Eskimo Nell

Eskimo Nell (1975) is a sex comedy movie directed by Martin Campbell and it is on par with the first sex comedy movie Campbell directed.

Positives for Eskimo Nell (1975): For a movie that is kind of a porn, this one had a lot of plot attached to it. The performances from the cast are good enough for the movie they're in. The movie has a good pace to it. I also liked that the main characters did face some consequences for their actions at the end.

Negatives for Eskimo Nell (1975): This is still a porn and I barely got into it because I am not a fan of porn. I'm also not a fan of the movie's humor where they're making fun of women's breasts.

Overall, Eskimo Nell (1975) is another whatever sex comedy movie from Martin Campbell, but I would recommend it to fans of porn.

This is one of the best of the British sex comedies.This is particularly so when it satirises the British film industry.The American ffilm executive is meant to be Deke Hayward European head ofAIP.Interesting to see London in the sixties

Nobody could claim that this is a great film, but it is amusing and does portray well a certain moment in time in the British film industry. It is well enough made, indeed, this is the second feature from the man who would later direct the recent, Casino Royale and The Legend of Zorro and he certainly establishes something of a CV for himself with this. A keen group are out to make a film and a greasy executive/agent ably played by Roy Kinnear helps them raise the finance. Unfortunately everybody who can invest will invest only if the film is of the particular genre he wants and includes his latest girlfriend or even boyfriend in one instance. This means numerous versions have to be made and Cambpell certainly has fun here. For us though most of the fun is in the original setting up with interviews and casting. There is plenty of nudity but it is not in your face and as they say, essential in the script. One particular tableaux presumably for the porno version is well done and a cry from one of the more pretentious thespians is classic; 'But what is the motivation for my erection?' Stars the writer of this and director of Mark of the Devil, Michael Armstrong, who also worked with Pete Walker.

This is a very rare creature indeed--a British sex comedy that is actually funny! This movie, probably inspired by Mel Brook's original version of "The Producers" is about three young men--an aspiring director (played by "Mark of the Devil" director Michael Armstrong), his virginal penguin-obsessed screenwriter, and the screenwriter's lothario flat-mate--who are all trying to break into the British film industry. They meet a sleazy producer (Roy Kinnear) who wants to make a film version of the famous bawdy poem "Eskimo Nell". To raise the money though he gets them to sell three very different versions of the movie to three different backers: a foul-mouthed American ("Big Dick")who wants to make a hardcore porn movie, another guy who wants to make a "kung-fu musical" to showcase the two "talents" of his girlfriend, and an arty dilettante who wants to make a gay Western ("with a lot of bottom smacking") featuring his transvestite boyfriend.

It gets worse when the producer runs off with the money, and the director has to find a fourth backer (simply to avoid the lawsuits), and goes to his society girlfriend's mother (no doubt modeled on puritanical British busybody Mary Whitehead)who runs a "decency" society and wants to make a clean family film! Needless to say, the whole thing goes horribly, horribly awry. Reels from the different versions get mixed up, a guy's willie gets caught in a clapboard, and one character delivers the immortal line: "What's my motivation for having an erection?" The movie is quite funny both in its conception and in its execution. It doesn't slather on the naked dolly birds quite as much as a lot of other British sex comedies of the era perhaps, but an almost unrecognizable Mary Millington does show for a 10-second "Benny Hill"-style speeded-up striptease.

As far as the sex goes, this probably won't inspire all the hairy-palmed Michaelangelos out there to turn their ceilings into a scummy Sistine Chapel, but it is definitely FUNNY and pretty entertaining, which is a lot more than can be said of the vast majority of these films.

The British sex comedies of the 1970s are notorious for failing to be either funny or erotic. For the latter one might blame the censors, but the former is simply a result of innuendo being no longer funny once you pass the nudge-nudge stage. Anyway, this one isn't sexy either, but it does work quite well as a comedy.

In fact, Eskimo Nell is a strange kind of self-spoof, not only spoofing the sex film genre as such but even its own making - the kind of self-reference Douglas Hofstadter would appreciate. Viewers may be inclined to think that the "self-spoof" is faked, but there are persistent rumours that many of the scenes which seem outrageous and surreal (e.g. the script discussion) were very closely based on fact.