Sexy Night Spots of London #2
The Adam & Eve Club.
JUNGLE STREET (what a great and meaningless title that is!) is a low-rent British exploiter in the BEAT GIRL mode. It’s really about crime and theft and juvie violence, but by centering some of the narrative comings and goings on a strip club, the boys behind the camera get to stop the plot throw in some random sleaze every now and again.
And here they are… the girls of the Adam and Eve Club:
Note how, as in BEAT GIRL, the black girl reveals the most, with a generous line of… I don’t want to say “arse cleavage”, but the only English-language alternative is “bum crack”. Couldn’t we have a nicer term? Help me out here. Suggestions?
Faye Craig is actually credited as “Native Dancer”, which is pretty bad. I mean, native of where, Croydon? (Mind you, her other roles, according to the IMDb, were “Black Woman” and “Slave Girl”.
The eternal issue with stripper movies seems to be that the star, or “star”, or “girl with actual lines to say” — in this case, Jill Ireland (!), always reveals the least. This unbalances the drama-to-skin ratio in a disturbing way.
But JUNGLE STREET isn’t just gratuitous non-nudity. There’s a sliver of plot, involving young crims David McCallum and Kenneth Cope, both of whom are startlingly young and unformed. McCallum, who might have been the greatest Scottish movie icon of the ’60s if it hadn’t been for Connery, is slim to the point of invisibility. Not so much wiry as positively FRAIL, but endearing and vulnerable yet dangerous. One awkward moment: he’s shouting threats at the girl he loves, then suddenly kisses her full on the mouth. It’s one of those “God I hate you but DAMN you’re attractive” moments that usually work, but McCallum omits the customary “but” — he goes IMMEDIATELY from threatening to kissing, so that one fears he might actually start threatening her WHILE kissing her: “Mmmff mmfff or I’ll mmmfff mmmmff mmff,” possibly with a warning wag of the finger thrown in.
Kenneth Cope would soon put on a bit more chub around the face, transforming him from his weaselly appearance here into the handsome babyface Fiona fell in love with as a child. In TV detective/ghost show Randall and Hopkirk: Deceased, Cope played the spook in the white suit, and became Fiona’s first Celebrity Husband (she suggests a future post on the topic of Celeb Hubbies) in a psychic nuptial whose occurrence he is still unaware of to this day. A few years later he would be starring in low-rent ’70s sex romps like SHE’LL FOLLOW YOU ANYWHERE (actually, perhaps the CITIZEN KANE of British softcore shit cinema), for which he piled on the poundage and trained greasy sideburns to extrude from his follicles, the better to fill UK audiences with the shame and nausea which such films sought to evoke.
October 13, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Eveeryone should read Joe Orton;s posthumously-published comic novel Between Us Girls. It was written well before any of his plays and rejected by te usual suspects who of course have no sense of humor whatsoever. it’s narrated by a “Candy”-like innocent who gets a job at the “Rainier Revuebar” — a strip club exactly like the ones illustrated in this series — which she persists in regarding as if it were a chic cabaret. Naturally she ends up being sold into ‘white slavery” and triumphs. It’s the Carry On film they never got around to making. It could still be made today. I do hope Stephen Fry takes it up — and gives Barbara Windsor a featured role.
October 13, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Arse cleavage? Bum crack? How about moon glow, much nicer, eh? So is this where McCallum and Ireland first hooked up I wonder? David of course is best-remembered here in the States as Ilya Kuryakin (can’t believe I remember the name, let alone the spelling), and his presence on The Man From UNCLE probably had something to do with the British Invasion when your pop stars ruled the world for a time. I love these titles, Beat Girl, Jungle Street… it would be might be worth the while if someone tried to make a modern-day equivalent of this sort. I’d go see it.
October 13, 2008 at 2:20 pm
There was an unsuccessful sequel to Jungle Street, called Rain Forest Car Park… not really.
I think it’s “Kuryakim”.
I must get that Orton, have been meaning to for ages. The real-life “Raymond Revuebar” is seen in Mona Lisa, and is a bit more supposedly “upmarket” than these dives, or has pretensions to so being.
October 13, 2008 at 2:45 pm
McCallum is currently working on Criminal Minds — one of those new obsessively crime-scene-detailed shows the U.S. networks love so much. He’s still got the old spark.
October 13, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I would like to put forward “roundage” as a pleasantly innocuous yet innocuously pleasant word for the sweaty bridge.
