Triplo eco

Glenda Jackson once again proves to be the British equivalent of Bette Davis--in fact, "The Triple Echo" might have been an ideal vehicle for Davis had it been produced two decades earlier. In 1942 Wiltshire, a farm woman mourning the capture of her husband by the Japanese befriends a young soldier passing across her land; after several visits, they become intimate and he decides to go "over the hill," but their affair is complicated by his being cooped up, hiding in the house all day. What's more, she has dressed him in her clothes and begins telling the people in town that her sister is now staying with her. Maddening story begins as jaunty fare, takes a turn into melodrama and ends on a tragic note, with the young soldier now in full drag and fending off the advances of a randy tank sergeant. Jackson retains her stubbornly sensible dignity, even when the plot goes off the rails. She's a decent, forthright, romantic-minded woman, a salt-of-the-earth type who can be mother, big sister and lover at different intervals. As the pushy sergeant who won't take no for an answer, Oliver Reed has a one-note bullying role, and director Michael Apted never steps in to scale him back. ** from ****

The Triple Echo is, for want of a better word, queer. It's hard to see what commercial appeal the film ever had, if indeed if ever had any. It is also hard to see how the production team and the actors ever felt that it could have much merit as art or entertainment. That's not to say that it is a bad film, for it has plenty to recommend it; it just seems necessary to point out that it is a truly odd project to have been considered for the big screen.

The story tells of a widowed woman living on a farm during WWII. A deserting soldier appears on her property seeking shelter; she takes a liking to him (he is, after all, helpful and energetic around the farm) and eventually decides to help him to evade capture by disguising him as her sister. However, a crude army officer from the nearby garrison starts to fancy "her", until he realises that "she" is actually a "he".

The three principle performances are very good, and the English countryside is painted lovingly throughout. The ending contains a genuinely surprising and jolting twist. There's even a brief dash of sex and bad language to give the film a bit of that typical 70s realism (though, obviously, the story is set during the 40s). What damages this film is the fact that it is such a thin and directionless story. This would have made a splendid 60 minute TV drama, but as a feature length theatrical release, there is simply not enough material to keep you intrigued, interested and entertained for an hour and thirty three minutes or so.

An unusual little feature which teams Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed with, making his debut, Brian Deacon.

Deacon plays an AWOL soldier who goes to Jackson for help and ends up posing as her visiting sister, a role he grows to identify with. Reed plays a sneery officer who becomes interested in the the 'sister'. Cue a rather convoluted plot which inevitably ends in tragedy.

Jackson is the best thing in this - a tired, lonely farmer looking for companionship and making tough decisions. But the film is - although fascinating - ultimately unsatisfying and seems to step back from the scenario it took such care to create just as it gets interesting.

THE TRIPLE ECHO is a sedate, slow paced psychological drama with a few characters interacting in a barren and isolated landscape. It's a one-of-a-kind type film that offers up some interesting characterisation and an unusual storyline. The film was directed by Hollywood director Michael Apted (GORILLAS IN THE MIST) as one of the first things he made outside of television.

The unknown-to-me actor Brian Deacon plays a frustrated young soldier who happens by a lonely farmhouse occupied by grieving widow Glenda Jackson. The two embark on an affair, although it transpires that Jackson is a little disturbed by her history. For his part, Deacon's had enough of the army, so he decides to go A.W.O.L., masquerading as Jackson's sister. Their happiness is short-lived when other local soldiers call by and one of them takes a shine to Deacon, mistaking him for a woman.

The cross-dressing aspect of the tale is what makes this unusual. It's hard to believe that the rugged Oliver Reed would genuinely mistake Deacon for a woman, but there you go. The climax has an air of inevitable tragedy to it, so a sense of foreboding seeps over the latter stages of the film. The central performances are subtle and effective, although Reed is something of a scene-stealer as the flamboyant and utterly horrid army sergeant.

In any movie where a man has to dress up like a woman, for whatever reason, there's the one genuine manly male who wants to give that so-called female a test ride wherein the truth will be discovered...

So when it's stocky firebrand Oliver Reed as a World War II era tank sergeant, lusting after a deserted soldier hiding out in widowed Glenda Jackson's rural chicken farm while (romancing her and) posing as his sister, this otherwise searing romantic drama turns into a heated thriller...

That's because Reed (reunited with his WOMEN IN LOVE co-star Jackson yet sharing more scenes opposite fitfully feminine/literal pretty boy Brian Deacon) is like a bomb ready to explode: in more ways than one...

And he's never been so frightening and formidable, also providing Michael Apted's THE TRIPLE ECHO a sense of horror/exploitation in a bizarre curio that, while predictable, you'll have to squirm through till the end.