Mort d'un prof?

"Unman, Wittering and Zigo" is a thoroughly peculiar and strangely uncanny gem from the early 70's Brit-movie industry; an era where lots of long-lost forgotten movie classics are still waiting to be re- discovered by cult fanatics. The film lacks explicit bloodshed or exciting actions stunts, but it thrives on ominous atmosphere, a solid and complex screenplay and impeccable acting performances. David Hemmings, perhaps the most shamefully underrated actor/director to come out of Great Britain, stars as a young and still ambitious teacher who enrolls in a strictly catholic male boarding school in the remote British countryside. He takes over class Lower 5-B since their previous teacher died in a most unfortunate accident when he fell off a cliff. When trying to bring some order and discipline amongst the rebellious young men and threatening to give them Saturday afternoon detention, one of his pupils suddenly states: "our previous teacher also wanted to that … and that's why we killed him, Sir". From that moment onwards, the students are provide more and accurate proof that they, in fact, did kill their previous teacher and scare Mr. Ebony into believing that the same might overcome him or his lovely wife Sylvia. Obviously no one believes him – not even his wife – and the pupils continue to push further their blackmail and menacing. "Unman, Wittering and Zigo" (the title refers to the last three names on the alphabetic list that Mr. Ebony runs through to see who's present in class) is a slow-brooding chiller with an immense claustrophobic power. By this I mean that director John MacKenzie manages to make it so obvious that nobody in John Ebony's immediate surrounding even suspects the pupils of anything, whereas he finds himself trapped in a isolated situation of fear from which he cannot escape. To everyone else, the pupils of class Lower 5-B are sophisticated and well-mannered young men and only their teacher knows that they're actually deeply disturbed and nihilistic psychopaths. There are a handful of truly powerful and perturbing sequences, including near the end with John's wife trapped in the school's gym, as well as a terrific use of the contemporary British life-styles and the remote setting. Unfortunately, the film also contains a few defaults, like a largely unsatisfying climax and some dead-end plot lines, but overall I would definitely say this is a gem well worth seeking out and treasuring.

I came across this obscure and barely released film by chance,intrigued by it's synopsis. And like it happens with every buried treasure it was a revelation. Director John McKenzie, and cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, skilfully made this film into a close knit mystery with a bit of a disappointing ending which doesn't hurt the overall impression.

David Hammings is a new teacher at a boarding school who gets to teach a class from hell. Not by violence, but by sinister mind games,and subtle or not so subtle threats, they creep him into playing their game. What will happen is there to be seen. There is no need to explain why they are so twisted, there can be many reasons, and the boarding school system with it's rigid rules can be one of them, but than again, it may not be.This movie is not on DVD and it probably will never be, but mystery film buffs, if you come across this gem, be sure not to miss it.

Ok, it's not a big picture, but for me it was a once in a five years kind of thing. Air loaded with anxiety without the the ease of deeply understanding the motives or reasons of the characters. These psychological thrillers of 70's and early 80's are all about the feel - the poetical anxiety of not being safe or being able to find reasons for evil behavior. For me this genre is pure gold and nowadays rarely approached. Unman... is a nice find for a friend of this shivering era.

The movie opens with the arrival of a replacement teacher at a British boys' school. Mr. Ebony (David Hemmings) attempts to establish authority by threatening to hold Saturday classes as a punishment for unruly behavior. "It isn't a good idea, sir," young Mr Cloistermouth (Nicholas Hoye) warns him placidly, adding, "Mr. Pelham tried it once, sir. And that's why we killed him, sir."

Did they? They're a creepy bunch. Even the incessantly repeated honorific "sir" begins to feel sinister, though it is never said sarcastically. These boys keep up appearances. So are they capable of murder? It's plausible, and it certainly got this viewer's attention.

As others have noted, the idea resembles "Lord of the Flies," an allegory about human nature, where prepubescent boys degenerate to savagery to survive on an isolated island. But in "Unman," the boys are almost grown, and itching for freedom from the oppressive regimentation at the school. A few leaders emerge, the rest follow, and they coerce Ebony into helping. He complies, in part, because no one in charge believed him when he reported that the boys confessed to throwing Mr Pelham off the nearby cliffs. The Headmaster doesn't even believe him after he produces evidence in the form of Pelham's bloody wallet, which the boys gave him, lest he doubt what they're capable of.

Being neither British nor male, I can't speak to the authenticity of a public school where the coolly composed Headmaster (Douglas Wilmer) has such resolute faith in hidebound methods that he will not even hear dissent. Indeed, when given the bloody wallet, his reaction is to fire Ebony. Like "Lord of the Flies," it could also be considered an allegory, but in the end it feels more like a callow indictment a rigid educational system, minus mature insight.

A forgotten gem, this is one of the earliest films John Mackenzie directed after a few years working in television, before he returned to television in time to shoot some of the finest Play For Todays of the 1970s. And along with The Long Good Friday and Ruby this is Mackenzie finest achievement in the cinema. A stunning thriller, this is an assured, efficient filming of a chilly concept. David Hemmings is excellently vulnerable in the lead, the perfect Hitchcockian hero, believed by nobody apart from the viewer. The class of boys includes a young Michael Kitchen, and there's Tony haygarth as a world weary colleague whose lack of joie de vivre begins to corrupt Hemmings as much as his class do.

The most frightening sequence is the shocking persecution of the wife in the squash courts, a superbly staged scene that is quite a jaw-dropper considering the age of the film. In fact it is more the quaint English setting that adds the real shyock to the scene. It is interesting to compare this film with two other public school movies of the era, inevitably Lindsay Anderson's If....but more significantly the brilliant Walk A Crooked Path

which similarly portrays the public school boys as corrupt, ruthless and cold blooded, brilliantly adept at money making, no matter how immorally, and trained to view the world with a haughty authority.

Unman Wittering And Zigo is a truly gripping thriller, and proves Mackenzie is a great thriller maker as he illustrated in pieces like Dennis Potter's Double Dare and The Long Good Friday even more vividly.