Emmanuelle in Soho

{{Short description|1981British film by David Hughes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}} {{Use British English|date=April 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = Emmanuelle in Soho | image = Emmanuelle in Soho.png | alt = | caption = | native_name =  | director = David Hughes | producer = John M. East<ref name="mfb-review" /> | writer =  | screenplay = {{plainlist|*Brian Daly *John M. East<ref name="mfb-review" />}} | story = | based_on =  | starring = | narrator =  | music = Barry Kirsch<ref name="mfb-review" /> | cinematography = Don Lord<ref name="mfb-review" /> | editing = David Woodward<ref name="mfb-review" /> |production_companies = Roldvale<ref name="mfb-review" /> | distributor = [[Tigon British Film Productions|Tigon]]<ref name="mfb-review">{{cite journal|journal=[[Monthly Film Bulletin]]|title=Emmanuelle in Soho|volume=48|issue=564|pages=152–153|year=1981|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|location=London|last=Pym|first=John}}</ref> | released = {{film date|df=yes|1981|||}}<ref name="mfb-review" /> | runtime = 67 minutes<ref name="mfb-review" /> | country = United Kingdom<ref name="mfb-review" /> | language = | budget = | gross =  }} '''''Emmanuelle in Soho''''' is a 1981 British [[sex film]] directed by David Hughes and produced by [[David Sullivan (publisher)|David Sullivan]], and starring Angie Quick (under the name 'Mandy Miller'), Julie Lee and John M. East.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/3717|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129195754/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/3717|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-01-29|title=Emmanuelle in Soho (1981)|website=British Film Institute}}</ref> Sullivan had originally intended [[Mary Millington]] to star in the film.<ref name=Upton>{{cite book|title=Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives and Lost Careers|first=Julian|last=Upton|publisher=Headpress/Critical Vision|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gb5ci9IF_SMC|isbn=9781900486385|page=46}}</ref>

==Plot== Half-Chinese Kate Benson (played by Lee) and her photographer husband Paul (Kevin Fraser) share their [[Bayswater]] home with a [[nymphomaniac]] stripper, Emmanuelle. The two women attempt to find work in the sex industry in London's [[Soho]] district, and get mixed up with a sleazy and unscrupulous theatrical agent, Bill Anderson.

==Cast== * Angie Quick as Emmanuelle of Soho * Julie Lee as Kate Benson * John M. East as Bill Anderson * Kevin Fraser as Paul Benson * Gavin Clare as Mr. Cole * Timothy Blackstone as Derek * Geraldine Hooper as Jill * Anita Desmarais as Sheila Burnette * Georges Waser as Tom Poluski * Erika Lea as Judy * Kathy Green as Sammy * Suzanne Richens as a Showgirl * John Roach as Albert <ref name="mfb-review" />

==Release== The film premiered in Sheffield and transferred to London where it ran for 10 weeks at the Eros cinema on [[Piccadilly Circus]] followed by 25 weeks at the Moulin in [[Great Windmill Street]]. There is also a hardcore version of this film - such a version was released in Hong Kong cinemas where it ran for nearly three years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marymillington.co.uk/?p=677|title=Julie Lee-The Last Star of Sexploitation|date=9 May 2013|author=Simon Sheridan|website=Mary Millington}}</ref> The US release included a 6-minute mini-documentary prologue about the sex industry in Soho.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://grindhouse-effect.com/reviews/emmanuelle-in-soho-1981/|title=Emmanuelle in Soho (1981)|website=The Grindhouse Effect|author=Johnny Stanwyck|date=6 August 2018 }}</ref>

==Reception== ''Emmanuelle in Soho'' was one of the last British [[softcore pornography|softcore]] films to receive a theatrical release before the abolition of the [[Eady Levy]] and the growth of [[home video]] led to the virtual disappearance of British low-budget exploitation film-making.<ref name=Upton/> In a contemporary review, the ''[[Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' described the film as "of marginal interest for its unabashed portrait of the neighbourhood's tawdry illicit wares". The review noted that the "slipshod scripting is about par for the course".<ref name="mfb-review" />

==See also== *''[[Emmanuelle (1974 film)|Emmanuelle]]'' – 1974 pornographic French film *[[Pornography in the United Kingdom]] *''[[The Playbirds]]'' – 1978 Sullivan film starring Millington, also partly set in Soho

==References== <references/>

==Further reading== * Simon Sheridan Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema 2011 (fourth edition) (Titan Publishing, London) {{ISBN|0857682792}} * Simon Sheridan Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington 1999 (FAB Press, Guildford) * Sweet, Matthew. ''Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema''. Faber and Faber, 2005.

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0124464}} *[https://grindhouse-effect.com/articles/julie-lee-driven/ Julie Lee: Driven (The Grindhouse Effect)]

[[Category:1981 films]] [[Category:1980s sex comedy films]] [[Category:1981 English-language films]] [[Category:British sex comedy films]] [[Category:1981 comedy films]] [[Category:1981 British films]] [[Category:English-language sex comedy films]]