The Playbirds (1978)

Director:

Willy Roe

Writers:

George Evans (writer)
Willy Roe (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A murder thriller with thrilling bodies!

Plot:

Two detectives are drawn into the world of porn, while investigating murders of centrefolds... |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Beautiful Woman | Beauty | Policewoman | Female Frontal Nudity

Cast

Mary Millington	...	WPC Lucy Sheridan
Glynn Edwards	...	Inspector Holbourne
Gavin Campbell	...	Inspector Harry Morgan
Alan Lake	...	Harry Dougan
Windsor Davies	...	Assistant Police Commissioner
Derren Nesbitt	...	Jeremy
Kenny Lynch	...	Police Doctor
Suzy Mandel	...	Lena
Ballard Berkeley	...	Trainer
Sandra Dorne	...	Dougan's Secretary
Alec Mango	...	Ransome
Penny Spencer	...	WPC Andrews
Michael Gradwell	...	Terry Day
Tony Kenyon	...	Dolby (as Anthony Kenyon)
Ron Flangan	...	Wilson

Also Known As:

David Sullivan's The Playbirds (UK) (alternative title)
Secrets of a Playgirl
The Playbird Murders (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bushey Studios, Bushey, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Roldvale

Trivia:

After being hurled into the swimming pool near the end of the movie by Alan Lake, Diane Foster was taken to hospital, having hit the bottom of the shallow end. The cast seen diving in were attempting a genuine rescue and was not scripted. The ambulance arriving when the scene cut to outside the house was real and was left in the movie. This was documented in a News of the World feature later.

Goofs:

Continuity: During Lucy Sheridan's striptease sequence, her knickers change from black to white to black again.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Doing Rude Things (1995) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Playbirds

KIND OF interesting in spite of itself (a non-British perspective)

If you're British, this movie no doubt has a lot of baggage attached to it. Two of the lead actors committed suicide soon after, and it was made right at a time when the once vaunted independent British film industry basically imploded. If you're not British, however, this movie is. . .well, pretty damn weird actually. A fanatically religious, horse-obsessed maniac is killing the nude cover girls of "Playbird" magazine. The police are frustrated in their efforts to stop him, so they send a sexy police woman (Mary Millington) under the covers to crack her case--I mean, undercover to crack the case. If you just want to see a lot of naked dolly birds, you certainly won't be disappointed. There are numerous scenes of the magazine's photo shoots, most of which involve a hilarious satanic/witchcraft-oriented theme. And the police don't just take the first attractive volunteer for the undercover job--no, they have to have to "audition" ALL their female staff members for the job before settling on Millington. The movie is obviously sexist (which is par for the course), but it's also surprisingly unpleasant and borderline misogynist. All the girls are topless or naked when they're murdered, for instance (except for one girl whose mini-skirt conveniently rides up while she's being strangled). The most disturbing scene perhaps is one particular magazine pictorial of a naked "witch" being "burned" at the stake which goes horribly awry when the killer comes along and (literally) adds fuel to the fire.

What's most amazing about all this is that there really is (or at least, was) a "Playbird" magazine, and its publisher was the producer of this movie! It's certainly hard to imagine Hugh Hefner, or even Larry Flynt, producing a movie where his own centerfolds are slaughtered in such an often unpleasant manner. (Apparently, all the censorship of sex and violence in Britain over the years hasn't resulted in the sexual attitudes there being any more wholesome than anywhere else--perhaps the opposite). I would also guess the publisher/producer owned a race horse or had some great interest in horse racing--how else to explain the killer's bizarre obsession with horses, which otherwise seems pretty unrelated to anything (or maybe this movie was inspired by the Richard Burton film "Equus" the year before?).

The best (and perhaps only) reason to see this is that it is a good showcase for cult actress Mary Millington. Millington certainly had a nice body, and viewers (like numerous male and female characters in the movie) will become VERY familiar with it. Her generally awkward acting, however, gives no indication of why she became a such a cult figure. On the other hard, it's even more difficult to see why the British moral authorities considered her such a threat to society that they had to harass her to an early demise. I definitely would not recommend going through the time and expense I did to see this movie, but if you happen upon it, it's a good chance to see Millington in action and it's KIND OF interesting in spite of itself.