Booking In at the Clinic Exclusive (In Memory of Georgina Ward)

Georgina Ward as Julie Mason in 

Clinic Exclusive (dir. Don Chaffey, 1971)

 

Temptress with a velvet touch! 

Passionate ... Sensual and ... Dangerous!!

 

 

I. 

 

The British actress turned screenwriter Hazel Adair is probably best remembered as the co-creator of my sister's favourite soap Crossroads, which ran on UK TV from 1964 until 1988, attracting a large and loyal audience (despite critics and comics alike ridiculing the scripts, the sets, the performances, and the generally low production values). 

 

However, we're not here to discuss the merits or otherwise of Crossroads, but, rather, to shine a light on a rarely shown erotic melodrama written and produced by Adair in collaboration with her business partner Kent Walton - a sports commentator much loved as the voice of televised professional wrestling from 1955 to 1988 [1].

 

 

II. 

 

Directed by Don Chaffey and starring (the mysteriously beautiful) Georgina Ward as Julie Mason and Alex Davion as Lee Maitland - Clinic Exclusive (1971) [2] has to be one of the queerest films I've seen in a long time [3]. And although it might seem far removed from everybody's favourite King's Oak motel, as a matter of fact several of the cast had appeared in Crossroads. 

The plot, in a nutshell, involves a scheming young woman - Julie - exploiting her position as the owner of a rather dodgy private health clinic by selling sexual favours to her clients, male and female, whom she then blackmails for large amounts of money. This includes a lonely, older woman - Elsa Farson (played by Carmen Silvera) - who, spurned by Julie (with whom she's in love), decides to top herself.

 

When a local businessman, Lee Maitland, engages her services as a masseuse, Julie mistakenly falls for him, unaware that he is Elsa's son and intends to avenge his mother. 

 

And so, after Maitland fakes his death in a road accident that Julie helped to stage, he disappears with the tens of thousands of pounds that she had extracted from her clients. Julie is thus left to choose between admitting blackmail or remaining silent when charged with being complicit in Maitland's death.

 

 

III.

 

It might be pushing it a bit to describe Clinic Exclusive as a good film. But it's not a bad film, even if a bit depressing at times. And the outrageously posh actress Georgina Ward - daughter of the British Cabinet Minister George Ward and Anne Capel, whose father, Boy Capel, was a lover and muse of fashion designer Coco Chanel - is always a delight to watch on screen (with or without her clothes) [4]. 

As one respected film critic wrote at the time: 

"After the customary quota of coyly directed nude scenes in sauna bath and shower room – even less titillating than usual, since the clinic's clientele is predominantly middle-aged – Clinic Xclusive takes a turn for the better by developing into quite a neat, unpredictable revenge thriller. Script and direction are glossily efficient throughout, and Georgina Ward plays the ruthless go-getting heroine with some style. Altogether a surprisingly competent production, if only within the limits of its strictly catchpenny genre." [5]

 

Unfortunately, we have to note in closing how publication in the (hypocritical) press of rather racy stills from the film led to Georgina Ward having to withdraw an application to be a UK parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in the early 1970s [6]. 

 

Even more sadly, Ward’s acting career also stalled around this time. 

 

She died, in Mexico, aged 69, in June 2010. 

 

 

Notes

 

[1] Walton made his television wrestling commentary debut on the ITV network in November 1955 and remained in the role for 33 years. 

       At its peak in the 1970s, ITV's wrestling coverage, on World of Sport, could command up to 12 million viewers every Saturday afternoon, including my parents and, so it is often claimed, the Queen and Prince Philip. 

 

[2] The film's title was originally styled as Clinic Xclusive and was changed to Sex Clinic when the film was re-released in 1975. It is alternatively known as With These Hands. Unfortunately, no trailer for the film seems to be available online (if such still exists).  

 

[3] Thanks to Together TV, a UK-based channel that broadcasts on Freeview 83 (and which is also available on Sky 170, Virgin Media 269, and Freesat 164). 

      Rather amusingly, Together TV prides itself as being a channel that aims to inspire people to improve their lives and communities; I'm not entirely sure, therefore, how Clinic Exclusive has found its way on to the late night schedule (along with other '70s sexploitation movies, including Come Play with Me (dir. George Harrison Marks and starring Mary Millington, 1977)).   

 

[4] In 1958, Ward was one the last debutantes to be presented at Court to Queen Elizabeth II before the practice was discontinued. She was distantly related to, among others, Freda Dudley Ward, mistress of the future King Edward VIII and Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, consort of Charles III. 

      Fans of British TV from the '60s might recall seeing her in a series four episode of The Avengers - 'The Master Minds' (1965) - or in a couple of episodes of Danger Man. 

