It's London during the swinging Sixties and it seems to poor Colin (Michael Crawford), a teacher and owner of a boarding house, as if everyone is having sexy fun except for him. He's particularly jealous of his downstairs tenant Tolen (Ray Brooks, below left)—Colin frequently sees dozens of foxy young women, all dressed in white turtlenecks, waiting in line for their snogging sessions with Tolen (though it's not quite clear how much of what we see in this movie is real and how much is imaginative exaggeration, both a strength and weakness of the film). When Colin seeks advice, Tolen tells him protein and good food are essential, but that largely it's intuition, a "knack" that any man can develop. Tolen's friend Rory, also a womanizer (the two men are hosting a reunion of their ex-girl friends at the Royal Albert Hall) is supposed to move in with Tolen, but he never shows up, so an artist named Tom (Donal Donnelly), who paints over the color brown with white whenever he sees it, moves in instead, and the three form a somewhat unbalanced friendship. Tolen is the sex expert, Colin is the desperate student, and Tom, who seems not interested in sex at all, becomes largely an observer. Tossed into this tinderbox is Nancy (Rita Tushingham, pictured at right with Crawford), a young woman new in town, looking to stay at the YWCA and start a new life. The rest of the movie follows their zany misadventures together until we learn that having the knack doesn't guarantee happiness, and not having it isn't fatal to romance.
Directed by Richard Lester, this is a very strange bit of 60s filmmaking. Based on a stage play set completely in the boys' flat, this has been opened up like crazy so you can never accuse it of being stagy. For my money, it spends too much time amping up the visual style at the expense of narrative coherence and characterization. On the plus side, the movie never stagnates, filled as it is with jump cuts, jazzy camera moves, and Greek chorus comments from bystanders. Many reviewers comment on the fantasy elements, such as the opening gaggle of women, but it soon becomes very difficult to tell what’s what. Is the Royal Albert Hall girlfriend meeting real? There is visual evidence that it is, but it also seems like it should be fantasy. There are no cues, visual or otherwise, that separate fact from fantasy so every story element becomes fodder for wackiness. People's actions and motivations are unclear; dialogue is rattled off quickly, like the actor is reading the lines off a teleprompter that is running at high speed. There are scenes inspired by silent slapstick (a lamppost falls on the street and a huge bed frame is transported through the crowded streets of London), there is door-slamming farce, and there is an oddly jarring note injected near the end when Nancy faints while off-and-on flirting with Tolen, then accuses him of rape. Some chuckles may be had in an innuendo-filled scene in which Tolen is engaged in woodworking and tells Colin things like, "I like the twist of a good screw," and "I'm bound to ask for a good finish." There is fun to be had in odd offhand scenes, such as the one in which a clerk compliments Tushingham on her looks, then repeats the exact same words to the next customer. I also like the odd moment or two when Tom seems to accuse Tolen of wanting him. It's hard to judge the acting because none of the characters are allowed to come to rounded life, but all the actors are appealing enough, especially Tushingham and Donnelly (whose role is particularly thankless). I liked a "mods and rockers" reference that is a call back to Lester's previous film, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Despite the movie's shiny 60s atmosphere, in the end Colin and Nancy walk down the street together into couplehood, more because the story demands it, not necessarily because we have a sense that they really belong together. Interesting as a period piece mostly. [TCM]
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