The Wild and the Willing.

At the end of the period which became known as the British New Wave 1959 – 1963 the Rank Organisation attempted to enter the genre with its own brand of realism with a movie produced by Betty E Box and directed by Ralph Thomas called The Wild and the Willing (1962), which on viewing turns out to be a very misleading title. It’s neither wild nor willing! The only hint of ‘wild’ is the character of Harry Brown who is from a poor working class background and has won a scholarship to the Kilminster University and thinks of himself as a bit of a rebel. The posh students Harry mixes with, including the desperate self conscious black student Reggie, are ‘willing’ to make complete arses of themselves getting drunk, upsetting the local residents and singing stupid songs. One gets the impression that it’s these types of people that are now helping to run the country, punishing ordinary folk and supporting the rich – you know very well whom I am referring too!

 

Harry Brown and friends.

The story involves the shenanigans of this bunch of obnoxious young academics male and female and their relationships, particularly concentrating on how Brown fits in with both his fellow students and the lecturers. There are two people he seems close too, one being his rather sensitive roommate Phil Corbett, and the other a young female student called Josie Stevens (Samantha Eggar) who thinks Harry is in love with her, that is until she discovers he has entered into a sexual relationship with a women (Virginia Maskell) from a higher social class, the rather sophisticated but promiscuous wife of one of his Professors (Paul Rogers). Obviously the whole thing ends in tears, as you would expect?

 

Harry and the promiscuous upper classes.

The screenplay, by Nicholas Philips and Morecai Richler adapted from The Tinker an unsuccessful West End play by Laurence Dobie and Robert Sloman, attempts, not too successfully in my opinion, to deal with class structure with ridiculous dialogue like “to step over others not as far up the social ladder”, racial prejudice, a one way gay relationship and the treatment of women. The best thing about this film is the stand out performances from two well-known actors who both made their debuts in this movie. The first is Ian McShane complete with a broad Manchester accent and straight from drama school who has the leading role of Harry Brown and the second is John Hurt who plays Phil Corbett. I’m afraid that Thomas’s direction does nothing to further the cause of realism within the British cinema. Made at Pinewood and on location in the City of Lincoln. 

   

The Collector.

Money can’t buy you class, but it can buy you a grand country house half a mile from your nearest neighbour and one with a vaulted gothic cellar, large enough to refurbish as a self contained bed sit to serve as a prison. Freddie Cleg has few friends; his work colleagues at the Bank mock him constantly because of his hobby of collecting and mounting butterflies. One day Freddie discovers that he has won £71000 on the football pools, a substantial amount of money in the 60’s, certainly enough to carry out his most prized fantasy. Our lepidopterist has been stalking Miranda Grey since her days at the local grammar school in Reading were they both lived.  He has now followed her to London were she is at college studying art. Finally at Mount Vernon in Hampstead London he chloroforms Miranda, loading her unconscious body into the back of his Thames van. He drives her to the renovated basement and allows himself to hope that this upper-class art student will fall in love with him.  

Terence Stamp as Freddie Cleg.

The lovely Samantha Egger as Miranda Grey.

The Collector (1965) is a carefully observed study of obsession that turns into a battle of wills between a lonely office worker and a highborn, well-spoken educated young women.  Freddie’s love for Miranda is built on respect for her as a person and not on any kind of physical lust, where as Miranda’s see’s him as a vulgar suburban ignoramus, someone, who in her mind, lacks her appreciation of fine arts and books. Offering her body to Freddie in exchange for her freedom she falls from her ‘pedestal’ in the mind of her mentally disturbed captor. 

Based on the 1963 novel of the same name by the British author John Fowles it was directed by the American based, French born William Wyler famous for such epic films as the 1958’s sprawling western The Big Country and the sand and sandals tale Ben-Hur (1959), seen showing at a local cinema in the film. Terence Stamp, a fine actor, who brilliantly conveys both the dangerous obsessiveness and the boyish naivety of Freddie Cleg, collaborated with some of the sixties most revered filmmakers including Joseph Losey, John Schlesinger, Ken Loach and Pier Paolo Pasolini, he was also offered the title role of Alfie (1966) before Michael Caine made the role his own. Samantha Egger, whose good looks no doubt come from the Dutch side of her family, portrays the well-bred Miranda, a role for which she deservedly won three Best Actress Awards.  Both actors give rivetingly convincing performances in a film that exposes class tensions even in the most dire of circumstances.

The gothic cellar complete with captive.