Let's get one thing straight ; for the vast majority of Londoners the so - called "Swinging Sixties" happened to somebody else,somewhere else.A few streets in the West End were a magnet for the rich children of the Chelsea Set who were determined to outdo the excesses of their parents as a perverted form of noblesse oblige.They were prepared to wear any clothes,no matter how outrageous,take any drug,no matter how dangerous,and embrace any music,no matter how pretentious.The more badly they behaved the more they attracted the attention of the opinion makers in the media,and the opinion makers looked upon their works and decided that they were a "Good Thing".Thus was born the myth of Swinging London;in truth an area of a few hundred square yards near "Liberty" where mummy did her shopping. Anne Jellicoe's play "The Knack" was adapted by Dick Lester,the Boswell of Swinging London.Mr Ray Brooks plays Tolen,a young man who has a way with the ladies.Mr Michael Crawford plays his chum who wishes to emulate him. Miss Rita Tushingham plays a young girl who falls under Tolen's spell. Set in a distinctly unswinging Victorian Terrace "The Knack" is an outstanding example of overblown self-indulgence.Not one of the leading characters is sympathetic,the dialogue is shockingly bad,the gags Goon Show rejects.Everyone involved seems to think they're in a clever witty movie,but I'm afraid they're labouring under a delusion.They are in fact involved in a clever - clever movie. I found the "comic" voice -overs and sub-titles tedious in the extreme. Endless bleached out shots of girls in mini skirts,Mr Brooks in black leather riding an Ariel Arrow (surely the least swinging motor cycle ever built) and Mr Crawford's tight trousers merely induced boredom. Eventually the whole swinging sixties/swinging London thing faded quietly away. Most ordinary Londoners noticed its departure about as much as they had noticed its arrival.Films like "The Knack" and "Georgy Girl","Blow up" and "Darling" that helped fuel the myth now seem like curios,their true value merely historical. If you're not old enough to know what it was really like in the 1960s "A kind of loving" will give you a much more honest picture. If you want to see what mods vs rockers was really about watch "Quadrophenia". If you want to see blokes dressed like Tolen but not inhabiting a fantasy world watch "The Leather Boys". If you want to be irritated beyond measure by a film full of smug self-regard watch "The Knack".
Review of The Knack... and How to Get It
