This documentary provides insight into the all-too-brief life of Mary Millington, both celebrated and damned during her life because of her appearances in both "hard" and "soft" porn.
Mary comes across as eminently likable, independent of spirit but also vulnerable.
Offending "the Establishment" has never been a free ride, and although by the 1970s attitudes to matters sexual had become more liberal than in the early 1960s when the likes of Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies and Stephen Ward were prosecuted (one might say persecuted), with the well publicised efforts of Mary Whitehouse, Lord Longford and Malcolm Muggeridge, Mary's exploits were unlikely to go unremarked. And judging from the notes she left at the time of her death she clearly felt "they" - the police and the tax man in particular - were out to get her.
With proper help (if she had been prepared to accept it) Mary might well have got through her problems, especially her relationship with her mother and the effect of her death, and gone on to make her mark as an actress or elsewhere, but sadly that is purely hypothetical.
I felt very sad by the end of the film - at the loss of such a vibrant free spirit so early in her life. But also heartened at the reminder of this free spirit who refused to accept other peoples norms.
As to the documentary as a piece of film making, I cannot see how it could have been improved. A truly excellent piece of work by Simon Sheridan and those with whom he worked.
Mary comes across as eminently likable, independent of spirit but also vulnerable.
Offending "the Establishment" has never been a free ride, and although by the 1970s attitudes to matters sexual had become more liberal than in the early 1960s when the likes of Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies and Stephen Ward were prosecuted (one might say persecuted), with the well publicised efforts of Mary Whitehouse, Lord Longford and Malcolm Muggeridge, Mary's exploits were unlikely to go unremarked. And judging from the notes she left at the time of her death she clearly felt "they" - the police and the tax man in particular - were out to get her.
With proper help (if she had been prepared to accept it) Mary might well have got through her problems, especially her relationship with her mother and the effect of her death, and gone on to make her mark as an actress or elsewhere, but sadly that is purely hypothetical.
I felt very sad by the end of the film - at the loss of such a vibrant free spirit so early in her life. But also heartened at the reminder of this free spirit who refused to accept other peoples norms.
As to the documentary as a piece of film making, I cannot see how it could have been improved. A truly excellent piece of work by Simon Sheridan and those with whom he worked.
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