Hardcore (1977 film)

Hardcore (U.S. title: Fiona) is a 1977 British comedy film directed by James Kenelm Clarke and starring Fiona Richmond, Anthony Steel, Victor Spinetti, Ronald Fraser and Graham Crowden. It depicts a fictionalised account of the life of Richmond as a 1970s sex symbol. It was the first of two movies Anthony Steel made with Richmond.

Cast

 * Fiona Richmond as Fiona
 * Anthony Steel as Robert Charlton
 * Victor Spinetti as Duncan
 * Ronald Fraser as Marty Kenelm-Smedley
 * John Clive as Willi
 * Roland Curram as Edward
 * Graham Crowden as Lord Yardarm
 * Graham Stark as Inspector Flaubert
 * Percy Herbert as Hubert
 * Jeremy Child as Tenniel
 * John Hamill as Daniel
 * Harry H. Corbett as Art
 * Donald Sumpter as Mark
 * Arthur Howard as vicar
 * Joan Benham as Norma Blackhurst
 * Linda Regan as secretary
 * Michael Feast as photographer
 * Neil Cunningham as schoolmaster (Mr Foster)

Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This is yet another unamusing British sex comedy which misuses all the talents involved. Clarke's Exposé [1976], which employed many of the same team, suggested that he might be able to bring some pace and panache to the sexploitation genre. This ill-conceived and unimaginative piece is particularly distressing therefore – a showcase for the talents of Ms. Richmond which seems to render her incapable of projecting any sort of interesting persona. Presumably the similarities between the real and the fictive Fiona were meant to amplify the titillation – a device which might have worked had the film been at all sure of its tone."

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Fiona Richmond, once Britain's number one sex symbol, plays a woman called Fiona in this bizarre sex comedy. Wrapped around the flimsiest of plots (a woman arrives at a friend's villa to find someone taking away the furniture) is a catalogue of sexual adventures, which must have included every fumbling cliché writer/director James Kenelm Clarke had ever come across."