Federico
Fellini and Russ Meyer might have been obsessed with big bosoms, but that was
nothing compared to British director Ken Russell with his thing for throbbing
erect mega-dicks about to burst! Russell wasn’t gay, however, just extremely
eccentric. Controversy was his middle name and there was nothing he loved
better than playing with the repressed subconscious minds of censors and
pressing their ultra-sensitive buttons at the same time. You better believe
that Russell’s wild erotic imagination was also delighting his audiences, and
his films remain super edgy even by today’s standards.
For my story
on him in my book Sinemania!, I’ve told
funny anecdotes from behind the scenes, highlighting his mind-blowing
creativity, bizarre fetishes, fashion faux-pas, and weird on-set behavior,
including notorious temper tantrums. Ken Russell was one mad genius. His
technique and his distinctively gonzo approach to storytelling resulted in
unique movies: ‘The Devils’ and its cathartic religious delirium, ‘Tommy’ and
‘Lisztomania’ where rock opera and classical music melt
in a fusion of video clip mania, and ‘Whore’ and ‘Crimes of Passion’ with their
sexually deviant silliness. Russell was a pioneer at showing male nudity (‘Women
in Love’), mocking Hollywood legends (‘Valentino’), and putting the unthinkable
on screen just for the sheer fun of it. Either you love or hate his irreverent
work, it’s that simple. There’s no middle ground with Ken Russell.
Russell might
have been quite a handful for the actors he directed, but he could be
particularly faithful to some of them, employing them in his films again and
again. One name that will forever be linked with his is ‘Mr. England’ himself, Oliver
Reed!
That very
charismatic and macho actor was one of the most famous British stars of his
time. Ollie Reed even looked like Russell and could have passed for his brother,
each having a passion for the bottle and binge boozing. The
drinking buddies made several movies together in the ‘70s and shared tons of
crazy unbelievable moments, the weirdest being a sword duel. They even had
their own private code for acting, Reed asking Russell before each scene: “Do
you want take one, take two or take three?”, referring to his own personal
method of acting that involved the level of intensity required for that
particular scene.
For more juicy
details of the highs and lows of Ollie’s pub fights, Guinness World Record
consumption of pints, sexual prowess, and irrational behavior, let me recommend
a fantastic book: ‘Hellraisers’ by Robert Sellers. The graphic novel version is
also a wonderful read, especially with the very talented illustrator, Jake, accurately
caricaturing the above four British thespian musketeers who lived and drank to
excess. See for yourself, you won’t be disappointed! Sellers’ biographies are
some of the most enjoyable to be found these days and his stories are right up
my dirty alley! For maximum effect, read them in a quiet pub.
Here’s Oliver
in action after a bit too much to drink. He is indeed the wild one!
I’d just like
to point out here that in the Oliver Reed bio, ‘Evil Spirit’, the author writes
that Reed was not as drunk in front of camera as he appeared to be; it was all
an act to keep the legend of his persona alive.
Barf-fly king
Ollie’s most notorious drinking companion was the drummer of The Who, Keith
Moon. This photo of a poster in a London pub window was taken just last year
and shows that the two iconic boozers have obviously not been forgotten.
In England
back in the day, Ollie and Moon the Loon were out of control. If you were the
unfortunate proprietor of a pub or a hotel manager, the sight of this devilish
duo entering your establishment was enough to make you tremble, knowing the
kind of havoc these two buffoons could wreak. In 1975, they both appeared
together in a Ken Russell movie. Keith played the hilarious pedophiliac Uncle
Ernie in ‘Tommy’, the grandioso rock opera composed by The Who’s Pete Townshend.
The wacko
Moon was perfectly cast to portray the toothless perverted sex maniac who torments
a deaf, dumb and blind Roger Daltrey in a very entertaining and effective scene.
But it’s disturbing to know that Moonie died three years later of a drug
overdose at the young age of 32 and I’m sure Ollie had to drown his sorrows
even deeper after the loss of his pal. His behavior became even more outrageous
without his sidekick.
