Other Titles • The Knack • Der Gewisse Kniff (1965) • The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
Synopses for The Knack (1965)
1.
"Delightfully daffy and hilarious fun!" -Boxoffice
The "knack" of "The Knack" is the talent for seducing women. Based on Ann Jellicoe's stage play, the story centers around one fellow who has it and another who is desperately seeking it.
(18 votes)
2.
Tolen (Ray Brooks) has it. Colin (Michael Crawford) doesn't. "It" is the knack for getting women into bed. After obtaining lessons from the master, Colin buys a bed big enough for his conquests. This leads Colin and his friend Tom (Donal Donnelly) to Nancy (Rita Tushingham), an attractive traveler. The boys vie for her affections, but when she meets Tolen, she faints, overcome by his charm. Nancy awakens thinking she has been raped and points her finger at the hapless Colin.
As films age they are commonly seen as "tame by today's standards." This is not the case with this outrageously loose 1965 portrait of Swinging London. A revolutionary film, this amoral slapstick combined the rapid-fire-gag approach used by director Richard Lester in his previous work with the Beatles (A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, HELP!) with the awareness of technique popularized by the French New Wave. The style of filmmaking perfectly captures the time period and was also highly influential to the film school generation of the late 1960s and early 1970s. John Barry's playful score fusing jazz and pop sets the frenetic pace. Though purely cinematic, the film is based on a popular play by Ann Jellicoe.
(18 votes)
3.
Fresh from the playfully exuberant A Hard Day's Night (1964), director Richard Lester applies the same acrobatic, tongue-in-cheek style to this delightfully frivolous take on swinging London and the sexual revolution. Gawky young Michael Crawford is a meek landlord who vies with his ladies-man lodger Ray Brooks for the attentions of spirited funny-face Rita Tushingham, whom he literally picks up while pushing his new brass bed through the streets of London. Lester floats his sweet nothing of a goofy romance with an offbeat sense of humor, a compendium of sight gags and non sequiturs stirred in with devil-may-care spirit, and a pair of winning leads. Crawford's underdog desperation and endearing naiveté makes for an appealingly nerdish hero, but it's Tushingham's kooky charm and deft comic delivery that steal the film. A lovely score by John Barry balances the energy and invention with a tender romanticism. --Sean Axmaker
(17 votes)
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