Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly

Plot synopsis:
Four individuals live in a secluded manor house in the English countryside, where they engage in an elaborate role-playing fantasy called The Game. In The Game, each individual assumes the role of a member in a "happy" family, completely subsuming his or her individual personality to the point that each individual is known only by the identity he or she is playing: Mumsy (the mother, Ursula Howells), Nanny (the nanny, Pat Heywood), Sonny (the son, played by Howard Trevor), and Girly (the daughter, Vanessa Howard). The Game is built around a set of strictly enforced yet ill-defined rules, the principal one of which is "Rule No. 1: Play the Game."
As a part of The Game, the teenaged Sonny and Girly regularly venture to more populated areas, where the pair use Girly to lure men back to the manor house. Once there, the men are dressed like schoolboys and forcibly indoctrinated into The Game, assuming the roles of "New Friends." Those who refuse are "sent to the Angels"—a euphemism for being ritualistically murdered in scenarios built around playground games, which Sonny routinely records on a 16mm movie camera so that the family can later enjoy the resultant snuff film.
One night, Girly and Sonny stake out a swinging London party, where they encounter a male prostitute (Michael Bryant) and his latest client (Imogen Hassall). An instant attraction develops between Girly and the man, who convinces his client to accompany the siblings for a night of carousing. Girly and Sonny take the couple to a playground, where they murder the woman by throwing her from a large slide. The next morning, Sonny and Girly convince the hungover man that he murdered the woman after a night of heavy drinking, and convince him to return to the manor with them. The prostitute—rechristened "New Friend"—is outfitted in schoolboy clothes and subjected to an indeterminate period of torment "playing the game," during which he is repeatedly presented with his client's body as a reminder that the family has incriminating information about him.
After Mumsy makes sexual overtures to New Friend one evening, he gets the idea to turn the family against itself. New Friend's plot succeeds, as he creates sexual jealousy between the women after first sleeping with Mumsy and then Girly. Sonny, left out of the sexual politics, petitions to have New Friend "sent to the angels;" in a moment of panic, Girly bludgeons him to death with an antique mirror. Chastising Girly for creating a mess, Mumsy dismisses Sonny as "naughty" and orders a visibly shaken New Friend to bury Sonny beneath a drained fountain on the manor grounds, which is already populated by makeshift gravestones bearing the numerical identities assigned to dispatched "friends."
Nanny, jealous that she is the only female member of the household left out of New Friend's attentions, attempts to murder Mumsy with acid-tipped needles, but the attempt fails when it is inadvertently interrupted by New Friend. Girly, realising that Nanny has set her sights on New Friend, hacks Nanny to death with an axe and cooks her head for use in baked goods.
Rather than turn on one another, Mumsy and Girly declare a truce, deciding to "share" New Friend by alternating which days of the week each woman will be permitted to have sex with him. The two women agree, though ponder what will happen should either of them ever become bored with New Friend, with Girly declaring it as an inevitability. Overhearing the women's conversation, New Friend retrieves—and hides—Nanny's acid tipped needles before settling into Mumsy's room, smiling.

Tags: insanity, cult, murder

Review:
Fans of British horror and black comedy should definitely track down this Freddie Francis film, which was not imaginatively marketed at the time of its release and was never able to connect with its proper audience.
In this case a nutty family of four (insert original title here) which includes a brother and sister far to old for their school uniforms.Vanessa Howard plays the title character with a lot of sizzle and will remind viewers of Tisha Sterling, especially Sterling's portrayal of Ma Parker's daughter Legs on the Batman television show.
Howard is a genuinely fine actress, although in "Girly" her short skirts and provocative scripting make it hard to concentrate on her acting skills.This happy family lives on a large estate just outside London and amuse themselves by luring men there to serve as the children's playmates in various games supervised by Mumsy (Ursula Howells) and Nanny (Pat Heywood).
The last new friend believes himself a murderer and in time actually wants to become part the family, or anything else involving Girly.
There's Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly who all live a happy (crazy) life.
Luring homeless men to the mansion to be playmates for the children and if they step-out-of-line, WHACK, they are sent on a "train to the angels."  The funniest thing about this movie, I think, is the Siamese Anthem..
