Arnold Miller, 1965 / 1864
PLEASE NOTE: This is an NTSC (USA/JAPAN format) Region 0 DVD
Title: Primitive London / London in the Raw
Director: Arnold Miller (both films)
Description: 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 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, Primitive London you can discover a pre-permissive
Britain still trying to move on from the post-war depression of the 1950s.
Description: 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 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.
Film details:
Primitive London
UK 1965 Colour 87 min 1.33:1
Written and Directed by Arnold Miller
Director of Photography: Stanley A. Long
Music by Johnny Coleman and Basil Coleman
London in the Raw
UK 1964 Colour 77 min 1.33:1
Written and Directed by Arnold Miller and Norman Cohen
Director of Photography: Stanley A. Long
Narrated by David Gell.
Product Code: R002D
