Come Play With Me & other tales

Researching British porn purely for review purposes would be a wet dream for many. For me, 1970’s porn made it even better. A time when the music was always groovy, filled with bad scripts and predictable story-lines. Experimentation with slow-mo, arty angles and bad acting filled all the gaps. Where the voice over never matched the action though always excused ’cause let’s face it, it’s hard to talk with your mouth full. So here I am, early evening, still streaming blurry tits and bad moustaches and feeling so much the richer for it.

Went it came to pornography in the sixties and seventies Britain was bound by strict obscenity laws. While European neighbours displayed the whole smorgasbord, it took a while for things to loosen up in Britain. Soon skimpy satin, suspenders, real boobs and unshaven magic carpets were beginning to become du jour. It was naughty nurses with a play list, while back door good times remained illicit and under the counter.

Though the days of the 8mm funship were mostly seen in long coats at movie houses or home projector nights topped up via flicks through illegal European mags, there was definitely a market. Britain was an inquisitive nation teetering on the edge of sexual liberation. There were the poo-pooers of course. Mary Whitehouse and her finger sniffers were on the rampage with their placards and bugs well and truly stuck.

Reason for all this delve is due to an old release from Tangerine Press that I infiltrated on my recent visit to Publisher Mick Curran’s HQ. I had read about this spoken word treasure and being a huge fan of aural, this limited edition original flexi disc recording was something I just had to get my mits on. The voice in question is Mary Millington. Now Mary was quite a force and a bit of a groundbreaker when it came to porn and its acceptance in society and those in the industry. She enjoyed sex without shame and used her hard earned to care for her terminally ill mum, bless. Having seen the documentary Respectable, it really was her drive, though as one colleague suggests, probably something she would have naturally investigated. From coquette glamour model to starlet roles in porn classics like Come Play With Me, Queen Of The Blues & the amazing Miss Borloch, you can get a better idea of the real Mary, her exploits, drive, professionalism and the tragic destructive end of her life at 33 if you get a chance to watch it.

If pornography is our ultimate animal energies coursing through us, Mary’s guiltless display of her body and sexual acts is nature firing back at us. It can have very negative reactions, prudish abhorrence to accusations of exploitation and of course there are those times when that is the case. Ultimately pornography reveals the individuals darkest truths about their sexuality and voids in their lives. Mary’s adventures I lapped up. Girl next door looks with a dirty mouth. Her sweet naive style on these recordings is so refreshing. Mary is experimental and frisky. Her joy is that of an explorer, experiencing acts for the first time with flattering, eager and extremely natural reactions. I adored her realism and acceptance of all, when things would sting, or the finer details of fucking in a car. This recording has four scenarios, from an impromptu golden shower to its soundtrack of moans over the dialogue had me giggling at times, she knew what we wanted, unashamed, shocking and mischievous, mesmerised by her moans.

Bottom line, this release is a respectful keepsake of her spirit, its gorgeous blue vinyl and gate-fold full body shot of Mary is beautifully crafted. For someone who was quite self conscious of how she looked it is hard to fathom when you see such a beautiful face and recline looking back at you. If you are a student of erotica or 1970’s porn and an aesthetic flare for the collectable, Mary Millington’s Come Play With Me & Other Tales could well be happy in your hands.