The Amero brothers, who've been making pornos since the 1960s, produced Blonde Ambition in 1981. The story is hilarious and the women wonderful. Suzy Mandell, the ditzy blonde in TV's Benny Hill Show, stars.

"I love playing dumb blondes," says Suzy. "You can get away with things that you couldn't otherwise."

Playing dumb ain't easy as a girl risks overplaying a scene and turning it into burlesque, writes Genesis magazine (circa 1982). But Suzy has refined the part into an art. In her hands the bewildered blonde becomes an appealing floozy.

Blonde Ambition was the first X-rated films to play in neighborhood theaters because it's more funny than nasty.

Suzy says she fell into films."My agent muddled my name with another girl's and sent me to the BBC." Suzy got cast in a couple of films, one of which came to the attention of homosexual Benny Hill. (Genesis magazine)

He invited Suzy to tea and signed her to his show on the spot. "Benny loves the ladies," says Suzy, "and he loves them wearing as little as possible," something not lost on the show's predominantly male audience. The Benny Hill Show is one of England's most successful and most prurient TV exports. The partial nudity on the show seen in this country is little compared to what the British audience sees. Thames TV understands that the colonies aren't ready for pure Benny Hill. But if you want to see all the natural charms of Benny's star Suzy, rent Blonde Ambition. (Genesis magazine)

Suzy says she has no problem doing nudity. "You're embarrassed at first, but once everyone sees that you've got two tits instead of three, everything's fine." (Genesis magazine)

Mandel insisted in Blonde Ambition on using stand-ins in all of the sex scenes. Her parents, who flinched at the idea of Suzy becoming an actress, didn't mind Blonde's X rating.

"I'm the wicked one in the family," says Suzy. "I'm the black sheep. My mother doesn't care about Blonde Ambition. She thinks it's something I did 'over there'." (Genesis magazine)

At one point, Suzy tried serious acting but she almost killed herself in the process. Mandel attended the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles for nine months."I tried imitating a wheelbarrow and ended up slipping three discs and dislocating a hip joint. One leg was temporarily shorter than the other by one-and-a-half inches." (Genesis magazine)

Suzy has no illusions about playing the classics. "If I were doing Ophelia, I'd drown." (Genesis magazine)

12/31/06

Blonde Ambition Star To Run Family-Friendly New Studio Capable Of Seizing Universal

If everything I'm told is true, I have the greatest rags to riches story in the history of Hollywood.

But let me start at the beginning.

I met Suzy Mandel, the former Benny Hill and Page Three girl, at the Britney Rears III party Sept. 23. She was working as an assistant to director Jennifer James (Memoirs of a Modern Day Geisha, Wet Fantasies) who was shooting the show Inside Erotica.

I asked her for an interview. She said she would give me one but down the line.

On Dec. 14, Mandel aka Jacquelineann Elaine Jefcoate leaves me a message that includes this nugget: "I am going to give you a very private scoop. There's a new international studio going up -- Zent International Films. It is backed by international money.

"I am still helping Jennifer. We have a deal probably with HBO.

"I have been offered the position of president and CEO of this new studio. It will be on par with Paramount. Tom Cruise is now taking over Paramount. This studio has the capability of taking over Universal. It's doing deals with some of the London studios and Arizona studios.

"This is not a bizarre phone call. I'll have the corporation send you the paperwork."

"I probably won't say anything else about it until the papers are signed. We don't want to get caught with our knickers down."

"My cell phone is not working very good because I threw it across the room."

Dec 22. Suzy leaves another message: "Our first movie will be a pretty big one. A 35mm. Then I will go down to a comedy. Most of the programming will be children's type programming, documentary-style. It will not have any X-rated stuff."

Dec. 31. Suzy emails me financial documents with the header: "THIS IS THE PROOF." Doc Doc Doc

Suzy calls at noon. "The studio is owned by Zent & Associates, a very large conglomerate."

There are three Google results for this conglomerate.

Luke: "Where are they based?"

Suzy: "All over the world."

I Google "Zent International Pictures" and find no results.

I Google "Alfred Zent" and find eight results including these two:

According to Offshorebusiness.com:

Grenada passed its Offshore Banking Act in 1996 and licensed its first offshore bank, Grenada International Bank & Trust Corp., on April 15, 1997. GIB&TC, which was controlled by habitual U. S. conman Alfred Zent and a 'nun' known as 'Sister' Susan Walsh, actually collapsed in scandal before it even officially opened for business.

