The Boy Friend (1971)
On the day a Hollywood producer arrives to watch their production of The Boy Friend, assistant stage manager Twiggy must fill in for leading lady Glenda Jackson who has injured her leg. The intrigues of the cast are woven in with the play’s narrative and fantasy sequences that don’t fit in either. There’s a real difficulty getting a feel for the place in time that this all occurs. The Boy Friend is itself a musical written in the 1950s about a 1920s finishing school. This film is about a production of that musical, but the film is also set in the 20s though very obviously being made in the 1970s. It feels like the action takes place over many days, but it keeps coming back to the cast on stage hamming it up with disconcertingly unblinking eyes batted toward the producer. It makes for a very bewildering experience even before everyone starts dancing around mushrooms. Twiggy is adorable and I wish she had lead more films than this one. Somehow the costumer managed to find Tommy Tune an entire wardrobe that made his legs look even longer than normal.
Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score