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London In The Raw (1964) Certificate 15

London In The Raw

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Rated 2.5 stars
Average rating
(54%)
 
Starring: David Gell
Director: Arnold L. Miller, Norman Cohen
Studio: BFI VIDEO
Run time: 76 mins
Genres: Documentary
Languages: English
Released: May 25, 2009
Also available on: Also Available on: blu_ray

The opening three releases on the new BFI offshoot label, Flipside who describe their mission thus: to seek out film and TV that is weird, wonderful, offbeat, unseen, outrageous and downright unlikely. These three films certainly meet the criteria. The Bed Sitting Room is a surreal post-apocalypse comedy starring many of the biggest names in British comedy including, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Arthur Lowe, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and acting legend, Ralph Richardson. The other releases are two Arnold Miller exploitation documentaries looking at London during the Swinging Sixties.

Highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3 stars
Hmmm

MovieNut from , 18th July, 2009

This film was slightly amusing, (not sure if it's supposed to be or not) in a kind of creepy way. It takes a look at life in London in the 60's. My life is no better having watched this film. I have no idea why this was even on my rental list. If i had the chance to go back in time I'd remove it. One thing's for sure though, if this film is a true account of life in the 60's, I'm very glad I wasn't alive back then. Very odd, spoofy documentary type thing. Not sure what to make of it.

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*** May contain spoilers ***


Rated 3 stars
A fascinating and a rather crisp looking documentary.

A Customer from london, 20th October, 2009

A fascinating and a rather crisp looking documentary. which details some aspects of what life in London was like in the early 1960s. You have seedy looking bars, plastic surgoens, burlesque performers and strippers, pubs and reconstructed footage of gentlemen getting 'mugged' in clip joints and tramps drinking meths! The film has been cleaned up and looks like it was only filmed yesterday! Because of the high focus of footage, framing and the colours of the film stock, it does make the film look amazing. It really captures a set moment in time and is a wonderful historical piece. This is a sort of a 'Mondo' film, but is less exploitive and shocking, then the Italian versions of this type of 'shockumentary' made in the 1960s.

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Rated 3 stars
a great look back in time

itstinks from , 25th September, 2009

The film starts with an observation on the good manners of the people in London and immediately you think 'things change'. Considering the film covers prostitutes, strippers and junkies there does seem to be a relaxed attitude to their behaviour and is all done in what seems a fairly innocent way. Especially interesting are the well spoken accents of some of the striptease girls and the fairly talentless entertainment in the East End pubs. The extras are pretty good as well.

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Rated 2 stars
Not exactly raw but vaguely interesting

Wooster from , 14th September, 2009

If you're expecting a raunchy view of 60's London strip clubs and the like you'll be sorely disappointed. This slow and ponderous film takes snapshots of various groups of people living within the capital in the mid 1960's ranging from Cypriots to a hair replacement salon. There is a hooker and a belly dancer but in typical 60's style the whole show is very toned down and sanitised. It was particularly annoying that in two club scenes (one being the WAG Club) no actual music was recorded and a dreadful ochestrated backing track replaced the presumably Mod music being played on the dancefloor behind the film of the dancers. So, a vagely interesting view of various strands of 60's London enhanced greatly by my liberal use of the fast-forward button on my remote.

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Most recent reviews

Rated 3 stars
Great Extras

A Customer from London, 11th August, 2009

Average film for nostalgists and/or cultural historians but the real pay off on this dvd are the interesting documentaries on the Extras. Were the early sixties this grim?

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