Michael Winner's first "proper" movie I guess - it's an odd combination of angry young man slice of life drama and Strangers on a Train. Alfred Lynch is the disaffected man, who constantly changes jobs, has an off-on relationship with Kathleen Breck. Winner wanted Sean Connery for this part, and Oliver Reed, either who would've been better than Lynch who isn't bad so much as just far too laid back - it's like he's falling asleep in some scenes.
Winner also wanted Julie Christie over Breck - I've got to say I like Breck she's lively. Eric Portman is in it as the man who proposes murder. Diana Dors is a girl who knows Portman and Lynch.
Others in the cast include names like Kathleen Harrison, Finlay Currie and Australia's Gerry Duggan, Marie Ney and Peter Reynolds. David Hemmings, who would be in Winner's The System, had a small role. Francisca Annis pops up.
It's interesting to contrast this with The System. It doesn't have that film's energy. I don't mind the melodrama of the murder plot but it's too little - it feels awkwardly shoehorned in. It's like Lynch and Breck are in one movie than Portman strolls in from another movie, a 1940s Gainsborough thriller or something. Oliver Reed would have been much much better than Lynch - he would have had the dynamism and murderous intent to make the role sing.
Still it's interesting. There's glimpses of Notting Hill at the time - Lynch walks past a nationalist rally, he goes to coffee bars, ec.
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