"Mumsy,Nanny,Sonny and Girly" is a dark 1969 British horror-comedy which is based on a stage play by Maisie Mosco entitled "Happy Family".The main characters of the film are the members of a wealthy British family whose names are synonymous with their roles within the family:the mother called Mumsy,the maid called Nanny,the son called Sonny and the daughter called Girly.Despite being in their twenties Sonny and Girly act like prepubescent children,dressing in British school uniforms and sleeping in giant cribs in a room full of toys.Sonny and Girly regularly seek out male loners,hobos and hippies to lure back to their house,where they are then forced to play "The Game".When the "new friends" refuse to participate they are murdered or "sent to the angels".Freddie Francis's "Girly" is a fantastic film which faded into obscurity too quickly.During a 2004 Freddie Francis film festival in England, the organizers struggled to find a VHS copy of the film to screen, but couldn't come up with one and it was briefly thought to be lost to the public,until copies began to surface on the internet in 2004.The acting is solid and there is enough creepy moments to satisfy any self-respecting horror fan.8 out of 10..
Vanessa Howard (don't know much about her) is prime psycho, post-nubile, upbeat girl and the rest of her family - Sonny, Mumsy, Nanny and all their unwilling and baffled friends make for a tasty stew of late 60's/early 70's pseudo-art..I believe.A 7 out of 10.
This film is tough to find on VHS and I don't think it's on DVD, but seek it out if you like clean black humor from England, with teasing, death, witty dialogue and a cast that's born for the task..
Oh the British have an odd sense of humour and "Girly" aka "Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly" is an excellently audacious combination of distorted black humour and macabre horror capped off in a very mannered approach.
It's like some happy-shinny family drama, but under that make-up its lunacy gone mad in what is a deeply disturbed, but very united family.Two sibling children Girly and Sonny go out looking for new friends to play games with and they would bring them back home to meet their caretaker the Nanny and their Mumsy.
However there's something dangerously eccentric about this family and their new friend learns he might just have to follow their rules and play their games while scheming some sort of plan if he has any chance of getting out of this nightmare alive.Prolific British horror director Freddie Francis lets it slowly unwind in a large remote Victorian mansion estate, but this only makes the atmosphere even more jarring and disquieting with its playful jolts and character manipulations.
A solid Michael Bryant brings the right temperament to balance out the insanity, as the new friend or better put a playmate for the children but also the for ladies of the house.
Howard Trevor brings edginess to his troublesome Sonny character and Pat Heywood is good as Nanny.
The film is based on a stage play by Maisie Mosco and follows a so-called 'happy family' who all happen to be lunatics.
The plot focuses on a family made up of four people - unsurprisingly calling themselves; Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly.
This all goes well until they kidnap a New Friend, who is not happy to join in with the games and decides to play some of his own...The film is very 'British' in style and execution and Freddie Francis does well in elevating the film away from it's stage play origins - although it's still clear that this story was originally a play from the settings and the way most of the scenes play out.
The lack in variation for locations doesn't harm the film however as the house matches the plot brilliantly and the way that it all takes place around one area helps to enforce the unfortunate kidnapped characters' situations and lack of escape routes.
The acting is spot on, with all four of the title characters being brought to life convincingly - Vanessa Howard is particularly good as the mischievous 'Girly'.
There's Mumsy (the mother), her two children Sonny and Girly (who are in the 20s but act like 13 year olds) and Nanny.
I saw this film in the theaters when I was a kid of 15 or 16 or so, and I remember that my friends and I just loved making one another laugh by quoting from it.And if you're a kid of 15 or 16, I think you'll like this silly film for exactly the same reasons I did when I was that age.However, it's a very, very dopey little movie, and while I think I'd like to see it again, just to see if there WAS anything to it, back then, I seriously doubt that there was anything substantial to it.Still--there's a place for guilty pleasures on anybody's movie shelf, and I can think of far worse things you might include on your list of guilty pleasures.It's junk-food, though--and I think even WE knew that, when our gang of noisy teenagers decided to go see it, all those many years ago...good for nyuk-nyuk-nyuk laughter and acting out scenes from it for hilarity later on...but nothing more..
Vanessa Howard (Girly) and Howard Trevor (Sonny) live with Ursula Howells (Mumsy) and Pat Heywood (Nanny) in a walled off large house.
There is no doubt that all four characters – mumsy, nanny, sonny and girly – are unhinged.I used to have no problem with the idea that rules are there for being broken but after watching this, I think the best thing to do is obey in some circumstances.
