Word: knacks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...KNACK. The art of seduction looks like group therapy in this mad improvisation based on the off-Broadway stage hit, with Rita Tushingham as the resident virgin in a lively London bachelors...
...KNACK. The off-Broadway comedy hit about a virgin from out of town and three sex-obsessed young men is turned by Director Richard Lester into an energetic field day won by Rita Tushingham...
...Knack originally was a talky, one-act play (by Ann Jellicoe), and in opening it up, Lester set himself a difficult challenge, which he compounded by his non-naturalistic approach. Yet he is strikingly successful. His hallmark is a jumpy, free-association style of editing, and The Knack is made up of very short scenes like blackout sketches and several longer set pieces (such as the already-famous one in which Colin, Tom, and Nancy push, paddle, and ride a Victorian wrought-iron bed through London). To a wild, try-anything-a-couple-of-times sense of humor Lester brings...
Although The Knack gives almost a magical impression of freshness, there is little in it technically that is new. Perhaps Lester's major innovation is his use of a chorus. As Nancy alights from her bus, or Tolen and date roar by on his motorcycle, a succession of middle-aged onlookers mutter about the degeneration of youth. (Sometimes we hear only their voices, as in counterpoint.) The comments abound in unintentional puns, doubles entendres, and misunderstandings...
What makes The Knack fresh, of course, is Lester's verve. It is in fact so much a director's picture that characters tend to take precedence over performances. Yet the acting--by Rita Tushingham as Nancy, Ray Brooks as Tolen, Michael Crawford as Colin, and Donal Donnelly as Tom--is impeccable. And the dialogue, except for a bit of repetitiousness now and then, has the sound of dead-on improvisation. It all adds up to a cool, inventive, very funny film...