Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny And Girly
1969

Girly (as it's more commonly known) is an oddity apparently thrown up by mixing together a horror standby (people taken off the street and killed by nutters) with a bit of The Prisoner and a lot of The Avengers (particularly The House That Jack Built).
It starts with Mumsy and Nanny offscreen discussing their "darling loves" as we get our first view of Sonny and Girly - a pair who are far too old for their school uniforms (okay in Girly's case) and in a vaguely incestuous relationship (she takes his thumb and sticks it in her gob in a very suggestive manner).
After a short cameo by Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper as the zookeeper, the pair find a tramp, ply him with booze and take him home for fun and games. The tramp is more interested in nobbing Mumsy than playing "Oranges And Lemons", and that soon proves to be his downfall - Girly taking a bit too literally the line "here comes a chopper to chop off his head".
It's not long before they're on the lookout for a replacement, and find him in the moustachioed Michael Bryant, whose character is only ever known as "New Friend". Unfortunately, he already has a girlfriend (the woefully underused and typically pneumatic Imogen Hassall) - but not for long, as, this being a time before rubberised play areas, a small fall off a slide is enough to "send her to the angels".
Luckily, New Friend's a bit more switched on than the previous "Friends" (particularly the Friend In Five, who just won't learn the rules), and starts playing mind games with his four captors.
Girly's a mixed bag - it's sporadically violent, has echoes of Peeping Tom (Sonny films his killings for Mumsy and Nanny to watch later) and even predates The Shining's "axe through the door" routine (Except it's Nanny's smiling face that pokes through) and Fatal Attraction's "head in the cooking pot" (Nanny, again). It is, however, almost completely ruined by the extremely annoying Sonny.
But Vanessa Howard as Girly makes an excellent pychopath, alternating between childlike simplicity, coquettish burgeoning sexuality and extreme violence ("Tony Chestnut... Toe! Knee! Chest! NUT!"), as do (to a lesser, sweeter extent) Ursula Howells as Mumsy and Pat Heywood as Nanny.
What the film is trying to say I have absolutely no idea, but then again it's hard to concentrate with Girly wearing such short skirts. Oh no, I'm turning into my dad.

Director: Freddie Francis Writer(s): Brian Comport, Maisie Mosco (play Happy Family)
Cast: Vanessa Howard - Girly, Michael Bryant - New Friend, Ursula Howells - Mumsy, Pat Heywood - Nanny, Robert Swann - Soldier, Hugh Armstrong - Friend in No. 5, Imogen Hassall - Girl Friend, Michael Ripper - Zoo Attendant, Howard Trevor - Sonny

Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1969)
Director: Freddie Francis Writer(s): Brian Comport, Maisie Mosco (play Happy Family)
Cast: Vanessa Howard - Girly, Michael Bryant - New Friend, Ursula Howells - Mumsy, Pat Heywood - Nanny, Robert Swann - Soldier, Hugh Armstrong - Friend in No. 5, Imogen Hassall - Girl Friend, Michael Ripper - Zoo Attendant, Howard Trevor - Sonny

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