Boys & Girls Together
 

Ralph Lawrence Marsden | UK | 1979

This tawdry, downbeat, hardcore porn release, more than likely taking its title from William Goldman’s 1964 novel Boys and Girls Together, is a late 70’s hour-long slice of squalid kitchen sink British smut. The raincoat brigade were surely dazed and disgruntled with its (then) outlandish display of interracial and same gender on-screen couplings.

Bristling with conservative-baiting highlights, the film focuses on a bunch of mixed race/sex tenants in a Hampstead guest house; some longing for former lovers, others relieving their frustrations with autoeroticism — one noteworthy scene being a woman using a carrot whilst fantasizing over a poster of Roger Daltrey!

These discontented, randy singletons eventually start to notice one-another, which opens for a triumvirate of pick ‘n’ mix pairing-offs. This first round of carnal encounters is just the beginning: a while later, the tenants find themselves lost in a public park, and getting separated from their former partners, pair off anew! This second wave of prurient, more conventional horseplay segues into the film’s finale: an outdoor, all-naked spiritual romp, as the leitmotif ‘Boys and Girls Together’ grates on the film’s soundtrack.

Director, Melbourne born Ralph Lawrence Marsden (who made the 1987 drama Aussified with several of the same crew members), attempted something different here, but the project was clearly too ambitious, and the cheap and shoddy results speak for themselves. The cast of amateur unknowns, coupled with his film being shot without the benefit of live sound, resulted in a drab, rock-bottom, impotent sex drama.

Bankrolled by David Sullivan’s company Roldvale Ltd, and released in early 1980 as a cinema supporting feature by distributors Jay Jay (Emmanuelle 3), the BBFC notably removed two minutes of explicit sexual highlights before affording it an ‘X’ certificate. After this point the film’s distribution history takes an interesting turn: it appears that Hokushin secured the home video rights to all of (producer) Willie Roe’s titles (Queen of the Blues, Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair, The Playbirds, Come Play with Me and Boys and Girls Together), but for reasons unknown failed to release the film at all.

In the spring of 1987, it was left to the obscure Clockwork Films label to provide Boys and Girls Together with its first release on home video. Using Hokushin’s pre-cut video master (as evidenced by the Hokushin logo at the end of the feature), Clockwork were required to remove more footage, aggravating the existing cuts by 15s.

For the DVD era, the film was released by the shady 23rd Century label who culled their version directly from one of Clockwork Films’ VHS imprints. This version now appears to be out-of-print.

BBFC cuts made for a cinema ‘X’ rating:

Reel 1 :  

Remove open-crotch magazine stills intercut with shots of London and aircraft arriving.

Reel 4 :

After women spills coffee on young man's trousers  and pulls them down, remove sight of semi-erect  penis. In lesbian scene, remove close-up of hand on pubic area and subsequent shots of hands between thighs.  In  homosexual sequence, remove shots of one man lying  on the other.

Reel 5 :

In sequence where black woman and man make love on bed, remove sight of her hand massaging his penis and subsequent shots of him thrusting into her. Remove three separate close-ups of penises which follow immediately. As black woman encourages her partner to start again, remove sight of his testicles as he rolls over her and shot of her open crotch as he falls off bed.  In second fantasy sequence, remove sight of blonde woman with her legs over man's shoulders and profile shot of his erect penis entering her. In third fantasy sequence between black woman and Chinese man, remove thrusting as he takes her from behind. In sequence where black man chases woman around room and undresses her, remove all sign of forcible stripping and spanking.

Reel 6 :

In sequence where black woman sunbathes on roof with Chinese man, remove all shots of his erect penis and subsequent thrusting. Remove sight of dark-haired man entering blonde woman whose legs are over his shoulders. Remove all thrusting shots in subsequent intercut sequences between the three couples .

Additional BBFC cuts made for an ‘18’ video certificate :

At 38 mins — After man kisses woman's stomach, remove all sight of testicles as she rides him.

At 47 mins — As man and woman lie on towel, remove sight of her hand on his penis.

 

aka :  Boys and Girls Together

cast : Roger Furse, Christine Maskelle, Cherry Patel, Paul Ong, Helen Fitzgerald, Anthony Thomas