If you like your comedy with a decidedly quirky bent, then this is a film for you.Vanessa Howard is splendid as Girly, an obvious twenty-something that dresses and acts like a twelve year old schoolgirl.She lives with her brother, and mother, and nanny, and they are all certifiably bat-shite crazy.They two "children" lure homeless and hippies to the old crumbling mansion where they play "games." They must unquestionably participate or they are "sent to the angels," if you get my drift.The new friend (Michael Bryant) plots to turn the four of them against each other until he can find a way to escape.Director Freddie Francis won two Oscars for cinematography (Glory, Sons and Lovers) after directing many horror movies..
With the alluring Vanessa Howard dressed as a school girl and directed by cinematography great Freddie Francis this looks like a must see.
Unfortunately it's a big disappointment.The film starts off strong with a great cast of adults talking, playing and acting like little children in a secluded English mansion which makes the Biltmore look like a shack.The sexy Girly and her pretend brother Sonny spend all day playing childish games.As their playmates they pick up vagrants willing to play along with their fantasy world just to get 3 hots and a cot but when the inevitably try and leave the family "sends them to the angels." Unfortunately there is NO sex or violence in this film at all.
The photography was done nicely, and the characters are loved and hated, and most take a personal liking to New Friend, who has turned the family against itself, and is a grown man held prisoner as a playmate for Sonny and Girly, just as other prospects have been trapped in this world of fun before..
It's based on an old English play about a family without a father living in a mansion seducing lonely men to bring them home to be playthings for the children.
You better follow their play or girly will get angry.It was directed by British horror veteran Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) or Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)) but still it was overlooked by the Brits even as it had a glowing review in Variety and had a limited US release.
The actors are of course all British and some made it into the scene like Pat Heywood (Nanny) moving further to 10 Rillington Place (1971) or Michael Bryant going to Ghandi (1982).
Howard Trevor (Sonny) only made it in two flicks as Vanessa Howard (Girly) only acted until 1973.
Typical British acting, with posh English language, clocks in over 90 minutes and did survive the time because you still want to know what is going to happen to the family.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Coedy 0/5.
Vanessa Howard is Girly, a nubile girl in a role playing "family" along with Mumsy, Sonny, and Nanny.
Sonny and Girly go out and about and would find out new friends to be in the family.
Freddie Francis's "Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly" (released as "Girly" in North America) has a neat premise and some fun scenes but is mostly too weird to be generally appealing.
It's about a group of people pretending to be a family so that they can lure men to their house and force them to participate in the game.Early in the movie the "mother" mentions breakfast and calls it "brecky".
Little Miss Girly has a brother called Sonny and together they invite random pick-ups to their home to meet Mumsy and Nanny.
"Sod the rules" he barks, in one of the many Pinteresque exchanges, "where's my teacake?" The house, already seething with sexual repression amidst the children's games and nursery rhymes, heats up considerably when one 'guest' (or 'friend' as they are known) seeks a way out of the madness by playing the women off against each other.
Girly (Vanessa Howard), a fetching but evil-minded schoolgirl, shares a dark hobby with her oddball household: she lures unsuspecting men to their mansion on the outskirts of London, then engages them in "games" that inevitably end in their deaths.
The horrific family project runs smoothly until Girly brings home a new friend (Michael Bryant) who's operating under his own set of rules.
If you're going to make a memorable British horror film, these are the studios you want and the man you want to do it.What I found interesting was the unusual use of sexual seduction: is the woman an adult or a child?
Mumsy and Nanny live with Mumsy's children, Sonny and Girly, in a neo Gothic mansion.
Sonny and Girly also have another game they love to play, they coax young men back to the house to join the fun, then when they tire of their new 'playmates' they kill them.
Filmed in the familiar and instantly recognisable Oakley Court (a fixture of many British horror films including The Old Dark House and Monster Of Terror) this rare British horror film stars Ursula Howells, Pat Heywood, Howard Trevor and the excellent Vannessa Howard as the titular family, with Michael Bryant as the disruptive 'new friend'.
The film starts with Sonny and Girly meeting a homeless man, Soldier, on a park bench.
But when they bring 'new friend' home the family starts to turn on itself (Nanny's head ends up in a pot on the stove).
Although the cast is more than adequate it is Vanessa Howard who stands out as Girly (the title was shortened to just 'Girly' in the U.S.) Although once thought lost the film is now in the public domain and I've just ordered a new DVD to replace my old VHS copy.
Mumsy and Nanny have RULES....this applies to "the children" as well as the playmates they bring home...hapless unfortunates lured to the family's sprawling estate, where etiquette and proper grammar facade some very grisly goings on-- fun and games, wherein "playmates" become "slaymates" at the hands of Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly.
