Filmmaker and British madman Ken Russell takes the popular Sandy Wilson stage musical--about a backstage nobody with a theater troupe in the 1920s becoming a star when the leading lady breaks her leg--and turns it into a head-trip (without much of a heart and very little soul). This ode to Hollywood showman Busby Berkeley (whose era was the 1930s, not the 1920s) goes giddily over-the-top, yet does so in a way that alienates the material (never mind the audience). Twiggy is appealing in the lead, Christopher Gable also fine as her on-stage suitor, but it's Glenda Jackson as the former star who really shines (too bad her role only amounts to a cameo). The nearly non-stop production numbers become wearisome, turning the picture into grotesque camp. After a solid, likable start, the editing flags, leaving sequences to go on and on (the movie runs a less-than-grand 2 hours and 20 minutes). Russell, a sort of uncelebrated undergraduate of the Stanley Kubrick school of excess, does have a twisted visual style which is unlike anyone else's; he gets some moments right, and when a scene of his comes up a winner it can be a startling winner. But Russell just doesn't know when to quit. The results here are curious, but also frequently tedious. ** from ****
Review of The Boy Friend