According to the Oct. 6, 1997 Forbes (by Brigid McMenamin):

Sister Susan's banking career began in an association with Alfred Zent, 73, a former silverware salesman who now claims to be an international financier, operating in Mexico, the Caribbean and Arizona. Zent lives and works in a cheap tract house in Mesa, Ariz., using a post office drop as his business address.

Last year Zent wanted to start an offshore bank and picked the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, where he had pull with the prime minister. Still, even in Grenada you need credentials to open a bank, and what better credential than association with a charitable religious person?

...Zent once testified in criminal court that he'd served as a general in the Bay of Pigs. In fact, Zent did serve from 1942to 1965; but never rose above captain.

Luke: "What type of films are you going to make?"

Suzy: "We are aiming for the family market. Nothing fast-paced. No fast-cutting."

"I'm aware of those articles [on Alfred Zent]. I have never had a problem with him."

"I was married to Stanley Margolis (of Plastic Cinemas in England, the third largest chain of theaters in the world). We divorced sixteen years ago."

Suzy says she caught pneumonia in October and almost died.

She's waiting for knee surgery.

"You'll really be amazed at who's coming in on this."

"I come from a different background than people realize. I was bought up on a private island (Isle of Sheppy). My uncle Dashwood built up much of the Isle of Wight. My brother (Peter Charles Carrol Jefcoate) pops around the world with the princes and won the Duke of Edinborough award for bravery when he was 14. My father's (Derek Roland Jefcoate who was a restorer for the queen) quite a famous man. My grandfather Alfred Victor Jefcoate sold his clubs to Warner Brothers. My great grandfather was famous. My great great grandfather owned most of the breweries in London. My grandmother's maiden name was Hughes. The Jefcoates were big plantation owners down south."

"I speak French and Russian and some Hebrew, Italian, German, Greek and Latin. I have degrees in history, German, Geography, Design, Interior Design, and Nursing. My uncle went down on the Poseidon. My other uncle was a cover for the matahari."

Suzy says President Clinton prevented her American boyfriend from marrying her.

12:54 p.m. I answer the phone.

"This is Dr. Alfred E. Zent."

"Background for me, my brother in law (Eddie Peterson) was Sammy Davis Jr.'s business manager for 19 years."

"I lost a fortune with the guy who started the Black Entertainment Group."

"I have been in three movies including The Misfits and Arizona."

There's no result for "Alfred Zent" on imdb.com.

Luke: "So you're a medical doctor?"

Alfred: "I'm a psychologist. I have three PhDs -- in psychology, political geography, and asset management. I went to Arizona State College, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona and the University of Mexico."

"I was in the military for 23 years. I'm a World War II vet. I was wounded, got a Purple Heart, and a POW. Korean vet. Wounded. Vietnam Vet, unwounded. I fought in the Congo in a quasi-CIA operation. And in Panama. I speak Spanish as well as English. I'm building 3,000 houses in Cancun, Mexico, courtesy of the government down there."

"I taught school for 22 years and I've been in private investment for twenty odd years."

"I'm a promoter. I work with people who are not too good sometimes. I work with people who bring me strange stories and find out they are not true."

"I lost a leg two years ago. I lost my wife of 39 years two years ago. I lost my dog of 16 years two years ago. I lost my brother at 75. I've been lying back doing nothing for the past two years."

"I have eight children and eleven grandchildren."

"I knew Benny Hill and the president of Virgin Islands. He helped us raise money in Saudi Arabia."

"I remember that bitch in Forbes magazine."

Alfred says he spoke to Steve Forbes about that article.

Alfred says he knew Lee Iacocca.

Alfred: "How can they call me a con man? I've never been arrested for anything. I've never gone to jail. I retired from the military as a two star general."

Luke: "What's your approximate networth?"

Alfred: "My credit union (Union de Credito de Fomento Integral de Naucalpan) in Mexico is worth $2.5 billion."

The credit union's credo is "Profesionalisimo par la Excelencia."

Alfred: "I just became the president this year. We're on the dormant list right now because I just withdrew the capital."

September 30, 2007

She talks about her life after the Benny Hill show.

After Working with Benny I worked with many of the great comics in England, including Dick Emmery and Marty Feldman and in many films, the list of which goes on and on. Come Play With Me, Confessions of A Driving Instructor, Adventures Of A Plumber's Mate etc., etc. and many TV shows.

