This cautionary tale of an innocent girl abroad caught up in London’s sleazy world of modelling was Britain's first narrative sex film. Previously unreleased, it finally comes to DVD and Blu-ray for the first time on 20 February 2012 in a Dual Format Edition on the BFI’s celebrated Flipside label. The new, director-approved High Definition transfer is accompanied by a wealth of rare and fascinating extra features and a comprehensive booklet.
Starring the Italian actress Lucia Modugno (Il generale Della Rovere, Danger: Diabolik), and directed by Norman J Warren, Her Private Hell put Britain on the map in the realm of home-grown adult features. The storyline features beautiful but naïve Marisa who arrives from the continent for a job as a fashion model, but soon discovers she’s being groomed for a different purpose.
By the late 1960s, British producers had begun to realise the commercial potential of sex and to test the limits of what the censors would permit on screen. Producer Bachoo Sen, a distributor who imported art-house titles to the UK, set up Piccadilly Pictures with cinema-owner Richard Schulman and financed Her Private Hell. It premiered at London’s Cameo-Royal cinema on 4 January 1968 and was so popular that it ran for over a year
.
The film was the debut feature for young director Norman J Warren (Satan's Slave, Prey and Terror). Looking back at it now, 45 years on, he says: ‘Why it got so much publicity and why it was so successful was that the sex situation in this country was so naïve and innocent and you were so restricted.’
Her Private Hell features a screenplay by Glynn Christian, best known as BBC Breakfast Time’s resident chef in the 1980s, and a distinctive jazz soundtrack by renowned musician and composer John Scott.
Among the extensive extras are new cast and crew interviews, original screen tests (including one with a young Udo Kier), two early shorts by Norman J Warren and the rarely-seen The Anatomy of a Pin-up (1971), a lively documentary about ‘Penthouse Pets’ and nude modelling in Britain. All extras are presented in High Definition.