THE (NAKED) WORLD OF HARRISON MARKS (1966)

The box office success of Naked as Nature Intended spurred George Harrison Marks on to greater things. He started preparing the script for his next feature film long before the dust had settled on the last. This time he would not only be the director and producer but also the star. Like Stuart Samuels in Naked as Nature Intended, in this new film Harrison Marks would play many different roles. Whilst Harrison Marks plays an impressive range of characters he might have been more convincing in the various roles if he hadn't been sporting a moustache and beard in everyone of them. It seems that such a sacrifice was too much to ask for.

The Naked World of Harrison Marks is a documentary style look at the daily life of Harrison Marks and the film gives a fascinating insight into the behind the scenes activities of his sixties film studio. He is seen behind his still camera taking pictures of his beautiful models and in the film studio making one of his many glamour movies (June Palmer stars as a Roman goddess in this sequence – our CD 'The June Palmer Collection' includes stills of June taken on the Roman set during shooting). In other scenes Harrison Marks features in a series of fantasies and dreams based on the different ways that members of the public seemed to imagine him to be. He is seen as a playboy, as Toulouse-Lautrec, as a 1920's sytle gangster, as an eccentric film director, as a pirate and a number of other characters (click here to see the many faces of Harrison Marks). Needless-to-say, most of the fantasies are adorned with bare breasted, bare bottomed females - over 25 of them in all. In the final fantasy scene, set in a medieval dungeon decorated by semi-naked females, he grapples with his conscience in a nightmare he has about what the many beautiful women he has been involved with really think about him.

The film was shot at the Lily Place studios and on location. The elaborate studio sets include a pirates' cave, a Roman palace, Toulouse Lautrec's studio, a 1920s gambling den and the dungeon. The film is narrated by Valentine Dyall, Beryl Gilchrist and the man himself. Members of the cast include Jerry Lorden, Ken Hayes, Derek Nichols, David Roberts, Chris Bromfield and, of course, Stuart Samuels. The female stars are Pamela Green, June Palmer, Chris Williams (known to Kamera readers as Tina Graham), Annette Johnson and Jutka Goz. Other credited female roles are played by Teresa Baron, Karen Birch, Jacky Brown, Toni Burnett, Beryl Gilchrist, Lee Southern, Cleo Simmons, Ann Walker, Marina Jones, Vicky Groves, Sandy Lyndon, Audrey Judson, Clare Burden, Deborah de Lacey, Dawn Grayson, Cindy Lomond, Julie Jordan, Gwen Ford, Ann Wilson, Molly Peters, Jayne Tracey, Vera Novak and Vicky Groves (click here to see photos of the entire female cast).

It was quite a cast for such an early undertaking and with Harrison Marks putting up a significant part of the production costs himself, it was also a big commitment and something of a gamble. However, the gamble paid off because after the film opened at the Cameo Moulin in the West End of London in February 1966 it continued to play there for over a year. It also made it into selected cinemas on the national circuit.

We are pleased to announce that a black and white version of this film with sound (No colour prints of this film are known to have survived) is now available on DVD exclusively through this site.
For further details click here.

Naked World was shot in colour.
Some of the stills are shown below .

Harrison Marks as Toulouse Lautrec
with Deborah de Lacey.

Harrison Marks at odds with his conscience.

Harrison Marks hands down judgement
in a dungeon of naked and semi-naked females 
(Cleo Simmonds can be seen in the background).

Described as a sex murder thriller, Pattern of Evil was made with American money for the American market and was never shown in the UK. It was produced and directed by Harrison Marks. For George this was a step over the edge into the world of pornography - not what we would call hardcore by today's standards but certainly risqué for the times. He had been under considerable financial pressure for some time, despite the successes, and the temptation of some easy money proved too much. The film was shot at the Lily Place Studios, off Hatton Garden. There were also outdoor locations. Major parts were played by Rena Brown, Monique Deveraux , Jutka Gotz, Dawn Starr and, not forgetting, Webley, the actor who played the lead male character.

Apart from the bedroom scene and the murder itself, other scenes included the two leading characters in the bath, an orgy scene on the dungeon set the with over 10 couples participating and, apparently, they weren't pretending followed by a torture sequence . There was also a tongue-in-cheek torture scene involving a female in a black leather basque wielding a multi-tailed, leather whip on the medieval dungeon set. A dungeon set had been a feature of the previous Harrison Marks' movie and was to figure in many subsequent stills shoots for the magazines.

Pattern of Evil opened on Broadway to much controversy and then played in Times Square for the next two-and-a-half years. It later appeared on the US Drive-In circuit under the name of 'Fornicon'.

The next big movie was to be Nine Ages of Nakedness . . . .

Margo (Cindy Neal) in not very much and
Rena Brown looking menacing in black leather.