Get Ollie… Sitting Target (1972)

There was clearly something in the air in the early seventies for British Films, and it wasn’t just budget film makers cashing in, but some of the biggest producers with mainstream stars, Michael Caine’s iconic gangster in Get Carter (1971), Nicol Williamson returning to Liverpool in The Reckoning (1970), and even Richard Burton in Villain (1971). There was clearly a public fascination with the men of violence, to almost quote Peter Walker’s Man of Violence (1969), and the arrest of the Krays together with changes in film censorship meant that sex and hoods and rock n’ roll were splattering screens a lot.

It was only a matter of time before Oliver Reed got caught up in things and he’d had some form as had Ian McShane who was with Burton in Villain, but Ollie was playing nihilistic hard men even as far back as his threatening turn as leader of a wayward, Weymouth biker gang in The Damned (1962). In truth there was always something about Ollie, a feeling of barely suppressed ferocity, menace and a capacity for violence. Now that’s all acting my dears but you wouldn’t really be that surprised if Mr Reed could handle himself.

He starts this film in impressive form, working out in his cramped cell and looking very much like a caged animal. His character Harry Lomart is doing time for armed robbery which resulted in him killing a guard, who, according to Harry, should have just stayed out of the way. He’s a career criminal used to the risks and the rewards of his profession as is his neighbour Birdy Williams (McShane) who was on the ill-fated job with him.

 

Jill St John and Oliver Reed

Today Harry gets a visit from his wife, Pat (Jill St. John who appears to be dubbed by an unknown English actor, which is a shame), who hasn’t seen him since the trial. Harry loves Pat and she is the thing that keeps him going through the long stretches. Something has however changed, and she is tired of waiting, especially now he’s in for a long stretch and wants out, especially as she’s seeing another fella and is pregnant… Harry smashes the reinforced glass between them and tries to throttle her and it takes three guards to pull him away.

He's sent to solitary for weeks bashing himself the walls and swearing revenge… by the time he gets back to his cell he’s ready to break out and so is Birdy. They hatch a plan with wheeler-dealer MacNeil (Freddie Jones, who is always such good value) and, with the aid of a bent screw played by Mike Pratt, they make a daring escape, just about managing to scale the walls in time to drop to their freedom a passing lorry set up by MacNeil.

Ian and Oliver on the run

Birdy wants them to lay low but Harry’s a man in a hurry and after obtaining a gun sets about stalking his wife even though the police, led by Inspector Milton (Edward Woodward), are keeping on her home at the top of a tower block in the Winstanley and York Road Estates, Battersea. Despite all their efforts, Harry catches Pat unawares and, despite the intervention of Milton, who he almost throws over the balcony, he has to flee as the sirens start and, in a surreal sequence, he evades two motorcycle cops dodging among the sheets and the washing.

From this point on it’s a two-way game of cat and mouse with the police after Harry and Harry after Pat, with Birdy’s help, Harry plans to get hold of their hidden ill-gotten gains and to use this to secure his escape but things begin to get complicated with former allies quickly turning into foes as everybody tries to “deal” with Harry…

Dusty verdict: Directed with purpose and intensity by Douglas Hickcox Sitting Target is a very effective thriller which matches some of those hyper-violent crime capers for moral force and a script with more than one twist in its tail. For thos eof you who love period locations it's also a treat and feels very much a part of the London I almost knew... talking of which, Hickcox directed Les bicyclettes de Belsize (1967) which mapped out Hampstead and north west London just as well: he knows how to film location.

Jill St John and Edward Woodward

Of course, you can’t argue with the leading cast members and we even get legend, June Brown as the Lomart's Neighbour. In the end it’s Oliver Reed who carries the film’s most violent and tender moments, it’s quite something to see.

There’s also an excellent score from Stanley Myers which features synths and hard-edged jazz which perfectly captures the fast-moving action and the fierce emotions in a film which for all it’s violence, is as much about relationships and love as anything else. Myers’ score was released by Finders Keepers Records in 2007 and is, of course, now very collectable!

 

Day for Night... The Appointment (1981), BFI Blu-ray, Flipside 44 Out Now!

 

As you will know, BFI Flipside is dedicated to rediscovering works from the margins of British film culture and to enable a re-evaluation of the otherwise over-looked or the under-valued. A quick look at IMDB shows this film with a middling aggregate score but this newly remastered edition – derived from the best available Standard Definition source materials – gives us all a chance to watch it in the best possible quality.

