Green - Naked as Nature Intended: The Epic Tale of a Nudist Picture

Published in 2012

Copyright 2012 Pamela Green

ISBN 978-0-9545985-7-0

MOBI Edition

www.pamela-green.com

Editorial Yahya El-Droubie and Jay Strongman

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British Library cataloguing-in-publication data:

A catalogue record of this book is available at The British Library.

By Pamela Green

Photograhy by Douglas Webb, DCM

Previous: Petrina Forsyth. According to the films publicity material the delightful dark-eyed beauty, Petrina was born in India in 1940. Her mother was a princess and her father was a British Government official. She was brought up in India until the age of ten, and then sent to England to further her education. She became a nurse in 1956 and was working in Singapore when an Indian film producer spotted her, which led to several parts in various Indian films. Returning to England in 1961, Petrina studied music and was appearing in a concert when Harrison Marks met her, and, struck by this unusual beauty he suggested she become one of his models It was natural therefore, when selecting artists for Naked as Nature Indeed , that he should offer Petrina one of the parts.

Vital statistics: 34"-23"-34".

Jean-Luc Godard is claimed to have said Cinema is the history of boys photographing girls. So what better way to start ones movie career than with Naked As Nature Intended. It was the debut feature from Compton-Cameo Films as well as the directorial debut of the notorious George Harrison Marks.

In post-war Britain the censor would not tolerate nakedness in a mainstream British film. The censors, however, were less strict with continental films. Anything that had to be subtitled was deemed arty and of no interested to the general public. Somewhat racier than domestic competition they proved surprising popular, especially compared to foreign films today.

Unable to compete, British exploitation produces were reduced to making 8mm stag films, which were creatively restrictive and financially less rewarding than feature films. Enterprising producers, soon realised that films extolling the virtues of naturism would be treated as documentaries. And nakedness in documentaries was acceptable. The first British Nudist film was Nudist Paradise (1958). It was quickly followed by Travelling Light (1959), Nudist Memories (1959), The Nudist Story (1960), and Some Like it Cool (1961), by a young Micheal Winner who went on to fame and fortune directing such films as The Nightcomers (1971) and Death Wish (1974).

It was round about this time that Tony Tenser, a former cinema manager who coined the phrase sex kitten while promoting Brigite Bardot movies and an East End Jewish strip club owner called Michael Klinger got together. Klinger ran the Nell Gwynn and the Gargoyle clubs in Londons Soho. Their first venture together was a members only cinema club called the Compton Cinema Club. As a members club there was no obligation for the films that were shown to carry a BBFC certificates. Their main fare were arthouse movies from Europe and banned American films, such as The Wild One (1953), which eventually got an X certificate in November 1967.

Klinger and Tenser soon realized the real money was made in distributing films throughout the country and not in owning a solitary cinema. They set up Compton Film Distributors to show films uncut in their cinema in Soho and then distributed cut versions throughout the country. It proved so successful they struggled to find enough product to meet demand. This motivated them to consider actual film production. There was no way they could compete with the majors but they could come up with a viable product for their network. As they had a limited budget for studio hire, costumes and wardrobe and any acting talent, they decided to make a nudist movie on location with a relatively unknown cast. The financial risks would be minimal.

Michael Klinger was acquainted with George Harrison Marks and myself. We lived and worked around the corner from their cinema in Gerrard Street. George had often gone to the clubs taking publicity shots for Michael as well as keeping an eye out for talent to appear in our magazines such as Kamera and Solo . Besides our publishing company, we had a thriving mail order business of 8mm striptease films we had made. Michael thought George would be perfect to direct and if I could star even better, for I had recently appeared in Michael Powells controversial film Peeping Tom .

George was initially unsure about directing a feature film. It wasnt till Klinger and Tenser took him to dinner followed by a private screening of a couple of typical nudist capers that Marks finally agreed. George found the films so incredibly poor that he vowed if I couldnt make better (films) than those then I would give the whole racket up. In that case youd better make one, Klinger retorted.

Previous: Pamela Green and George Harrison Marks hard at work discussing the book Kamera on Location (1958).

Previous: Angela Jones. The films publicity material states that Angela has a burning ambition to become a top model and with her part in this film it appears that many of her hopes have been realized. Born in Bristol, she and her family moved to Birmingham where a good friend of the family who knew of her hopes thought she would make good progress if the famous Harrison Marks would accept her as a model. On Angelas behalf this friend wrote to Mr. Marks and the result was that she was signed-up to appear in Naked as Nature Intended .