Smile while you're makin' it. Laugh while you're takin' it. Even though you're fakin' it. Nobody's gonna know.

If you are looking for a perfect English uncut letterbox copy on DVD transferred from the LD or soundtrack on CD, just email me.

Cast | Dates | Deceased | The Deleted Scene | DVD | Errors | Filming Locations | Foreign Titles | Formats | Graham Crowden Afternoon | Interviews | Letters | Lindsay Anderson | Making Of | Malcolm's Introduction | News | Notes | Pictures | Play | Q&A with Malcolm | Quotes | Script | Soundtrack - Lyrics & Track Listing | Malcolm's CD Liner Notes | Summary - Official | My Summary | My Review | Together Again | Together Before

Cast

Role(s) Actor
Michael A. 'Mick' Travis/Plantation Thief Malcolm McDowell
Monty/Sir James Burgess Ralph Richardson
Gloria Rowe/Madame Paillard/Mrs. Richards Rachel Roberts
Mr. Duff/Charlie Johnson/Dr. Munda Arthur Lowe
Patricia Burgess/Casting Secretary Helen Mirren
Prof. Stewart/Prof. Millar/Meths Drinker Graham Crowden
Factory Chairman/Prison Governor Peter Jeffrey
Tea Lady/Tenement Neighbor Dandy Nichols
Sister Hallet/Tenement Neighbor/Court Usher Mona Washbourne
Interrogator/Jenkins/Salvation Army Major Philip Stone
Mary Ball/Vicar's Wife/Salvationist Mary MacLeod
Interrogator/William/Released Prisoner/Assistant Director Michael Bangerter
John Stone/Colonel Steiger/Warder/Film Executive/Meths Drinker Wallas Eaton
M.C. at Nightspot/Male Nurse/Warner Warren Clarke
Superintendent Barlow/Inspector Carding Bill Owen
MacIntyre/Dr. Hyder/RAF Officer Ben Aris
Oswald Edward Judd
Factory Girl/Mavis Christine Noonan
Mrs. Naidu Pearl Nunez
Basil Keyes/Examination Doctor Geoffrey Palmer
Army Captain/Power Station Technician/Duke of Belminster Michael Medwin
Soup Kitchen Lady Vivian Pickles
Vicar/Bishop Geoffrey Chater
General/Judge Anthony Nicholls
Plantation Foreman/Power Station Guard Brian Glover
Young Man (Sports Car)/Pig Boy/Sandwich-Board Man Jeremy Bulloch
Hotel Receptionist Patricia Healey
Bill John Barrett
Mr. Spalding/Doctor/Pickpocket/Meths Drinker  Glenn Williams
Coffee Salesman/Pickpocket Hugh Thomas
Biles Brian Pettifer
Policeman (Accident + Tenement)/Customer/Munda's Manservant David Baker
Policeman (Accident + Court) Edward Peel
Plantation Judge/Nightspot Client/Meths Drinker Paul Dawkins
Attenborough/Examination Doctor James Bolam
Tax Inspector/Club Waiter Peter Schofield
Elizabeth Valerie Stewart/Tenement Neighbor Adele Strong
Mrs. Naidu Kymoke Debayo
Clinic Receptionist/Miss Hunter Patricia Lawrence
Lady Burgess Constance Chapman
Coffee Picker Margot Bennett
Alan (Vocals/Keyboards) Alan Price
Colin (Guitar) Colin Greene
Streaky (Roadie) Ian Leake
Tolly (Drums) Clive Thacker
Dave (Bass) Dave Markee
Director Lindsay Anderson

With: Bart Alison, Sue Bond, Peter Childs, Frank Cousins, Brian Croucher, Allen Cullen, Anna Dawson, Michael Elphick, Eleanor Fazan, Pat Healey, Geoff Hinsliff, Jo Jeggo, Stephanie Lawrence, Brian Lawson, Terence Maidment, Rachelle Miller, Tuesday Miller, Ken Oxtoby, Stuart Perry, Bill Pilkington, Cyril Renison, Irene Richmond, Roy Scammell, Frank Singuineau, Patsy Smart, David Stern, Betty Turner + Catherine Willmer.

Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Written by David Sherwin, Based on an idea by Malcolm McDowell and Candide by Voltaire
Produced by Michael Medwin & Lindsay Anderson

Dates

Filming Began March 20, 1972
Filming wrapped June 16, 1972

Deceased

The unfortunate loss of those involved.

Date Person 1st Roll
2/22/77 Anthony Nicholls General
6/26/79 Paul Dawkins Plantation Judge
11/26/80 Rachel Roberts Gloria Rowe
4/15/82 Arthur Lowe Mr. Duff
10/10/83 Ralph Richardson Monty/Sir James
2/6/86 Dandy Nichols Tea Lady
11/15/88 Mona Washbourne Sister Hallet
3/7/93 Patricia Lawrence Clinic Receptionist
8/30/94 Lindsay Anderson  Director/Producer
11/3/95 Wallas Eaton John Stone
7/24/97 Brian Glover Plantation Foreman
7/12/99 Bill Owen Superintendent Barlow
12/25/99 Peter Jeffrey Factory Chairman
6/15/03 Philip Stone Interrogator
8/10/03 Constance Chapman  Lady Burgess
9/4/03 Ben Aris MacIntyre

The Deleted Scene

Malcolm Explains:
"What happened was back in England we were watching the thing again, all of us, Alan Price included - looking for places to do trims. The projectionist dropped the ninth reel which is the one with Rachel committing suicide and it went straight on. We all went, "Lindsay!! Great cut! Thank god we got the cut. Now we can distribute the film in America." He was going, "I did not cut it! What the hell are you talking about? This is nonsense!"  We're going, "That is the perfect cut." And Alan's going, "It is not. I've lost one of my songs." I went, "Fuck your songs. We want this thing to open."

        TENEMENT COURTYARD
        Tall grey building loom over a central court. People are clustered at the bottom of the
        courtyard, looking up at a flat with closed windows. Women are hanging out of windows, and
        over the railings that mark the open staircase running up the center of the block. The two men
        and the woman dash with their ladder down the center of the courtyard, calling out: 'Mind your
        backs!' 'Out of the way!'. MICK follows them, takes in the scene and moves forward,
        inquisitively. The men prop their ladder against the wall. It barely reaches the second floor
        windows. One of the men starts to climb. The three women at the landing mock the man.
1ST WOMAN: You burk. It's too flipping short. (To her neighbor): Hey, look at him.
2ND WOMAN: What are you trying to do? Pick apples?
1ST WOMAN: Picking apples...ha, ha.
        MICK looks up towards the laughing women. They call out to him.
1ST WOMAN: (yelling down to MICK): Here, you! You!
        MICK looks over his shoulder.
2ND WOMAN: Here you, you down there...
1ST WOMAN: You with the bag.
2ND WOMAN: No, not you...You! (MICK catches on.) Bring up that bleeding bar. The big one.
        MICK turns and picks out a rusty iron bar from a heap of rubbish behind him...old motor car
        engines, axles and tires.
2ND WOMAN: The big one...That's right...bring it up here.
        MICK runs with the bar up the tenement staircase to the third floor landing.

        LANDING
        MICK arrives on the landing, surrounded by chattering women.
1ST WOMAN: Come on up here. Get this door open.
2ND WOMAN: Better be quick.
ANOTHER: Bash it.
        MICK beats against the door with the bar.
2ND WOMAN: Better be quick.
1ST WOMAN: Mrs. Richards!
ALL: Mrs. Richards! Mrs. Richards!
2ND WOMAN: Come out of there!
1ST WOMAN: Come on out.
        MICK gives up. He turns to the women.
2ND WOMAN: She's put the bed against the door and double-bolted it.
1ST WOMAN: She's going to do it this time. You mark my words.
2ND WOMAN: Selfish bitch. She's got the kids in their with her.
1ST WOMAN: She'll probably do them in an' all.
MICK: What's the matter? What's wrong?
1ST WOMAN: What's wrong he says!
        They all laugh.
2ND WOMAN: She's going to kill herself. That's what's wrong.
MICK: Can't you stop her?
1ST WOMAN: Well, go on then. You stop her...nobody's holding you back, are they?
        MICK turns away from the women.

