The 1971 British film Girl Stroke Boy (British for "Girl Slash Boy,"
as in "Girl/Boy"), directed by Bob Kellett, is based on a play called
Girl Friend by one David Percival. (I have yet to find anything about
this play on the internet. Should anyone reading this find anything about
this play, please e-mail me
about it.)
The character around which this film revolves, one Jo Delaney, is
depicted as having a dubious gender. Back in 1971, this would have most
likely been codified as a form of homosexuality, but today, this would be
deemed transgender. The question is, what kind of transgender. Is the
character of Jo Delaney an androgyne? Is sie a transgenderist? Is sie
transsexual? Not enough clues are given, but this character's being
West Indian makes hir "other" respecting sexuality and race, and so
this scenario can be said to be a take on the 1967 American film Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner.
In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, a white woman named Joanna 'Joey'
Drayton (played by Katharine Houghton) brings her African-American
boyfriend (played by Sidney Poitier) to meet her white parents (played
by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn). Contrast the names Joanna and
'Joey' with that of Jo from Girl Stroke Boy. Coincidence? Perhaps.
In Girl Stroke Boy, a young man named Laurie (!), who had recently
spent some time in a mental institution, brings his new West Indian
girlfriend Jo to meet his parents. Both parents are cultured, with the
father a college professor and the mother a novelist, so they are not
taken aback by Jo's race -- but Jo's gender is another matter.
[copy from the back cover of the American VHS video:]
. . . A SOPHISTICATED COMEDY FEATURING A NEW STYLE ROMANCE . . .
Lettice and George, middle class & white, prepare for the arrival of
their 30 year old bachelor son Lauree and his new girlfriend Jo. Jo, the
daughter of a West Indian High Commissioner, arrives in unisex clothes
and an Afro haircut, creating doubt about her sex. A series of comedic
events follow as Lettice and George try to determine Jo's true sex.
After Lauree confesses that they are married, the question still remains
unanswered. Is it a girl or boy?
RUNNING TIME: Approximately 85 minutes.
[approximation of the copy from the front cover of the Danish VHS video:]
"LIKE A CHILD LOVES BEST" or perhaps "STRAIGHT CHILD(EN) LOVES BEST"
"They didn't say farewell to a son -- they got instead a -- what???"
[approximation of the copy from the back cover of the Danish VHS video:]
"LIKE A CHILD LOVES BEST" or perhaps "STRAIGHT CHILD(EN) LOVES BEST"
"It is always [exciting] and somewhat nerve-wracking to be a parent when
the son comes home and presents his latest, and it is certainly that for
school principal George Mason (Michael Hordern) and his wife Lettice
(Joan Greenwood), but it turns out that the daughter-in-law is a guy, and
the family comes apart at the seams! Up till now everything that the son
Laurie did was wrong. He had the wrong clothes, the wrong hair, the
wrong opinions and the wrong friends -- and now this!
A [rolicking? outrageous?], funny, [sexy?] comedy."
Lettice: JOAN GREENWOOD
George: MICHAEL HORDERN
Laurie: CLIVE FRANCIS
Jo: STRAKER
CREDITS
Producers: NEDSHERRIN and TERRY GLINWOOD
Director: BOB KELLETT
Production Supervisor: PAT GREEN
Director of Photography: IAN WILSON
Assistant Director: ALLAN JONES
Camera Operator: BOB RICKERD
Continuity: TILLY DAY
Sound Recordist: CHRISTOPHER MOORE
Art Director: SEAMUS FLANNERY
Make-up: GEORGE BLACKLER
Hairdresser: RAYMOND GOW
Wardrobe: BRENDA DABBS
Editor: BRIAN SMEDLEY ASTON
[copy from the right inside page of the pamphlet:]
THEME
Whether or not there was some room for disagreement between
either long-suffering school head George Mason (MICHAEL HORDERN)
and his wife Lettice (JOAN GREENWOOD) about their son Laurie
(CLIVE FRANCIS), or whether united they simply argued with their
friends about him, the boy was cause for dissension.
There was his dress, his hair, his ideas, his friends -
especially his friends.
George was one of those who was certain that his son had had to
have his head examined -- from the inside. What surprised him
more than anything else was the fact that Laurie was now on his
way home for what could be termed a family reunion, bringing 'a
friend' . . .
Length: 7,950 ft. Running Time: 86 mins. Certificate: "X"Eastmancolour
Lettice Mason's home counties house is surrounded by snow.
