Review of Knack And How To Get It, The

Introduction

This is a no-frills presentation of Richard Lester`s 1965 monochrome ode to Swinging London. Winning the Palme d`Or at Cannes, The Knack is a curiously creepy avante-garde comedy made in the style of the French New Wave. Based on a stage play by Ann Jellicoe, it charts the adventures of timid teacher Colin (Michael Crawford) who wants to learn "the knack" of meeting women from his philandering tenant Tolen (Ray Brooks). Tolen has the knack, and the Brylcreemed hair to prove it. He`s oddly sinister until he opens his gob and then you realise he`s Mr Benn. Which makes him even creepier.

With Donal Donnelly as Colin`s best mate Tom and sixties darling Rita Tushingham as Nancy, the film is an absurdist work (as was most of Lester`s 1960s output). I remember this movie from years ago as being charmingly silly, but watching it this time has genuinely stopped me in my tracks. It`s a bizarre work. I`m particularly troubled by Tushingham`s character`s accusations of rape as a weapon against the men in the story. Maybe I`m reading the picture wrong, but I get a sense of trivialisation of an extremely serious act of assault. Excuse me while I shudder. Ugh.

Video

The monochrome image is presented in non-anamorphic 1.66:1, which will be the original negative aspect ratio. The image could be sharper, particularly the titles which are distinctly soft. The image is contrasty, bright and shot with a frequently highly mobile camera.

Audio

The soundtrack reproduces the original mono in Dolby Digital 2.0

Features

None. There are subtitles.

Conclusion

A strange picture; Richard Lester had a style all of his own, manifested in pictures like A Hard Day`s Night, The Bed Sitting Room and The Knack. Frequently absurdist, he worked with writers like Spike Milligan and John Antrobus. He filled his movies with marvellous British character actors like Roy Kinnear, Michael Hordern, John Bluthal, George Chisholm. A lot of the names you can`t put faces to but you`ll recognise them when you see them.

The Knack (and how to get it) is one of the stand-out movies of the 1960s, a product of the comedy branch of the association of Angry Young Men. Deceptively off-the-wall, distinctly challenging. I think I`ll have to watch it again to get the hang of it.