 

[5] Nigel Andrews, writing in The Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 456, p. 157 (January 1972). 

[6] Ward was a potential Labour candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Worcester, then held by Conservative Cabinet minister, Peter Walker and, until 1960, by her father, also a true blue Tory, so her standing down may have been something of a relief to him. 

 

 

On the Haunting Beauty of Sue Lloyd

Sue Lloyd (1939 - 2011)

 

'The dead they do not die - they seduce from beyond the grave ...'

I. 

 

I mentioned in a recent post written in memory of Brigit Forsyth [1], that, as I get older, I find my desire is increasingly tied to nostalgia and has effectively become a type of spectrophilia - i.e., sexual attraction to ghosts, or, as in my case, the haunting images of dead actresses from the 1960s and '70s (the decades in which I was born and grew up). 

 

One such actress of whom I particularly fond at the moment is Sue Lloyd, who guest starred in many much loved English TV shows during this period, including The Saint (1964 and '67), The Avengers (1965), Department S (1969), Randal and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1970), The Persuaders! (1971), and The Sweeney (1976) [2].

 

Lloyd also regularly appeared as secret agent Cordelia Winfield, alongside Steve Forrest in the British television series The Baron (1965-66), but is perhaps best remembered today for her long-running role as as Barbara Hunter (née Brady) in the British soap opera Crossroads [3].

 

 

II. 

 

Although Lloyd had studied dance as a child and, in 1953, won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School at Sadler's Wells Theatre, she unfortunately grew just a little too tall (5' 8") to play a swan princess. And so she became a model - even appearing once on the cover of Vogue - and a showgirl, before embarking on an acting career. 

 

Lloyd did also star in a number of films - including alongside Michael Caine in The Ipcress File (1965), Peter Cushing in the cult horror Corruption (1968), and Joan Collins in The Stud (1978) - but I'm not much of a cinephile and really only care (here at least) about her TV work.  

 

But what is it I like so much about Miss Lloyd, I hear you ask ... Well, simply put, she exuded the kind of dazzling beauty and sexual sophistication of the older woman which excited me as an adolescent and continues to work its magic some 50 years later ...

 

As Simon Farquhar writes in his obituary for the star who died in 2011 (aged 72):

 

"There was always something of the ghost of a fading Hollywood glamour queen possessing Sue Lloyd [...] With half-closed eyes, cigarette gravel voice and elegant, haughty poise, she brought an air of smouldering decadence and feline allure to often decidedly mundane productions, as if a world-weary Lauren Bacall was deeming to cross the Atlantic and play with the little people for a while." [4]    

 

 

Notes

 

[1] See the post entitled 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lasses?' (2 Dec 2023): click here. 

 

[2] Unlike some other actors, Lloyd was delighted at the cult status much of her television work had acquired, and she happily contributed interviews and commentaries to subsequent DVD releases and responded to fan requests.

 

[3] Lloyd was in Crossroads from 1979 to 1985, so this slightly falls outside the period that interests me and is not really a genre of show that I particularly care for. 

[4] Simon Farquhar, writing in The Independent (30 Oct 2011): click here.

In Memory of Imogen Hassall (the Countess of Cleavage)

Imogen Hassall (1942-1980) seen here as a sultry gypsy woman; 

a bikini-clad cave girl; and carrying on as Jenny Grubb   

 

I. 

 

Somewhat surprisingly for an actress who would become known in the 1960s and '70s for playing sexy, scantily clad characters in film and on TV - and who was referred to in the tabloid press as the Countess of Cleavage - the thing I admire most about Imogen Hassall is that although born in Woking, she had something a bit exotic about her - which probably explains why she was often cast as a foreign beauty in shows like The Saint and The Persuaders! [1].   

 

As much as her television work would make an interesting topic for discussion - as well as the above shows, she appeared also in episodes of The Avengers (1967), The Champions (1968), and Jason King (1972) [2] - it's three of her films, all released in 1970, that I wish to look at here ...

 

 

II. 

 

Let's start with an adaptation of a novella by D. H. Lawrence; The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), dir. Christopher Miles and written by Alan Plater. 

Whilst Miss Hassall doesn't have a very large role in the film - and is credited simply as 'the Gypsy's Wife' - it's always nice to see her on screen, particularly when, as here, she's cheerfully perpetuating the racial and sexual stereotype of the dark-faced gipsy-woman, with a red shawl wrapped round her and swinging her flounced, voluminous skirt as she walks:

 

"She was handsome in a bold, dark, long-faced way, just a bit wolfish. She looked like one of the bold, loping Spanish gipsies" - and she spoke "with a certain foreign stiffness" [3].

