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The Knack And How To Get It (1965) Certificate 15

The Knack And How To Get It

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Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(55%)
 
Starring: Rita Tushingham | Ray Brooks | Michael Crawford | Donal Donnelly
Director: Richard Lester
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 85 mins
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Released: August 02, 2004

Tolen (Ray Brooks) has it. Colin (Michael Crawford) doesn't. "It" is the knack for getting women into bed. After obtaining lessons from the master, Colin buys a bed big enough for his conquests. This leads Colin and his friend Tom (Donal Donnelly) to Nancy (Rita Tushingham), an attractive innocent country girl. The boys vie for her affections, but when she meets Tolen, she faints, overcome by his charm. Nancy awakens thinking she has been raped and points her finger at the hapless Colin.
As films age they are commonly seen as "tame by today's standards." This is not the case with this outrageously loose 1965 portrait of Swinging London. A revolutionary film, this amoral slapstick combined the rapid-fire-gag approach used by director Richard Lester in his previous work with the Beatles (A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, HELP!) with the awareness of technique popularized by the French New Wave. The style of filmmaking perfectly captures the time period and was also highly influential to the film school generation of the late 1960s and early 1970s. John Barry's playful score fusing jazz and pop sets the frenetic pace. Though purely cinematic, the film is based on a popular play by Ann Jellicoe.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Radio Times

Wedged between his two Beatles films, this Palme d'Or-winning comedy is an energetic example of Richard Lester's fascination with the more manic methods of the French New Wave. In opening out Ann Jellicoe's stage play, he makes dizzying use of swinging London, as timid teacher Michael Crawford wheels home the brass bed that his womanising tenant Ray Brooks has assured him will transform his romantic fortunes. Although perfectly in tune with its time, the film is now hard to watch without wincing at the incessant stream of sexist witticisms and the painfully eager performances of Crawford and Brooks.

Highest rated reviews

7 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Times Past

A Customer from Surbiton, England, 14th January, 2005

LONDON 1965. Ray Brooks has the 'Knack', and a queue of identically clad girls running from outside his bedroom door, down the stairs and out into the street, waiting for a turn. Ray's mate, a very young Michael Crawford, doesn't, and hopes to pick up a few tips from Ray. However, as Michael behaves so daft, it is clear that no girl will come within a mile of him. This much becomes clear in the first 5 minutes. After that, what happens to the plot, the acting, or anything else, doesn't really matter. Just as it doesn't really matter wether you watch to the end of the film or not. What this film is about is a full on display of London in the Swinging 60's. In all its hedonistic daftness. Don't look for any sense. Viewers who lived through this period, will watch this with cringeing embarrassment and mounting horror. Those who didn't, should take it as a slice of Social History, even though you will end up wondering just what Planet they were all on. 3 stars for historical value.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Male chauvinist fantasy?

Leon Collins from London, 18th January, 2006

Richard Lester directed The Knack soon after A Hard Day's Night using similar surreal visual gags in the style of the French New Wave. Although Ray Brooks (Tolan)and the queue of women to the door of his bedsit make the film at times seem like a male chauvinist fantasy it is the shy schoolteacher (Michael Crawford) and innocent country girl (Rita Tushingham)who ultimately deflate his ego. The comic sub-plot of a (non-existant) rape may seem politically incorrect but there is a moral point to it. An influential film of its time.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Way Out Man!

Tony G from Torquay, 19th November, 2005

Did we really think this film was 'fab' when it first came out. I am afraid we did and we were so 'cool.' It is only worth watching to see London in the Sixties and to see where they got the idea for 'Some Mothers Do Have Them.'

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Dated

Wobblo from , 29th September, 2005

Dated, but Tushingham exudes talent with every line. Ray Brooks is slightly wooden. Overall a great period piece from the 60s.

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Most recent reviews

Rated 3.0 stars
THE KNACK

A Customer from Lydney, 3rd February, 2009

I'M NO EXPERT ON THESE THINGS, BUT THIS IS WHAT I THINK. AS A STORY LINE I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIT ON THE WEAK SIDE , AS OTHERS HAVE SAID A SOUNDTRACK BY SOME 60s GROUP WOULD HAVE MADE THIS FILM MUCH BETTER. ON THE PLUS SIDE IF YOU WANT A TASTE OF LONDON IN THE 60s THEN THIS IS WELL WORTH A LOOK, IN FACT THIS IS WHY I WANTED THIS FILM AND WAS NOT DISSAPOINTED.

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Rated 3.0 stars
THE KNACK

RANK from from LONG PRESTON, 14th July, 2008

Didn't quite hold up to my fond memories of this movie (last seen in the late sixties!) Acting was great, Rita Tushingham as always worth watching, but dated script and direction.Oh - good John Barry score as well!

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Rated 2.0 stars
over rated

ppostle from from Kingston upon Thames, 5th March, 2008

Michael Crawford doing a pre Frank Spencer ' Frank Spencer '. Mix this in with people acting out swinging London / sexist tripe and there you have it. Some good shots of West London, but hardly worth watching the letter box to see if the postman has been. Rita Hushingham is fantastic and probably if you like her then you might be able to sit through the rest of the film.

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Rated 5.0 stars
The Knack

A Customer from Cambridge, 18th November, 2007

I saw this 'The Knack' in New York City when it was first released. I liked it so much that I stayed and watched it straight through a second time. The qualities that I loved them remain constant. Its exquisite timing, perfect cast, great soundtrack and its sharp mix of humour and gravity are as beguiling as ever - and as true.

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