Harrison Marks
/Harrison Marks - Britain's No.1 Glamour Photographer
Erotic movie maker talks to Colin Heard about his career, his films and the sexual revolution.
This article has been taken from a copy of New Direction Volume 2, No. 9 - 1972. I have this copy and many other copies available from BrazenBooks.
You've always been a trend-setter, haven't you? Not only in the nude photography business but also in feature films. I remember back in 1960 you caused a sensation with Naked As Nature Intended.
That was the first full-length feature film I made - and the first picture with nude girls to get a censor's certificate. It was produced on a pretty low budget, and I've never known a film to make money so fast! People were queuing up solidly for months outside the Cameo-Moulin in Windmill Street where it was premiered. But really, it's the most innocuous film you can imagine! I saw it two or three years ago and it's hard to believe the sensation it created when it came out. But at that time, I had terrific battles with John Trevelyan (the censor) on certain scenes that were supposed to be too daring Not that there was any sex in the film at all. We had five rather lovely girls galloping about in long shot, but if I showed a nipple in close-up for more than five seconds Trevelyan would say "cut it, cut it!" The two films I've made for the British market since then (Naked World Of Harrison Marks and Nine Ages of Nakedness were quite a bit stronger, though they got past the censor without cuts. But I had some trouble with a film I did for America, Pattern Of Evil, which went through a nine month court hearing before it was passed for showing. It was a thriller with some sexy scenes and there was nothing really sensational about it compared with some of the movies you see in the States. Of course, when it finally got into the cinemas it made a fortune just on the publicity which was nice for the distributors, though I didn't see much of the money.
It's surprising that none of the British film people have financed you in a big way. I mean, none of your films have ever lost money at the box office, and yet the American director Russ Meyer (who started in sexploitation films and is now making big budget films for 20th Century Fox was really following a trend you'd already started. Seems as if the movie moguls over here are missing an opportunity.
It's the whole set-up in England. They're too cautious they don't want to take even the slightest chance with their money. I suppose you can't blame them in a way. The business over here is pretty much controlled by people who aren't film minded. They're in it strictly to make a profit - and they'd rather put their cash into a property which is safe and uncontroversial. But trying to explain the weird kind of thinking behind film production is impossible. It's an Alice-in-Wonderland scene. My last feature, Nine Ages of Nakedness, was a bomb at the box office. I made it on a tight budget but everyone who's seen it tells me it looks as if it cost thousands more than I spent on it. The reason? The cast, the camera crew and myself worked like crazy. We knocked ourselves out to give it quality in every department. But the big problem is finding private backers to put up the money. Okay, so you've had a big success. But they can’t be 100% sure it's going to happen the next time. So, they get cold feet.
Can we move on to your 8mm productions? Do you make these more or less single-handed - plot ideas, photography, editing?
I've got three assistants, and basically, they're put together from start to finish on a team basis. I usually come up with the ideas and handle the photography, but it's very much a group effort.
The big difference between your films and other 8mm nudie movies is the care that's taken in your productions. You obviously don't just stick a camera in front of some people and tell them to get on with it! They reach a very high professional standard.
Well, I've never counted the number of re-takes or cuts I make in my films before I'm satisfied. We shoot one of these fifteen or twenty-minute movies as if we were doing a feature film. Now, there's a lot of sex in these movies but there's also a story - a good situation, often with a comedy angle to it. Basically, the film is a build-up to a gag, a comic punchline. Once I've got the main idea I write a script around it. Then I hold discussions with my studio chief regarding the sets we're going to build the locations we're going to use. Then it's a matter of finding the actors and actresses to fit the parts.
Do you find some girls objecting to the kind of scenes you want them to play? Any inhibitions about simulating sex?
Let's put it this way: I'm a director, I've had a lot of experience and I think I've got the gift of being able to persuade people to do scenes they might not do for other filmmakers. And I never ask my actors to be anything diabolical! They see from the script that there's more to it than just tearing off their clothes and rolling around on a bed There's a comedy slant to the film, or there's a dramatic situation that appeals to them and I've never had trouble finding the right sort of people.
