Primitive London and London in the Raw (DVD)

Primitive London

An outrageous jolt of British exploitation, PRIMITIVE LONDON (1965) is an exposé of the hidden desires and bizarre vices that percolate behind the exterior of English life. Beginning with the graphic birth of a baby, director Arnold Miller sketches out the options for a child in the new England. So he profiles the stylistic garishness of the mods, the anti-establishment posturing of the rockers, and the lonely lives of pinball addicts. The youth are lost, with the adults no better, dissipating their vain lives in plastic surgery, bizarre exercise routines and wild wife-swapping parties. Through all the debauchery and aimlessness, in PRIMITIVE LONDON you can discover a pre-permissive Britain still trying to move on from the post-war depression of the 1950s.

London in the Raw

“The world’s greatest city laid bare!”, roars the tagline to LONDON IN THE RAW (1964), a salacious documentary that tours the strip-clubs and underground dives of the still-swinging city. Exploitation maven Arnold Miller combines documentary footage with staged sequences of leering intimacy, showing the skin of belly dancers and strip-teasers once the sun sets, disappearing along with any inhibitions. As the voice-over says, “Eat a little, dance a little, sketch your naked girlfriend and dream of better things to come.” LONDON IN THE RAW provides a cynical, sometimes startling vision of life on and off the rain-spattered streets of 1960s London.