The younger ones… Two Left Feet (1963)

 

London's teenage jungle blazing vividly to life...

There’s a brightness and energy to this film that goes beyond my reaction to the youthful zest of the stars to be on screen, its mildly-annoyed young man/coming of age storyline is very much of its time – a good thing! - but the performances ultimately bring through the flavour of the characters and convince. The film is based on David Stuart Leslie's novel, originally entitled In My Solitude (1960), which was praised by the Daily Express for describing 'Fings as they are. . . Fresh observation, no self pity, no phony sociology, rough and squalid, yet redeemed often by sardonic Cockney humour. A story as convincing as it is readable'.

There’s little about Stuart Leslie on the internet but he seems to have written some interesting books about London life, notably Two Gentlemen Sharing (1963), a multi-racial flat share story which was also made as a film in 1969, along with thrillers and adventure novels right up to popsploitation fare with titles like Snap, Crackle and Pop and Bad Medicine. His writing style for what became Two Left Feet, is very much in the vernacular, with lines like:

“Me and my two left feet!” I said wiping down inside my shirt almost to my belly button. I saw her eyes following my hand and I said to myself, ‘Watch it girl!’

Julia Foster and Michael Crawford

 

Now you have to imagine an impossibly young Julia Foster as the “girl” in question, Beth a shop worker, and an equally youthful Michael Crawford as Alan Crabbe, labourer by day and improving dancer by night. Foster was 19 and Crawford was 21 just five years on from playing a lad in Soapbox Derby (1958) and half a century before being named as a national treasure, as indeed is Ben Fogle’s mum, Julia!

Directed by stalwart Ray Ward Baker, Two Left Feet kicks off where it means to carry on with some fantastic location shots of our hero emerging from the tube at Piccadilly Circus and giving superb location shots of old Soho as young Alan’s eye is caught by all manner of sexually interesting sites. The credits roll as he gawks at the magazines in a shop window – Click, Honey, Cherie, Revels… walks along Moor Street to Old Compton Street and ending up at the Bijou Cinema where they are screening the “Fabulous Pamela Green” in Naked as Nature Intended – reviewed in all seriousness earlier on this blog!

Alan window shopping

Alan is 19 and inexperienced as a dancer and a lover which is the source of constant ribbing from his workmates who include the lovely David Lodge as Bill and Cyril Chamberlain as Miles, older married men who have seen it all before. The work mates’ luncheon is enlivened by the new girl at the corner café, Eileen played by Nyree Dawn Porter, 27 at the time but still the youngest I’ve seen her pre-Protectors and Forsyte Saga. Eileen gives as good as she gets as the lads banter and takes a shine to Alan, gently pushing his buttons to get his interest.

Gradually Alan builds up the courage to ask Eileen out and he takes her up West to the subterranean The Florida Club which is – checks Reel Streets – under the Bridgewater Road tunnel. They ask another youngster Brian (David Hemmings, also 21 and not quite as eye-catchingly cool as he would be in Blow Up) if he can sign them in with his membership and they start to cut a rug to Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen and other cool cuts. Albert’s limited moves don’t impress Eileen quite so much as Brian’s young pal Ronnie (Michael Craze, just 20 and a very talented actor who would do far more in a varied career that included that spell in the Tardis) dancing with the simply stunning Dilys Watling (also 20) as Mavis.

Michael Crawfor and Nyree Dawn Porter

 

The youngsters chat between dances and there’s that awkwardness you’d expect and so many passions running deep and slightly out of control. Eileen dances with Ronnie, Mavis looks longingly at Brian and Alan’s attention is caught by a pretty young blonde, Beth (Julia Foster). At times it feels as if some of the dialogue could have been improvised as it’s jarring but that could just be the excellence of the cast in building the fragile bridges of attraction and male connection.

Eileen and Alan keep on going but he doesn’t really know how to proceed and after one fumbled coupling only increases the tension between them. Beth is a different proposition, easier company for Alan who is more relaxed around her, showing his moral balance by accepting the awkward truths of her father’s suicide which she is both shamed by and resolved. Alan’s father is a policeman, played by Bernard Lee, and it’s only later when we see them together that we understand the son’s debt to his upbringing.

Dilys Watlting, Michael Craze and David Hemmings

Meanwhile, there’s nearly murder on the dancefloor as Eileen starts dating Ronnie, Alan goes with Beth and Mavis gets engaged to Brian, the first steps towards the “grown-ups”. There’s a great blow out at the wedding with Mavis’ Uncle Reg (Michael Ripper who always delivers) arranging party games at the reception. This is when matters come to a head with Eileen but also with Ronnie… the group consider him too young at 17 and Alan had previously made some comment about him needing to decide “which way he’s going…” all of which oblique coding is given stark context when, in a kissing game in which the boys are blindfolded, Brian replaces Eileen and Ronnie ends up kissing him.

Tensions rise further between Alan and Eileen as well as Beth and Ronnie… and the final couplings are in doubt until the very end.

Ever since Mr Axelford's Angel, I've held a place in my heart for Julia...

Dusty Verdict: Two Left Feet (1963) is as interesting for its times as well as for it’s leading actors. In the end it was given an X Certificate and not fully released until 1965 by which time the names were far better known but society and audience had moved on. This is a shame as it’s well made and more sophisticated than I expected with nuance not just from Dawn Porter but also from the prodigiously talented Foster and Crawford.

