ICONIC SEVENTIES CINEMA - VILLAIN (1971 18)

PLEASE BE WARNED THAT FROM THE ONSET AND THROUGHOUT, THIS FILM CONTAINS IMAGES AND LANGUAGE THAT SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND DISTURBING. THEREFORE, VIEWER DISCRETION IS REQUIRED. Welcome to "Villain" showing as part of our "Iconic Seventies Cinema" season, which has now moved to itv gold 2, in order that we may bring you more from a special selection of movies, screening in their original version, just as the makers intended. With a screenplay by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (although, make no mistake, this is no "Likely Lads"!) and direction by Michael Tuchner (who went to direct three episodes of YTV's "Follyfoot!) "Villain" focuses on "murderous, sadistic London gang leader, Vic Dakin (played by Richard Burton), a mother-obsessed homosexual, modeled on real-life gangster Ronnie Kray, who is worried about potential 'stool pigeons' that may bring down his criminal empire. The brutal Vic cuts the throat of one poor person who has been a little too loose-lipped, afraid that his gossiping may turn into a grand operatic performance for the coppers. Vic, who enjoys playing at rough trade with his sidekick Wolfe, plans a payroll robbery and directs the blackmailing of Members of Parliament with a taste for unorthodox sex. Scotland Yard Police Inspector Matthews, playing Javert to Vic's Jean Valjean, is moving in on him and the gang. Gang-member Frank is hospitalised for an ulcer, and Inspector Matthews might be able to make him 'sing'. Will Frank spill the beans to the police before Vic can silence him?". The film also stars Ian McShane (as Wolfe Lissner), Nigel Davenport (as Bob Matthews) and Fiona Lewis (as Venetia). There's also a supporting cast of great British actors including Donald Sinden and T.P. McKenna. Next on itv gold 2, we'll have a "Best of British" presentation, "The Long & the Short & the Tall", directed by Leslie Norman (Barry's dad!) in 1961, starring Laurence Harvey and Richard Todd. And, next on itv gold 1, Joseph Losey's "The Servant" (1963), starring Dirk Bogarde and Sarah Miles, will be followed by his ground-breaking 1960 movie, starring Stanley Baker and Sam Wanamaker (Zoe's dad!), "The Criminal".

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Villain
• seventies
• Richard
• Burton
• Ian
• McShane
• Scotland
• Yard
• Homosexual
• Gangster
• Viciousness
• Malevolence

[ismaelkhan]

woo hoo - i love how they included battersea powerstation a few times!

[julesandsands]

@365275 MrRobertJameson True in a way but then all criminals are bad/failed actors. Burton's portrayal of what is fairly obviously one of the Krays - emotionally crippled, closet S/M gay, mother obsessed, crypto-Italian in fact - is fucking spot-on. Astonished you don't get it. Read Iain Sinclair's London masterpiece Lights Out For The Territory, specifically chapter The Dog and the Dish. The you might see the point. The Long Friday was a good update too.

[MrRobertJameson]

@365275 This film is a badly acted piece of fucking crap.

[365275]

A great film - and surely one of the inspirations for The Sweeney. The last (I think) time it was shown on British TV, it was interrupted by a news flash to say that the (first) Gulf War had just started ! Shows you how long ago it was that British TV showed decent films... It's also notable that the whole feel of it is so different from how it would have been had it been made just 2 or 3 years earlier in the late 1960s.

[tracycolmar50]

I have watched this film a few times, find it very amusing because Richard Burton and T P McKenna are supposed to be london gangsters and i one has a welsh accent and one an irish and Ian McShane plays a Jewish Character who speaks with a very broad northern accent. Still it does pass the test of time and Ian McShane looks very attractive

[saanzacs]

Richard Burton's most challenging role to date

[o2me2]

Thank you for the very entertaining movie. Thumbs up.

[007steed]

Thanks for this. I had it on tape for years but lost the tape and now i can watch it again.

I noticed you do requests!!!

Do you have in your catalogue a film called Freelance with Ian Mcshane & Alan Lake or The Assasin i think its called with Ian Hendry?

[dcasey77]

Dreadful acting from Burton in the final scene and also from 1:03:14 to 1:03:20.

But it was interesting to see the film again, I saw it 20 years ago as a child.

As I could only remember a couple of scenes, my expectations of the film were based on what I had recently read about it online so I was expecting it to be terrible.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.

It's not a classic by any means but its still watchable.

[Lytton333]

Burtons accent is.. erm.. interesting..