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Groupie Girl
Groupie Girl
	American release poster
Directed by	Derek Ford
Written by	Derek Ford; Suzanne Mercer
Produced by	Stanley Long
Starring	Billy Boyle; Donald Sumpter; Richard Shaw; Esme Johns
Cinematography	Stanley Long
Edited by	Tony Hawk
Music by	Opal Butterfly; English Rose
Release date	June 1970;
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£16,000
Box office	£50,000 (US only)

Groupie Girl is a 1970 British drama film directed by Derek Ford and starring Esme Johns, Donald Sumpter and the band Opal Butterfly.^[2] The film was written by Ford and former groupie Suzanne Mercer.^[3] The film was released in America in December 1970 by American International Pictures as I am a Groupie and in France in 1973, with additional sex scenes, as Les demi-sels de la perversion (The Pimps of Perversion). It was later re-released in France in 1974 as Les affamées du mâle (Man-Hungry Women) this time with hardcore inserts credited to "Derek Fred".^{[citation needed]}. 17 minutes of hardcore footage, shot for the film, was discovered in 2024. https://under-the-counter.com/2024/12/09/lost-continental-footage-found/

Plot

Sally runs away to London from her strict upbringing, and falls into a life of sleeping with men from pop groups.

Cast

Billy Boyle as Wesley
Donald Sumpter as Steve
Richard Shaw as Morrie
Esme Johns as Sally
James Beck as Brian
Paul Bacon as Alfred
Neil Hallett as Detective Sergeant
Flanagan as Thief
Eliza Terry as Suzy
Belinda Caren as Pat
Trevor Adams as Barry
Ken Hutchison as Colin
Jimmy Edwards as Bob
Jenny Nevison as Moira
Opal Butterfly as themselves

Production

Ford complained to Cinema X magazine: "We were shooting in a discotheque one Saturday night and my ears rang right through to Monday morning. I was sick – physically sick – on Sunday from the noise level we suffered".^{[citation needed]}

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album was released in 1970 (UK: Polydor 2384 021).^[4] English Rose were Lynton Guest, Jimmy Edwards and Paul Wolloff, who also have minor roles in the film.

Side 1

"You’re A Groupie Girl" (Opal Butterfly)
"To Jackie" (English Rose)
"Four Wheel Drive" (The Salon Band)
"Got A Lot Of Life" (Virgin Stigma)
"I Wonder Did You" (Billy Boyle)
"Gigging Song" (Opal Butterfly)
"Disco 2" (The Salon Band)
"Now You're Gone, I’m A Man" (Virgin Stigma)

Side 2

"Yesterday's Hero" (English Rose)
"Love Me, Give A Little" (Virgin Stigma)
"Looking For Love" (Billy Boyle)
"Sweet Motion" (The Salon Band)
"Love’s a Word Away" (English Rose)
"True Blue" (The Salon Band)
"Groupie Girl, It Doesn’t Matter What You Do" (Virgin Stigma)

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "Tedious cautionary tale whose blend of sex, loose life and pop music has obviously been compounded for a specific market which will care little if the story becomes increasingly contrived as it proceeds and will probably remain unmoved by the moralising coda and quite touching fade-out. Elsewhere the tone is, if anything, amoral and the sexploitation blatant."^[5]

Variety said "This is obviously a quick attempt to cash-in on a facet of the pop group scene and, tawdry though it is, it may catch the interest of youngsters, intrigued by title and theme. ... Dialog and situations are sterotyped and Ford's direction is conventional and uninspired. It's not helped either by minimal thesping and diction of a cast, the femmes of which, at least, seem mainly to be intro’d for a number of strip scenes. Lensing and editing are reasonably okay and the two groups, named in the pic as "The Sweaty Betty" and "Orange Butterfly" put over some pop numbers pretty well and some may well click on the Polydor label."^[6]

Releases

The film was released on UK DVD in January 2007 on the Slam Dunk Media Label as part of the "Saucy Seventies" series. The earlier US DVD release on the Jeff films label is an unauthorized bootleg.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b Simon Sheridan, Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, Titan Books 2011 p 70-71
^ "Groupie Girl". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
^ "Stanley A Long Side 5". British Entertainment History Project. 24 November 1999.
^ "Groupie Girl (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Discogs. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
^ "Groupie Girl". Monthly Film Bulletin. 37 (432): 186. 1970 – via ProQuest.
^ "Groupie Girl". Variety. 260 (8): 22. 7 October 1970 – via ProQuest.