Morgan!

Rating:
Summary: Uneven to the point of madness
Review: 1. The individual comedy bits don't work . At some level, you gotta like the guy and be rooting for him for it to be funny -- but he's usually just an obnoxious party-crashing bore. Just cuz Vanessa's thinks he's cute doesn't mean we have to.

2. The music is an awful Mingus-variant on that "waah-waah oom-pah jazz" that telegraphs punchlines and tries to compell audience reaction like a laugh track. The same thing happened in Belushi's "Neighbors."

3. The motivation for characters seems to shift from scene to scene. Other than being physically attractive, what on earth ties these two together other than the director's orders. Okay, she sorta kinda wants to rebel, and he sorta kinda enjoys wiggin' out for her. Or it's the sex. Or it's .. okay .. whatever .. nevermind.

4. I get the sense that the "cliched-societal-and-class restraints of 1962" were a bit different from the "cliched-societal-and-class restraints of 1966" -- and that tiny time warp threw the production off a bit.

5. Warner's dialogue with his mother when she tucks him in is my favorite, and is the most genuine moment in the movie, and is completely out of place with everything else.

6. All that said -- I'lll bet there's a decent period piece of a movie to be re-made here.

Rating:
Summary: A Suitable Case for Laughter
Review: Here's one I've been trying desperately to find again for the last 20 years. This is the film that makes me watch silly things like "Titanic" and "Nightwing" just to watch David Warner. The first hour on the whole ranks with the best British comedies of its time (Hard Day's Night, The Jokers, Nothing But The Best) but the seriocomic ending (with a superb closing laugh) leaves me as unsettled as Reisz's Saturday Night,Sunday Morning. Vanessa Redgrave plays Leonie, the sweet ex-wife who, though she clearly loves Morgan and his antics, is pressed into being a femme fatale by the social order (she's the rich one). David Warner is the eccentric failed artist, Morgan, who wishes he had been born to a gorilla rather than to a communist (he's the poor one). Yet Morgan is desperate to get his wife back (after having visited a zoo gorilla about his psychological problems). Irene Handl as Morgan's devoutly communist mother (she's unhappy Morgan has betrayed the working class) is a hilarious take on a mother complaining at her son's failures. It isn't a perfect film. It is nevertheless a real delight. The picture quality on the DVD is good for the price. Only special feature is the trailer, but it is a real swinging London statement in its own right.

Rating:
Summary: A Suitable Case for Laughter
Review: Here's one I've been trying desperately to find again for the last 20 years. This is the film that makes me watch silly things like "Titanic" and "Nightwing" just to watch David Warner. The first hour on the whole ranks with the best British comedies of its time (Hard Day's Night, The Jokers, Nothing But The Best) but the seriocomic ending (with a superb closing laugh) leaves me as unsettled as Reisz's Saturday Night,Sunday Morning. Vanessa Redgrave plays Leonie, the sweet ex-wife who, though she clearly loves Morgan and his antics, is pressed into being a femme fatale by the social order (she's the rich one). David Warner is the eccentric failed artist, Morgan, who wishes he had been born to a gorilla rather than to a communist (he's the poor one). Yet Morgan is desperate to get his wife back (after having visited a zoo gorilla about his psychological problems). Irene Handl as Morgan's devoutly communist mother (she's unhappy Morgan has betrayed the working class) is a hilarious take on a mother complaining at her son's failures. It isn't a perfect film. It is nevertheless a real delight. The picture quality on the DVD is good for the price. Only special feature is the trailer, but it is a real swinging London statement in its own right.

Rating:
Summary: Morgan!
Review: It's a super movie. Great acting, great directing, and a great story.

Rating:
Summary: Morgan!
Review: It's a super movie. Great acting, great directing, and a great story.

Rating:
Summary: Forgotten Gem!
Review: Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (to give its full title) is one of those that got away. A premium slice of British satire served up wickedly frsh and tasty. Not a bad performance in it, and worth the price of admission for the ending alone.

Rating:
Summary: Gorilla Theatre
Review: This film may have seemed cutting edge at the time of it's release in 1966;now it just seems terribly dated. Essentially the story involves a neurotic Londoner (David Warner) with a fixation on amphibians and Marxist politics who is attempting to reconcile with his ex-wife(Vanessa Redgrave). As far as I'm concerned, Warner's character is so loony that you can see why his wife left him. We're supposed to find his antics endearing;I just found them incredibly annoying. Redgrave received an Oscar nomination for her efforts here and rightly so. She almost convinces us that she felt some affection and may still harbor a little for this offputting madman.

Rating:
Summary: Class Warfare on the Bedroom Front
Review: Underneath the zany gorilla suit, the automotive hijinks and the wacky pratfalls, this is at heart a love story about a rich society girl who can't help loving a penniless artist from the wrong side of the tracks. I fell in love with this movie when it first came out, and revisiting it nearly 40 years later is like heaven. The black & white print here is flawless, and the fantasy scenes mixing Tarzan footage, period nature films and Morgan's reveries are clever beyond their time. Jazz legend Johnny Dankworth provides an unusual soundtrack of woodwinds in a very Guiffresque style which has worn the years well. The movie contains several of the most memorable scenes ever committed to film, and the artful blending of fantasy and reality leads to an ending which is completely open to interpretation.

The heart wants what the heart wants. This is a very life-positive movie.