I have a real nostalgia for the Britain of the 60's and 70's--which is kind of odd since I actually grew up in America during the 1980's (and I usually regard that era with more nausea than nostalgia). But maybe it was the great British Invasion music (Traffic did the soundtrack to this movie) or maybe it was the movies like this.
Technically, this is a movie about a young man (Barry Evans) trying to "lose it". But, frankly, if "losing it" is your only concern, that's just not that damn hard to do even when you're a teenager (try a prostitute, the town skank, etc.). The conundrum this guy has is that "the ones (he) fancies, don't fancy (him), and the ones that fancy (him), (he) doesn't fancy". To me that's much more of a REAL problem than simply trying to "lose it". He gets together with several beautiful girls. But one is just plain dumb, one is too devoted to her church and (especially) her handsome priest, one is a mentally unstable rich girl with an even more unstable rich family, and then there's one played by Vanessa Howard (there's NOTHING wrong with HER), but that doesn't work out either. It's actually left a little ambiguous whether he "loses it" to any of these girls, but regardless he finally finds true love with "Mary" played by Judy Geeson. But even this isn't your usual Hollywood "rom-com" happily-ever-after thing--it manages to be a little more realistic.
I think this movies idealizes British girls a little bit--the women I've met when I was in Britain reminded me a lot more of "Bridget Jones" (the one in the novel, not a slightly overweight Renee Zellweger with a bad British accent)than they did Judy Geeson or Vanessa Howard. Still, this is quite a collection of British beauties here--Geeson, Howard, Diane Keen, Angela Scoular, Adrienne Posta. They're really only missing Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills (who were a little too old) and Susan George, Linda Hayden, and Jenny Agutter (who would have been a little too young). More importantly, they are all good enough actresses to play rather infuriating characters, such that it's actually conceivable why the protagonist might have given up on them. The one weak link here is undoubtedly the male lead Barry Evans, but he isn't bad, and he is certainly much better than he would be in anything he did after this. The visual psychedelic 60's style and the sexy but still strangely innocent Swinging London ambiance are also highly enjoyable. Recommended.
Technically, this is a movie about a young man (Barry Evans) trying to "lose it". But, frankly, if "losing it" is your only concern, that's just not that damn hard to do even when you're a teenager (try a prostitute, the town skank, etc.). The conundrum this guy has is that "the ones (he) fancies, don't fancy (him), and the ones that fancy (him), (he) doesn't fancy". To me that's much more of a REAL problem than simply trying to "lose it". He gets together with several beautiful girls. But one is just plain dumb, one is too devoted to her church and (especially) her handsome priest, one is a mentally unstable rich girl with an even more unstable rich family, and then there's one played by Vanessa Howard (there's NOTHING wrong with HER), but that doesn't work out either. It's actually left a little ambiguous whether he "loses it" to any of these girls, but regardless he finally finds true love with "Mary" played by Judy Geeson. But even this isn't your usual Hollywood "rom-com" happily-ever-after thing--it manages to be a little more realistic.
I think this movies idealizes British girls a little bit--the women I've met when I was in Britain reminded me a lot more of "Bridget Jones" (the one in the novel, not a slightly overweight Renee Zellweger with a bad British accent)than they did Judy Geeson or Vanessa Howard. Still, this is quite a collection of British beauties here--Geeson, Howard, Diane Keen, Angela Scoular, Adrienne Posta. They're really only missing Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills (who were a little too old) and Susan George, Linda Hayden, and Jenny Agutter (who would have been a little too young). More importantly, they are all good enough actresses to play rather infuriating characters, such that it's actually conceivable why the protagonist might have given up on them. The one weak link here is undoubtedly the male lead Barry Evans, but he isn't bad, and he is certainly much better than he would be in anything he did after this. The visual psychedelic 60's style and the sexy but still strangely innocent Swinging London ambiance are also highly enjoyable. Recommended.