October 13, 2008 at 8:05 pm
“Moon glow” is very poetic, “roundage” is pleasant-sounding… what they lack is the kind of unambiguous clarity that would allow them to catch on… but maybe you can’t combine clarity with beauty in this case…
I’m glad McCallum is keeping busy, and wish somebody would invite him to shoot something in his native land. I had him lined up for Fiona’s vampire script, which never happened alas.
October 13, 2008 at 9:04 pm
According to IMDB, it’s Illya with two “l”s, and Kuryakin with an “n”. And they even gave him a middle name(!), Nickovich. Actually, I’m okay with either arse cleavage or bum crack, but I abmit it’s a challenge to try and drum up something with the unambiguous clarity that’s called for here. Speaking of which, I think there’s a shot of Rose McGowan’s bum cleavage out there somewhere, back when she was dating that Manson fella, before she dumped him for TCM host Robert Osborne.
October 13, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I just Googled Jungle Street and discovered a poster for sale from the film. It’s full title is Jungle Street Girls (“in sin-o-rama”), and it is the same film. Vendio is selling it for $240.00 US. I’ll have to see the film first before I decide whether the poster’s something worth owning.
October 13, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Jungle Street Girls is the US title for the film. Guess they figured the street alone wouldn’t sell it, and they may have been right.
October 13, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Yeah, Jungle Street is way too subtle! Actually, the film is not about girls though. Maybe Jungle Street Boys would’ve attracted too niche a market.
October 13, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Way too niche for that time.
October 13, 2008 at 11:30 pm
It’s NCIS that McCallum is currently featuring in rather than the Mandy Patinkin/Joe Mantegna Criminal Minds (why do I remember this useless info?). As fascistic militaristic procedurals go it’s one of the better ones and McCallum is actually delightfully engaging – complete with original Scots accent. Lovely.
Great to see Kenneth Cope here. The sight of him and the mention of Randall and Hopkirk Deceased just overwhelmed me with a wave of nostalgia.
October 13, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Cope is like the British leading man that time forgot. But all those guys in the 70s were suddenly nowhere by decades end, like Ollie Reed. The British film industry just quietly slashed its own throat. It’s like when the old guard got shoved out by the nouvelle vague, only here there was no new wave to replace them.
At least McCallum had gone to Hollywood, where the work was. I must try and catch a bit of the show to hear his accent.
October 13, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Believe it or not I actually caught a glimpse of NCIS for the first time just a few days ago at a friend’s house. There’s a young woman who’s a regular on the show, a lab worker who wears a spiked collar on the job, a Goth type. And I did see McCallum playing a cheery lab tech who’s job it was to study the two corpses that fell out of drums full of chemicals.
October 14, 2008 at 12:08 am
Yes, NCIS is actually rather good. It cutely deflates the self-importance of other forensic shows with its sense of humour. There’s a neat moment in the latest George Pelecanos novel about the inherent fascism in the culture of post-Sep 11 forensic cop shows; authority rules, is infallible and will keep you safe providing you respect it and stay afraid.
Which is why Life on Mars is such a refreshing departure (watched the US version – interesting). I think Randall & Hopkirk is due an American makeover too don’t you think?
October 14, 2008 at 12:46 am
Mike P: Haven’t seen but that one bit of NCIS. What I have seen is though is Dexter, about a blood-spatter expert who works for the Miami PD but moonlights as a serial killer who kills serial killers. Wicked fun, with some tongue-in-cheek to the tone of it all. I’m a big fan of The Wire, probably the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen created for the TV medium. And I have to mention Ian McShane, who was superb on HBO’s Deadwood, I wish producer David Milch could’ve had the chance to realize the fourth season he’d planned on. I’d only seen McShane in Sexy Beast prior to this, and found him damn scary in that. I did catch a glimpse of him in a war film from the late Sixties not long ago, it’s amazing that his career goes back that far.
October 14, 2008 at 12:51 am
What’s amazing about McShane is that he spent I think DECADES not being taken seriously in the UK. He was a sort of low-rent Casanova figure in fairly trashy shows. And then suddenly he was rediscovered. Kenneth Cope — it’s not too late! (Or is it? Is he ALIVE?)
October 14, 2008 at 1:03 am
I loved McShane as brothel owner Al Swearengen in Deadwood, I just hope that someone out there keeps tossing him work of caliber, he deserves it. Your friend Mr. Cope, he’s someone I’m not familiar with, I’ll have to see what’s available with him in it here in the States.