I've always considered Francis one of the most underrated horror directors, and I always speculated that the reason for his detractor's venom, besides his infamous distaste for the genre; was because his films were often very accessible to mainstream audiences and mostly(Key word being mostly, 'The Ghoul', which I will also review for this 'Family Un-Friendly' marathon; is one of the bleakest bits of celluloid I have ever seen)meant to be 'fun films' like a carnival spook-house, and as his Amicus anthology films showed, he had a wry sense of humor.
'Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly' is fun, it is humorous, and it is wry; but it is anything but 'acessible'.The film follows the exploits of an unnamed aristocratic family in '60's London who are led by an aging, but kindly(so far...)mother(Mumsy), a doting nanny(Do I have to explain here?) and two happy, life-loving siblings who love to skip around, harass zoo animals and the gruff attendant(a cameo by Michael Ripper; the British Dick Miller) and search for new friends among the disenfranchised(Sonny & Girly).
This would all seem perfectly ideal, if not for the fact that Sonny & Girly are in their early twenties and we never see Mumsy or Nanny, just hear their voices.
It all works amazingly well until we find out the truth: Sonny & Girly love to torment their 'friends', but not the way children normally do; after all, these are both adults here.
And after disposing of a homeless vet, the 'dears'(as Mumsy calls them)blackmail a drunken, middle-aged socialite after he accidentally kills his girlfriend on a slide into being their new 'friend' and bringing them pleasure...or else, and soon, Mumsy(An attractive middle-aged woman) finds new ways of using our protagonist to bring her pleasure as well, if you get what I mean, and soon, spinsterly Nanny finds herself wanting some of that pleasure as well...Didn't I say this family was nothing like The Munsters, Addams or Sawyers?
And it only gets worse when Girly interprets a rape by our protagonist(I hesitate to use the word 'hero', as not only is rape a horrible act whoever the victim is, but it steadily becomes apparent that he identifies with the family more than he lets on, which leads to a genuinely disturbing climax)as an act of love.Francis does a great job weaving this twisted tale, the cinematography(his greatest strength)isn't as up to par as usual, but he more than makes up for it with his directorial flourishes, changing the film from a Not-quite-right day-in-the-life piece, to a 'Kind Hearts & Coronets'-style black comedy, to a genuinely disturbing and unpleasant drama.
He also elicits great performances by the entire cast, particularly Vanessa Howard as Girly, and manages to make us experience every feeling of the protagonist, even though he is a character we don't particularly come to like, we still care about him.The film is also a remarkable study of gender politics; for example, the entire film is driven by strong-willed, and deranged women, and all the male figures are weak.
Even the homicidal, conniving Sonny is ultimately a pawn done away with as easily as his victims, our protagonist, on the other hand; the closest thing to a heroic, ideal male figure that the film has, is not only driven to the clutches of Girly by trying to escape his nagging, controlling girlfriend, but is controlled by her even after death as the guilt of his killing of her and fear of exposure is what keeps him at bay.
It's just Mumsy, the loyal nanny and the two adolescent children Sonny and Girly.
The new friend in room number two, however, is clever and manages to manipulate both Mumsy and Girly.
There don't seem to exist any taboos in this cinematic household; there's murder committed by children, sex with minors, etc Moments after killing a human being with a bow and arrows, Sonny and Girly go back to playing with dolls and hobbling horses.
Sonny has a cruel streak in him, and takes his childhood games too far.He also enjoys filming his playmates in some weird PEEPING TOM-style fetish.
He is effectively the prisoner in a nightmare world, his life alternating between plotting escapes, playing a child, ravishing Girly, and being shocked at the activities of the family.
Michael Ripper also pops up in a typical cameo appearance as a zoo keeper.Fans of understated, slow-moving yet highly disturbing character studies will really enjoy this film, which is directed with a firm hand by genre stalwart Freddie Francis.
They just want to play games, sing nursery rhymes and lure unsuspecting 'friends' back home for frolics, tea cakes and to be sent to meet God early via the 'angels – bless em the little darlings.Looking over this idyll of a childhood paradise is the delightful 'Mumsy' who is aided in her maternal duties by a devoted 'Nanny'.
Then one day they bring back 'new friend' and he is different to the others, he not only likes games but has a few he wants to play himself – mwaaahh!Now this is just oodles of fun, Mumsy is about as mad as a box of frogs with the addition of a beehive and an alcoholic bag lady thrown in for good measure.