Sheridan, Simon (18 March 2016). "Come Play with Mary on DVD". Mary Millington . Retrieved 12 January 2021. In late 2009, an 8mm copy of one of her early John Lindsay short films Special Assignment resurfaced. Unseen since the early 1970s, it was subsequently transferred to DVD. Two years later in 2011, Wild Lovers, another 8mm film starring Millington, was also traced and transferred from 8mm to DVD. [ citation needed]

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story". Regent Street Cinema. Archived from the original on 16 April 2016 . Retrieved 3 April 2016. Simon Sheridan is a writer, broadcaster and filmmaker, as well as being Mary Millington's biographer. He is the world's leading authority on British sexploitation cinema and has written several books on the subject, including Come Play With Me: The Life And Films Of Mary Millington, X-Rated and Keeping The British End Up.Millington was buried at St Mary Magdalene Church, in South Holmwood, Surrey, marked by a grey granite tombstone which bears her married name. She is buried in the same grave as her mother, Joan Quilter, who died in 1976. [20] Legacy [ edit ] A feature-length documentary chronicling Millington's life, entitled Respectable – The Mary Millington Story, [31] [32] [33] was partly shot and produced at Pinewood Studios in 2015. Millington has been described as one of the "two hottest British sex film stars of the seventies", the other being Fiona Richmond. [3] David Sullivan described her as "the only really uninhibited, natural sex symbol that Britain ever produced and who believed in what she did". [22] Between 1975 and 1982, there was always at least one of Millington's films playing in London's West End. [23] Written, directed and produced by Mary Millington's biographer Simon Sheridan, the film mixes archive footage, previously unseen photographs and interviews with Millington's family, friends and co-stars, including David Sullivan, Pat Astley, Dudley Sutton, Linzi Drew and Flanagan. Mary was actually a former veterinary nurse from Surrey, who stumbled into pornography quite accidentally; initially the hardcore variety and then softcore, which is not the usual career trajectory for actresses in that business. She had few inhibitions about sex and nudity, and after making some immensely successful 8mm films in Germany and The Netherlands, Mary began a relationship with publisher David Sullivan, who promoted her relentlessly in his stable of magazines, the most famous of which was Whitehouse - a cheeky sideswipe at Mary Whitehouse, the infamous pro-censorship campaigner. By the mid-1970s Mary started securing small supporting roles in British comedies like Eskimo Nell ( 1975) and Keep It Up Downstairs ( 1976). With Sullivan's help she soon elevated to more significant 'above the title' roles in Come Play With Me ( 1977) and The Playbirds ( 1978). That's how she gained a much wider audience.

Millington has been described as one of the "two hottest British sex film stars of the seventies", the other being Fiona Richmond. [3] Early life [ edit ] Respectable: The Mary Millington Story ( 2015), an in-depth documentary chronicling her extraordinary life Upton, Julian (2004). Fallen stars: tragic lives and lost careers. Headpress/Critical Vision. ISBN 9781900486385. Party Pieces 1974 Mary Millington film. A short film, once presumed lost, with a young Mary Millington. Originally released on 8mm without sound, it was digitally restored at Pinewood Studios.

See also

Come Play with Me original 1977 trailer plus the British theatrical trailer for Come Play with Me, unseen for nearly 40 years. Soon after becoming a glamour model, she met the glamour photographer and pornographer John Jesnor Lindsay, who offered to photograph her for softcore magazines. She became one of his most popular models [4] and began appearing in 8mm hardcore pornographic film loops which sold well in Europe. [3] One of her first films was Miss Bohrloch [a] in 1970. [3] Miss Bohrloch won the Golden Phallus Award at the Wet Dream Festival held in November 1970 in Amsterdam. [8] She starred in around twenty short hardcore films for John Lindsay, [9] although only five ( Miss Bohrloch, Oral Connection, Betrayed, Oh Nurse and Special Assignment) have so far resurfaced. She then returned to modelling for British pornographic magazines such as Knave and Men Only. [9] She also appeared in softcore short films by Russell Gay ( Response, 1974), Mountain Films ( Love Games, Wild Lovers) and Harrison Marks ( Sex is My Business, c.1974). [10] Mary Millington was a pretty English girl-next-door who personified the word ‘glamour’. Her meteoric rise to the top was scandalous and controversial. She became the most famous pin-up of the decade and her racy reputation could shift a million newspapers and sell the longest-running British movie of all-time. Mary’s fame brought her a lavish lifestyle and an affair with a serving Prime Minister. Her sexuality was accessible and her personality addictive, but her sexual bravado hid a darker side. Persecuted by the authorities, Mary was tortured by self-doubt and she sadly died at the height of her fame in August 1979, aged 33. Filmed on location in London and at Pinewood Studios, Simon Sheridan’s documentary reveals the truth behind an icon. Extras: Audio Commentary. Sam Dunn from the BFI discusses the making of Respectable with its writer/director/producer, Simon Sheridan.

