Malcolm Fancey
- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Malcolm Fancey was effectively born into the film business. His father
was Edwin J. Fancey (1902-1980) one of
the oldest and longest running of Britain's exploitation film
producer/distributors. Fancey senior distributed hundreds of films
(mostly second features) through numerous companies including New
Realm, D.U.K., S.F. and E.J. Fancey Ltd, produced Down among the Z-Men
starring The Goons and gave
Michael Winner his earliest
breaks in showbiz. Malcolm joined the family business in the late
1950s, and when E.J. retired in the seventies, took over the running of
the New Realm Company with his sister
Adrienne Scott. Malcolm and Adrienne
made a great amount of money through New Realm over the years,
especially by acquiring the British rights to
Just Jaeckin's
Emmanuelle (1974), as well as
producing many home-grown softcore films. Not long after E.J. Fancey's
death, Malcolm quit New Realm and became a
'silent partner' in April Electronics, a company run by fellow sex film
mogul David Grant.
Many of Fancey's productions such as
I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1976),
Girls Come First (1975) and
The World Is Full of Married Men (1979)
were issued on tape by World of Video 2000, the video arm of April
Electronics. For the release of a horror film called "Nightmares in a
Damaged Brain" (Nightmare (1981)) on
tape, David Grant dreamed up a publicity stunt that would ultimately
backfire. In May 1982 several World of Video 2000 employees were
dispatched to a hospital in Surrey where they unveiled a brain in a
jar. Sick patients were then asked to 'guess the weight of the real
damaged brain' in exchange for a prize. Horrified hospital staff
promptly phoned the police who quickly confiscated Grant's 'Brain'
(actually nothing more than a horror movie prop). Not long after World
of Video 2000's offices were raided by the police, and Grant, Fancey
and another man were sent to trial on obscenity charges relating to the
release of "Nightmares in a Damaged Brain". Most of the prosecution's
case rested on the fact that the version released on tape by World of
Video 2000 was 60 seconds longer than the version passed by the British
censor for cinema release. All three men were found guilty of
distributing material 'likely to deprave or corrupt' in 1984. While
Grant spent 18 months in jail, Fancey received a suspended sentence and
had to pay a fine. Having 'officially' quit the film business in 1981,
Fancey then completely retired from showbiz and today lives quietly on
the south coast of England.