is the film itself, with The Yes Girls often being undistinguishable from the sort of down-market tits and bums film its parodies. The glimpses of the completed The Flesh in the Fields, an "art" film laced with lots of meaningful, socially relevant close ups of bouncing breasts, is one of the film's funniest gags, but the "real" film actually manages to match if not top this, with a long pre-credits scene of Sue running round a woods topless, which is equally hilarious for its gratuitousness. The film has a real love affair with Sue's chest.

Despite Shonteff's …ahem noted reluctance to be associated with British sex films (he once threatened to sue a magazine for associating his name with the genre) he certainly makes The Yes Girls work on that level with Sue pouting for England, flashing cleavage, acting as best she can and gamely going beyond what she ever did for Benny Hill by appearing nude in what seems like every other scene. Its her movie, all the way. Like Flesh in the Fields, The Yes Girls might not have turned out a high class film but enjoyed a near year long run at cinemas like Leicester Square's Jacey- sometimes playing as the 'B' film to the Christina Lindberg vehicle Exposed- and wearing out three 35mm prints of the film in the process. Sue went on to her sitcom roles, the film made money, and the lengthy play dates would indicate "the masturbating millions" didn't go home disappointed either, a happy ending then???

(you wish)

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