The Knack…And How To Get It

1965's THE KNACK.....AND HOW TO GET IT is of that genre of the male lothario offering the uncertain wallflower advice on attracting the fairer sex.  Not necessarily keeping them around, mind you.  In fact, Tolen (Ray Brooks) prides himself on spending no more than say, ten minutes with the average conquest.  When someone challenges him to a four minute session, he's not necessarily dismissive.   Tolen's friend and flat mate Colin (Michael Crawford) is a shy schoolteacher who is in awe and bafflement as to how the former is so good at his hobby.   Tolen rides a cool motorbike and plays the drums, yes.  But surely there must be a confidence there?  An intuition? Born ability?

Tolen advises Colin to eat more protein.  But more tellingly, he boldly states that women want to be dominated.  This will play significantly into the film's third act.

By then, we've gotten to know Nancy (Rita Tushingham), a young out of towner who wanders London streets looking for the YWCA.   When she sees Colin and Tom (Donal Donnelly), another flat mate, buying a cast iron bed that has to be pushed back home, she makes new friends.  Hmmm, a potential mate for Colin? But then Nancy meets seduction master Tolen at the flat.  He demonstrates his skills.  How will she react?

Director Richard Lester's film does not follow the expected blueprint. It gets awfully silly at times.  As always, he's far more interested in staging deft slapstick, some of it similar to The Goon Show and even Benny Hill.  Sped up and reversed film are used frequently, as are some puns, onscreen titles, and wacky chases.  Sometimes THE KNACK...plays like the cinematic equivalent of a 10cc song. We also hear the (sometimes overlapping) disapproving thoughts of older townspeople throughout the movie, a sort of Greek chorus.  The male ego gets a steady deflation as the film trods along.  I enjoyed the scene between Nancy and the dress salesman, for one.

The last part of the film is somewhat surprising and a bit devastating, as the theme of rape is explored.  Humour is maintained, and will be difficult for many latter day viewers to stomach.  The subject was treated far more lightly in earlier days.  But Charles Wood's script takes this idea and turns it inside out, then re-examines what it really entails.  Consent, anyone? Nancy turns the tables quite satisfyingly. Colin's final evolution was looked upon quite unfavorably by many critics, though maybe what they thought they were seeing is certainly subject to debate.