Inches deep it stretches away into a winter landscape which is
bleak and chilly. Inside the house, however, the temperature is
boiling. Something has gone wrong with the central heating - in
fact George Mason, Lettice's husband hit it before going off to
teach at the local school where he is headmaster and she has not
been able to get a plumber or an electrician to come out to mend
it. What is more, having had new burglar-proof locks fitted to
all the windows in the house she has lost the key and the
atmosphere is becoming tropical and unbearable.
To make matters worse Lettice has asked friends to dinner. Her
thirty year old son Laurie, who has recently recovered from a
breakdown has at last announced his intention of bringing home a
girl friend. Lettice and George have taken the announcement that
she is the daughter of a West Indian High Commissioner in their
stride and Lettice is anxious to flaunt this reassuring
development in her son's sex life to her neighbours Pamela and
Feter Havendon and a girl who has always had a crush on Laurie -
Liz.
Faced with the appalling heat Lettice rings the Havendons to warn
them not to dress too warmly. Pamela decides on a caftan and
promises to put Peter in Bermuda shorts. Meanwhile George
returns from an exhausting day at school (a sit-in, in the bogs
and the master teaching religion lost his faith in the middle of
the synoptic gospels). He pours himself a drink, realises that
water and whisky are equally hot and protests about other guests
on Laurie's first night home. Lettice insists that Laurie will
want to see his friends now that he is better and they begin to
discuss his illness and how serious it was. Lettice is inclined
to think he was just tired and overworked. George feels that it
was worse than that: but George, as usual, is not allowed very
much say inside his own home. Lettice is a romantic novelist and
the idea of Laurie's coloured guest has set her off on an idea
for a new book which sounds suspiciously like the Cinderella
story reworked for black people in a hot country.
At the same time Laurie and Jo Delaney are speeding towards the
house in a crowded railway apartment. Suddenly what looks like a
young man opposite starts to give birth to a child and his
supposed "girlfriend" in beads and a long loose caftan helps to
deliver. They are a unisex couple and the wife looks a good deal
more male that the husband. The delivery is successful, they all
celebrate with a nip of brandy from the ticket collector's
hipflask and Laurie and Jo leave the train to make their way
through the snow to the house.
Lettice and George are dressing. They have got on to the thorny
problem of whether Laurie had ever shown any interest in girls
before and Lettice is defending him vigorously against George's
quizzical enquiries. Before they are ready the door bell rings
and they rush to greet the youngsters. The bedroom door has
stuck because of the heat and by the time they get to the top of
the stairs Laurie has let himself in. Lettice throws herself
into his arms and when their greeting is over she and George look
around for Jo, who emerges from the kitchen. Their faces fall.
There is immediate doubt as to whether Jo is a girl or a boy.
Unisex clothes and an Afro haircut increase the doubt in their
minds. Lettice peers through her spectacles and scribbles a note
to George
"Is it a man". [sic] She decides that at all costs the Havendons
must be prevented from witnessing the spectacle of her son
bringing home a boy instead of a girl. The kids go up to change.
The atmosphere is not lost on them. They wonder if they should
have come. Downstairs Lettice quarrels with George about Jo's
femininity or lack of it and when the Havendons and Liz arrive at
the front door George is is [sic] forced to scare them away by
refusing entrance and making weird noises through the letter box.
When the children come downstairs and kiss contentedly in the
doorway of the living room Lettice's shame and confusion are
complete. Throughout an uncomfortable dinner she tries to make
George ask Jo if she is a boy but George cannot bring himself to
do it and they all go to bed with the question still not put.
Upstairs Lettice checks the lavatory after Jo's visit and her
suspicions are partly confirmed by the fact that the seat is up.
Jo and Laurie discuss the situation in Jo's bed and then go
downstairs to make love in the cooler surroundings of the
kitchen; in front of the open refrigerator. The tensions of the
evening don't make it easy and their tempers fray. Then Lettice,
who has been eavesdropping, interrupts them before they can get
started. The young people decide to get out of the hot-house
through the attic trap door and breathe the fresh snowy air.
They take skis and go. George and Lettice retire for uneasy
sleep.
In the morning the tension continues and when Laurie and Jo go to
the village pub, again escaping via the roof, Lettice forces a
reluctant George to phone Jo's parents. The Delaneys are amazed
to be telephoned. Their puzzlement increases when they hear that
Laurie is a boy. They thought that Jo was with a girl friend.
