The Wild and the Willing

Knighthood-seeking university professor "Chown" (Paul Rogers) is married to "Virginia" (Virgina Maskell) who has a penchant, after the tiniest bit of persuasion, for his student "Brown" (Ian McShane). He is quite a compelling character who lives life on the edge and makes friends easily. When things come to a bit of an head, "Brown" and his friend "Phil" (John Hurt) decide that they are going to fly their rag flag from the top of the tower of the school - but might that be one risky venture too far for this man? I suppose it is trying to show us a clash of cultures and classes, but the undercooked writing is just too pedestrian and the acting doesn't ever allow the thing to catch fire. That's a problem with a film where lust, envy and forbidden romance is crucial to the characters' development, and though Rogers proves a safe enough pair of hands, the others only present us with something that could just as readily have been produced by the students the cast are trying to represent. It's perhaps not fair to be too critical, we have moved on considerably from the racist and ageist toxicity depicted here from 1962, but McShane, Hurt and a few other familiar faces just can't imbue this with any sense of reality. It scratches the surface of so many topics, but that's about the disappointing height of it.

This is the sort of movie that should be so bad it is good. It is just bad, period. Notable only for being the debuts of some good actors who do the best they can with unintentionally parodic material. But the pacing is so slow and the characters so uninteresting my only reaction was to sit watching, stupefied, as it just went on and on.

This 'angry young man' film was brilliantly parodied by Harry Enfield in NORBERT SMITH: A LIFE which I dearly wish I had watched instead.

Ian McShane (in his screen debut) is a brilliant student who makes friends easily among his peers, but has no respect for the university. He makes passes at his master's wife, indulges in pranks, and thoroughly resents the hidebound attitudes of the class-ridden institution. But is it their snobbery or his?

Producer Betty Box has gifted director Ralph Thomas with an astonishing troupe of young performers, including John Hurt (also in his big-screen debut), Jeremy Brett, and Samantha Eggar. Thomas has responded by offering a very workmanlike screen adaptation of Laurence Dobie & Robert Sloman's play, opened up nicely, with Lincoln standing in for the fictional academic town. Thomas' typically middle-brow work doesn't offer much in the way of surprising revelation, save that the lower classes must pull up their socks as well and the upper set. Still, the performances are melancholic, Lincoln is very photogenic, and the story of a man who grows up a little too late is a good one.

Ian McShane's debut film has him playing a scholarship university student, Harry Brown, who has a high opinion of himself and comes unstuck by taking too many risks.

As a plot, The Wild and the Willing is dated and a bit forced, but the interest these days is in the cast - top billed are Paul Rogers and the ill-fated Virginia Maskell, but we also have McShane (best known these days for Lovejoy and Deadwood), John Hurt (here not really displaying the qualities he would in The English Civil Servant, The Elephant Man, and 1984), Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street's Mike Baldwin), and Jeremy Brett (probably the screen's best Sherlock Holmes).

So the film is watchable and has interest because of its cast, but it isn't really a classic. If you like the usual story of shenanigans at university with a macabre twist, then you'll probably like this. If not, just enjoy some youthful performances from actors you'll know much better from their later work.

Christmas Day 2016 was the first time I saw this film despite my 70 years of age.Was this because British TV networks did not consider this film had enough popular appeal?I enjoyed seeing a young Ian McShane(Lovejoy), Samantha Eggar, John Hurt. Johnny Briggs, (Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street), Jeremy Brett, David Sumner the latter of whom I had not seen since he played Patrick Sullavan in the mid sixties long running t.v.series "The Sullavan Brothers".As to the plot of university students who never seem to do any study but spend their time larking around even finding time to have an affair with a tutor's wife; I found unconvincing.Every undergraduate I have met are kept busy studying their subject, going to tutorials and lectures, writing essays if they are serious using tax payers money, (remember this is 1962 and one could study at University then at the tax payers expense) to fund their study.Even though this was filmed in 1962 which is now 54 years ago, the actors still looked too old!

The script was variable and I awarded this film 6/10 as above average.