MovieChat Forums > Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly (1970) Discussion > Anybody out there? The message

Anybody out there? The message

posted 19 years ago by BartlebyScrivner
14 replies | jump to latest

Am I like, one of three people who likes/has seen this movie?

I've watched this film four times now, and still, I wonder... what the hell is it trying to say? There's obviously a message here; it originated as an arty stage play, and the transfer of the play format to the film tells us that this isn't just a run of the mill horror movie. It obviously has something to do with familial structure and the breakdown of the nuclear family, but, that's as far as I can get.

[–] rubellan 18 years ago

Nasty nanny is no good. Chop her up for fire wood. When she's dead, boil her head. MAKE IT INTO GINGERBREAD!

Vanessa Howard could be Alicia Silverstone's mother. Love them both!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] pulpnicktion 18 years ago

I have a copy of this and I love it. Very Underated!

[–] adriangr 18 years ago

I've seen it too! I found a copy of the film on a file sharing network and downloaded it. Other than that it's impossible to find, even the people involved in originally making it say they have no copies of it anymore. Looks like a DVD release is out of the question, then. But there was once a video release...I bet that's worth a bit of money these days.

I have no idea what the film is trying to say either, but I think its basically just a bit of fun about a mad family. Does seem a lot like a stage play, what with the small cast and only one real location. Gorgeous setting though, it's the mansion used in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "And Now The Screaming Starts"...I think all the interiors are actually filmed inside the house, as the place was derelict at the time the film was made (it's since been rebuilt), and the cast look like they are having great fun sawing through what seem to be real doors and generally breaking lots of antique stuff (...ouch!)

[–] kingplanet 17 years ago

I've got a great VHS original...(it was "Girly" here in th U.S. so my copy has her on the front from the neck down holding an ax in one hand and a doll w/the house in the background).
Love it! And Freddie Francis is one of my favorite directors and D.O.P.s!

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] pulpnicktion 16 years ago

I got my VHS copy for a $1.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Tracey73 13 years ago

Vanessa Howard could be Alicia Silverstone's mother.

I was thinking the same thing. They really resemble eachother.

I'm an automatic steeple for depressed and lonely people ~ Blue October

[–] fuzzyproductions 13 years ago

I just watched this on Netflix yesterday, and that was also the first thing that came to my mind!

[–] nephihaha 14 years ago

"It obviously has something to do with familial structure and the breakdown of the nuclear family, but, that's as far as I can get."

Yes, also free love (represented by Bryant)

Also a critique of the idle rich no doubt, and the compliant nanny representing class traitors.

Maybe a touch of the breakdown of Empire too.

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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] venusboys3 14 years ago

I just watched this streaming on Netflix and the first film to come to mind, other than the obvious 'Spider Baby' and 'Arsenic And Old Lace'... was 'Sleuth'.
'Girly' has a similar tone to it with the upper class characters, used to having it over their lower class 'playmates' being finally upstaged by someone who they ordinarily would consider to be quite vulgar and unworthy... a comeuppance at the hand of their lessers.
Also, both 'Girly' and 'Sleuth' have the same sort of tensions between the characters where murderous intent is hidden behind smiles, games and toys.

Definitely something about class warfare...
I'm less inclined to think it has to do with 'the breakdown of the nuclear family' because all during the movie I had the distinct impression that none of the 'happy family' members were actually related to each other... that they had been assembled somehow at some time in the past(possibly by the conspicuously absent Daddy)... and were merely continuing to play out their parts lest they break 'The Rules' and be put on trial themselves.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] WarpedRecord 11 years ago

It seems to me to be an indictment of the upper class as no greater than savages and a reminder that power corrupts. But I don't think it needs to be overanalyzed beyond what I probably already did.