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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 426386" data-attributes="member: 23">The Knack... And How To Get It (1965) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-fb03oGpKYHE%2FVKHr5P9k6UI%2FAAAAAAAAFBk%2FDBv2cMcVf5c%2Fs1600%2F936full-the-knack...-and-how-to-get-it-poster.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=acc7cc699de679ca095d356bdfba3c651c6a62dff3ba9b7c90f3be8bcd2fb08b" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> One of those films that I've always known only by its (fairly self explanatory) name. Beyond that I've never explored, though I'm sure over the years I'll have seen its name associated with certain actors. Seeing Richard Lester's name in the credits gave me mixed feelings. I know his Sixties vehicles include those Beatles films but - never having seen those - my mind instantly goes to him ruining the tone of the Superman film series with an overload of quick and "comedy".  Still, I made peace with continuing by telling myself this film was billed as an actual comedy anyway. Given the director, the time in which it was made and the cast, I was expecting it to be zany and a little weird in a Swinging Sixties kind of way, and it certainly was that. This is not a film I could sit down and watch most of the time. I feel I would have to specifically want a hit of Sixties surrealism. It feels very experimental in tone, from fourth wall breaking  to a character who paints everything white (including the window panes in a room he's already treated) to a scene in which Michael Crawford's character gets stuck in a loop of repeatedly running down a flight of stairs and closing a door whilst repeating the same phrase. Speaking of repeating words, there's that prolonged sequence in which Rita Tushingham's character - having been on the receiving end of Ray Brooks's sexual advances - has fainted and comes round apparently convinced she's been raped. For the next five to ten minutes, the only word she utters is "rape", and each time she does so it's in a different tone or volume. She shouts it, stammers it, whispers it and even sings it. She disturbs people in the street to say it and knocks on doors to say it ("not today", says the old woman who answers). It's played mostly for laughs, which is telling of the wide gap between 1960s and 2020s sensibilities. At the same time, it arguably foreshadows the 21st Century with Swinging London representing the freedoms of social media and with her character wanting to fit into sub-movements that are part of this new world, even if she does so inauthentically. At times it seems she doesn't actually believe her own claims, but is getting back at the men (plural, since her accusations shift from one to another) with a false allegation. After one cry draws a particularly large number of people's horrified attention, she throws a victorious look at the men she's accused and contorts her features up into a kind of "nyaah nyaah" face. Where things diverge is that in Sixties Britain, the men (and, apparently the writers) decide that her accusations are driven by a fantasy for which the cure is a good seeing to. A definite sign of the times. There is a darkness to the characters' behaviour which is acknowledged. Brooks's lothario swooping in and "dominating" women with his seduction techniques is watched with some horror by his housemates, and his actions seem all the seedier because of the wide-eyed innocence of both Crawford and Tushingham's characters. In a way, Brooks is playing the pantomime villain, with the viewer rooting for the two innocents to find their happy ending. Above all else, this is a nice little time capsule of Sixties London. The streetscapes - the cars, clothes and telephone boxes - look charming, quaint and inviting. As for the cast: Rita Tushingham is at her most winsome. Ray Brooks is really interesting casting for the roué character. He's not classically handsome, nor does he radiate blinding amounts of sexual energy. But there's just something about him that makes me believe it all. I've met men like him who objectively are rather ordinary but just have The Knack and are never short of a sexual partner or two. Meanwhile  Michael Crawford is already demonstrating the physicality for which he would go on to be renowned. He can be seen doing stunt after stunt here, from jumping off moving buses to falling down stairs. At one point, when he is pursuing Tushingham's character who has been whisked off on a motorbike by Brooks, the bike whizzes down an alley (or gully/ginnel/snicket/tenfoot). They whizz under the camera, then the camera pans up to show they have just gone under Crawford, who is wedged between the wall either side by his feet and shoulders, casually lying out and smoking a cigarette as though he is on a chaise longue rather than suspended in mid-air. It's a very memorable shot. <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.themoviedb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2F6hlXouRkmVONCOFPlvBNxkQJHBK.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=d856cb493af02a360dd7649b7d97d7f5e28f2120334a5b5362c82975fe9f00fa" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

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