Lettice now decides to rifle Jo's case for clues and she believes
the worst when she finds a bible inscribed "To Joseph, our
beloved son". Just as she is about to walk out of the house in
disgust Laurie and Jo return and Lettice and George make a final
attempt to convey their embarrassment to the children. Jo
explains that the bible is her brother's but Lettice is hardly
convinced. A call from Jo's parents who are now equally puzzled
and anxious increases the tension which is only resolved when
Laurie suggests that he and Jo are engaged, indeed on second
thoughts, married. Lettice hardly knows what to believe, but
George accepts the escape route gleefully. At the same moment he
notices that the temperature has fallen. The heater has run out
of oil. Joyously he pulls open the door and they breathe the
cool fresh air. The nightmare appears to be over. Lettice
despatches a bitchy call from Pamela Havendon who had spotted Jo
in the pub for the lunchtime drink and they all decide to go off
together for lunch nearby. At the last moment Laurie wants to
shave - "So" says Jo, "do I". There is consternation. "No", she
says, "I mean I need hot water". She also asks if she can call
Lettice "Mother".
"Ask your father", says Lettice.
"Ah, well," says George. "We're not so much losing a son as
gaining a.........!
[copy from page 12 ("Foot Fencing" is part of a column called "In Camera"):]
Foot fencing
A report in Campaign said that Bob Kellett's Girl Stroke Boy had
run into trouble with the Advertising Viewing Committee, over one
of their advertisements (see illustrations).
'The trouble was caused by the third ad -- which was to have
shown the two pairs of feet together in what Aquarius art
director Rick Harle describes as "an inverted missionary
position". The Advertising Viewing Committee, which censors all
cinema posters for X Certificate films, thought this was too
suggestive, and got the agency to change the final ad to one
showing the two pairs of feet side by side'.
This is an early scene from the 1971 UK film, "Girl Stroke Boy"
(British for "Girl Slash Boy," as in "Girl/Boy"), directed by Bob
Kellett. In this scene, Laurie Mason (a man) takes his West Indian
girlfriend Jo Delaney to meet his parents, Lettice(!) and George Mason.
This is a comedy of manners, somewhat akin to "Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner," but in place of a black man, we get a black transgender woman
(or male-born androgyne; it is unclear). As such, it was and is way
ahead of its time. From a play called "Girlfriend" by David Percival.
Sir Michael Hordern's
performance as George Mason is alternately
understated and over-the-top, but most of all howlingly funny. I first
encountered this very funny man as Senex in the 1966 film version of "A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."
This is a relatively early scene from the 1971 UK film, "Girl Stroke
Boy" (British for "Girl Slash Boy," as in "Girl/Boy"), directed by Bob
Kellett. In this scene, the parents, Lettice(!) and George Mason, have
an argument in the kitchen about their son Laurie's choice of girlfriend,
the West Indian Jo Delaney.
This is a late scene from the 1971 UK film, "Girl Stroke Boy"
(British for "Girl Slash Boy," as in "Girl/Boy"), directed by Bob
Kellett. In this scene, the mother Lettice(!) Mason, argues with her
husband George Mason, in the guestroom where their son Laurie's choice
of girlfriend, the West Indian Jo Delaney, has been staying, while Laurie
and Jo are outside playing in the snow. Lettice goes through Jo's
suitcase and discovers a Bible therein. This scene is very telling and
reveals George's true feelings about the situation.
This is a scene from near the end of the 1971 UK film, "Girl
Stroke Boy" (British for "Girl Slash Boy," as in "Girl/Boy"), directed by
Bob Kellett. In this scene, Mr. Mason, prodded by Mrs. Mason, tries to
get her son Laurie and his girlfriend Jo to admit to being a same-sex
couple, but Mr. Mason is too shy, while Laurie and Jo are too inscrutable.
Mr. Mason's attempts at evading the subject and his major gaffe
at the end are hilarious.
Sir Michael Hordern's performance as George Mason is wonderful
here, and we get to see a bit more of Jo Delaney, played by Straker,
here, as well. Even Joan Greenwood, as Lettice Mason, shines here, as
someone determined to get to the bottom of a mystery, even if it requires
going through a surrogate, which just happens to be her husband. She
does an amazing job of putting words in Mr. Mason's mouth. Clive
Francis, who plays Laurie, takes an ostentatious turn, as he conveys
incredulity, flippancy, and even a smidgeon of bombast.
