The Wild and the Willing [Young and Willing] ** (1962, Virginia Maskell, Paul Rogers, Ian McShane, Samantha Eggar John Hurt) – Classic Movie Review 4960

Director Ralph Thomas’s 1962 romantic drama takes a lurid look at British redbrick college life, depicting the lives of a group of students at university. It is seen through a once steamy lens, in the wake of Lucky Jim (1957) and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).

A British university professor (Paul Rogers)’s bored wife (Virginia Maskell) has an affair with Harry (Ian McShane, in his film debut, aged 20), a rough stud of a rebellious undergraduate, compromising her husband’s position and hugely upsetting McShane’s nice girlfriend Josie (Samantha Eggar, in her film debut).

Now, of course, the sexual shenanigans in this one-time eye-opener all look terribly mundane and ordinary. But the film is still mildly enjoyable, mainly thanks to the fine performances of its game cast and to some of the period details of life back then.

Nothing dates as fast as ‘realism’ in a film, which is unfortunate for a movie of this kind that relies on controversy as a box-office attraction for its original release. However, a real bit of a vintage British cast helps keep it watchable.

Note, especially, John Hurt’s notable film debut appearance (aged 22) as a student called Phil Corbett, Harry’s quiet room mate who doesn’t play rugger and can’t sink a whole pint of beer, Jeremy Brett as Andrew Gilby and Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street’s Mike Baldwin) as Dai Hawkins.

Hurt was already cast in a role that he would basically play all his life, in so many different variations, as an outsider, underdog or victim. His skill in doing this kept him constantly in work and in demand.

Also in the cast are Katherine Woodville, David Sumner, John Standing, Johnny Sekka as African student Reggie, Charles Kay, John Barrie, Victor Brooks, Ernest Clark, Denise Coffey, George A Cooper, Harry Locke, Megs Jenkins, Richard Leech, Marianne Stone, Richard Warner, John Welsh and Jeremy Young.

Nicholas Phipps and Mordecai Richler’s screenplay is based on the play The Tinker by Laurence Dobie.

It was filmed on location in Lincoln, with Lincoln Castle standing in for the university.

Producer Betty E Box recalled that the film ‘didn’t break records or win awards but it did reasonably good business and put the youngsters on the first rung of the ladder to stardom.’ Hurt was the first cast and they used him to audition the other actors.

RIP John Hurt (1940 – 2017).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4960

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