Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
Watching this again was akin to opening a time capsule buried underneath the wreckage of demolished record store somewhere outside of London......
Return with us now to the mid to late 1960's when all things British ruled pop music and pop culture.......
And vast amounts of cute girls ( or 'birds' as the lads called them) paraded around miniskirts that stopped only an inch or two below crotch level......
What better premise for a romantic comedy than permanently horny working class boy Jamie McGregor (Barry Evans) surrounded by delectable birds but unable to seal the deal with any of them.
Certainly not for a lack to charm on Barry Evans part.....he's got a mile wide smile and the mischievous eyes of a little boy about to raid the cookie jar.....(which is an apt a metaphor as any for what goes on in this film.)
Jamie, who frequently breaks the fourth wall by chatting with us directly, has his heart (plus an exterior organ) stuck on the unattainable super cute Mary (Judy Geeson, the La Suprema of 60's Manic Pixie Dream Girls outfitted on Carnaby Street..)
But since Mary appears to have a studmuffin boyfriend with a spiffy car, Jamie's forced to let circumstance bounce him from one cutie-pie to another......chief among them is uppercruts Caroline (Angela Scoular, as overflowing bubbly as always....) But even a night spent with Caroline's sex-and-wine obsessed family (including dad Denholm Elliot) leaves Jamie comin' up....uh dry.
Director Clive Donner ('What's New Pussycat') loads up the film with all the signature nervous energy and psychadelic camera moves of 1960's ultra-mod Brit cinema, and Barry Evans cheeky patter at the very least charms us the viewers, more than it does the girls he salivates for.....
For anyone who fondly remembers those oh so trendy, smashing years or those who've no idea what the era was like but wouldn't mind a peek or two......here's a not bad starting point....
3 stars (***).
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