Roger Daltrey,
Keith Moon’s band-mate in The Who, was very convincing as the quiet, wide-eyed,
and blind Tommy, the main character of that dark and extravagant musical fairy
tale. Ann-Margret and Oliver Reed played his parents. Ollie was great in the role
of the shady step-father whose look and attitude was reminiscent of singer Ian
Dury of ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ fame, most noticeably in the
Acid Queen scene with the frantic Tina Turner. Tina stole the show singing in a
Soho bordello-type room, and its music video quality makes it one of the
greatest rock music scenes in a motion picture.
Ken Russell enlisted Roger Daltrey again the very same year when he had
him star as the womanizing classical pianist Franz Liszt in ‘Lisztomania’. The
crowd hysteria and mega phallus are basically the best parts of that movie.
Sorry, it’s a bit too chaotic for my taste and only deserves a ‘D’ for effort.
Okay, maybe a
‘C’ for the fantastic movie poster and Daltrey’s poodle hair-do!
But it wasn’t
the first time that Russell used the same actor twice in the same year. In 1971,
he had cast Twiggy for a cameo in the Christ rape scene in ‘The Devils’ and gave
her the main role in ‘The Boy Friend’.
That’s what I
call a gorgeous movie poster! Twiggy, the most famous British model of the ‘60s, ended up having a durable acting career.
For me, the
most enjoyable and magical Ken Russell movie has to be ‘The Devils’. The first
time I saw it as a teenager, I was mesmerized by it, developed a huge crush on
Michael Gothard who played Father Barre, and discovered Oliver Reed, about whom
I’ve since read anything I can get my hands on. So when I came across Toronto
writer Richard Crouse’s book from ECW Press about the making of ‘The Devils’, I
was in heaven!
Here I could
indulge in my guilty pleasure of reading about Ollie‘s bad-boy behavior and
find out what went on behind the scenes of my favorite movie of all time. And on
top of that, illustrator Ghoulish Gary came up with that extraordinary cover! It
can’t get any better, can it? Yes, actually. Crouse’s writing is vividly
descriptive, providing the inside scoop on the making of that cursed film. It’s
a goddamn great read and if you love ‘The Devils’, get the book now! It beats
knitting with nuns any day (unless it’s the nuns from ‘The Devils’ – they’re a
fun bunch!) One of the many things I learned from Crouse’s book was that Ken
Russell was the first to think of making Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel on youth
ultra-violence, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, into a movie before Stanley Kubrick took
on the project. Can you imagine what that film would have looked like had it
been made by Russell?!
I can totally
picture Ken as Alex, and Ollie and Keith as his fellow trouble maker gang
members! Yes, that’s what’s missing in Ken Russell’s work: ‘A Clockwork Orange’
shot with hidden cameras filming Oliver Reed and Keith Moon going at it in a pub
with Ken Russell egging them on! Shame they’re all dead now so that movie’s an
impossibility. But ironically enough, one of them did die in a pub actually called The
Pub. Can you guess who? The answer’s easy: it was Oliver Reed. Not even in his
wildest dreams could he have imagined a better and more appropriate way to go!
That fateful
day was May 2, 1999. Reed was taking a break during the filming of Ridley Scott’s
‘Gladiator’ in which he played Proximus, an ex-gladiator who becomes a
gladiator trainer. Ollie was ordering his last rounds of beer in The Pub in
Malta and engaging in some arm wrestling when he keeled over dead of a heart
attack. (Also in the film was Richard Harris in the role of Marcus Aurelius. They
had no scenes together but I’m sure they shared some pints!)
Ollie’s last
performance was one of his finest, but for me his best has to be the one in
this clip.
The man who
loved to exhibit his cock’s ‘bird-claw’ tattoo in public had one thing to say
about Shelley Winters after that incident: “My row with Shelley Winters was
caused by her abominable lack of manners. She is getting old now and I think
she is quite crazy.” That’s a funny quote from the man who proclaimed in his autobiography
that before he died he wanted to drink in every pub around the world and make
love to every woman on the planet. Not sure if Shelley quite fit the bill, but
the ‘bird-claw cock’ could go back to his delusional ‘cuckoo’s nest’ by saying,
“I like the effect drink has on me. What’s the point of staying sober?” Well, that’s the only sane thing he ever
said! I’ll drink to that!
