Twinky [Lola] [London Affair] * (1970, Charles Bronson, Susan George, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, Trevor Howard, Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, Lionel Jeffries, Kay Medford, Paul Ford, Orson Bean, Eric Barker) – Classic Movie Review 9868

Director Richard Donner’s 1970 sex comedy drama Twinky [Lola] [London Affair] stars Charles Bronson as dissipated middle-aged porn novel writer Scott Wardman, who has a Swinging Sixties fling with London teenager Twinky (Susan George). She’s 16, he’s almost 40, they fall in love, get married in liberated Scotland and then move to America.

Even in 1970 this was viewed as dated, boring stuff, and it seems uncomfortable and awkward now. However, surprisingly Bronson pleases out of his usual action rut, Susan George is a convincing Lolita, the production looks good and there is welcome work from a posh support cast, including Honor Blackman and Michael Craig as Twinky’s mummy and daddy, Trevor Howard as Lola’s Grandfather, and Paul Ford as Scott Wardman’s dad. And it does bring a fragrant whiff of London at the close of the Sixties.

Comics Jimmy Tarbuck and Norman Vaughan (both hosts of the TV series Sunday Night at the London Palladium) play each other!

Also in the cast are Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, Lionel Jeffries, Kay Medford, Orson Bean, Peggy Aitchison, Tony Arpino, Eric Barker, Erik Chitty, Judith Furse, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Waller, Ann Way, Debbie Slater and Anthony Kemp.

It is written by Norman Thaddeus Vane (original story and screenplay).

Charles Gray dubs the voice of Jack Hawkins, whose larynx was removed in the late 1960s.

The BBFC cut the UK cinema version for an A certificate to remove some sex references and dialogue and this is the 1989 video version, though the American DVD versions (as Lola or Twinky) restore the cut scenes.

RIP Honor Blackman, who died on 5 April 2020, in Lewes, Sussex, aged 94.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9868

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