| London in the Raw | |
| Director: | Arnold L. Miller Norman Cohen |
| Producer: | Michael Klinger Tony Tenser Stanley Long |
| Narrator: | David Gell |
| Cinematography: | Stanley Long |
| Editing: | Stephen Cross |
| Studio: | Searchlight-Troubadour Productions |
| Distributor: | Compton Cameo |
| Runtime: | 76 mins |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Budget: | £20,000[1] |
London in the Raw is a 1964 British documentary about London nightlife directed by Arnold L. Miller and Norman Cohen.[2] [3] It was inspired by the success of Mondo Cane (1962)[4] and was followed by a sequel Primitive London in 1965.[5]
According to Tony Tenser, the film recouped its cost within six months of release.[1]
Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "London in the raw, not so much in the sense of nudism or even striptease (though the topic is included) as of unpleasantnesses unveiled. What we have here is something of a Mondo Cane of London town, with a distinct bias towards the unpleasant, murky or sordid. ... [The film] gets into its stride with a sequence in a betting-shop: off-course betting, no longer illegal, has developed into big business. Prostitution comes next: the filles de joie have been cleared from Soho streets, but there is no law against a girl leaning out of a window, recognising a "friend", and beckoning. ... Then, scenes of women suffering mechanised assaults on their persons in health clubs, and – the shock sequence – a clinical account of an operation to check baldness, indicate what the contemporary human is prepared to go through with in the name of appearance. ... Lighter relief follows: a Cypriot club, Jewish theatre, carnival night at a German students' club, cabaret entertainment ... showgirls in night clubs, variety entertainment in pubs. When the pubs close, the search goes on for "after hours" entertainment and roulette clubs, while the more distressed addicts drink methylated spirits or wait at Piccadilly until midnight strikes so that they can obtain their allotment of drugs at the all-night pharmacy ... Having reached this sordid point in the very early hours of the morning, the film is evidently nonplussed as to how to wind up, and resorts to the feeble device of presenting brief cuts from sequences which make up the film."[6]
The film was released by The British Film Institute (BFI) in 2009 on DVD (Flipside 002).