LEGENDARY DAME!: CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : ALFIE DARLING .. EMI FILM DISTRIBUTORS .. UK 1975 ..

Friday, May 14, 2021

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : ALFIE DARLING .. EMI FILM DISTRIBUTORS .. UK 1975 ..

EMI FILM DISTRIBUTORS

Presents

A SIGNAL FILM PRODUCTION

ALFIE DARLING!

Starring
ALAN PRICE as Alfie Elkins
JILL TOWNSEND as Abby Summers
JOAN COLLINS as Fay
PAUL COPLEY as Bakey
SHEILA WHITE as Norma
ANNIE ROSS as Claire
HANNAH GORDON as Dora
RULA LENSKA as Louise
PATSY KENSIT as Penny
JENNY HANLEY as Receptionist
VICKI MICHELLE as The Bird
MINAH BIRD as Gloria
ROGER LUMONT as Pierre

Assistant Director - Peter Cotton Edited by John Trumper
   Director of Photography - Ousama Rawi B.S.C
   Music by Alan Price "Alfie Darling!" sung by Cilla Black   Screenplay by Ken Hughes From Bill Naughton's Novel
   Produced by Dugaid Rankin Directed by Ken Hughes

Aka - ' Oh Alfie! ' - USA ..

Alfie Elkins is back and he is cockier than ever! There's a girl in every port, as Alfie drives a truck around Europe for a living. Alfie loves them and leaves them, that is till he throws his eyes on a sophisticated magazine editor, Abby Summers. Can Alfie make upmarket Abby fall for him? Will he recover from his encounter with Norma? Will Fay's husband, ever let him forget his time with her? Can Alfie keep it up! When they scream.. Oh! Alfie! Darling! ....

This belated sequel to the classic 60's drama "Alfie", stars Alan Price taking over the title role, originally played by Michael Caine. The original film had a gritty realism, whilst this sequel is more in the style of the "Carry On" or "Confessions", series of films. Patrick Mower was set to star, but he may have been too suave for the role, Alan Price is more suited as the cockney commoner who can charm the birds out of the trees and into the back of his truck!

The film was shot at Elstree and on location in France. Joan had a few key scenes, as the upmarket but frustrated housewife Fay. She brings her usual style to the proceedings, but with the obligatory topless scenes for a 70's romp! The cast also features many other popular British faces including Rula Lenska, Hannah Gordon, Jill Townsend, Jenny Hanley and even an early appearance by Patsy Kensit.

As in the original film, 60's songtress and TV legend Cilla Black sings the title song. Cilla had a smash hit in the 60's with the now classic Bacharach and David hit song "Alfie", also a smash for Dionne Warwick. However this sequel was no patch on the original but it did do well at the British box office. It cost £500,000 to produce and promote and made a box office return of £2.5 million and made the top ten box office hits in the UK for 1975.. Another connection with both films features Joan, who featured the original in her "Joan Collins Selection" of videos in the 80's, where she introduced the film for a home video audience.

Reviews of the film were bad, like this one!

TIME OUT ..

"In "Alfie Darling!", what looks like developing into an EEC movie, Price shows those M'zelles what a British leg over is all about! But back in Britain, this belated sequel to "Alfie", switches to the Americanisation of the Cockney skirt chaser, (Pontiac's, Marlboro's, etc.), in an attempt to prove that the affluent society is still available, even to the working classes. But the film ends up like an advert, with no product to sell!"

The American release of the film, runs shorter than the European, due to the fact the ending is different! In the original print, Alfie's upmarket girlfriend Abby dies in a plane crash, leaving him all alone again. However the distributors cut the last few minutes of the film, so that Alfie leaves her at the airport and is last seen chatting up a traffic warden, then cutting to the end credits.. I can only presume the original ending seemed too tragic for what was up to then a cheeky comedy and the American distributors wanted it left a comedy. The film viewed today is passable entertainment and it certainly is a product of the 70's!