Righting Wrongs: Outlawed (2018)

Outlawed is a 2018 British thriller about a Royal Marine who uses his deadly skills to oppose a corrupt out-of-control politician who killed his friend's father.  It stars Adam Collins who also co-directed it along with Luke Radford.  When the film first came out in 2018 the early-birds made clips of a party scene which was declared to prominently feature Emmeline Kellie who was one of the film's actresses.  The scene begins with a close-up of the camera following a naked woman into a room in which her face is afterwards seen in a continuous shot.  The actress in question did look feasibly like Emmeline Kellie so the given identification didn't seem to be an issue.

However when I actually watched the film recently that identification became problematic when viewed in context.  Emmeline Kellie's character was the girlfriend of the main character Jake O'Neill (Adam Collins) and not a casino hostess/hooker as the woman in the clip turned out to be.  As a result of losing his job and then catching his girlfriend Victoria (Emmeline Kellie) in bed with another man, Jake takes a downward spiral.  He visits a casino and gambles away his severance pay and there he meets the woman in question who takes him off to a private party where the clipped sequence happens.  But if one is following the story, it makes no sense for that woman to be Victoria.  Although in the party scene itself no words were spoken, the woman does have dialogue in the preceding casino scene where she picks Jake up and so it seemed likely she would be credited.  In fact the film credits even non-speaking extras so doubly likely.

Fortunately the end credits are in appearance order so it was easy enough to pinpoint the position where she should sit.  One credit in that area seemed a bit odd - Yasmine Hope Wilmore as "Archibald Assassin" - this seemed possibly to be a crediting error at first because no assassins were seen in that part of the film.  However much later on this same woman appears again and turns out to be on politician Archibald's staff as a would-be killer so the odd credit is ultimately vindicated although perhaps not as clear as it could have been.

Upon checking online for any comparison images of Yasmine Hope Wilmore she turned out to be the woman from the clip.  She actually spells her surname "Willmore" and is a UK model. She has a Facebook page and in a 2017 post she published some fashion model images in which her look is the same as the casino woman.  And to make it beyond doubt she also posted some behind-the-scenes photos of herself while filming the casino scene with Adam Collins.  She calls the film "Heart of Chaos" which was its original title.

Screenshots from Yasmine Willmore's Facebook page:-


So the woman in the party scene is not Emmeline Kellie as widely reported, but Yasmine Willmore.

Here is a cap of the Casino Woman which matches the above behind-the-scenes shots:-


And this is Emmeline Kellie as she appears in the film:-.


So another of those cases where an initially incorrectly made identification has perpetuated.


See these earlier posts for other cases I've reported on:-

Righting Wrongs: Maggie O'Neill 'Friday On My Mind' scene reassigned
https://toplessreview.blogspot.com/2018/06/righting-wrongs-maggie-oneill-friday-on.html

Righting Wrongs: A Clockwork Orange (1971)
https://toplessreview.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/righting-wrongs-clockwork-orange-1971.html

Righting Wrongs: One Day (2011)
https://toplessreview.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/righting-wrongs-one-day-2011.html

Pagan Queen Misidentification
https://toplessreview.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/pagan-queen-misidentification.html

Killing Bono (2011) ID Emendation
https://toplessreview.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/killing-bono-2011-id-emendation.html

The Cleopatras - bonus material

The Cleopatras was an 8-part historical drama set in ancient Egypt concentrating on a line of royals bearing the name of Cleopatra. 

It began on 19th January 1983 and was shown on BBC2.  It has never been repeated or released on video or DVD.  The series can be seen on YouTube however.

Were there ever to be an official DVD release here are a couple of supplementary items that might be extras.

1) Wogan's Guide to the BBC
This was a BBC1 special in which Terry Wogan took a tour of the BBC.
It was broadcast on 29th August 1982 at 21:25.

One feature was about The Cleopatras, which was then in production but not yet broadcast.  It included backstage dressing room footage of some of the handmaidens having their makeup applied.

The red haired actress looks like Sherel Keller from episode 1.



The other I have not been able to spot from the series in any featured or background capacity.

NOTE: Wogan's Guide to the BBC 1982 is on YouTube.



2) BBC Christmas Tape 1982: Flash Frames
Christmas Tapes were unofficial in-house productions prepared by broadcasting engineers for the entertainment of staff.
The 1982 BBC tape included some outtakes from The Cleopatras.  The scene featured was the one where Pauline Moran was being attacked on the floor by King Alexander The Younger from episode 4.  It includes off-camera studio instructions telling the King to expose her breast more (for continuity purposes) and a lot of giggling from her.  None of this camera angle was used in the finished episode.




Pauline Moran from Episode 4 showing that the broadcast version used a different angle.

New Kate O'Mara scene found!

If you thought Kate O'Mara's screen nudity record was set in stone with just two entries you would, like me, have been wrong because it's time to make room for another entry on the list.

This is because a contributor has informed me of the discovery of a previously unknown about scene that appears in a 1978 Finnish film called Tuntematon ystävä which translates to An Unknown Friend.  

