All the Right Noises

This film, very much of its time shows London in the early 1970's. Of course now a different world. Note the old fashion Underground ticket machines, and the Black and White Telly in the flat. The location looks very much like Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, with Battersea Power Station in the background. And, plenty of smoking going on, in pubs, and on the tube. The film is strangely sexy in its own way, with the young girl playing along with the much older man, its really a sexual fantasy come true. It is another one of those British low budget film where the low budget adds to rather that take away value. Watch for fun, which is what it is. Good for the BFI for bring to a larger audience on DVD

After seeing Romeo and Juliet I wanted to see more of Olivia Hussey's work, in this film she is really perfect in this role of Lolita with the youthful beauty, maybe too youg because she plays a 15 years old who has an affair with a man twice her age! So of course the film is from the late 60s / 70s when it was not a big deal. But I admit that apart from this plot of scandalous and forbidden love story, is the wife going to catch them and all, the movie was a little boring.

"Is 15 1/2 too young for a girl?" That didn't really relect this honest story about a married man having an affair with a teenage girl. It wasn't just about sex and they certainly make a good looking couple. They dont look out of place in their acting world and social circle despite the age gap. Its great to see a young olivia hussey in something contempory and totally different to romeo and juliet. Which is all that i had seen her in before i watched this. What a talent she was to be leading films like this and R&J at such a young age.

All bark and no bite, this very 70's romantic drama is deadly dull in spite of being in a mod, mod world, and dealing with the controversial subject, a 30-ish year old married man romancing a fifteen-year-old girl. Pretty disgusting, but the more disgusting fact is that it's just a hideously boring way to pass 90 minutes. Teenager Olivia Hussey is the aggressor, and mature adult Tom Bell is the pursued, married to Judy Carne who is plenty worth being faithful to, as well as having a daughter. The free for all attitude of the age of Aquarius has several moments of musical comedy, probably pushing the fact that Khan had recently starred in the Broadway revival of "The Boyfriend". Those sequences are probably the only things amusing in this, other than a chance to see a young Lesley-Anne Down and explore some obscure British locations. Not as sordid for the most part as its description sounds, just really not even a curiosity as a viewing.

Far from the saucy romp suggested by the title, it's actually a very subdued triangle drama against a well drawn theatrical backdrop. Seen over fifty years later it's even more poignant than it doubtless seemed at the time since Tom Bell and Judy Carne are both now long dead and Olivia Hussey seventy-one years old.

The BFI of course has plenty to answer for and will, presumably, be handed a hefty tab in the next world but meanwhile there are those who may well enquire legitimately what it thinks it's doing promoting fodder like this on its own label. At best this is a ho-hum effort by a journeyman director and hardly deserving of a booklet to analyse its so what storyline, a staple back in the late sixties/early seventies, and boost its mediocre at best writer/director Gerry O'Hare. About the best that can be said for O'Hara is that at least he isn't Terence Davies, another non-talent the BFI in their wisdom have chosen to deify. The three principals, Judy Carne, Tom Bell, Olivia Hussy, are up in their lines and don't bump into the furniture, which seems to be all O'Hara requires of them.

A very small film that likely has seem only a be small number of people and a tiny theatrical release. Except for the young fifteen your old Olivia Hussey who had had the most amazing experience in Italy with Zeffirelli and Romeo and Juliet that made her famous across the world. She was like an innocent young child except she was older than her years, smoking a cigarette on TV and falling into a romance with Tom Bell in the film. His is fine, as is Judy Carne as his wife and the story is likeable enough though it his to see there is not anything that earth crashing.

The last segment of Gerry O'Hara's social drama trilogy deals with the affair of Len (Tom Bell), a happily married man and Val (Olivia Hussey), a 15-year old schoolgirl. Whereas O'Hara's first film That Kind of Girl displayed a considerable moral zeal, this goes to the other extreme. Len is deceitful on all fronts and even introduces his young friend to the marital bad while his wife (Judy Carne) is away. His indifference to morality is staggering. Normally characters behaving in this manner would be hung drawn and quartered further down the narrative line, but not here. This non-judgemental aspect of the film is refreshing, though it does mean an almost total lack of drama. Everybody's happy, where's the story? Some compensation can be had in the keenly observed period detail and the excellent cast, but Scenes From a Marriage this isn't.