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Fanny Hill (1983) is a full-on soft-core erotica adaptation of the 1748 novel by John Cleland (which, to be fair, is also FULL ON erotica, no holds barred). It’s got no costume designer listed in the credits, which should tell you something. It’s the last of my attempts this Snark Week to get through some of the wacky 18th-century adaptations out there, and while it’s not as dire as some, there’s A LOT OF NIPPLE (and full bush that is historically accurate to both the 18th century and 1983) that I just fast-forwarded through. There’s no real way to review this, other than a costume-focused recap:
Fanny Hill arrives in London to seek her fortune. She’s immediately robbed, goes looking for work, and is hired by a madam:
The madam trains her up through girl-on-girl baths, new clothes, and then girl-on-girl action:
The madam sells Fanny’s virginity to an older customer. Despite all the hot lesbian action, Fanny is surprised and horrified and at some point the guy hits his head, so can’t complete the transaction. The next day, young Charles (Barry Stokes, who played the love interest in Lady Oscar! and also acted in Reilly: Ace of Spies and The Last Days of Pompeii) gives her some gentle kisses, and that’s enough for her to plot to run off with him:
Oliver Reed!! turns up as a lawyer in a face-eating wig who forces the madam to give Charles money for having tried to sell Fanny’s virginity.
Fanny and Charles shack up and are in love:
Charles’s father (allegedly) finds out about their affair and packs Charles off to “the Indies” (I’m dubious); Fanny’s landlady hooks her up with a new patron, who sets her up in a house.
Fanny catches the new guy in bed with her maid, so shags the stableboy; when they get caught, the new guy throws her out:
Fanny meets up with someone she knew from the first brothel, who takes her to a new brothel/millinery shop run by Shelley Winters (The Great Gatsby, The Treasure of Pancho Villa, The Portrait of a Lady):
A VERY LONG AND UNINTERESTING sex show occurs:
Shelley Winters hooks Fanny up with a kind, elderly patron:
Kind, elderly patron dies, and Oliver Reed shows back up to tell her he left her all her money:
En route to her new country estate, Fanny runs into Charles, newly returned from the Indies, and the two reunite at an inn!
Thoughts on Fanny Hill‘s costumes and why feathered hair was so on-trend in the early 1980s? Share ’em in the comments!
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I swear her first new dress was made from Waverley home furnishings fabric that I remember from the 80s. Yikes. Shelley Winters with the typical mid-life wash and set. Double yikes. Interesting that one of those up-do’s reminds me of Princess Diana managing an up-do when she tried to grow her hair out after Harry was born. Lots of polyester lace – ick. Lots of poly voile. Ick. Well Kendra – thank you for taking one for the team??? This is not something I’d seek out on my own, whether in print or on video. I kind of question both Shelley Winters and Oliver Reed lending any sort of legitimacy to this project – were they hard up for cash? I will put this on my must miss list.
I’m reminded of the joke about Sir John Gielgud’s participation in “Caligula” – he didn’t know about the hardcore scenes when he received the cheque.
Clearly not, otherwise he’d have asked why nobody wanted to get HIS kit off (PROSPERO’S BOOKS strongly suggests Sir John was far from prudish.
There is a long, honourable tradition of British sex comedies (something of a genre unto itself back in the 1970s) securing the participation of actual actors for a scene or two (Presumably either to lend a bit of professional polish or to make it clear this was a scripted feature rather than ‘candid camera’).
Also, there’s no earthly way actors took one look at a film with ‘Fanny Hill’ on the title and failed to draw the absolutely correct conclusion (I’m just astonished Mr Reed keeps his kit on throughout).
Extra also, I am more than a little amused that this is one of the relatively few films in these reviews that I’ve actually caught the tail end of on television (Whatever else may be said of it – and I suspect this would have far more entertaining had it been made in the Seventies – there are some extremely good looking young ladies in it, the leading lady not least amongst them).