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Friday, August 1, 2014

"French Dressing at 50" Movie Exhibition in Herne Bay, England


One of my top 3 Marisa Mell movies is the 1964 comedy caper movie "French Dressing" directed by Ken Russell, notorious almost a decade later for his 1971 shocker "The Devils",  with leading men James Booth and Roy Kinnear. The movie had its world première on April 10th 1964. The movie was for the most part shot in Herne Bay, England and shows us a surprisingly comedic side of female star Marisa Mell, that will never be repeated again in her later career and thus making this movie a really stand alone among all her other movies and television work. To commemorate the 50th year since the first showing of this movie, curator Nicholas Sinclair has put together a special exhibition celebrating the life and work of British filmmaker Ken Russell and his first movie "French Dressing". Special attention is given during this exhibition to the history of the making of this movie in Herne Bay and its locals who often participated in the movie as extras. What makes this exihition also very special for Marisa Mell fans is the fact that the curator also had a special eye for the contribution of Marisa Mell in this movie and its success, slowly building into a cult following in the years since. The visitors will see a lot of ultra rare and never before seen material regarding the production of this movie and the contribution of Marisa Mell, belonging to numerous owners, some even related to the production of it. Hence Marisa Mell features heavily througout the displays in stills, behind the scene photos, original and reproduction marketing artwork and even in a recent discovered colour cinefilm in the vault of a cine maker made during the production of French Dressing.
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Practical information:

From August 7th 2014 untill September 28th 2014

FRENCH DRESSING AT 50 AT HERNE BAY MUSEUM AND GALLERY
8 William Street
Herne Bay
CT6 5EJ

Telephone: 01227 367368

The museum is situated 9 miles outside of Canterburry via A28 en A299.

The museum is open from Thursday untill Sunday from 11am untill 4.30 pm.

There is not a catalogue available for the exhibition but there is a free filming location trail map available of Herne Bay, in the film known as Gormleigh-On-Sea, which can be taken away as a souvenir.

To wet you appetite for this exhibition here are some photos in color of the movie which is quite rare because the movie and almost all of the publicity stills and material are mostly in black and white.




As a bonus the opening track of the Georges Delerue soundtrack emphasizing the comedy caper theme of the movie:


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