Expresso Bongo (1959)

Director:

Val Guest

Writers:

Wolf Mankowitz (play)
Wolf Mankowitz (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 May 1960 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

Laurence Harvey in an outstanding and different motion picture that takes you into a world of burlesque houses .. jazz dens ... and flesh-and-blood people!

Plot:

Johnny Jackson, a sleazy talent agent, discovers teenager Bert Rudge singing in a coffee house. Despite...

Plot Keywords:

Bar | Stripper | Agent | Prostitute | Soho London

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards.

Cast

Laurence Harvey	...	Johnny Jackson
Sylvia Syms	...	Maisie King
Yolande Donlan	...	Dixie Collins
Cliff Richard	...	Bert Rudge / Bongo Herbert
Meier Tzelniker	...	Mayer
Ambrosine Phillpotts	...	Lady Rosemary
Eric Pohlmann	...	Leon
Gilbert Harding	...	Himself
Hermione Baddeley	...	Penelope
Reginald Beckwith	...	Reverend Tobias Craven

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1986) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, Mayfair, London, England, UK

Company:

Val Guest Productions

Trivia:

First feature of Avis Bunnage.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Love Goddesses (1965)

Soundtrack:

I've Never Had It So Good

An interesting time capsule

This is kind of an annoying low-budget film, but at least I, an American, got to see what the fuss used to be about the UK singer Cliff Richard, whom I had never seen before. I also have never seen Lawrence Harvey in a semi-comedic role. He seemed as if he were on speed, or coke; very annoying. I kept yelling, "Give the guy a Valium!" And his accent drifted from plummy English to South African to European Yiddish, and back again. Most disconcerting.

But watch the film for future celebs! There's Hermione Baddley (who was on "Maude"), playing a street-walking prostitute (!), there's Burt Kouwk (who played Cato in all those Pink Panther movies), playing a dissolute Soho youth, and Susan Hampshire ("Upstairs, Downstairs," and various TV movies).

The film's depiction of Soho reminded me of old American films' depictions of 42nd St. in N.Y. Really cheesy.

And apparently there wasn't too much censorship of British films then, because we see in this film lots of true female nudity (the strippers in the film). Man, I haven't seen breasts like those in ages! (All natural, all non-augmented.) See this as an interesting historical time capsule.