        TENEMENT FACADE
        MICK comes down and peers over the railings, followed by the clucking women. They are
        three stories up. He sees MRS. RICHARDS' windows, a few feet away. He swings his leg
        over the rails. The women moan with excitement and cover their eyes. Below, the little crowd
        stirs. MICK reaches out for a drainpipe, gets a foothold and manages to clamber across to
        MRS. RICHARDS' window sill.

        MRS. RICHARDS' FLAT
        MICK appears at the window. He peers in, crouching on the sill. He knocks.
MICK: Mrs. Richards!
        The room inside is drab and poor, but neat. A little boy is sitting silently on a chair against the
        wall, his legs dangling. MRS. RICHARDS is on her knees in an apron, swabbing the floor.
         MICK bangs the top half of the window open. He wedges his head in.
MICK: Mrs. Richards! What are you doing?
MRS. RICHARDS (looking up at him): Cleaning the floor. What's it look like?
MICK (at window): What's all this about killing yourself?
        MRS. RICHARDS gets up off her knees and throws the cleaning rag into the bucket.
MRS. RICHARDS: I've had enough.
        She starts to dust.
MICK: You've been shut up her too long. Think of the world outside.
        MRS. RICHARDS turns her back on MICK and continues her impulsive cleaning.
MICK: Mrs. Richards, now, please. Stop it. I want you to listen.
MRS. RICHARDS (crossing to the mantelpiece): My husband has to find the place looking nice. I'll not have him saying I did wrong in the end.
MICK: You should meet some people. Find some nice friends!
MRS. RICHARDS: I haven't been out since we had Penny. That's six years.
MICK: Take a holiday!
MRS. RICHARDS: Harry's off work. He hasn't had a job for four years.
MICK: Well, think of the children. I mean, they're the only ones who matter!
        MRS. RICHARDS reaches into the corner; she polishes a cheap brass tray.
MRS. RICHARDS: How can I keep a child clean? How much do you think a pair of kid's shoes costs? The cheapest? £1.20.
MICK: Life's a gift, Mrs. Richards. You haven't the right to throw it away.
        MRS. RICHARDS replaces the carpet in the center of the room. She looks up to MICK. She
        moves the table back onto the carpet as she speaks.
MRS. RICHARDS: Look, this is the food I buy each week for ourselves and the kids:
                            7 loves of bread
                            20 lbs of potatoes
                            3/4 of a pound of tea
                            1 packet of porridge oats
                            2 packets of cornflakes
MICK: There's always tomorrow...
MRS. RICHARDS: 1 packet of Co-op soap powder
                                3 or 4 pounds of cabbage
                                2 swedes
                                Custard powder
                                Baked beans sometimes
                                Tinned tomatoes sometimes
                                Tinned spaghetti sometimes
                                Lettuce when cheap.
MICK: Food isn't everything. Fresh air! Sunshine!
        He gestures to the great outside, slips and nearly falls. MRS. RICHARDS turns away and calls
        into the other room.
MRS. RICHARDS: Penny!
LITTLE GIRL (off-screen): Yes, mum.
MRS. RICHARDS: Bring the Brasso.
        PENNY, aged about six, comes in with the Brasso.
MRS. RICHARDS: Now I want you to go over there, love. Wash the big pan under the hot tap. Get off every bit of tomato soup before your dad gets back.
        She guides the little girl over to the sink in the corner beneath the window.
        MICK gets an inspiration. Hurriedly, he gets out the prison governor's book.
MICK: Mrs. Richards! Mrs. Richards! Please listen to this, Mrs. Richards! Now please listen.
        She looks up at him.
MICK (reading): 'Life is mostly froth and bubble
                            Two things stand like stone,
                            Kindness in another's trouble,
                            Courage in your own.'
MRS. RICHARDS: (blank): Who said that?
MICK: Adam Lindsay Gordon. He was a poet.
MRS. RICHARDS: More of a fool, if you ask me.
        She moves back to the table and starts to take off her apron.
MICK: Oh wait there, Mrs. Richards! Now wait, Mrs. Richards! Wait Mrs. Richards! Listen to this, please, Mrs. Richards!
        At the fireplace now, she takes, her comb out of her handbag and begins to comb her hair.
        MICK tries to find the page.
MICK: Mrs. Richards!
        She turns to MICK. She has ceased to take any notice of his words.
MRS. RICHARDS: Tell Harry to leave a note for the milkman. Two pints. (Calling): Penny!
PENNY: Yes, mum.
        Penny comes to her mother. MRS. RICHARDS kisses her as MICK reads.
MICK: 'There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.' - Hamlet
MRS. RICHARDS: (giving PENNY a pat): Now go and sit down, love.
        As MRS. RICHARDS crosses back to kiss the little boy, quiet all this time, MICK starts
        again.
MICK: Please listen, Mrs. Richards! Please listen to this!
            'One that never turned his back,
            But marched breast forward...
            Never doubted clouds would break--'
        MRS. RICHARDS stares at time for a second, then walks firmly into the other room. MICK
        shouts after her.
MICK: Every cloud has a silver lining, Mrs. Richards!...Mrs. Richards!
        He moves past the window, following her.