Crawford’s character as a narrative of its own which convinces as he gains the confidence of a man in tune with the dance as well as his own instincts. Michael Craze is also excellent as the cat on a hot tine roof, barely of age, carrying a flick knife and at war with himself. David Hemmings and Dilys Watling have lesser range to their roles but both deliver in terms of watchability and in Dilys’ case, dancing! I once saw her coming out of the Liverpool Playhouse in the seventies and she even walks in time!

Dilys dances!

 

The film is available from Network Distribution direct from their website and the DVD comes with production shots and looks great!

Now, time to find some of David Stuart Leslie's other works…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Playing the fool… The Jokers (1967)

A young Michael Winner made a number of interesting films in the sixties… before success took him. Here he pokes fun at the establishment through the anarchic activities of two brothers fed up with the silver spoons in their mouths…

Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais – the writers of Catch Me a Spy and so many British comedy drama classics – the film has a little more edge than some of the swinging comedies of the time.

Edward Fox looks on as cheats almost prosper...

The brothers are played by Oliver Reed (a Winner regular at this time) and Michael Crawford who carries more unpredictable spite than his heavyweight sibling. Interestingly Crawford looked a lot like Reed’s actual brother… they were not so unlikely a pairing as it seemed.

The film starts with Crawford’s Michael in the army, trying to use his brother David, to help cheat his way to victory in war games… well, not cheat exactly, but bending the rules as far as they can. Sadly his commanding officer doesn’t believe in bend-able rules and Michael and the army part company.

Crawford, Reed and Lotte Tarp

It turns out to be not the first occasion when Michael's thinking has been too challenging for the powers that be as he has also been kicked out of Cambridge University and blown every single chance he’s had to take advantage of his rank and position. But is it a failing of character or a deeper need to think originally? Or maybe it’s just meant to be funny.

David is also an under-achiever, passing his time as an architect come interior designer having also been booted out of the army. His regular girlfriend, Eve, is played by the excellent Gabriella Licudi who was so committed in Herostratrus, Don Levy’s altogether more serious examination of sixties culture – there’s a good piece on it here.

Gabriella Licudi

After a few stultifying days at home with the parents and their deb of a sister, the boys begin to hatch a plan to really shock their oppressive establishment to the core. After a visit with David’s spare girlfriend Inge (Lotte Tarp) to the Tower of London, they resolve to “appropriate” the Crown Jewels.

Providing there is no provable intent to keep the royal treasures they figure they’ll be able to escape punishment whilst at the same time having a lark and proving how clever they are… They write letters to be left with their banks which will prove their benign intent after the deal is done and start a strategy of wrong-footing the forces of the state.

Swinging London 1966

David uses his army training to build small-scale explosive devices whilst Michael poses as an Irish terrorist, phoning instructions to the police. The first device is at the Albert Memorial and the boys observe the response of the police, led by Inspector Marryatt (a superb Harry Andrews) and the over confident leader of the bomb disposal unit Col. Simms (James Donald) – a man who’s arrogance deserves some kind of redress.

Brian Wilde and Harry Andrews

But, as the bombs get bigger there’s a bit of unease in watching these terrorist techniques being used as the basis of the comedy… But that’s the gap between then and now. Terror methods haven’t changed but perhaps we take things less flippantly now?

Winner unfolds the story well though and it’s only on the night of the “appropriation” that we understand how all of the pieces will fit together.

Oliver Reed and James Donald (left)

Michael and David disguise themselves as the soldiers called in to deal with a bomb at the Tower and, after swiftly disabling the useless Col. Simms, proceed to swap toys for the real jewels before faking serious injury as the bomb supposedly goes off.

Covered in fake blood, they are whisked away in an ambulance… they over-power the crew and are free to run home and hide the jewels in David’s flat.

So far so good and the two enjoy a few days gloating as the press whips the country into a paranoid frenzy over the theft. But, when the time comes to return the jewels David finds them gone. Michael claims no knowledge and it is only when the police arrive and Michael denies all knowledge that David realises that his brother may have betrayed him.

Gabriella Licudi and Oliver Reed

The film shifts a little in tone and Michael begins to look every inch the villain. David is locked up and Eve plays a more prominent role in trying to get to the truth, using her journalistic contacts to try and tempt Michael into making a mistake.

She is helped by their friend Riggs (Daniel Massey) who photographed Michael’s ostensible alibi at his sister’s coming out party.

Has Michael really betrayed his brother and is there a way out for both of the boys?

Michael denies all...

It’s a well-made film with a few twists and turns remaining in the plot till the end. Crawford acts believably as the runty younger brother with a point to prove although he doesn’t do posh-thug as well as Mr Reed! The script from Clement and La Frenais is amusing rather than outright funny but does keep you guessing.

There’s good support from the aforementioned Ms Licudi as well as Harry Anderson and a guest appearance from Michael Horden as the government minister with the wind up him! Hmm, maybe we haven’t changed that much… making the establishment sweat is all we have left in the post-democratic sterility of coalition-austerity Britain…

Gabriella Licudi and Michael Crawford

And is the brother’s will to win not pointedly anti-establishment but just the suppressed spirit of adventure that in times of trouble have brought out the best of Britain? Even by the late sixties the belief in eth characteristics that won this country wars was still strong in spite of all the pop cultural ennui around it…

Hang on... I've got an idea...

Dusty verdict: well worth keeping the VHS for some mostly light-hearted crime capering…it’s not on DVD anyway! Michael Winner made good films and this is certainly one of them.

Ollie keeps watch...