Name: London in the Raw
Released: 1965
Cast: David Gell

Brief Synopsis

Cast & Crew

Film Details

Release Date

Jan 1965

Premiere Information

Champaign, Illinois, showing: 23 Apr 1965

Production Company

Searchlight Productions; Troubadour Films

Distribution Company

Olympic International Films

Country

United Kingdom

Synopsis

A tour of London reveals startling ironies: prostitutes, cleared from the streets, solicit from upper-story windows while below, an elderly street musician, whose tune is not finished by the time the client returns to the street, resists the ravages of the cold. At health and beauty clubs, women endure discomforts of every description in order to keep up appearances; a man undergoes a painful operation to graft hair onto his balding scalp. Teenagers release inhibitions at a dance club, and belly dancers entertain the "bowler hat brigade" in London's business district. Beatniks sketch a nude volunteer; a restaurant that caters to artists serves dinner while guests sketch nudes posed around the room. Lonely men allow themselves to be fleeced in clip joints; immigrant groups at a Cypriot club, a Jewish theater, and a German students' carnival night create a more joyful atmosphere. Nightclubs and striptease establishments cater to every taste; traditional entertainment is resurrected at a pub; a high-society gambling resort provides after-hours entertainment. Meanwhile, derelicts drink wood alcohol in a bombed-out cellar; drug addicts queue up at midnight outside dispensaries to collect their legal daily drug allotment; other "users" turn to the illegal drug trade in Soho.