        TENEMENT FACADE
        MICK tries to climb onto the window sill of the adjoining room. He reaches out, grasps a
        drainpipe, gets a foothold and then leaves the security of his window sill. Gasps from below.
        Now he is hanging onto the drainpipe between the windows. His book slips from his hand and
        flutters to the ground. He reaches across to the next window-frame.
MICK: Mrs. Richards!
        He feels himself slipping: grabs the pipe with both hands. A rusty joint gives way; the pipe
        breaks from the wall. For a moment MICK hangs in space, then the pipe comes clean away 
        and he falls. Sky, buildings, ground whirl past.
        BLACKOUT

        THE REHEARSAL ROOM
        Hands strike a piano keyboard. The camera tilts up to ALAN'S face as he sings...My Home
        Town.

ALAN (singing): Down on the corner of the street
                              Where I was born we used to meet
                              And sing the old songs,
                              We called them dole songs
.
        In long shot we see ALAN at his piano, COLIN perched beside him, strumming his banjo.

ALAN (singing): And we'd harmonize so clear
                              Even though it was the beer
                              That made the tears run
                              About the years gone by...

        THE TENEMENT NIGHT
        The song continues over as a POLICEMAN, flashing his torch, walks down the pavement
        in the empty, dark courtyard.
ALAN (singing): We'd go home and kiss the wife,
                               Hoping a kiss could change your life...

        THE REHEARSAL ROOM
        ALAN in close shot again...
ALAN (singing): That's how romance is
                              No second chances
                              Back in my home town.

DVD

Warner Brothers announced a release for 10/23/07

Errors

This one may not be an error as much as an anomaly. At 17:47 Mick is driving along and it looks like a round object is thrown at his car from the right side of the screen. But it doesn't start from the side of the screen, it just appears, then sails behind the car and disappears. Then two similar dots appear for a split second in different areas. It might just be water on the lens...

Sequence of flying object
Two shots of similar objects appearing elsewhere.

Filming Locations (UK)

Dropmore Hall (Lord Kemsley's house) - Mad scientist's hospital
The Reform Club, London
Stansted Airport - 'Honey' drums
House in Gerrard's Cross, London for Danda's conference.
Cafe Royal exterior, London
Alan Price's band was recorded at Olympic Studios, near Barnes.
Willesden Town Hall
Nuclear research center - cement works at Ivinghoe
Aftermath of nuclear explosion - Caesar's Camp, Bracknell
Mick's arrest - Dorking
Man with sandwich board - Leicester Square
Rolls Royce country shots - Black Common, near Pinewood
Driving shots - The M1 motorway at Chesterfield
Euston Tower, London.
Bellamine prison, Glasgow

Almost everything else was filmed at Colet Court, then an abandoned private school which Lindsay's team converted into a film studio. This is where Jocelyn built the sets for the Majestic nightclub; Mick's bedroom at Mrs. Balls; the court room; St James's office, etc.