The plot (from IMDB): "The cold and ruthless Bruno is married to Karen (Kate O'Mara). Together they seek out poor and defenceless people offering them life insurance policies. Bruno and Karen make sure that it pays off."

Directed by Lars G. Thelestam it is a detective thriller based on the Detective Inspector Susikoski novels by Mauri Sariola.

Here are a selection of screen caps I was sent.

IMDB Title Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078426/reference

Kate O'Mara's other entries are:-

• Whose Child Am I? (aka Feelings) (film 1974)
• Triangle (BBC1 TV Series 1981) [episode 1]

Lead Log: Jessica Benton (UPDATE)

Thanks to a blog reader who has positively resolved this outstanding lead.

In the original post from March 2018, I pieced together some sketchy intimations that 1970s Onedin Line star Jessica Benton may have had scene(s) involving nudity in the 1974 Dutch film De 5 van de 4 daagse (The Five Are Marching In) directed by René van Nie.

The reader who has come across this film has confirmed that it does indeed include a brief moment of toplessness from Jessica Benton whose role in the film is apparently fairly small, appearing in just a handful of scenes.  She speaks in English while all other characters speak Dutch.

I was sent some illustrative screencaps of Jessica Benton which I've compiled into the following collage.

The bottom left image is the one that is the most revealing.

Heads up: Lady Chatterley on the Drama Channel

The Drama Channel is showing Ken Russell's 1993 BBC version of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover starting this weekend.

Titled just Lady Chatterley, it is the version starring Joely Richardson and Sean Bean which was originally screened on BBC1 in four weekly 50-minute instalments starting on 6th June 1993.

The first two parts are on this coming Saturday 29th September 2018 at 9:00pm-10:10pm and 10:10pm-11:25pm with the concluding two parts on the following Saturday.

It is definitely NOT the more recent disappointingly-coy 90-minute single-part BBC1 Jed Mercurio-penned version from 2015 that starred Holliday Grainger and Richard Madden.  A comparison of the two versions is fairly symptomatic of how much more timid the BBC (and UK broadcaster's in general) have become in the intervening years with their self-commissioned productions.

Lady Chatterley (1993)

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015)

LeadLog: The Crimson Petal and the White Deleted Scene

I'm sure readers of this blog will remember well the 4-part BBC2 serial The Crimson Petal and the White from 2011 which surprised us with a number of topless scenes by its star Romola Garai.

One of Romola Garai's scenes

But it transpires that there was another scene filmed with nudity featuring a pair of speaking-part actresses that didn't make it to the televised version but which can be seen on the DVD release in the form of a deleted scene with the title The Twins of Drury Lane.

The scene in question is a much abbreviated interpretation of one that appears in the novel upon which the serial is based.  Early on in the 2002 novel by Michel Faber there is a chapter in which William Rackham (played by Chris O'Dowd in the dramatisation) visits a cheap Drury Lane brothel.  This is in Part 1 of the book entitled: The Streets in which William Rackman is seeking to satisfy certain carnal urges and chooses a house in which the Madame advertises her pair of charges as being twins - but he soon discovers to his disappointment that they are not so related.

Excerpt quote from Page 71 in Chapter Four ...

 

Finally the time arrives for William Rackham to be shown upstairs.  Claire and Alice's room, when he enters it, is small and square ....<snip>.... Claire and Alice, dressed in plain white chemises, are sitting together on the bed, pretty little hands folded in their laps.
"'Ow d'you do, sir,' they welcome him in unison"
But, unison or not, it's obvious they aren't twins.



In the book William is displeased by the deception but makes the most of it and there follows a lengthy sex scene spanning several pages which ends when he requests they do a certain (unspecified to the reader) something that they both refuse to do but suggest he instead try a high-class prostitute from another establishment called Sugar who, it is said, will accommodate any unusual requirements.
The whole scene, in which Claire and Alice have much more dialogue, serves to set William on a course where he will meet Sugar (Romola Garai's character).

None of this featured in the TV adaptation and William meets Sugar by other means.

DVD Cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However on the DVD release there is a deleted scene featuring those "twin" characters which shows that the production went as far as filming a version of the scene, albeit in an abridged form.  In the filmed scene William enters their room where the two young women are sitting on the bed (as in the book).  He immediately spots they look nothing alike and asserts they are not twins to which accusation they raise their chemises to show him their breasts (as if that will somehow convince him otherwise).  He storms out in a fit of pique at having wasted his money and they look at each other perplexed by his reaction.

 

Deleted Scene

They only have one line of jointly spoken dialogue; their names are not mentioned; they do not have a sex scene with him; and they do not point him towards Sugar.  Since it is clearly a version of the scene from the book, which occurs early on, it was probably written to be part of the first episode. But because the scene didn't make the final cut and neither of the characters feature in any other scenes, the actresses involved are not listed in the programme's end credits.  Had the scene appeared in the broadcast episode then presumably they would have been credited.

