Girls and Boys Come Out To Play

'Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly' (to give it's Sunday name) is an interesting and intriguing film directed by 'Island Of Terror' pater familias, Freddie Francis. It's one of the most unusual films he made in his long career, a strange hybrid of drama, horror and surrealism with Pinter-esque dialogue and a streak of very black humour.

The title characters are all members of a disturbed and dysfunctional family who live in a large mansion in Regent's Park and are permanently engaged in 'The Game', an elaborate and strict psychodrama of their own devising based on role playing and the hierachy of the household. Every now and again they send out the comely Girly (Vanessa Howard) to entice 'new friends' back into the house. The new friends become part of, or rather victims of, The Game, as they invariably break the rules and suffer the consequences.

When Girly picks up hardened hustler Michael Bryant, however, he decides to start his own game, with his own rules...

An excellent film, full of surprises, it's now on DVD after many years of undeserved obscurity, and, if I weren't me, and didn't already have it, I'd definitely get it.