Foreign Titles

Formats

Beta / VHS - PAL (1 tape)  + NTSC (2 tapes) / LD - All OP

Graham Crowden Afternoon - Edinburgh 11/01

    He's slightly deaf and I soon found that quick-fire Q&A disrupts his flow badly, so I let him get on with talking through his life with minimal prompting from me. We drummed up 20 attendees in total, so the upstairs bar of the pub was very cozy indeed.
    He spoke about Anderson with affection, referring to him as Lindsay throughout. He stayed in touch with Malcolm McDowell afterwards, but hasn't been in contact with him for about ten years. I tried to draw him out on his roles in the Anderson films - commenting that the History Master 
is the only establishment character to encourage free thought in the boys, and as such, possibly a catalyst to the revolution. He agreed, and mentioned that there was another scene shot with him talking to the boys in a corridor that wasn't used.
    I showed him clips from all three films, with Doctor Stewart's demise provoking much hilarity from the audience (I particularly like the way that Travis pretends not to notice Stewart at all until he grabs his leg and pulls him out of the chair).
    At the preview screening of "O Lucky Man!", he slipped in late and sat next to Sean Connery on the back row. "Graham - how are you?", asked Connery who hadn't seen him since the early sixties. "Very well" replied Graham, adding "And what have you been up to?"!
    He had a very bad back before "Britannia" and did the film on Aspirin. His fee then immediately paid for him to have private medical treatment. While in a private hospital staffed by nuns he thought a grape had lodged in his throat, but this turned out to be a minor heart attack. He winced a bit at the "Doctor Who" clips, but seemed genuinely warmed to see himself in "A Very Peculiar Practice" again.
    Fundamentally, though, he's a man of the theatre, and concentrated on that. It was impressive to be sitting next to someone who casually mentioned Ralph, Lawrence, Yehudi [Menuin] and so on without batting an eyelid.
    I didn't get a chance to mention the "If..." petition, I'm afraid. It felt physically painful to have to interrupt him to show a clip or signal a comfort break.
    He's a very pleasant man. And without any fuss, not in front of everyone, on his way out, he waived his previously negotiated appearance fee, and suggested we give it to charity. Our charity of choice, the Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths is the beneficiary of his humanity - Prof Miller he isn't! - Dave

Interviews

5/73 Films Illustrated with Malcolm
7/73 Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine

8/2/73 Rolling Stone

Letters

Lindsay Anderson unpublished letter from 10/27/82
Even today it rings true. The film didn't make any money so Warner Brothers didn't care about it and haven't released it on video (like 20 years later not releasing it on DVD) It is typed, but there is a hand written section about how the English didn't find Britannia Hospital funny, they are losing their humor.

Lindsay Anderson

My page on Lindsay including more OLM! diary excerpts.

Why was the shot of the judge getting whipped used so much in OLM! promotions?

The image was used a lot because it says a lot about the hypocrisy of the British judiciary at the time. The civilized people in Britain had been shocked by the severity of the sentences handed down to the publishers of a satirical journal called 'Oz'; Lindsay Anderson writes about it his Diary:

Aug. 5th 1971
David turned up this morning with at least a draft of the roof scene with Patricia that made the thing look feasible. The end is no good. We talked and he went off to write again: still the end defeated him. We went for a walk along the front after beer and sandwiches in the pub - the 'Hope' Inn. This evening after dinner we look at TV and see the This Week feature on the OZ sentences: fifteen months for Richard Neville and recommended deportation...do people care? It's hard to imagine. When mum sees a long-haired demonstrator being pulled along by the hair, she laughs. More distasteful is the legal correspondent of the Guardian, rather smirkingly 'against' the sentences, but with a smooth attitude of dissociation that merely establishes his superior impartiality, with no suspicion of anything as vulgar or commonplace as a personal commitment. And Donald Spoor, ineffably smug, also prepared to 'disapprove' of the sentences but spend all the time stressing the trivial or vulgar or damaging 'attitude to sex' - in such a way as to remove any possibilityy that his audience could associate him with the publication - or care about the wretched fellows now in goal. The moral of these TV discussions: either don't take part in them, or cut off ruthlessly from any of the other participants, and above all disrespect the laws and courtesies of polite English controversy. A very good quote in a TLS piece by the Polish émigré writer Jerzy Peterkiewicz - from Simone Weil: 'REVOLUTION IS THE OPIUM OF THE INTELLECTUALS' (1). 1. This was included in 'O Lucky Man!', painted on a corrugated fence in the Derelict's scene.