 

It's not just armchair critics who have been ambivalent to the film as it was not only deprived of a full TV release at the time of release it also failed to provide a platform for its director, Lindsey C. Vickers, to make more films. This, as he says now, is very hard to accept let alone credit as The Appointment is a very classy debut with strong performances and a film that builds and sustains a considerable amount of tension and unease. It is also a film that has a clear agenda outside of its genre in that it addresses the relationship between the members of the family involved.

 

In the excellent commentary conducted by Flipside supremo Vic Pratt with the writer/director, Vickers points out that it is the breakdown of the father/daughter connection that is really the issue and this is something well expressed in the drama, something clearly close to his heart.

 

Edward Woodward is clearly your man for this gig, he is so good at expressing forceful masculine certainty with stabs of realisation gradually eating away at his confidence. He’s an alpha male with heart here but a complacent one, caught up in the importance of his routines and discipline. He infantilises his talented daughter Joanne (Samantha Weysom) and finds it hard to relate to her maturing personality, possibly because she’s asking him for more commitment than his schedule – for him and her – allows.

 

Seeing and understanding all of this is mother and wife Dianna played by the wonderful Jane Merrow who Vickers was able to cast during one of her visits to the UK form the US where she was based for a long time. Merrow is another class act – one of the faces of the era – who can emote with such skill and is able to connect the audience with a grounded view of this supernatural drama.

 

The film starts with an enigmatic taster as, some years earlier, two schoolgirls carrying violins walk home from school and when one takes a spooky short cut, the tension mounts until she is violently pulled from the path by unseen force. Vickers plays this down as a commercially required overture but its importance becomes clearer as events play out.

 

We switch to three years later by which time the short cut has been fenced off and the drama is all about more seemingly prosaic matters. Vickers shows real skill in not revealing any clear “evidence” of supernatural issues, playing on our default engagement with the narrative of normality, gradually dropping hints and accelerating the unease like a practiced genre specialist.

 

So it is that Father Ian being called away on urgent business opens a whole uncanny can of worms as it means that he’ll miss Joanne’s big violin performance. He has his reasons but she can’t see it and clearly this means more to her… tempers are frayed but Ian can’t back down.

 

The family goes to bed and counting down the hours to his early start and the long drive through Snowdonia to his meeting, Ian experiences strange and vivid dreams. He’s not alone as Jane shares the same dreams… there’s the drive, a group of vicious dogs and increasing foreboding. It’s a long night and Vickers succeeds in even makes the viewer uncertain of the actuality.

 

The longest night is followed by just another day… or is it?

 

The art of this kind of film is in suspending disbelief but also persuading us the reality is going to take over at some point. Does that relief of normality come? It’s definitely one for you to find out, no spoilers although I will say that there’s one stunning visual event which I won’t reveal but it’s the kind of idea you could easily see forming the heart of the whole story: an horrific and memorable moment that stays with you.

 

But that’s the case for the whole film, a salutary take of the potential for familial estrangement, the consequences of which can be equally devastating with or without dark forces.

 

The film comes with a generous bundle of extras including: 

·         Newly recorded audio commentary by director Lindsey Vickers

·         Vickers on Vickers (2021, 41 mins): the director looks back on his life and career

·         Another Outing (2021, 16 mins): Jane Merrow recalls co-starring in The Appointment

·         Appointments Shared (2022, 7 mins): Lindsey and Jan Vickers remember the making of the ‘haunted film’

·         Framing The Appointment (2022, 19 mins): Lindsey Vickers recalls making the film

·         Remembering The Appointment (2022, 10 mins): assistant director Gregory Dark shares his recollections of the film

·         The Lake (1978, 33 mins): Lindsey Vickers’ eerie short finds young lovers choosing to picnic at a spot haunted by echoes of a violent event

·         Newly recorded audio commentary on The Lake by Lindsey Vickers

·         Splashing Around (2020, 18 mins): actor Julie Peasgood on making The Lake

·         Galleries featuring annotated scripts, storyboards, images and production materials

 

The Lake is also a creepy mini classic which I saw screened at the BFI a couple of years back. More excellent atmospherics and eerie build up from Vickers and, whilst he had a successful career elsewhere in film, it is a real shame he wasn’t able to make more features.

 

It’s a limited edition presented on Blu-ray in Standard Definition (Limited to 4,000 copies) and the first pressing only comes with an excellent Illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by Vic Pratt and contributions from William Fowler, Jon Dear and Lindsey Vickers.

 

So, order as soon as you can, direct from BFI and you won't be disappointed although you may well be shaken and intrigued… it’s an intense ride!