''Percy'' is a 1971 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Ralph Thomas Ralph Philip Thomas MC (10 August 1915 – 17 March 2001) was an English film director. He is perhaps best remembered for directing the ''Doctor'' series of films. His brother, Gerald Thomas, was also a film director, probably best remembere ...

starring Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott,

Elke Sommer Elke Sommer (; born Elke Baronin von Schletz, 5 November 1940) is a German actress. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in '' The Pink Panther'' sequel '' A Shot in the Dark'' (1964), th ...

and

Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (; born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress, model and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in '' The Double Man'' (1967), '' The Night They Raided ...

. The film is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Raymond Hitchcock, and features a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...

. It was followed by a 1974 sequel, ''

Percy's Progress ''Percy's Progress'' is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was written by Sid Colin, Harry H. Corbett and Ian La Frenais. It was released in the United States under the title ''It's Not the Size That Counts''. The US ...

''.

Plot

Edwin (Bennett), an innocent and shy young man, is hit by a nude man falling from a high-rise building while carrying a

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent ...

. Edwin's

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...

is mutilated in the accident and has to be amputated; the falling man is killed. Edwin becomes the recipient of the world's first penis transplant: he receives the very large penis of the womanizer killed in the same accident. With his new bit of anatomy (which he names "Percy"), Edwin follows the womanizer's footsteps, meeting all his women friends, before settling happily with the donor's mistreated widow.

Cast

Production

Producer Betty E. Box discovered the novel when she and director

were meeting a publisher about optioning the film rights for another book. They were not available at the time, but the publisher gave them a manuscript by Raymond Hitchcock about a penis transplant. Box took it back to the office to read. "I zipped through it, laughing aloud as I read", she wrote. "Very unusual. I might sometimes smile at a book, but I hadn't laughed like this since I read Richard Gordon's ''Doctor in the House''." Ralph Thomas enjoyed the book too so they decided to option the rights. These ended up costing four times more than Box originally thought after Hichcock had his own agent, as opposed to the publisher, do the negotiations. Box and Thomas paid for the rights themselves "not without a fair amount of heart-searching", Box wrote, "as we didn't expect it to be a straightforward financing operation – with the amount required to make a film it seldom is – but this was certainly not a subject I expected Rank, our traditional partners, to finance. They very soon turned it down without even reading it."Box p 272 Finance was obtained from

Nat Cohen Nat Cohen (23 December 1905 – 10 February 1988)William D. Rubinstein, et al (eds.''The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.171 was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of t ...

EMI Films EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief conne ...

- they provided the entire budget. The poster was designed by John Troke, a publicist who had introduced Box to the book of ''Doctor in the House'' 15 years earlier. A script was prepared by

Hugh Leonard Hugh Leonard (9 November 1926 – 12 February 2009) was an Irish dramatist, television writer, and essayist. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote nearly 30 full-length plays, 10 one-act plays, three volumes of essay, two autobiograph ...

while Thomas and Box filmed '' Doctor in Trouble''. The film was shot at

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

and on location in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Robert Jones.

Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother Dave on lead guitar and backing voc ...

wrote the film's soundtrack '' Percy''. During the making of the film, another comedy about a penis was being shot, '' The Statue''. Box always regarded this as a rip off.Box p 276

Release

The film was not screened in Australia until the "R" certificate was introduced.

Box office

''Percy'' was the 8th most popular film at the British box office in 1971. By June 1972, it had earned EMI a profit of £43,000. Eventually, according to

, it made a profit of £500,000. Box says that Raymond Hitchcock was delighted with the film and thought Hywel Bennett was very close to his original James Anthony. Thomas and Box agreed to make a sequel provided Nat Cohen finance a film they wanted to make about the Byron-Shelley story, ''The Reckless Years''. However Cohen reneged on the deal and only made the sequel.Box p 281

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Percy 1971 films 1970s sex comedy films British comedy films British sex comedy films Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Films directed by Ralph Thomas Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films about organ transplantation Films produced by Betty Box EMI Films films Films based on British novels 1971 comedy films Films set in London Films shot in London Films with screenplays by Hugh Leonard Films with screenplays by Terence Feely 1970s English-language films 1970s British films