Fanny Hill (1983 film) explained

Fanny Hill
Director:	Gerry O'Hara
Producer:	Harry Benn
Starring:	Lisa Foster Oliver Reed Shelley Winters Wilfrid Hyde-White
Music:	Paul Hoffert
Cinematography:	Tony Spratling
Editing:	Peter Boyle
Studio:	Brent Walker Film Productions Theatre Division F.H. Filmproduction Limited Playboy Productions (uncredited)
Distributor:	Brent Walker Film Distributing
Runtime:	98 minutes
Country:	United Kingdom
Language:	English

Fanny Hill (also known as Sex, Lies and Renaissance) is a 1983 British sex comedy film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Lisa Foster, Oliver Reed, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Shelley Winters. It is adapted from the 1748 novel of the same name by John Cleland.^[1]

Plot

Poor country lass Fanny Hill sets off for London where she embarks on a series of sexual encounters in pursuit of wealth and happiness, "with many erotic asides."^[2]

Cast

• Lisa Foster - Fanny Hill (as Lisa Raines)
• Oliver Reed - Edward Widdlecome
• Wilfrid Hyde-White - Mr. Barville
• Shelley Winters - Mrs Cole
• Alfred Marks - Lecher
• Paddie O'Neil - Mrs Brown
• Barry Stokes - Charles (as Jonathan York)
• Maria Harper - Phoebe
• Vicki Scott - Polly (uncredited)
• Lorraine Doyle - Martha (uncredited)
• Angie Quick - Sarah (uncredited)
• Susie Silvey - Jane (uncredited)
• Harry Fowler - Beggar (uncredited)
• Gordon Rollings - Beggar (uncredited)
• Liz Smith - Mrs. Jones (uncredited)
• Howard Goorney - Mr. Croft (uncredited)
• Janet Henfrey - Lady in Intelligence Office (uncredited)

Production

O'Hara said Towers wrote a script but O'Hara did not use it. "I had a pretty good cast though," said O'Hara.^[3]

Critical reception

• Time Out wrote, "a relatively large budget and some respectable names in the cast list, but this is still limp softcore flummery sold on the half-remembered notoriety of its purported 18th century source...Lawyer Reed and madam Winters, meanwhile, seem as though they have their teeth gritted in the hope that it will all be over soon."^[4]
• Sky Movies wrote, "they should have made the script funnier, got Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims - and retitled it Carry On Fanny..."^[5]

References

1. Web site: Fanny Hill Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. https://web.archive.org/web/20090114004052/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/204115. dead. 2009-01-14. BFI.
2. Web site: Fanny Hill (1983) . . IMDB . December 16, 2020 .
3. Web site: Working Within the System: An Interview with Gerry O’Hara. Screening the Past. Wheeler Winston. Dixon . 3 December 2010.
4. Web site: Fanny Hill. Time Out London.
5. Web site: Fanny Hill.