What about the other extreme? Have you ever had your actors getting carried away on the set and getting too involved?
This quite honestly has only happened once. Usually, everything's too professional, too business-like for any hanky-panky to get started between the actors. But this couple did get a bit naughty carrying on as if there wasn't a camera on them - and the whole thing was just a waste of time. I mean, you can't shoot this because of the legal situation, and even if you could do it, just letting two people go bloody wild is impossible because all you've got is arms and legs flying about!
This problem of knowing how much you are allowed to show: you obviously have to use your own judgement, but have you ever had a prosecution and defended your work in court?
Oh, yes, we had a case come up about four or five months ago. It had been pending for around two years before it finally got to court - and then we were cleared on all charges. After it was all over the foreman of the jury came over to me outside the court and congratulated me! He said he couldn't understand why the case had been brought up. (This was a film called Halfway Inn, a zippy, bawdy comedy, which the foreman said all the jury found very amusing and sexy without being offensive). And this is what my films are all about. I can only photograph the kind of material that turns me on - I don't mean I'm getting turned on while I'm behind the camera, but I know exactly what I'm shooting and it's the sort of erotica that I dig. Hard core pornography just leaves me cold.
All the same, would you give other people the freedom to see it if they wanted to? Are you in favour of abolishing censorship completely?
Yes, I'd certainly lift all the restrictions I dislike censorship intensely. The only thing is, once you abolish censorship you get such an influx of rubbish flooding the market. Maybe this would only be a temporary thing, but it makes a lot of people think twice about following the example of Denmark, for instance, where ninety percent of the material is cheap and crappy. Mind you, you've also got to provide a few safeguards - this has been said a thousand times before but it's worth repeating. Don't push it under people's noses - don't let the suburban newsagents plaster their windows with raw sex. But this is the only restriction I'd want to see. For those who want to buy pornography - okay, there it is, but don't force people who aren't interested in it to look at it. You can sell this sort of material discreetly if you want to. For instance, there are sex shops in London now - not selling pornography, I'm not talking about those hole-in-the-wall alleyway shops in Soho - but high-class sex boutiques like Ann Summers and Lovecraft which are very beautifully arranged. They don't fill their windows with sex aids. If you want them, you go inside and browse around. But they should be able to sell the whole range of sexual material, and if a man wants to go in and buy porno books and films, why shouldn't he? I mean, he's not going to come out and run amok down the High Street showing it to all and sundry, is he?
Going back a few years, you launched two magazines, Camera and Solo, which were very successful. But lately you've been concentrating on films and neglecting still photography.
The truth is that I'm bored to death with shooting stills. I was a very dedicated photographer, but that kind of work doesn't interest me too much. It's more of a challenge, more stimulating to make movies. I tend to work in bursts of inspiration on films - in January I've got fourteen new productions coming out. Thad some great ideas for stories and a lot of really good models started coming along for auditions. So, I've been working pretty solidly. But as I said, it's got to be material that I think is fun, that I think people will enjoy. Now, six months ago someone came to me with a very, very good offer. He wanted me to make some homosexual films; not porn, you understand, just scenes of beautiful guys in muscle-man poses. So, I thought about it - but I decided that I couldn't shoot that kind of film if they gave me a thousand pounds a day! Because I wouldn't know what I was looking for. I may be missing out, but there's nothing in that scene that turns me on, which means that I can't shoot it.
What's your own personal favourite among the 8mm films you've made?