The film remains fairly faithful to Lawrence's text; so much so, in fact, that Columbia Pictures, who were originally backing the movie, withdrew their support, leaving Miles and producer Kenneth Harper in something of a pickle (it took them two years to find alternative finance). 

 

It was well-received by film critics and cinema audience alike; indeed, it was even nominated for a Golden Globe and the stars of the film, Franco Nero (as the Gypsy) and Joanna Shimkus (as the Virgin) were praised for their performances. 

 

But when I watch it now, it's only to see Imogen reading palms with her cruel-seeming fingers; or nursing a baby with her lovely bare breast, its mole cinque-spotted; or telling Yvette to beware the voice of the water ... [4]

 

 

III.

I'd like next to offer a few brief remarks on the third in Hammer's prehistoric series - or cave girl flicks - When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) [5] ...

 

Written and directed by Val Guest, and co-starring Miss Hassal, as Ayak, alongside the American model and actress Victoria Vetri, as Sanna; both women demonstrating that it wasn't only Raquel Welch who knew how to rock a stone age bikini one million years BC (i.e., an age of unknown terrors, pagan worship and virgin sacrifice).

 

For those who like this kind of thing - and I'm one of them - this is the kind of thing we like. 

 

It's not Shakespeare, but it is a lot of fun and, interestingly, Val Guest's screenplay was based on a treatment by J. G. Ballard, who, in his 2008 autobiography, revealed that he too was a fan of Hammer films, which, he said, had "tremendous panache and visual attack, without a single wasted frame" [6]. 

 

And so, when contacted by the producer Aida Young - who informed him she was a great admirer of his work, particulary The Drowned World (1962) - Ballard was happy to meet up and share a few ideas; whether he suggested that Imogen's character - the jealous and scheming Ayak - should meet a diabolical end in a pit of quicksand, I don't know (but I doubt it). 

 

 

IV.

 

Finally, we come to the third film in our discussion; Carry On Loving (dir. Gerald Thomas, 1970) ...

 

This is probably nobody's favourite Carry On, but, actually, it's by no means the weakest in the long-running film series and has most of the familiar faces, as this trailer indicates: click here. 

 

However, it also has a couple of newcomers, one of whom is Imogen Hassall as prim and proper Jenny Grubb who transforms into something of a bombshell (much to the delight of the middle-aged Romeo looking for love played by Terry Scott). 

 

If, in a sense, she is simply filling in for Valerie Leon, Miss Hassall nevertheless puts in an excellent performance, as does Jackie Piper as her flatmate, Sally Martin - unknown star of stage, screen and television - appearing here in her second Carry On. 

 

As, by all accounts, Imogen was popular with both members of the cast and fans of the series, it's a surprise she didn't return in a later film. But there you go. Perhaps she didn't want to be typecast and had grown tired of always being the buxom brunette (she was clearly talented enough to play the more serious roles she craved).

 

Unfortunately, as her star began to wane and her personal life was increasingly marked by tragedy - including the death of a baby daughter four days after she was born in 1972 - Imogen did incline to sadness and was found dead at her Wimbledon home on the morning of November 16th, 1980: suicide by overdose.

 

She was, to paraphrase William Hazlitt, perhaps the most tender and most artless of all those young women who lit up the screens in the 1960s and '70s.  

     

Notes

 

[1] She played the Greek beauty (Sophia) in a 1964 episode of The Saint (for full details on IMDb, click here); and the Italian beauty (Maria) in the first episode of The Persuaders! in 1971 (for full details on IMDb, click here).

[2] See: The Avengers, 'Escape in Time' (S5/E3), in which she plays an Indian character named Anjali; The Champions, 'Reply Box No. 666' (S1/E3), in which she plays a character called Cleo; Jason King, 'The Stones of Venice' (S1/E20), in which she plays a character called Gina.   

[3] D. H. Lawrence, The Virgin and the Gipsy, in The Virgin and the Gipsy and Other Stories, ed. Michael Herbert, Berhan Jones and Lindeth Vasey, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 21. 

      I have written about the racial and sexual stereotyping of Romani women - and the trope of the Hot Gypsy Girl - elsewhere on Torpedo the Ark: click here. 

 

[4] These scenes from Christopher Miles's movie can be viewed on the Facebook page 'In Loving Memory of Imogen Hassal': click here. 

[5] In the UK the film was released as When Dinosaurs Ruled the World, but seems now to be known by the US title, even on the BFI website. To watch the original trailer, click here. And to watch a rather charming short interview with Imogen Hassall discussing the film, click here.    

[6] See J. G. Ballard, Miracles of Life, (Fourth Estate, 2008). 

      Ballard was also impressed with the fact that directors of the Hammer movies were "surprisingly free to push their obsessions to the limit".