Un nuovo insegnante di scuola viene a sapere che il precedente insegnante è stato ucciso dai suoi alunni e teme che lo stesso accadrà a lui.Un nuovo insegnante di scuola viene a sapere che il precedente insegnante è stato ucciso dai suoi alunni e teme che lo stesso accadrà a lui.Un nuovo insegnante di scuola viene a sapere che il precedente insegnante è stato ucciso dai suoi alunni e teme che lo stesso accadrà a lui.
- Regia
- Sceneggiatura
- Star
- Cary Farthingale
- (as Anthony Haygarth)
Recensioni in evidenza
With such references,the miracle is that "Unman,Wittering and Zigo" is a thoroughly original movie,what we usually call a sleeper.Extremely suspenseful,frightening without any special effect,it sustains interest till its last pictures.David Hemmings gives a good performance of this nice teacher ,literally under his students'thumb.What is really fascinating is the way they subdue him,the very polite way they speak;the story is implausible,but its implacable logic makes our blood run cold."We have killed your predecessor" they say to a first bemused teacher "It's a perfect crime".Hemmings 's character is completely lonely in his chic school where nobody wants to believe him ,not even his wife."We took you in hand" his students keep on repeating him.
SPOILERS:Once again,the punching bag subject comes to the fore;it makes sense that such a character should be the instigator of the crime .Being an outcast is ,to some,unbearable,and out of despair,he'd do anything to become part of the group.But what's bred in the bone comes out in the flesh:during the terrifying scene at the gym,this boy is once again humiliated .Although ,they treated their pal like a dog,they have lost their strange leader and they become children again,crying children in the last sequence.
"Unman ,Wittering and Zigo" is a disturbing movie;to the art teacher who tells him he ultimately solves the mystery,Hemmings answers :"but what can explain their behavior?"And as they carry their dead companion,the students walk hostilely towards the headmaster and his old fossils:the true rebellion has only begun.
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.
This wonderfully sinister, creepy sleeper has languished in obscurity for far too long. Based on a play by Giles Cooper, and directed with style by John Mackenzie ("The Long Good Friday"), it tells a compelling story with a nifty premise. It's easy to get hooked and wonder where it will take you; even though the answer to the burning question facing John is no great surprise, it's still devastating when you think of the reason *why* the murder of Mr. Pelham was proposed in the first place.
"Unman, Wittering and Zigo" (the title refers to the last three names on the roll call, although Zigo is always mysteriously absent) is able to get fairly explicit (there is some sex and nudity, but no real gore) while also not overplaying its hand in the portrayal of these very manipulative, self-serving students.
Well acted by all concerned, and infused with a great rural British atmosphere, this is one film worth checking out for the uninitiated - or re-discovering, if it's been a while since you've seen it.
Eight out of 10.
Lo sapevi?
- QuizDavid Hemmings had clearly forgotten the climax to this film because in his autobiography he describes a totally different ending to the film. (This book is very clearly ghost-written and did not appear until Hemmings had been dead for a year - it seems likely that the actor himself had very little actual input into it).
- Citazioni
[John Ebony's first day teaching. The students are taking turns reading from a history book]
Wittering: [faintly] hypotenuse... hypotenuse... hypotenuse
John Ebony: Who's that muttering?
Wittering: Me, sir.
Lipstrob: He can't help it, sir.
Cuthbun: He says 'hypotenuse' all the time, sir.
Ankerton: He likes the word.
Aggeridge: Mr. Pelham said he was 'hypotenus-ed' by it, sir!
[general laughter]
John Ebony: Stop it! Very well, you've had ample warning. This form will kept in on Saturday afternoon from 2:30.
Cloistermouth: It's not a good idea, sir.
John Ebony: Why is that, Cloistermouth?
Cloistermouth: Mr. Pelham tried it once, sir.
Terhew: The week before last.
Cloistermouth: And that's why we killed him, sir.
[long silence]
- Curiosità sui creditiIn the closing credits, when the names of actors playing the schoolboys appear they are listed in alphabetical order according to the character's surname. This is so as to resemble the class's register. The character of 'Zigo' appears at the very end but as he never appears in the film, instead of an actor being credited, it merely says "Zigo....Absent".
- ConnessioniReferenced in F (2010)
- Colonne sonoreAngel Voices Ever Singing
(uncredited)
Music by Edwin Monk
Words by Francis Pott
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