Well, I've still got a soft spot for one of my very early films, Halfway Inn, which had a real tongue-in-cheek approach to it. It starred two beautiful girls who have since become very famous: the Collinson twins, Madeleine and Mary, who have appeared on the cover of Playboy and starred in a number of feature films. We set it in the seventeenth century, where a guy arrives at an inn and meets the innkeeper's very lovely young wife. She goes to bed with him and screws him until he's exhausted; then her twin sister comes in...and the poor bloke goes out on his knees at the end of the film after trying to satisfy both of them, thinking it's just one insatiable girl he's got hold of! But I always reckon that the last film I make is my best one. In this series which is being released in January there's a movie called Good Night Nurse which is a real pip. It's based on the fantasy a lot of men have of going into hospital and meeting these sexy nurses on night duty - all of them ready and willing for a bit of randy fun. This plot situation came to me when I was stuck in hospital myself last year, after smashing my leg up. I had the most beautiful bunch of day nurses in this private ward you can imagine... They were out of this world! Then, come eight o'clock at night - bang! They all went off duty and a pair of right dragons turned up for the night shift! Well, the first week or two I didn't pay much attention. I was too groggy to think about sex. But when I felt a bit better, the old urge came back! I started to think about a bit of crumpet again. And I suddenly realised why the management put these old dragons on at night... Anyway, I don't bother with getting too much sleep, my light didn't usually go off until around three in the morning, and one night this particular nurse saw that I was still awake and came into the room. She was around eighteen, but she was built like a brick-built shithouse! She must have been about 17 stone and a real country girl - you could imagine her down on a bloody farm. I asked her if she'd like a drink - my room was like a bar, a bloody brewery! - and I had not thought of anything sexual going on: if you'd seen her, you'd know why. Well, I had one of those high windows with the light shining through it and she said: "Do you mind if I close the window?" Now, when I said all right, she obviously thought it was all down to a bunk-up, but the penny didn't drop until she sat down and installed herself on the edge of the bed And then it started! She started straight away on a sex conversation – and then I realised she was after a bit of the other in my state of health! With her looking the way she did! So, I kept getting the conversation away from sex.
She kept bringing it back again and by about two o'clock she's still there and I looked at her - thinking shall I screw her or get rid of her? Then I had a closer look and decided I couldn't have her, not under any circumstances! At about ten to three she realised there was nothing doing and said perhaps she'd better go. Yes, I told her, I am feeling a bit tired Anyway, when I came out of hospital, I concocted this script Good Night Nurse, which is all about a case of mistaken identity based on my own experience. I think the people who buy it are going to recognise it as a send-up - a fantasy about those imaginary night nurses who give you a blanket bath and one-off-the wrist at the same time. Most of my films are about real-life situations that develop into a sort of wish-fulfilment.
How does your wife react to your work? Does it bother her that you're in close contact with beautiful, naked girls a lot of the time?
No, she really does understand me - and the business. That's a good line, isn't it: my wife understands me! But she's a wonderful girl, I adore her, and we don't have any aggravation about my work. When we first met, she was a stunt artist, she used to crash cars into brick walls at 70 miles an hour until I stopped her! I thought to myself, I've either got to marry her or she'll kill herself - so I married her!
What about the models, the girls who appear in your films: do they ever throw themselves at you?
I'll just tell you this - If that couch you're sitting on could speak, well, you wouldn't need me here to get all the revelations you want! Let's say it's one of the perks of the job, all right?
Okay! Now, how about the future? Do you have any projects lined up for more feature films?
I’ve got a script called Come Play With Me which is a knockout, the best thing
I've ever written. You know the Carry-On series? Well, this is a Harrison Marks Carry-On film - a broad, slapstick comedy with lots of beautiful, sexy girls. I showed this script to the people who backed my last feature, and they didn't want to know. "Make another nudie film" they told me. "Forget about the comedy angles". But this is a crazy, shortsighted way of looking at things. You've got to progress; you've got to branch out...but the guys with the money often don't realise this. What I've got here is a very funny script with plenty of glamour as well - it's a combination that can't fail. So, I'm negotiating to try and get it on the studio floor. Whether it's finally made or not is still in the air.
Mr. Marks, thank you very much. I hope we'll be seeing Come Play With Me in the not-too-distant future.
