Nobody Ordered Love

Preservation status

The British Film Institute considers Nobody Ordered Love a lost film and places it on its 75 Most Wanted list. The BFI holds an annotated shooting script in its collection.

Kevin Lyons of the BFI National Library Filmographic Unit notes that Rank released the film in 1972 and it played at the New Victoria in London, a regular home to low-budget exploitation fare. Ingrid Pitt suggested that Hartford-Davis had a falling out with Rank over lack of promotion, stormed off with the prints, and moved to the States. After his death, Pitt claimed, his widow arranged for his belongings to be disposed of, and the cans of film were among those items thrown out.

Reception

In The Monthly Film Bulletin, David McGillivray wrote that the film 'goes completely off the rails' in attempting to expose film industry corruption. He noted a 'total lack of contrast between film and film-within-film,' making it impossible to detect which actors were supposed to be bad and which weren't. He cited the repeated shot of Ingrid Pitt's stomach being ripped open with a bayonet as an example of the confusion. McGillivray found some observations 'ludicrously accurate,' such as the nude audition and the supporting player who considers himself God's gift to female extras, but considered the majority 'bluntly over-stated' and 'simply ludicrous.'

Did You Know?

• Ingrid Pitt was told when first offered the job that it was 'the modern version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.'
• The film is on the British Film Institute's 75 Most Wanted list of lost films.