The Naked World of Harrison Marks

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The Naked World of Harrison Marks
The Naked World of Harrison Marks film Theatrical release poster (1966).jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Harrison Marks
Produced byGeorge Harrison Marks
Starring Pamela Green, June Palmer, George Harrison Marks
Narrated by Valentine Dyall
Production
company
Harrison Marks Production
Distributed byGala
Release date
1966
Running time
84 mins
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Naked World of Harrison Marks is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary about adult film director and photographer George Harrison Marks starring Marks, Valentine Dyall, Pamela Green and June Palmer. [1]

Contents

Plot

The film looks at Marks' daily life and work, with added dream sequences.

Cast

Production

The film was mainly shot at Harrison Marks' studios at Lily Place, London, with the occasional location such as Ewhurst Manor.[ citation needed ] It was during the auditions for the film that George Harrison Marks met his future wife, Toni Burnett. [2]

Release

Despite censorship troubles with the BBFC due to its abundant nudity, [3] it ran for over a year in London's West End.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A study of the life and works of Harrison Marks, photographer of nudes. Endless shots of nude models posed against a variety of garish backgrounds are interspersed with dispiriting scenes in which Harrison Marks judges a beauty contest, works on some glum-looking home movies, or acts out a coy farce about the difficulties involved in photographing a cat. Long, repetitive and exceedingly boring, the whole thing is shot in raffish colour and accompanied by a fulsomely silly commentary: "Harrison Marks is a dreamer, and the city of London is the centre of all his dreams" – cue for a few routine picture-postcard exteriors." [4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Since he is producer, director, part author and star of the film, one can assume that it expresses the personality of Harrison Marks and the commentary, which Harrison Marks also interrupts at intervals, suggests that he is a photographer who can be compared with a composer, even perhaps a poet. There Is a long sequence in which he is disguised as Toulouse Lautrec. There is also a tiresome burlesque shooting a film and other amateurish episodes that almost entirely counterbalance the star's undoubted talents as a photographer with an eye for colour and design as well as for nudity." [5]

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References

  1. "The Naked World of Harrison Marks". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  2. meisteryak (1 August 2016). "The (Naked) World of Harrison Marks (1965)". Pamela Green. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  3. Simon Sheridan, Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, Titan Books 2011 p. 52
  4. "The Naked World of Harrison Marks". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 33 (384): 65. 1 January 1966 via ProQuest.
  5. "The Naked World of Harrison Marks". Kine Weekly . 585 (3049): 18. 10 March 1966 via ProQuest.