Despite being the type of film that kept the British film industry alive during the mid to late 1970s, “Come Play With Me” is the sort of lowbrow sex comedy that most people would simply like to forget. It is a poor film with a deservedly bad reputation, but it has some value as a piece of tawdry vaudeville in the tradition of the saucy seaside postcard or perhaps as a “Carry On” where the implied nudity is actually delivered. It is also an interesting piece of social history that provides a subtle commentary on where the underlying culture of oppressive censorship and staid British sexual mores were at that particular moment in time. That it was a record breaking box-office smash that ran in some cinemas for an incredible four years probably says something about the British attitude to sex and the repressive nature of the times.
Written and directed by a reputedly perpetually inebriated George Harrison Marks, the story sees the British Government in a panic about counterfeit currency. The counterfeiters - Clapworthy (Marks, again) and Kelly (Alfie Bass) - retreat to the Scottish Highlands and a health spa run by Lady Bovington (Irene Handl). When her nephew arrives with a rock band and a literal busload of strippers, the young ladies, for some inexplicable reason, start working at the spa ministering to the needs of fat, greasy, middle-aged men. This makes even less sense on screen than it does written on the page.
There is little doubt that “Come Play With Me” is cheap and incompetent on multiple levels – the plot is lame, the comedy seldom funny, the acting risible and the sex next to non-existent and chaste in the extreme when it does eventually turn up. It isn’t all bad, however – there’s a few incredibly daft songs, a deliciously amateur choreographed number and a cast made up of a bunch of over-the-hill comedians such as Alfie Bass, Irene Handl and Talfryn Thomas as well as a number of British cinema fixtures such as Ronald Fraser, Henry McGee, Bob Todd and Ken Parry. The film was marketed around the charms of the great Mary Millington, so it’s surprising how little screen time she actually has. Also amongst the cast is Suzy Mandel and the sharp-eyed may spot Cosey Fanni Tutti as an uncredited extra. “Come Play With Me” isn’t a good film, but it isn’t as bad as its reputation would suggest – it has the occasional moment and it has its place in British cinema history. ( )