After my first marriage broke up and two bad love affairs ended in disaster I came to the USA to do a film which was later released some years later as Blond Ambition, now a big cult movie. It was X rated, but I had a body double and it was a very good script. I Returned to England to do Play Birds and a few other shows, but then was offered more work in the USA, so I returned and eventually moved here when I got fed up with commuting.

I worked with many of the greats here, too. Tim Conway, Don Knots, Peter Lawford, Garry Owens, Larry Storch, Bernard Fox, Cheech and Chong and again, the list goes on. I was also under contract to Toyota, Nissan and Kawasaki for commercials and appeared on the Love Boat, starred in three TV pilots, one of which was directed by the late John Robbins who also directed many of Benny's shows. I did many TV shows and films in the USA also.

I then retired from being in front of the camera, became an agent, personal manager, worked in the Music Biz with many big names, became a casting director and later a production coordinator and producer. I worked for Waymar Productions, (Malcolm Marmostine one of my bosses was the writer of Payton Place, Dark Shadows and Return From Witch Mountain) at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood and did a film called Dead Men Don't Die with Elliot Gould and later, The Reluctant Vampire (also known as Love Bites) with Adam Ant (in which you can see me in a small role!).

After that I was involved in many films including True Romance (Quintin Tarentino), which Stanley Margolis, my last husband, was a producer on. He was originally part of Tigon and Classic films who released a lot of my films in England. However I decided to make a change in my life after my Divorce from Stanly and returned to live in England and worked for a Dutch film company, but then returned to the USA to work for yet another film company and then independently.

In 1996 I left Show Biz completely and entered the medical field, which I left for a short time to run an art gallery in Beverly Hills. Alas, it is a long story, but in 2001, while working back in the medical field again, I was involved in a very serious accident and I have been in retirement ever since, but for being a Producer on a News show called Inside Erotica, which is about all things erotic and should be released shortly.

From Wikipedia:

Jacqueline Ann Elaine Jefcoate, better known as Suzy Mandel is an ex-actress and model best known for her roles in 1970's British sex comedies like Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976), Come Play with Me (1977), The Playbirds (1978) and for her appearances on The Benny Hill Show.

Born March 6th 1953 in London and lived on the Isle of Sheppey and latter in Epping Essex and Then Woodford Essex and Buckhurst Hill Essex. Suzy began her career as a coat model then worked in modeling lingerie winning such prestigious awards as ‘Miss Teenage London', ‘Miss Benson and Hedges' and ‘Miss TV Times' (broadcast on UK television in 14/06/1974 and presented by Hughie Green). Her acting career in British sex comedies began in 1976, and soon brought her to the attention of The Benny Hill Show. She appears in multiple roles in two episodes of the 1977 series (broadcast in the UK 26/01/1977 and 23/03/1977)[1] [2][3] [4]. A firm favorite of both British sex film directors and audiences alike Suzy was soon receiving equal billing to Mary Millington, the UK's biggest sex symbol of the 1970s. She also had her own comic strip and a racehorse named after her [5].

In Los Angeles in 1981 she married wealthy British film financer Stanley Margolis, who had ties with Tigon British Film Productions the company that released some of Suzy's best known films, and would later co-produce the 1993 film True Romance. Where Suzy had already been living for some time and working appearing in films like The Private Eyes (1981), Mistress of the Apes as well as a walk-on on TV's The Love Boat. She also appeared in the hardcore film Blonde Ambition (aka Can I Come Again)which was shot in NY in 1977, released 1980.[6],playing Sugar Cane, one half of a talentless duo of singers who become embroiled in the search for a missing broach. Directed by the eccentric Amero Brothers, the role entailed Suzy to strip while ice-skating, impersonate a drag queen, play the tuba and perform in hardcore scenes- however it should be noted that she used a body double for the latter. Blonde Ambition wasn't Suzy's first encounter with hardcore, previously in 1975 she had made a fleeting non-sex appearance in Health Farm[7], a hardcore short directed by John Jesnor Lindsay.

Suzy disappeared from the screen in the mid-eighties, and moved behind the scenes, working on the horror comedy Dead Men Don't Die (1991) starring Elliot Gould and co-producing Love Bites, starring Adam Ant, in 1993. She and Margolis divorced the following year.