I have, for the past few years, been on a quest to find the definitive and positive cinematic depiction of Swinging London, and I have come to the conclusion that that search is essentially futile. Such a depiction simply does not exist. The best films, cinematically, are, at the very least, ambivalent, if not sharply critical. Of the others, the not so good, 'Otley' makes a fair stab at things, but the 'Swinging London' setting is perhaps coincidental.
On Wednesday, after a day in Cardiff, we made another fruitless attempt. We watched 'Toomorrow', 1970, directed by Val Guest, who called the film 'the first space musical'. Harry Saltzman and pop impresario Don Krishner were the producers. Val Guest wrote the screenplay. The result is simply dreadful. It even fails to have any camp appeal. A fledgling pop-group, the terminally twee 'Toomorrow' (assembled Krisher), are abducted by aliens who need their oomph restored. Apart from a groovy spaceship, the best bits are: an early film performance by Olivia Newton John, and the appearance of Margaret Nolan as the alien 'Johnson'. Hers is quite the best performance, as the film briefly transforms into a 70s sex comedy. Sadly, Olivia Newton John has her wings clipped throughout. And what those two fine actors Roy Dotrice and Roy Marsden are doing in this car crash heaven knows.
The finale 'Toomorrow' was shot in the The Round House, a vast former railway shed in north London. Included in the DVD extras is a 1969 recording of a performance in the Round House by the American theatre troupe 'The Living Theatre'. Dreadful, but of a completely different magnitude.
Toomorrow
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