Respectable - The Mary Millington Story [DVD]

From beginning to end this is a very well made, entertaining and informative documentary on the tragic but well lived life of Mary Millington.. told through interesting interviews with her friends, family and lovers as well as commentary from Mary herself it really does tell her whole life story and running at 1 hour and 50 mins it has the time to tell it fully. There is a good mixture of video clips, photos (nice animation work on these) and press cuttings in there as well making it a very absorbing watch as well as having a good selection of extras on it too.Mary really was the girl next door gone naughty and in those days before home video and the internet she led the way to try and make porn acceptable and available to the masses. She also may have been short in stature but her figure was perfectly proportioned and her pretty face always shone the whole time. She also had the sweetest sexiest voice ever.. it was so prim and proper making her dirty talk all the more appealing!It was her undoing that in the final years of the seventies she just got in with the wrong people who led her down the slippery slope of drugs and the excessive showbiz lifestyle and it was then just a descent into her own self destruction bringing a tragic end to such a beautiful and sexy young woman who still had so much to live for.Hard to imagine that had Mary lived she would now be 71 years old but in the short life she had she gave us all so much of herself and left a great legacy for us to enjoy as this documentary shows so well..Mary Millington.. truly the Queen of the Blues!

good

I knew much of Mary's story already due to my having read her biography which was written by the maker of this film, Simon Sheridan. What surprised me about this film was the contributors' opinions concerning the circumstances of her death. I was not aware that so many believed there was foul play nor was I aware that she was in the middle of a divorce and that this was so acrimonious.This is a well made, interesting film which goes deeper than her biography and other documentaries which have been made about her, most notably, "Sex and Fame: The Mary Millington Story", available on Youtube. I was delighted that many who had previously shied away from speaking about her before on camera were persuaded to do so and that their experiences were so interesting and eloquently expressed.I was in two minds whether to rent this film as I thought I already knew quite a lot about Mary, but I'm glad I've watched this. Highly recommended and sensitively told.

Interesting but not deserving of a 18 rating.

I have long been an admirer of Mary Millington, and have always wanted to learn more about her. Simon Sheridan has made a fantastic and respectful documentary to this amazing lady. (It is so great to see film footage of the great days of "Soho" captured on film forever. Sadly the area is now very sterile and has lost its unique spirit and style) As many of you will know there is now a blue plaque in Great Windmill street as a lasting memory to Mary as well. The freedom we all enjoy nowadays with regard to erotic material is largely thanks to the stand she made in the 1970s for freedom of choice. Her death at the early age of 33 was truly tragic, but thankfully we have a number of her films available both on dvd and the internet to keep her memory alive. Thank you Simon for this great film, a truly fitting tribute to this lovely lady

There was a TV documentary about Mary Millington shown some time ago – I thought this was it, but it's a different one – a bit longer and with more insight and depth.I was in my early teens when Millington was at the height of her fame (or notoriety); though almost everyone of my generation knew who she was, most never saw her films – and I still haven't seen them; it was her stand against the vocal, self-appointed repressive moralists who had the ear of government that impressed many, as I remember.This is a well-made, presented and researched film, naturally sympathetic to it's subject – who after all, had a far more sensible attitude to sex than the twisted prude Whitehouse.It's a sad story all the same, as Millington was a courageous individual, well-liked by those who knew her personally – there`s little doubt she was hounded and persecuted to a degree for her opposition to the establishment; this is probably the best reference documentary available on her.The DVD has an audio commentary, a brief selection of interviews from contributors to the film and a restored soft-porn black and white short with no sound.There are no subtitles available.

I really enjoyed this documentary film and it brought back memories of a time past from when I was a lad in the 70's. I didn't really know who Mary Millington was at the time but I certainly recognised her and this film filled in a lot of gaps that I didn't know about her. The film has great energy and at times great sadness. Obviously lots of time and love went into the making of this film and interviews with family and friends abound which makes the film real. Its definitely worth a watch.

John M. East told it better with his own material for the first original biography, he was there, but much has been ‘used’ for this second biography. On a plus some new information and interviews are added making this a worthy watch.