Other related diary entries

June 16th 1972
Today we shot the AUDITION: I played my part, for good or ill: we tried to shoot the smile (1) - and not surprisingly, at the end of an exhausting day, we failed. The sequence may be regarded as the heart of the film. The dialogue with the director is not cynical. At least it isn't intended to be so. It is intended far more to challenge Mick (and therefore the audience) with the proposition that maturity and understanding is only to be achieved when we can look the facts of life directly in the face, not obscured by materialist or by sentimental illusion. A touch of 'Zen', you might say. 1. At the end of the film, Mick, the happy smiling adventurer has lost the ability to smile. The director coaxes one out of him.

June 17th 1972
The whole end of the scene won't do. Malcolm shouldn't have worn makeup: should have played much more out of desperation and the gutter - didn't play the 'smile' scene with enough despair. This had been Jocelyn's point apparently - but Malcolm stopped her speaking to me - and she I suppose had this attitude 'well whenever I say anything you tell me I'm wrong!'. I seem okay. Good? I don't know. I think so - but I fear the sequence insufficiently poetic. I should have checked the setups. Framing too high for my taste. The final smile remains an unsolved problem. How am I going to shoot this final sequence??? The transition??? GOD!!!

June 18th 1972
GRAND FINALE ... But before this I endeavor to reshoot at least the shots of Mick with books and gun - which on rushes yesterday seemed too constricted ... to this the call had to be switched from 10.00am to 9.00am. When Malcolm walked on the floor I sensed something wrong - he hadn't seen the rushes and he hadn't had his new call till 7.30 - and had been to bed late after being out all afternoon playing cricket for Harold Pinter's XI (1). Poor Malcolm; I understood. We did the reshooting. I fear it will never be what I envisage. I think we did get better setups, and did get the 'Why?' dialogue with more depth behind it. We even did a couple of hits - and smiles. I shan't soon forget the sight of Arthur [Lowe] over at the corner of the room, having to wait - while I was bashing poor Malcolm on the head with my script. At least it illuminated how the smile has to be achieved - i.e. by taking time. Ridiculous, in fact, and terribly shallow of me to have thought it adequate just for poor Malc to explode into enlightenment. But we will have to go back to this, however difficult Mirek says it is to match. Maybe a hypnotist? Malcolm is very game...

July 30th 1972
A further mad day ranging from STEEL WORK GATES in Middlesborough, through those decaying redbrick streets - then out onto the MOORS where we saw a road, looking out over a green valley, which would do well I think for the 'Pennine Road' - And so to SCARBOROUGH ... And the English 'enjoying themselves' at the seaside (which earns me another reprimand from Jocelyn's liberal guilt, for being nasty about the poor underprivileged): then Hotels at HARROGATE ... then SHEFFIELD - where in five or ten minutes it is obvious that it is impossible to situate the Coffee Factory about the grime and huge engineering sheds of heavy industry. (Jocelyn. 'Well I know, but that's what you said you wanted').

Making Of

It was filmed by John Fletcher, who also made the theatrically released documentary 'About The White Bus'. Paul Sutton mentions it in 'The Diaries of Lindsay Anderson'. He hasn't seen it and doesn't know where to get a copy. For example, Lindsay writes about his first rehearsal with Helen Mirren and telling Fletcher to piss off (which probably isn't in the final film).

From Jeff's email: I remember sometime before OLM! opened in the US seeing it late one night on ABC TV on a Friday or Saturday night. It was at least 30 minutes long.

Malcolm's Introduction

Given in NY on 5/25/02. This was not planned and was done on the spot as he said, "Because I am here I might as well do it." 

