
The Boy Friend.
This is about the film. For the stage musical, see The Boy Friend (musical).
The Boy Friend is a film based on the stage musical of the same thing.
Cast[]
- Twiggy - Polly Browne
- Christopher Gable - Tony Brockhurst
- Max Adrian - Max Mandeville/Lord Hubert Brockhurst
- Bryan Pringle - Percy Parkhill/Percy Browne
- Moyra Fraser - Moyra Parkhill/Madame Dubonnet
- Barbara Windsor - Rosie/Hortense
- Graham Armitage - Michael
- Sally Bryant - Nancy
- Antonia Ellis - Maisie
- Georgina Hale - Fay
- Caryl Little - Dulcie
- Murray Melvin - Alphonse
- Brian Murphy - Peter
- Tommy Tune - Tommy
Plot[]
The plot exists on three levels.
First there is the frame story where in the south of England in the 1920s a struggling theatrical troupe is performing a musical about romantic intrigues at a finishing school for young women in the south of France. To ongoing backstage dramas and audiences smaller in number than the cast, two extra ingredients arrive: a famous Hollywood film producer turns up to see the show, and Polly, the mousy assistant stage manager, is forced to go on when the leading lady breaks a leg. As Polly struggles to keep her cool while acting opposite the male lead she secretly loves, the rest of the company backstab each other trying to impress the impresario.
Next there is the musical itself. Four of the girls at the school are very forward and acquire boy friends but Polly is shy and has nobody to take her to the carnival masked ball that night. Tony, a messenger boy from a dress shop brings her a costume and the two young people are struck with each other. They meet again in the afternoon and reach an understanding, she pretending she is only a secretary so as not to seem above him. He comes to the ball and, when unmasked, is recognised as a peer's son. So Tony and Polly are both rich and can marry openly.
Thirdly, there are extensive fantasy sequences during which the characters' dreams are enacted in music and dance without words.
Musical numbers[]
- "Perfect Young Ladies" - Hortense and Girls
- "The Boy Friend" - Polly, Hortense, Girls and Boys
- "Any Old Iron" - Polly and Percy
- "Won't You Charleston with Me?" - Tommy, Maisie, Girls and Boys
- "Fancy Forgetting" - Mme Dubonnet and Percy
- "I Could Be Happy with You" - Tony and Polly
- "You Are My Lucky Star" - Polly
- "Act I Finale: The Boy Friend" - Company
- "Act I Finale: I Could Be Happy with You" - Company
- "Sur Le Plage" - Dulcie, Maisie, Fay, Nancy, Tommy, Alphonse, Peter, Michael, and Hortense
- "A Room in Bloomsbury" - Tony and Polly
- "It's Nicer in Nice" - Hortense and Girls & Boys
- "The 'You-Don't-Want-to-Play-with-Me-Blues" - Madame Dubonnet, Percy and Girls
- "Safety in Numbers" - Maisie and Boys
- "All I Do is Dream of You" - Polly
- "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love" - Max and Fay
- "Poor Little Pierrette" - Madame DuBonnet, Polly and Girls
- "The Riviera" - Female Chorus
- "Act II Finale: I Could Be Happy with You - Part I" - Tony and Polly
- "Act II Finale: I Could Be Happy with You - Part II" - Polly and Company