While making a name for himself with a string of acclaimed and audacious short films but not yet established as the screen's wildest classic music biographer, Ken Russell made his inevitable feature film debut with a little-seen and rarely-mentioned music-heavy comedy sold as a sexy French-inspired farce but far closer in spirit to British music halls. Most viewers thought Russell didn't make a full-length film until his breakthrough Women in Love, but he had already shown off his quirkier side with this film and another in between, the trippy Harry Palmer film Billion Dollar Brain. In French Dressing, you'll already find many of Russell's visual signatures in evidence here along with a flair for the theatrical later found in abundance in The Boy Friend, The Devils, and Salome's Last Dance.

In the frequently rain-swept seaside town of Gormleigh-on-Sea, deck chair wrangler Jim Stephens (Zulu's Booth) spends his considerable free time clowning around with buddy and local entertainment manager Henry (Kinnear) and cheerful aspiring journalist and sort-of girlfriend Judy (Naughton). With the town struggling to get any sort of tourist revenue, Judy publishes Jim's musings about throwing a local film festival with a big sexpot French film star like Bardot -- which prompts the stern mayor (Russell regular Pringle) to demand it be brought to reality. The guys head over to France to find the one comparable star they run into: the very Bardot-esque French bombshell Françoise Fayol (Danger: Diabolik's Mell), who's longing to shake up her career anyway thanks to an irritating publicity stunt. Much frolicking and confusion ensue.

Gently riffing on everything from the French New Wave to British kitchen sink dramas and mod youth films, French Dressing is obviously a minor film but punches well above its weight thanks to Russell's knack for catchy visuals (an early roller rink balloon bit and the beach numbers in particular) with a nice score by Georges Delerue, who returned to do Women in Love, sparkling black-and-white scope photography by Kenneth Higgins (Darling), and typically ingenious costumes by Shirley Russell. The director himself said that the production was a mostly dire experience that he expected to be his feature swan song, but its complete dismissal by the public and critics instead turned it into a fascinating rough draft for editorial choices that Russell would develop in his later work. Booth doesn't get a ton to do with his straight man role, but Kinnear, Naughton (who really lights up the screen and should have had a bigger career), and Pringle are all excellent here. It's also wild to see Mell, a future Euro-cult staple in numerous action films and gialli, being so charming and bubbly here often flanked by symmetrical rows of British guys in sailor outfits.

Pretty much impossible to see for decades even in Russell retrospectives outside of a very poor quality pan-and-scan VHS recording from TV broadcast, French Dressing made its widescreen home video debut in 2015 as a British DVD from Network also featuring the theatrical trailer and a 9-minute image gallery. In 2026, Indicator premiered the film as a U.S. Blu-ray featuring a 4K restoration from StudioCanal that looks much, much more detailed while also correcting a bit of a framing goof on the DVD which exposed extraneous info on the left side (intended for the mag audio track) and knocked the compositions off center in several shots (see below). The LPCM 1.0 English mono track sounds excellent and features new English SDH subtitles that really come in handy in a few spots. The film can also be played with audio of "The BEHP interview with Kenneth Higgins" from 1991 with the cinematographer chatting with Alan Lawson and Sidney Cole about his overall life and career, including fascinating accounts of the visual shifts and techniques around this time with directors like Sidney J. Furie going wild with composition and anamorphic lensing. The quick "Making a Movie" (2m19s) is a Herne Bay Newsreel look at the production with great rare color footage of the director, cast, and camel at work. Also included are short black-and-white interviews on the production with Booth (3m7s) and Kinnear (3m27s) apparently on lunch break talking about their characters and their break into acting, plus an 11m37s intro by Russell himself at a 2008 Herne Bay Festival outdoor screening (in typically colorful form), the theatrical trailer, a 43-image photo and promotional material gallery, and a 61-image script gallery. The first limited edition pressing also comes with a booklet featuring a new essay by Melanie Williams, archival Russell writing on the film, and critical reactions.

Indicator (Blu-ray)

Network (DVD)

Reviewed on September 9, 2026