Although both actresses in the deleted scene are unidentified it proved moderately easy to identify one of them.  The actress sitting on the right of the picture is Karina Cornwell.  This identification was possible because she listed her involvement in the serial on a casting website page which was findable in a search.  It is similarly listed on her Spotlight page which can be reached via the link given on her IMDB page (although the "spotlightcd.com" part is now superseded to just "spotlight.com" for it to now work).  Her CV on these sources indicates the role she played was "Alice" which tallies with the book's character names even though it wasn’t heard being used in the filmed scene.  This is further verified by her profile photos recognisably matching with the "twin" seen on the right of the picture.  And for further avoidance of doubt her acting showreel includes the very sequence under discussion taken from the DVD deleted scene.  This showreel can be found on Vimeo and the scene appears at around the 1 minute mark.

 

(L) Unidentified; and (R) Karina Cornwell

The other actress who was playing (by elimination) "Claire" remains unidentified.  It seems quite possible that she, like her companion, is also a proper actress (as opposed to being a model), but if so there is no indication of an involvement that I've been able to find on any accessible online resource.

 


I would be interested in hearing any ID suggestions for the second actress.
        

Righting Wrongs: Maggie O'Neill 'Friday On My Mind' scene reassigned

A long standing error has been uncovered involving one of Maggie O'Neill's early topless scenes.

In the scene she is in a bath and then gets out to answer a phone in her hallway.  The source of this is widely ascribed to be from the 1992 BBC drama "Friday on My Mind".

However this turns out not to be the case.

My theory is that at some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s someone misidentified, misremembered or even guessed at what some unidentified/unlabelled screen captures/clips came from and this was disseminated as established fact by everyone else who was looking into it later.  And with no ready access to the original programmes there was no particular reason to doubt it - usually things are correct.  I certainly had no reason to question what seemed to be something well established.

However in an ongoing exercise to try and contextually improve descriptions of earlier entries that have been described only from clips, I recently watched Friday On My Mind expecting to see this scene - but it was strangely absent.  I was watching off-air recordings of the original transmissions so it didn't seem likely it had been edited.

Thusly the scene reverted to being a mystery to be solved.  I returned to the (mislabelled) clip I had of it and watched it again for possible clues.  In the scene Maggie O'Neill's character answers her phone which she hurriedly puts down as if was a crank caller.

Checking her credits for other possibilities from the same era I noticed that the 1990 BBC Screen Two drama "He's Asking For Me" concerned her character being bothered by a stalker who keeps calling her.  This had a clear resonance with what occurs in the clip and so seemed worth looking into first before expanding the search if it wasn't.

Fortunately a collector had the episode in question and was able to provide it for viewing - and it turned out to be the one!  Maggie O'Neill's bath scene occurs 30 minutes into it.

It's interesting how a mistake can become so pervasive.  I suppose it has persisted unchallenged because neither programmes have ever been released on DVD.  In fact the errancy is so ingrained that someone on IMDB has even included the keyword "bath" for Friday On My Mind.  And there are no bath scenes in it of any kind.



Additionally there is some further topless nudity from a stripper who does a turn between bouts at a boxing tournament.  She is named "Penelope" by the MC, but has no dialogue and is not credited.




As for Friday on my Mind the only partial nudity seen is a brief moment during a bed scene where she is laying upon Christopher Eccleston's character as they talk.

a scene from Friday on my Mind

More about the programmes

Friday on my Mind is a 3x50-minute BBC1 drama from May 1992 in which Maggie O'Neill plays the wife of an RAF pilot who is killed in a crash on a training flight over Wales while his squadron gears up to take part in the Gulf war.  Traumatised by her loss and emotionally vulnerable she becomes increasingly irrational in her overwhelming grief and starts an affair with one of her husband's pilot colleagues (played by Christopher Eccleston) who has been assigned as her liaison officer to help her through the tragedy.

Maggie O'Neill in Friday on my Mind

An interesting side note: After the end of part 3 there was a bit of after-programme run-on which was retained.  This consisted of a trailer for the drama to be shown the following week which was "Natural Lies" starring Bob Peck.  What is interesting is that back then it seems they were fine about including nudity in the trailers!  Also interesting (which I will have to follow up on) is that the nudity shown in the trailer is not a bit that is seen represented in the generally available clips from Natural Lies.

BBC trailer for Natural Lies

He's Asking For Me is a single-part Screen Two presentation from 1990 lasting 68 minutes.  Maggie O'Neill is a young woman with a tanned complexion who has emigrated from the remote British overseas mid-Atlantic island of St Helena where she has lived all her life up to now.  Coming from a very small close-knit community to the big city of London is a bit of culture shock but fortunately her uncle arranges a place for her to live and some employment with one of his associates.  Her new job is as a secretary in the offices of a starched lawyer called Andy Woodall (played by David Threlfall).  Very soon after settling in she starts receiving obscene phone calls from someone who knows her name but refuses to identify himself.  As the caller becomes more persistent she sets her mind to finding out who he is and engages with him becoming naively reckless as she attempts to arrange a meeting so she can confront him.  Her main suspect is Andy himself whom she quite likes and wouldn't mind greatly if it were him - but could she be wrong?  It was shown on BBC2 on 18/Feb/1990 although the date at the end indicates it was made in 1988.