October 14, 2008 at 2:48 am
McShane, Swearengen and Deadwood are possibly the greatest achievements in TV drama. Ever.
And I worship at the altar of The Wire also. It’s a Golden Age.
October 14, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I’m not sure if Cope was ever in anything very good. In his portly phase he’s in the excellent Juggernaut, in a v small role.
McShane is doing Death Race, which strikes me as a bit of a comedown, but I’m sure the money’s good.
October 15, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Yes, I was aware of him being in Death Race, and I agree it is a bit of a comedown, I just like to think that as you stated it was done in the meanwhile to pay a few bills. And speaking of paying the bills, I recently watched an interview with Mickey Roarke on the Angel Heart DVD, and he said that at the time he made the film he wanted to get out of acting and go back to boxing, which is just what he ended up doing. So he did the film for two reasons, one, so he wouldn’t lose his house, and two, to work with Alan Parker. Roarke admired Midnight Express and Birdy, the latter the film Parker did just prior to AH. Roarke tells in the interview of the time he was hired by Steve Buscemi to perform in drag in a small part for a film Buscemi was working on at the time. Roarke agreed to do so, but in flying to location he chose to dress for the part, and as he’s in line to board the plane a small child looks up at him. He looks down and smiles. Well, Roarke was missing some teeth from his boxing days, and that combined with the dress he was wearing scared the bejeebers out of the little tyke. At least that’s how Roarke tells it.
October 15, 2008 at 4:48 pm
“I think Randall & Hopkirk is due an American makeover too don’t you think?”
I think it would depend on a successful British reimaging that could then be bought and changed by the American networks a la The Office and Life On Mars – unfortunately the BBC tried a revamp of Randall and Hopkirk in the mid 90s with comic double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer which failed.
I’ve not yet seen Deadwood (one of those shows that never made it to terrestrial TV here and I’ve been too busy buying films to afford the commitment to a TV series on DVD), but remember Lovejoy being one of those long running cosy Sunday night gentle mystery shows my parents always watched!
How about Michael Elphick? I suppose in Britain he’ll always be remembered for a similarly long running TV series Boon, but he put in some amazing performances that make me wish he’d had more opportunities in his career – particularly his lead role in Lars von Trier’s The Element of Crime.
October 15, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Elphick is also known for his nasty work in The Elephant Man. His later work on Eastenders was heartbreaking, as he was so clearly unwell.
And yet I could never feel that sorry for Rourke, who seemed to bring about every problem he ever had, with no help from anyone else…
That Randall and Hopkirk reinvention was miscast and misconceived, but managed one good episode — the one Charlie Higson didn’t write.
October 15, 2008 at 9:17 pm
David, I think The Mick would be the first to admit it. I saw a clip of him being interviewed by a British talk show host from roundabout the time of Sin City, he’s just glad and grateful that someones sees fit to hire him for work at this point in his career.
October 15, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Oh, and on the same clip we discover he owns nine dogs, seven are chihuahuas.
October 16, 2008 at 3:13 am
Michael Elphick – don’t forget Private Schulz, one of those nuggets of TV brilliance like Poliakov’s Caught on a Train that sear themselves into your brain.
I was lucky to catch an anniversary screening of Withnail and I at the NFT a while back where, in answer to a question about Elphick, Bruce Robinson said “ah, yes. What an actor. That fish was dead but he MADE IT LIVE.” referring to the threatening whack of the illegally caught fish on the pub table.
re; Randall & Hopkirk, I suppose that shows such as Dead Like Me have essentially already reimagined it for the US. I still think it’s a great premise though.
October 16, 2008 at 7:23 am
…or was it a hare (“here hare here”)?
October 16, 2008 at 10:04 am
I can’t recollect if the pub creature was fish or hare… but I rememeber Elphick’s attitude.
What R&H:D had as a concept which was useful was the whole Blithe Spirit set-up, where only one guy can see the ghost, leading to lots of cross-talk situations. But I don’t know if you can really sustain that over a series. It might work better as a movie.
March 11, 2009 at 3:42 am
I hope there is no ghost in my room my friend
March 11, 2009 at 11:50 am
I hope so too!
November 4, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I just love the audience in the nightclub, me.
Here’s a gif I made of them: http://i35.tinypic.com/2qsyvps.jpg
A fine clientele, don’t you think? :-)
November 4, 2009 at 9:14 pm
It’s a classy joint and no mistake. They look like the British Board of Film Censors.