A Couple of Beauties

The movie, A Couple of Beauties, was featured in a documentary of British B films titled Truly, Madly. Cheaply (2008).

Having been a fan of the British B film (quota quickie), I located this film on YouTube. Any comparison to the classic film, Some Like It Hot is wishful thinking on the filmmaker's part. A bartender/actor at a British Playboy club witnesses a murder. He makes a run for it and connects with his agent. The agent suggests the actor work at a few bars as a Drag Queen. The actor, a Drag Queen who goes by the name of Bunny Lewis, takes him up on his offer, and the yawns begin.

I felt sorry for the extras in this film. They had to be impressed by the drag queen's act.

On reviewer trashed the all-female band. On the contrary, the band had more talent in their pinkie than Bunny Lewis and the film. Thank God the film lasted under a half hour.

A COUPLE OF BEAUTIES is the final directed effort of Francis Searle, a gentleman with a predilection for churning out B-movie after B-movie over some thirty years of his career. He finished his career making various short films, the last of which I watched, A HOLE LOT OF TROUBLE, was a disappointing rip-off of that classic THE PLANK.

Sadly, A COUPLE OF BEAUTIES is even more disappointing, a short film that lacks even the most basic of plotting or narrative structure. Sure, it begins promisingly enough with a few sub-crime elements, before turning into a showcase for forgotten northern drag act Bunny Lewis. We watch Lewis go through various minor scrapes and perform on stage, and if you're interested in the northern drag scene in the early '70s, then this might be for you.

If you're not, then like me you'll struggle. A brief, almost wordless cameo from the infamous Bernard Manning does nothing to lift the viewer's spirits. I suppose this holds some kind of historical value as a cinema verite piece but it comes as no surprise that it sank without trace as it holds very little of value for the modern audience.

Barman Bernie witnesses a shooting at his place of work. Bernie's agent convinced him to hide out as a drag act in a night club, 'Bunny' struggles at first, but soon takes to the new way of life.

I was so keen to see this, it had been on my radar, largely due to the wonderful cast, so many quality performers here. Sadly my expectations were way too high.

It feels cheap, shoddy and tacky, it doesn't feel like it was happily put together, everything is forced and badly aligned. The script is weak, the story uninspiring, despite an interesting scenario, and the acting just doesn't hit the mark.

James Beck and Pat Coombs try their best, but both are working with some pretty diabolical material.

You are a big girl aren't you! *Hides eyes behind hands.

3.5/10.

This cheap comedy, the last to be directed by hack Francis Searle, had been forgotten until it turned up in a 2008 BBC documentary, "Truly, Madly, Cheaply!" It's a vehicle for Northern drag act Bunny Lewis, who on the strength of this performance had little ability in or out of a frock. The plot is a destitute man's "Some Like It Hot" - a club barman witnesses a murder and goes undercover in drag to evade the killer. The situations that develop are true to the comedy of the times - James Beck (then a star of "Dad's Army") immediately finds Lewis attractive and tries to chat him up; Lewis finds it exciting when he's expected to share a bed with a dolly bird. The film was shot entirely in Manchester, in and around many of the city's cabaret clubs, and features brief appearances by Colin Crompton and Bernard Manning not to mention the world's worst girl band performing songs by Kenny Lynch. The claim is that the film failed because it came out around the same time as "Our Miss Fred" and "Ooh, You Are Awful" but a more likely explanation is that this is a poor film built around a second-rate performer. It's an interesting insight into the generation of drag acts that were enjoyed by straight couples before and after the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The next generation, which found stardom in the new gay venues, made few concessions to panto-style female impersonation.