Ken Russell was having a tumultuous 1971. His highly controversial film The Devils had been released to solid box office, but met with critical brickbats and public protests over its explicitly sexual content and anti-Catholic stance. He needed something simpler, so he took on the film version of Sandy Wilson’s 1953 feel-good musical, The Boy Friend.

“I did it to prove to people I’m not totally deranged,” Russell said at the time. “I love the innocence and charm of musicals.”

Hosted by Syndi Zook. Zook, the former longtime director of Lyric Theater, believes that you too will love the innocence and charm of The Boy Friend. She’ll explain why when she introduces the film.

A musical extravaganza set in the French Riviera, the original London stage production of The Boy Friend was a huge hit, running for more than 2,000 performances on the West End. A valentine to (and winking pastiche of) the early Rogers and Hart musicals, it was a solid hit on Broadway, too, running for over a year (1954-55) and providing the Broadway debut for Julie Andrews.

Russell adds some meta to the formula, creating the framing device of a small-town theatrical company doing a show of The Boy Friend, only to have the star (two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson) sprain her ankle, and being replaced by the assistant stage manager (supermodel Twiggy doing fine work in her film debut), thereby giving us the show itself but also some backstage shenanigans. With Russell’s signature maximalism and spectacular costumes by Shirley Russell, The Boy Friend creates a gloriously over-the-top Art Deco extravaganza. Plus….Tommy Tune!

The film doesn’t have a huge reputation in the U.S., in large part because the studio heads at MGM lopped off 25 minutes of the film, prompting Russell to state, “A gorilla in boxing gloves wielding a pair of garden shears could have done a better job.” VTIFF will be showing the fully restored 137-minute version.