The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966) from Tuna
The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966) is a classic titty flick produced by David Friedman and Dan Sonney. It is a fictional sequel to the then popular novel Fanny Hill. Kissey Hill is daughter of Fanny Hill, and works as a courtesan in a brothel. We see her with a variety of customers in the first half of the film with little exposure, then comes a lengthy scene where Kissey and two other women entertain three gentlemen, one couple at a time. Each of the three encounters follows the same pattern. First the woman strips, carefully showing her breasts and buns from every angle, then there is a simulated sex scene that shows nothing.
Friedman and Sonny were having lunch at the Santa Monica pier two weeks before shooting, and had not yet cast the part of Kissey. A gorgeous blonde with a Texas accent named Barbara Jean Moore walked up and asked them to buy her a hot dog. Seems she had dropped out of her senior year of college and come to Hollywood. She was broke, and had slept on the beach that night. Friedman told Sonney that they had found their Kissey. Sonney objected to a Texas accent on an 18th century courtesan, but Friedman said, "Who's going to be listening?" She went on to star in one more film, and one short. She adopted Stacey Walker as her stage name. 

NUDITY REPORT
Plenty. See the main commentary.
 There was a huge pool of women who played in these titty flicks, mostly anonymously. Some were married and supplementing the family income, but most were hoping to make a career in mainstream film. Few succeeded. The other two courtesans were credited as Lydia Farrell and Ginger Hale (Get it? Ginger ale!). Titty flicks started in the early 60's and lasted about 10 years. The genre ended with my personal favorite, The Erotic Adventures of Zorro. This film, like many of them, was a costume picture. It was easy and affordable to go to Western Costume in Hollywood (I myself did it for a High School play) and rent exactly what you needed. These were a specialty of director Peter Perry, and Friedman liked them as well, as he thought they looked great, and prolonged the excitement and anticipation undressing.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • no widescreen

  • see commentary to the right
This would be a solid but unremarkable genre film, except for one thing. The DP was László Kovács. His masterful touch shows beginning to end in the lighting, photography and colors. This is the first half of a double feature DVD from Something Weird Video, whose staff does the restoration, then passed the baton to Image Entertainment to master the DVD. There is a highly entertaining commentary with Friedman, poster art, etc. There are one or two bad spots in the film, but it is mostly a flawless transfer.  

Scoop's note: according to IMDb, this film was banned in Finland. What do you have to do to get banned in Finland? Perhaps there was cruelty to reindeer?

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: not enough votes for a score
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+.

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