Spanish Fly (1976, Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas, Graham Armitage, Nadiuska, Frank Thornton, Sue Lloyd) – Classic Movie Review 9,900

The 1976 British sex comedy film Spanish Fly is lame, unfunny and vulgar, with a deft, expert cast of familiar farceurs (Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas) stranded in silly Spanish slapstick. 

Director Bob Kellett’s 1976 film Spanish Fly is a predictably lame, unfunny and vulgar British- Spanish-Canadian sex comedy, with a deft, expert cast of familiar farceurs engaged (or stranded) in stupidly silly Spanish antics concerned with a British knight, Sir Percy de Courcy (Terry-Thomas)’s addition of a powerful sexual stimulant to the neighbourhood plonk on the holiday island of Minorca.

Leslie Phillips plays Mike Scott, a British businessman, who asks his doctor, Dr Johnson (Frank Thornton), for help for his low libido, and travels to Spain to make lingerie ads with a quartet of gorgeous fashion model girls called Bruce (Andrea Allan), Francesca (Sally Farmiloe), Annette (Jaleh Haddah) and Julie (the 5′ 11″ Bavarian actress Nadiuska).

In this typical but poor Seventies British comedy, there is a lot of mild smut with limited amounts of nudity and sexuality, and no moments of humour.

Esteemed British comedy players Terry-Thomas, Phillips and Thornton deserve a much, much better script, and Sue Lloyd has little to do as Phillips’s wife, although Graham Armitage has his moments as Terry-Thomas’s chauffeur and partner-in-crime.

Also in the cast are Andrea Allan, Sally Farmiloe, Jaleh Haddah, Nina Francis, Ramiro Oliveros, Nadiuska, Sergio Mendizâbal, Emiliano Redondo, Fernando Villena, Marisa Porcel and José Luis Lifante.

The screenplay is by Robert Ryerson, based on a story by Kent Walwin and Peter James and the German play Die Spanische Fliege by Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach.

Spanish Fly is directed by Bob Kellett, runs 86 minutes, is made by Impact Quadrant, Quadrant Films, Winkle Productions and Ízaro Films, is released by EMI Films (1976) (UK) and Emerson Film Enterprises (1976) (US), is written by Robert Ryerson, is shot in Technicolor by Jack Atcheler, is produced by Kent Walwin, Peter James, Gerald Flint-Shipman and Richard DuVivier, is scored by Ron Goodwin, and is designed by Jacqueline Charriot-Lodwidge.

It is shot at Destilerías Xoringuer, Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, and EMI Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

Menorca or Minorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size (from Latin: Insula Minor, literally ‘smaller island’, later Minorica).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,900

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com