A Promise of Bed

1969 British film by Derek Ford

1969 (1969)

CountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£8,500^[1]

This, That and the Other, originally released as A Promise of Bed, is a 1969 British sex comedy directed by Derek Ford, and starring Vanda Hudson, Victor Spinetti and John Bird.^[2] It comprises a trilogy of separate stories.

Plot

Story 1. Susan Stress a sex-crazed actress desperate for a role in a film, lures the producer's son into her apartment by persuading him to take raunchy photographs of her.
Story 2. George is a depressed loner on the brink of suicide, receives a visit from a young hippy girl, who brings her friends to his apartment after believing it to be the location of a swinging party with a suicide theme.
Story 3. A lascivious taxi driver takes a mysterious sexy girl to an isolated countryside retreat, and becomes involved in a psychedelic world of bizarre hallucinations.

Cast

Victor Spinetti as George
Dennis Waterman as photographer
John Bird as taxi driver
Vanessa Howard as Barbara
Vanda Hudson as Susan Stress
Gordon Sterne as producer
Peter Kinsley as Wilbur
Roy Brannigan as Jeffrey
Alexandra Bastedo as Angie
Christopher Mitchell as Carl
Yutte Stensgaard as taxi girl
Angela Grant as flower girl
Valerie Leon as bath girl
Cleo Goldstein as hands girl

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A trilogy of slight, titillating sketches, short on comedy but rather better performed than these things usually are. The first story is largely a pretext for Vanda Hudson to appear in diaphanous flimsies, or less; the second, which has black comedy overtones, opens promisingly enough but deteriorates into a dull, drawn-out party scene; and the fantasy finale, with the cabbie continually asking 'What about my fare?' and being regaled by sundry ladies, including bare-breasted swimmers and a stripper covered in black hands which she removes one by one, hardly manages to raise a smile. The one barely memorable moment is provided by Miss Hudson being pursued round an apartment to the strains of the Light Cavalry Overture."^[3]

References

^ Sheridan, Simon (2011). Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. Titan Books. ISBN 978-0857682796.
^ "The Shiralee". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
^ "The Shiralee". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 37 (432): 35. 1 January 1970 – via ProQuest.