The Naked Truth About Harrison Marks

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Endless shots of nude models posed against a variety of garish backgrounds are interspersed with dispiriting scenes in which Harrison Marks judges a beauty contest, works on some glum-looking home movies, or acts out a coy farce about the difficulties involved in photographing a cat. The portrayal of Marks himself within the pages of the early Kamera issues now seems rather self-consciously serious and respectable, with Marks coming across like a scholarly, professor type who refers to his pictures as “nude studies”, and in his editorials is prone to such goatee-stroking poetic statements as “purely by interpretation of the artist, a model can be made to appear as a Venus, capturing every point in classical beauty of the human form”, all a far cry from the sweary, former music hall act he really was, or the sort of saucy humour he would later wed nudity to in his work. Marks and Stuart also hung out with other local boys, including future double act Mike and Bernie Winters, although Bernie “became something of a hindrance, and we would contrive numerous ways to lose him if he tagged along with us”. Several other characters from Marks’ musical hall past were also cast in the film, which sees two chimney sweeps (Marks and Samuels under heavy theatrical make-up) foil the plans of two comic gangsters, even Pamela Green did a cameo in the film, which required her to be buried under around eight sacks of soot, and blown up along with a piano. Novak had established a name as a nudie model, but the article above describes how she was about to make the leap into A-features with a part in 1967’s big budget Bond spoof Casino Royale.

An even more ancient star, one who was wrapped in bandages, was dusted off for “The Mummy” (1966) in which a randy mummy rises from his tomb to play peeping tom, or should that be peeping mummy to several topless lovelies. There are also “fantasy” scenes in which members of the public imagine what Marks’ life must be like, which also provides a good excuse for Marks to dress up as a playboy, a gangster, Toulouse-Lautrec and a camp film director, whatever the situation though, naked women rarely seem to be far away.that “many prominent film agents and producers are readers of Kamera, and we are proud of the facts that in some cases this magazine has been the instigator on the first steps of discovery. In an even more macabre vein is “Perchance to Scream” (1967) in which Marks model Jane Paul is transported to a medieval torture chamber where Stuart Samuels plays an evil inquisitor who sentences topless women to be whipped and beheaded by a masked executioner. Pam’s friend, the film critic Peter Noble would help them out by getting Marks’ pictures and Green’s writing printed in the variety of publications that Noble wrote for. From there Marks went on to work as a tea boy at a local film studio, eventually graduating to even more menial jobs like a clapper boy.

Still Vivienne demanded to be seen, intrigued by her attitude, Marks finally stumbled bleary eyed out of his office and was immediately taken by her beauty. Marks implied in several interviews over the years that the film was financed by the criminal element. Marks was even gentlemanly enough to roll up his trousers to test the water, before allowing Pam to pose along the edge of the surf. The cover you see above is issue 80, with model Louise Worth, and we have a few interior scans below.

The Naked World of Harrison Marks is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary about adult film director and photographer George Harrison Marks starring Marks, Valentine Dyall, Pamela Green and June Palmer.