Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 1, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of The Mary Millington Movie Collection.

MM.

For film fans, those redolent initials might unavoidably call up images of a gorgeous blonde who was one of the top box office stars of her day, who it was said had bedded at least one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and one who tragically died young from an apparent suicide, though there are still rumors of foul play swirling around her demise. Marilyn Monroe, you say? Well, sure, her, too, but for fans in the United Kingdom in particular MM could just as easily make them think of a woman who was completely notorious in her native land but whose fame is a bit more sparse on this side of the pond, Mary Millington. Millington was the face (and body) of British porn in the 1970s, becoming one of the biggest ticket sellers of her era in England. That UK renown accounts for what may strike some as a perplexing aspect of this Region A release: it comes from Screenbound Pictures, a label located in England, and its cover also clearly features a British Board of Film Classification rating. It turns out MVD Visual is distributing a limited number of copies of the original Region B release (which offered region free discs, in case anyone is/was worried) for sale here in “the colonies” and other Region A markets. The release offers a grab bag of Millington’s often provocative work in porn, as well as a documentary about her.

This entire Millington set is the brainchild of Simon Sheridan, who also wrote and directed this well done overview of Millington's life and work. There are a number of rather interesting talking heads featured, including several of Millington's relatives, all of whom mention her warmth and naturalness, as well as their utter lack of embarrassment over her film career. A ton of archival stills and film clips helps to enliven the proceedings, and there are also archival recordings of Mary that are utilized. This is actually a great place to start in this collection for those who may not be overly familiar with Millington's frankly kind of sad life but incredibly epochal film career.

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Screenbound Pictures with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1. As should be expected of a documentary which includes a lot of archival stills and videos from sources of differing quality, there are definitely fluctuations in clarity, palette saturation and grain structure. The contemporary interview segments are generally sharp and well detailed, though the ones featuring Millington's niece and nephew are just a little softer than the others for some reason. Director Simon Sheridan does employ a few video bells and whistles at times, like pushing contrast on some views of Millington's childhood home, and so detail levels can ebb and flow slightly.

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story features an LPCM 2.0 track that provides perfectly fine support for all of the talking head segments as well as some of the archival audio featuring Mary. As with the video element in some of the archival footage, audio quality can encounter slight fluctuations, but nothing overly problematic. As with all of the features in this set, there are no subtitles available.

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Simon Sheridan and Sam Dunn (BFI)


• Millington / Sheridan (1080p; 28:26) is a fantastic if occasionally snarky interview with Simon Sheridan, who discusses both his longstanding infatuation with Millington (he first spied a poster for Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair when he was a little boy and was evidently immediately smitten) and some of the background of the films. He's not especially kind to some of the hangers on in Millington's life, including Diana Dors.


• Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Trailer (1080p; 00:31)

Respectable: The Mary Millington Story Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Simon Sheridan assembles some interesting interviews, some of which may come off as slightly self serving, but all of which bring home how well remembered Mary Millington continues to be by both those who loved her and those who worked with her (with some overlap between those two categories at times). While there are understandable fluctuations in quality due to the archival footage, overall technical merits are secure, and the bonus features (especially Millington / Sheridan ) are very interesting. Recommended.