Firstly, I must tell you, compiling this new Mary Millington collection of films on Blu-ray has been my dream job! I've curated the whole box-set with the fantastic team at Screenbound Pictures. I've been asking them to remaster Mary's movies for years, and now it's happened. I don't care if anybody gets sniffy about Mary's films, because they're actually hugely culturally significant. These movies kept the British movie industry going through some pretty dark times - I absolutely believe they deserve to be restored, so I'm thrilled to bits about it. They look better now than ever. A real labour of love for writer/producer and director Simon Sheridan who had previously written both Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington and Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, key texts concerning the British sexploitation industry of the 1970s and its biggest star, Mary Millington. Respectable teaser trailer plus 2015 teaser trailer for Respectable, originally released on what would have been Mary Millington’s 70th birthday. In 2004, Millington's prominence was recognized by her inclusion in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, [27] edited by Colin Matthew and Brian Harrison. Her entry was written by Richard Davenport-Hines. Sheridan, Simon (30 November 2015). "Teaser Trailer for 'Respectable: The Mary Millington Story' ". Simon Sheridan . Retrieved 3 April 2016.I was born respectable, but I soon decided I wasn’t going to let that spoil my life.” – Mary Millington The wonderful Irene Handl plays the matriarch of the establishment and there's a host of other very well-loved comedy names in attendance, such as Tommy Godfrey, Alfie Bass, Bob Todd, Henry McGee and Rita Webb. And the young actresses, like Mary Millington, are all dressed in nurses' outfits (naturally) and cavort with the old-timers. It's quite a spectacle!

The release also gave me an opportunity to make some new documentary shorts, all of which relate to aspects of Mary's life: there are eight new documentaries, including Mary Millington On Location, which looks at the places she made the films; a look at audio recordings she made in 1977, called Aural Sex; plus new interviews with co-star Sally Faulkner, veteran glamour photographer George Richardson, and Josie Harrison Marks, who is the daughter of Come Play With Me's director. There's even a documentary on how I made Respectable. So there's something for everybody, I hope. Of course, Mary was only one of many involved in the 'sexploitation' sex comedies of the 1970s - perhaps the most culturally important, but still one of many. And there are plenty of other great, or not-so-great but similarly important, films in the genre too, which I'd love to celebrate in future. So many! I have plans for something very, very special next year, but you'll just have to wait for now. It's going to be the project I have always wanted to do. Maybe then I can retire from the world of 1970s' sex comedies forever! I've been fascinated by Mary Millington's life and career since I was a child in the 1970s. I always recall seeing her image on cinema posters when I was very young and wondering who this beautiful blonde woman was. Even at a formative age I knew she was an 'adult actress', but couldn't quite understand how TV favourites like Diana Dors and Irene Handl were co-starring with her in naughty big-screen comedies. McGillivray, David (2017). Doing rude things: the history of the British sex film, 1957-1981 (2nded.). Wolfbait. ISBN 978-1999744151. Keep It Up, Sue! In Conversation with Sue Longhurst. Mary Millington’s co-star Sue Longhurst talks about her career in saucy British sex comedies and recalls the making of Come Play with Me.In April 1978, Millington and fellow Come Play With Me actress Suzy Mandel took part in a publicity stunt for the anniversary of the opening of the film at the Moulin Cinema, posing in lingerie on the cinema's marquee. [15] In May 1978, Millington was photographed topless outside 10 Downing Street. While she was posing for an innocuous picture with a policeman, she decided to unzip her top and expose her breasts for the photograph. This surprised the people present, including Suzy Mandel, Whitehouse photographer George Richardson (who took the picture), and the policeman (who tried to confiscate the film). According to Simon Sheridan's biography of Millington, "For this stunt Mary was conditionally discharged and bound over to keep the peace". [1]