Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 296: Fri Oct 23

West End Jungle (Miller, 1961): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6.10pm

This special evening's screening, entitled 'Soho Sex Club Night (Revisited)' and also including 'Get 'Em Off' (Walters, 1976), is part of the London on Film season at BFI Southbank.

Here is the BFI Southbank introduction to the night's entertainment:

Join us for another chance to take a sordid cinematic sojourn into London’s seediest backstreets, where we seek out crummy clip joints, sleazy cellar bars and saucy strip shows in old Soho.

West End Jungle:
This film is a disgrace!’ screamed the censor. This gloriously grimy exploitation docudrama (privately screened to MPs) was banned in the capital for decades. It follows prostitutes who were forced off the streets by legislation into a world of smoky vice-dens, where gold-digging hostesses relieved perspiring punters of their guineas.


Get 'Em Off:

An eclectic array of 1970s Soho strippers reveal all at the Nell Gwynne Theatre, 69 Dean Street. There’s Miss Anna, with her balloons and pin; Miss Chastity, coated in candle-wax; and Miss Coursetta and her furry fox puppet. You may be shocked, you may be scandalised, but you will not be bored!

Here (and above) is a short extract from West End Jungle.