The Boy Friend
The Boy Friend

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- 68/100 based on 3,349 votes

The assistant stage manager of a small-time theatrical company (Polly Browne) is forced to understudy for the leading lady (Rita) at a matinée performance at which an illustrious Hollywood director (Cecil B. DeThrill) is in the audience scouting for actors to be in his latest "all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing" extravaganza. Polly also happens to fall in love with the leading man (Tony) and imagines several fabulous fantasy sequences in which the director is free to exer... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in The Boy Friend:

Twiggy
Christopher Gable
Max Adrian
Bryan Pringle
Murray Melvin
Moyra Fraser

Full Plot Details

The assistant stage manager of a small-time theatrical company (Polly Browne) is forced to understudy for the leading lady (Rita) at a matinée performance at which an illustrious Hollywood director (Cecil B. DeThrill) is in the audience scouting for actors to be in his latest "all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing" extravaganza. Polly also happens to fall in love with the leading man (Tony) and imagines several fabulous fantasy sequences in which the director is free to exercise his capacity for over-the-top visuals in this charming 1920's era flick.

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Movie Reviews

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) - 10/10 by Ken HankeOne of the filmmaker's most captivating and stylish works -- and the only one of his films to ever receive a G rating.
TV Guide - 8/10 by TV Guide StaffTHE BOY FRIEND is a sincere celebration of the musical from a camp point of view. And let it be said Russell discovered Tommy Tune many years before Broadway did.
Time Out - 8/10 by Tom MilneConsistency was never Russell's strong point.
EmanuelLevy.Com - 7/10 by Emanuel LevyKen Russell's film version of the popular stage musical is, as expected, extravagant and campy in style, but it has charm and fashion model Twiggy shows interesting screen presence.
Video-Reviewmaster.com - 7/10 by Steve CrumMore a lesson in style (Ken Russell) than anything memorable, even with Twiggy.
Chicago Sun-Times - 6/10 by Roger EbertEven when he's not deliberately doing Berkeley takeoffs, (Ken Russell's) camera is so joyless that it undermines every scene.
Los Angeles Times - 6/10 by Kevin ThomasIt's a delight, one of the high points of Russell's extravagantly uneven career.
User Review - 10/10 by Private UShortly after the darkness of The Devils (1971), Ken Russell wanted a change, so he adapted Sandy Wilson's stage musical. Set in the 1930's at the Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, it has a small-time theatrical company putting on an afternoon production of The Boy Friend to a near empty house, then the company's assistant stage manager Polly Browne (Twiggy) finds herself understudying for the leading lady, who's broke her foot. In the audience is Hollywood film director Cecil B. DeThrill (Vladek Sheybal), who is entertained by the production. Probabily one of Ken Russell's best films, a world away from his more darker films, and a love-letter to the Hollywood musicals of old, although it does contain some imagery typical of Russell, but it's a well staged film, he also gets the best out of Twiggy, and it's beautifully shot by the late, great David Watkin. Plus, it has a good supporting cast to it's name, including Bryan Pringle, Barbara Windsor, Tommy Tune, Brian Murphy and Glenda Jackson!! Once you see this film, it'll be impossible to forget!! :D
User Review - 10/10 by Lars MThe greatest musical of all time!!! Russell packs a ton of visual delights and keeps the charactors right up there with them. a colossal achievement!
User Review - 10/10 by Christopher SI confess, I'm not predisposed to fall in love with a movie star fittingly ascribed the moniker Twiggy. But in "The Boy Friend" Ken Russell's winking homage to Busby Berkley, she is the perfect image of a classic movie heroine, with her willowy frame and her big sad eyes. Her character, a put-upon assistant at a London theater, is roped into the starring role when the actress in that part sprains an ankle just before the big premiere. While the far more flamboyant supporting players enact ploy after conspicuous ploy to feed her her lines, this gangly wallflower stumbles endearingly from scene to scene, only blossoming into a lively presence when paired with her toothsome costar, whom she loves. Sheesh, I ought to write bodice-rippers, oughtn't I? As Twiggy swoons in the arms of her leading man, Russell launches with abandon into his big set pieces, each one chock-full of his characteristic weirdness. Like the bowling Valkyries of "The Big Lebowski", these take the odd energy of Berkley's musicals an dial it up to 11. Some highlights: the company dances on a giant phonograph, shrink down to fairy size and perform in a mushroom village, and splash about on stage in an energetic beach scene. I fear I'm turning into Bosley Crowther. Does any one else ever feel like that? Too often Russell seems to get bored with a movie, and he does those big bizarre set pieces as a distraction, as in his film "Mahler". Sometimes he seems to view these scenes as the film's entire raison d'etre; I think "Tommy" was guilty of this, invigorating though "Tommy" often was. Here his outsized muse serves the material and the emotions of the protagonist. This is why it is, in my experience, his best film. Thus endeth the book report.

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