Girly (1970) on Netflix
Girly and her brother Sonny bring men to the manor house they share with Mumsy and Nanny, where the four keep up an elaborate role-playing game. Newcomers have to join in.
- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb6.4/101,877 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes33%
Trailer
Plot summary
Four people share an isolated manor house in the English countryside, where they stage an elaborate fantasy called The Game. Each plays a part in a happy family and answers only to that identity. The rules are strict though loosely defined, and the main one is to play the Game. Sonny and his sister Girly travel to busier places, and Girly brings men home. Newcomers are dressed like schoolboys and made New Friends, and a man who refuses is sent to the Angels, a ritual killing built around a playground game that Sonny films on a 16 mm camera.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Girly (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Made during a British media backlash against indecency, the film drew watchdogs' attention to an early scene in which Girly suggestively sucks Sonny's finger after accepting a piece of candy from him.
- In the UK the film opened alongside Goodbye Gemini (1970), about a mentally imbalanced young man sexually obsessed with his sister; the pair caused a moral panic among British media watchdogs and, after the backlash, few theaters would screen it following its West End premiere.
- Director Freddie Francis and writer Brian Comport looked for ideas by attending an Off West End production of Maisie Mosco's play Happy Family; both thought it terrible but agreed it was an excellent tipping-off point for a story set at Oakley Court.
- Director Freddie Francis had shot exterior scenes at Oakley Court during his career, but neither he nor any other director had filmed inside the building; he set his film there and had the script tailored to its landscaping and architecture.
- The film's failure in British cinemas led its star, Vanessa Howard, to retire from acting in 1972; she was unaware that it had been a success in the United States and remained uninformed for some time.
- The film disappeared from cinemas in the US and England for several years, and proved so hard to obtain that the organizers of a 2004 Freddie Francis film festival could not turn up a print or VHS copy to screen.
- In 2015 an event at Oakley Court paid tribute to Vanessa Howard and the film, dedicating a memorial bench in her memory, touring some of the shooting locations and holding a dinner themed around the family's meal with New Friend.
