Fanny Hill

Fanny Hill proved to be something of a one-off for famed sexploitation director Russ Meyer. For one thing, it was a film he made in West Germany and it was also a period film based on a literary source. It was hardly, therefore, the kind of material that Meyer was used to tackling. As such, it is definitely one of the less personal films he ever made, where he truly seemed like no more than a director-for-hire. The story follows a young woman who falls on hard times but is welcomed in a house populated by women; which the wide eyed innocent doesn't recognise as a brothel. Whenever Meyer veers too far out of his comfort zone it often ends in trouble and Fanny Hill is unfortunately no exception. It is a film which will be unlikely to satisfy many Meyer fans nor those who liked the novel I should imagine. It's neither erotic nor funny and also commits one of the worse cinematic sins in being over-long too. Definitely a film which Meyer completists should at least see but it is something of a slog to get through though, so be warned. The most interesting aspect of it for me was the appearance of Laetitia Roman in the lead role. I had hitherto only known her from her starring performance in Mario Bava's highly influential year-zero giallo The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), which needless to say was a considerably better film than this one. But it was nice to see her in something else at the very least.

FANNY HILL's yet another Albert Zugsmith "extravaganza", this one filmed in Germany, and originally meant for Douglas Sirk (!). Closer to Playboy magazine's "Little Orphan Fannie" than the knowing wench of eighteenth- century *, Russ Meyer's opus aspires to rollicking comedy but only manages to achieve mildly amusing ...and that's being kind. Leticia Roman's woefully miscast as a poor lass who's taken under the wing of a brothel madam (Miriam Hopkins, who doesn't look too bad and even has a little decolleté going' on) and finds her virginity in peril at every turn. It's still intact (I think) at the happy ending much to Miriam's exasperation and if it had a more risqué script, a bigger budget, color photography, and Stella Stevens as "Little Orphan Fannie", Louella Parsons would have been right in proclaiming the film, "A female TOM JONES!"

This black and white screen version of the FANNY HILL story was directed by no less than Russ Meyer, but no fears, it was made before he became obsessed with voluptuous women and nudity. This is a surprisingly restrained comedy of sex and manners, with our titular heroine ending up working in a brothel and discovering all manner of strangeness there. It's part farce, part sex comedy, part exploration of an era, and in Meyer's hands it's a rather middling experience. The dubbing is rather distracting throughout, although there's no faulting the direction or the efforts to make it look authentic.