'Percy' was a 1971 British comedy starring Hywel Bennett as the recipient of the world's first penis transplant. Three years later, a sequel - 'Percy's Progress' - appeared. Bennett chose not to return, so Leigh Lawson ( later to become Twiggy's husband ) replaced him. In a bad note of continuity, 'Percy' is now the name of the lead character ( in the first film, he was 'Edwin' and 'Percy' was the nick-name given to the penis ). Bennett's shy antiques dealer has become a more extroverted character, determined to sleep with everything in lipstick and a skirt. After his marriage to the lovely Moira collapses due to his constant infidelity, Percy decides to escape from Britain by taking to sea in a luxury yacht. He spends a year on his own ( how awful that must have been for him! ) before going ashore, seeking female company. He finds that a U.S. bomber has crashed, releasing into the sea a toxin called P.X.-123, rendering every man on Earth impotent. Because he had drunk nothing but Bollinger 69 for a year, Percy is unaffected. When the girls at the local bordello realise this, they pay him for his services. Percy returns to a hero's welcome in Britain, and scores of red-hot women demanding his attention...
If you think all this sounds pretty ghastly, you would be right. The first 'Percy' was a one-joke affair, but this has virtually no jokes at all. Lawson is rather good as the amiable cad, but has nothing to work with. Sid Colin can be blamed for the script, along with Ian La Frenais ( the wit of 'Porridge' and 'The Likely Lads' is conspicuously missing ). The only vaguely amusing moment comes when U.N. countries stage a televised beauty contest to find girls of all nationalities to sleep with Percy ( among them Maddy Smith ), hosted by a Terry Wogan lookalike played by the late Alan Lake. Harry H.Corbett plays the British Prime Minister, clearly based on Harold Wilson. Other big names camping it up to no avail are Vincent Price, Ronald Fraser, Milo O'Shea, Bernard Lee, Elke Sommer, Julie Ege, Judy Geeson, and Barry Humphries. Its a little disconcerting to see the force behind the splendid 'Barry McKenzie' movies in something so dismal as this. Denholm Elliott reprises his role as 'Emmanuel Whitbread', the surgeon who originally grafted 'Percy' onto Edwin Anthony.
Quite a lot of pop songs - by Tony Macaulay - grace the soundtrack, presumably an effort by the producer to recover some of the budget ( location filming took place in Cyprus ) through the issuing of a tie-in record. Raymond Hitchcock, author of the novel on which 'Percy' was based, wrote a novelisation. In Harry and Michael Medved's book 'The Golden Turkey Awards', the film is nominated in the category of 'Most Unerotic Concept In Pornography' ( it did not win ).
This marked the end of the long-running collaboration between producer Betty E.Box and director Ralph Thomas. What a sad picture for them to go out on.
If you think all this sounds pretty ghastly, you would be right. The first 'Percy' was a one-joke affair, but this has virtually no jokes at all. Lawson is rather good as the amiable cad, but has nothing to work with. Sid Colin can be blamed for the script, along with Ian La Frenais ( the wit of 'Porridge' and 'The Likely Lads' is conspicuously missing ). The only vaguely amusing moment comes when U.N. countries stage a televised beauty contest to find girls of all nationalities to sleep with Percy ( among them Maddy Smith ), hosted by a Terry Wogan lookalike played by the late Alan Lake. Harry H.Corbett plays the British Prime Minister, clearly based on Harold Wilson. Other big names camping it up to no avail are Vincent Price, Ronald Fraser, Milo O'Shea, Bernard Lee, Elke Sommer, Julie Ege, Judy Geeson, and Barry Humphries. Its a little disconcerting to see the force behind the splendid 'Barry McKenzie' movies in something so dismal as this. Denholm Elliott reprises his role as 'Emmanuel Whitbread', the surgeon who originally grafted 'Percy' onto Edwin Anthony.
Quite a lot of pop songs - by Tony Macaulay - grace the soundtrack, presumably an effort by the producer to recover some of the budget ( location filming took place in Cyprus ) through the issuing of a tie-in record. Raymond Hitchcock, author of the novel on which 'Percy' was based, wrote a novelisation. In Harry and Michael Medved's book 'The Golden Turkey Awards', the film is nominated in the category of 'Most Unerotic Concept In Pornography' ( it did not win ).
This marked the end of the long-running collaboration between producer Betty E.Box and director Ralph Thomas. What a sad picture for them to go out on.
