Natalie’s first film, in 1964, was an immediate success, starring, as she did, in the Oscar-winning GORGEOUS IN LOVE (MGM). The film, a delightful sentimental comedy, broke box office records that year, competing with the surprise international hit NIGHT OF CRUSHER (Soviet Kino) and with another debut feature, this time for Crude Laverne, who took the starring role in Paul Goddard’s sexually explicit picture BLUE VEIN FOR ELLEN (Raunch Productions).

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If competition at the box office began a problematic rivalry between Gorgeous and Laverne it was not helped by the press and publicity departments of their respective studios or by persistent rumours of their shared (and unrequited) love for a handsome Russian stage-actor Yuri Gagarin.

1965 saw Natalie Gorgeous make two films – the first a slight romantic comedy titled GORGEOUS KNOWS BEST (MGM) and the second her classic action thriller GORGEOUS IN THE RAIN (FOX). This latter film made a name for Natalie Gorgeous all over the world, establishing her forever in the firmament of international stars. Few people in the developed or developing worlds cannot repeat line for line the final gripping and tempestuous dialogue between Gorgeous and her co-star Paul Trajectory, a dialogue which won the hearts of a whole generation and left Natalie with a catch phrase which would follow her until death: “We’re in a strange land, baby, and going to a worse land . . .”

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The years 64 and 65 were years of long parties, studio dinners, endless photocalls, interviews and romances. They were not however without their difficulties. Catapulted to true stardom after GORGEOUS IN THE RAIN, Natalie experienced many of the problems faced by other beautiful and talented young women in her position. Her stony and brittle love affairs (with producer Sven Hassel, actor Kurt Jaw and the writer Peter Barlow) are as well documented as her increasing reliance on drink and the fringes of prescription medication to cope with the pressures of life at the top.

Her films of the period 1966 – 1969 range from the predictable GORGEOUS WITH A GUN, through the unexpected propaganda effort about women in the coal industry titled GORGEOUS UNDERGROUND to the classic comedy BED TIME FOR GORGEOUS.

Only in this later movie, teamed once again with actor Paul Trajectory and with writer Nicholas Copernicus did Gorgeous live up to the promise of her early performances – breaking hearts all over Christendom with her rendition of the title song.

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While Gorgeous floundered slightly in the mid-to late sixties her rival Crude Laverne scored a series of enormous hits (no pun intended) with movies such as BIG GIRLS DON’T HAVE TO TRY (MGM), CRUDE OIL (Smeltdown) and the classic of wide-screen erotica WIDE OPEN (Lumiere Pictures). Indeed some shots in this last film were reckoned so realistic that audiences in Paris (by all accounts) came running from the cinema in fear and surprise as Laverne approached the camera for the first time.