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Come Play With Me: The Life and Films Of Mary Millington

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Anyone that reads Simon Sheridan's "Come Play With Me", will realise very quickly that he is indeed a fan of the late British sex superstar Mary Millington. She was relatively unknown in America, but in Britain she was a legend in a time when "hard core" pornography was still illegal on that side of the pond. Sheridan treats Mary with a respect and sensitivity that lays out her very open bi-sexual lifestyle to the fullest. From a girlie magazine model to porn queen to a leader of the sexual revolution in the 1970's. It's all here in a well researched account, complete with plenty of revealing pictures and in-depth comments from those that knew and worked with her. Mary was the proverbial innocent "girl next door", who became the nation's sex goddess and a public enemy to the authorities. Whereas hardcore pornography had long been legal in Europe and with the infamous movie "Deep Throat"... bringing the USA into the act, it was still very much of the "soft core" variety in the UK. Specially when it came to the movies being produced by the British film industry itself. The same high street cinemas that once showed the likes of "Lawrence Of Arabia" and "2001", were now filling those very same seats with "Can You Keep It Up For A Week", "Confessions Of A Window Cleaner" and other assorted titles. It was the era of the "sex comedy", the saucy humor of Benny Hill and the famous "Carry On" films, taken to the next step or mis-step depending on your tolerance of such things.

"Come Play With Me" was one of these "sex-com" epics that starred Mary Millington and it went on to become the record holder for the longest-ever theatrical booking in British cinema history. What makes this book such a good read, is that it highlights the utter hypocrisy of the times and the misplaced and all out vendetta that the police and Her Majesty's government had against this perceived threat to the realm and the British sense of "order". An outspoken critic of Britain's antiquated pornography laws, Mary was adored by the public but her lifestyle ultimately led to drug use and prostitution. Always under an unrelenting pressure and harassment from the police and the tax man, it finally led Mary to take her own life. A good supplement to this subject is Simon Sheridan's "Keeping The British End Up" which looks at the sex films already mentioned and the declining British movie industry that produced them during this period. It too is available from Amazon.