 | The Cavalier daily Tuesday, October 19, 1971 |  |
CINEMA
Boys Will Be Boys, But ...
By KEN BARRY
There has always been something
about those English social constants
of manly impassivity and inflexible
civility that doubting observers
have found positively fishy. The
doubters suspect that the ideal of
British masculinity ought not to be
something like the Buckingham
Palace guard, the frozen
automation of duty fabled in the
annals of tourism. Perfect discipline
is downright inhuman, hence,
dishonest.
That, I suppose, is a muttering of
philosophy amorphous enough to
engulf Thomas Hobbes, Gothic
fiction, D.H. Lawrence, and Freud
called "Unman, Wittering, and
Zigo." But "Unman" is assuredly
not philosophy. It is a dynamo of
suspense in a class (as its publicity
claims) with the best of Hitchcock.
Yet it springs from an idea, a
penetrating idea, about human
nature; and it pursues the idea
without the clutter of cinematic
gimmickry that trammels even
Hitchcock and certainly his
inferiors. There is something
streamlined about the film: it exudes
the pure, elemental air of Golding's
Lord of the Files-which "Unman,"
in its subject matter and insight,
sharply recalls.
The story begins, suitably
enough, with a funeral. The
deceased is Mr. Pelham, teacher of
Form 5-B at the traditionally
austere Chantry school for boys.
British stiff-upper-lip-ism dictates
that school carries bravely on with
a new instructor named John
Ebony (played by David
Hemmings). Ebony, unlike the
other instructors at the school, has
not resigned himself to failure. On
the contrary, as he tours the school
his first day, Ebony bubbles with
commitment to his new
profession: "I can't wait to begin
teaching." (That's dead giveaway
to Hitchcock fans, who can spot
Ironic Foreshadowing in a breezy
"good morning").
Well, Ebony's Form 5-B turns
out to be something like an-all-star
selection from "Up the Down
Staircase." "To Sir With Love," and
"West Side Story" (the guys from
"Room 222" wouldn't stand a
chance). In short, they're tough.
But unlike the garden variety of
David Hemmings Confronts His Plotting Students
dabbles in anything worse than
arson or larceny), these guys are
murderers! They hefted old Pelham
over the cliff because he wouldn't
knuckle under their "modus
vivendi," as one angel-faced
cutthroat puts it. The kids readily
inform Ebony of their feats and
relay their expectations of the new
teacher, who must be more
accommodating. Simon Raven's
screenplay modulated the ordinary
and the extraordinary beautifully
(We killed him, Sir....the perfect
crime, Sir.). And under John
Mackenzie's direction music and
photography blended into a lyrical
webbing that held dialogue and
story in an evocative suspension.
"Unman, Wittering and Zigo," is a
finely wrought mystery and a
high-caliber film: I strongly
recommend it.
(Now at the Paramount)
| The Cavalier daily Tuesday, October 19, 1971 | |