On 29 August 2022, courtesy of the UK retro TV channel Talking Pictures, my evening movie watch was the vintage British b/w 'comedy' movie The Knack ...And How To Get It.
Directed by Richard Lester, based upon a play by Ann Jellicoe, and released in 1965 by Lopert Pictures Corporation, The Knack supposedly epitomises the swinging sixties in London, but if so I'm glad that I was too young and too far from London to have encountered it, as it left me entirely cold.
This is because I found this film in turns to be mind-numbingly dull, packed full with exceedingly forced, frenetic, yet generally failed attempts at being zany, and outrageously derogatory to women – especially during the final scenes in which a confused, ultimately mistaken claim of rape by the lead female character elicits nothing but an extended series of unbelievably crass, distasteful wisecracks and jokey retorts from the three male leads and even, incredibly, from the female character herself!
A young Michael Crawford stars as a sexually-inexperienced teacher named Colin (whose house is the focal point of much of this movie's action), behaving for much of the time like an embryonic Frank Spencer (from the later UK sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which first brought Crawford to widespread public attention), alongside an effortlessly cool Ray Brooks as sharply dressed bequiffed mod/rocker hybrid Tolen whose overt prowess with women proves that he unequivocally possesses 'the knack' that his friend Colin so desperately seeks to get.
Also starring is Rita Tushingham who once again plays her stock-in-trade 1960s character (here named Nancy) of a doe-eyed but slightly unhinged ingenue (Nancy being the character falsely claiming rape, with Tolen being her falsely-claimed rapist). In addition, there are cameos by such 60s icons as Jane Birkin, Jacqueline Bisset, and Charlotte Rampling (all making their screen debuts here). And classic American rock band The Knack (of 'My Sharona' fame) is allegedly named after this movie.
The Knack is very surreal at times, particularly when Colin's white-emulsion-obsessed and more than a little insane painter lodger Tom (Donal Donnelly) is around, and espouses social attitudes that will certainly shock today's millennials. In my opinion, the best way of describing this overblown, overrated movie is simply to say that it was very much a film of its time (which presumably explains how it somehow won the Palme d'Or Best Picture award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival!), and leave it at that.
I'd originally planned to purchase The Knack on DVD, but after having now watched it on TV I shan't bother. For despite including some evocative background music from John Barry (to which words were later added, and released as a (non-charting) single by legendary British rocker Johnny de Little – click here to listen to it on YouTube) and a memorable motorbike (a 200cc Ariel Arrow with ape-hanger handlebars) ridden by Tolen, this is definitely not a movie that has the knack of tempting me to watch it ever again, that's for sure.
But I'll leave you to make up your own mind about it, by clicking here to watch an official trailer for The Knack on YouTube.
To view a complete comprehensive listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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