Mixing styles from the silent comedy era, his own absurdist TV work with Peter Sellers through tradition-shattering Jean-Luc Godard’s (Breathless) techniques and the British “kitchen sink” cinema of filmmakers like Tony Richardson (Look Back in Anger) and John Schlesinger (Billy Liar), director Richard Lester adapts Ann Jellicoe’s play with screenwriter Charles Wood. Filmed in between Lester’s two Beatles works, A Hard Days Night and Help!, this anarchic saga skewers both the delights and dilemmas of sexual attraction, from lust and love to friendship and misogyny, and what lengths some of the male gender will go in their pursuit of getting laid. Taking cues from the beats, the mods and the rockers and the already germinating seeds of the just-beginning sexual revolution, Lester tracks bashful schoolteacher, Colin (Michael Crawford of How I Won the War), domineering sexist charmer, Tolen (Ray Brooks) and pre-occupied painter, Tom (Donal Donnelly) as they encounter Nancy (Rita Tushingham of A Taste of Honey, Dr. Zhivago), a young woman newly arrived in town who searches in vain for the local YWCA. Hitting upon the bright idea of putting Nancy up at their place, the specter of viewing her as a sex object rears its head, and the trio of flatmates soon find themselves competing for her charms. Jane Birkin, Charlotte Rampling and Jacqueline Bisset, all in early stages of their careers, show up in bit parts. John Barry (who scored everything from Beat Girl to Goldfinger) contributes the swinging music.
“The four performances are exceptionally good. Tushingham’s wide-eyed innocence is just right, and she plays with her familiar charm. Brooks is superbly confident as the glamor boy with the knack, and Crawford and Donal Donnelly both hit the right mixture of eagerness and innocence.” – Variety
“With a camera that whizzes like a slapstick in the hands of an old burlesque clown, so swiftly does it dart around an area and whack the crucial points, he whips through this neo Keystone business, flashing sight gags and throwaway lines so fast that it dazzles those accustomed to having their comedies milked and spelled out.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
Filmmaker Allan Arkush discusses The Knack… and How to Get It for Trailers From Hell.
Ariel Schudson writes about The Knack… and How to Get It on the New Beverly Blog.
Marc Edward Heuck discusses our Richard Lester Film Festival on the New Beverly blog.
Chris D explores Richard Lester’s diverse career on the New Beverly blog.