    Thank you all very much for coming friends, fans and of course fans and friends of Lindsay Anderson. This is as much a Lindsay Anderson day as mine, especially this afternoon. He really was the jewel in the crown of British directors. The best! The best! A most wonderful man and the wonderful friend. I was this cocky know-it-all who really didn't know anything and got taken into his whirlwind of a life. I suppose he plucked me from the gutter, that's what he used to think anyway. Of course it is all bullshit. I was actually quite a small established supporting actor. He really taught me everything there is to know about this. I was swaggering along behind him on the quasette at Cannes after it had been announced we won Palm D'or (For if.... - Alex). I think it gave Lindsay the greatest happiness of anything that ever happened in his life. It shocked me because who gives a rats about the stupid award? He was so thrilled. It was because he was a critic who went to Cannes to write about these films and to come back and to win. We didn't know then how close it was. There was a very fine film called by Costa-Gavras called "Zed", you call it "Z", and that really should have won. Stanley Donnen who was won of the jurors told us that they were on Zan Spiegel's yacht when they were doing the count, voting for the winners. When it came down to best film "Z" was number 1, a Swedish film called Ådalen '31directed by Bo Widerberg was 2, 3 was if....! The Eastern Europeans didn't like any of that, the Western didn't either. The compromise vote was if.... We were third!! So it always amused me that Lindsay was thrilled beyond belief.
    I went skipping behind him like, "Hey wow, we've arrived". I said, "You know Lins..." trying to put my arm around him and he didn't really want to know by at this time he wanted to dump me fast! Get on to the applause, the critics, to be the center of attention which he found no trouble being by the way. I said to him, "Lins we're very successful here, let's make another film." He stopped and looked at me down that emperor nose and said, "Good lord Malcolm you think good scripts falls of the trees? If you want to work with me again you better write a good script!" So I said, "As a matter a fact I am going to write a script." He said, "Oh, good. Well show it to me when you are finished." I thought, "Fuck that! I'll do it!" So I came back to England and I was doing another film and I started to write my adventures as a coffee salesman and they were. That was all I had done in my life was become a coffee salesman which was pretty meager stuff. I always like to say that was my drama school - up in the north of England. Can you imagine trying to sell the Northerns in England coffee!? "Tea lad, tea!? Where's the tea!? You don't drink coffee up here that's a woman's drink innit?" I had these amazing adventures as you see them happen. Of course Lindsay pushed them slightly. We didn't have a nuclear explosion as I remembered, but I was arrested outside a company called English Electric - they make rocket engines. Because I was a coffee salesmen I had all the stuff from the previous salesman. I knew the catering manageress was called - Doris. "Ah, no I've come to speak with Doris about the catering arrangements." "Doris, Doris who?" "Well, It doesn't say who, just Doris." They went, "No. Well, we don't have a catering manageress called Doris. You'll just have to sit here."  They sort of arrested me for a minute and then they went and emptied the car that I had of all the coffee samples, the planted peanuts, the Idaho instant potatoes. To prove that I wasn't a spy I whipped them up a quick sample. I was very good at that.
    When I had written 40 pages I took it around to him. He sort of sighed like 'oh god he's got to read it'. "Sit down. It's really good. I think you'll really love it." He put his glasses on and he read it and I could hear him go, "oh...oh...is this a comedy? Is this supposed to be funny?" "Just read it! Just read it to the end!" He got to the end and looked at me and he said, "Well...it's not very good is it?" I went, "It may not be good to you Lindsay, but I have got to explain. You are from the South and you don't understand Northern humor. This is good stuff. And it is a start. It'll start us on our way." And it did. Because a few days later David Sherwin who had written if...., and was really Lindsay's whipping boy and his collaborator with his scripts, came around for dinner and asked to see this. I gave him the 40 pages and he went into the bedroom and he came out when he read it and said, "God Malcolm this is brilliant! Brilliant stuff!" I went, "Well, yes." He said, "No really this is our next film!" I thought, "That fucker Lindsay. Unbelievable!" We worked on it...it was 73 when we made it and this was in 69. So it was a long and arduous road. David was a wonderful collaborator and of course the genius, the man himself, would point us the way. He gave me three books - Voltaire's "Candide" which was the imprint, Thornton Wilder's "Heaven's My Destination" and Kafka's "America". I was required to read them before we had gotten deep into the script. We had all sorts of things going on and we pared it all down. Lindsay had been shooting the first sort of video, but it wasn't called a music video then, on this very popular singer called Alan Price. I was talking to Jay Cocks the other day and he agrees that it is possibly the best score ever written for a film. I couldn't understand why Alan wasn't even nominated (for an Oscar - Alex) well of course I could understand sure. We'd write scenes and Lindsay would give it to Alan and say we need a song and he would write the song. It was incredible. I remember the night he recorded the last version of "O Lucky Man!" It starts with one and then finishes on a real high one. They just recorded that in the studio in Barnes and he came over to my house with the tape and put it on. Oh my god it was incredible, it was so incredible. Alan is such an important part of this film.
    He thinks he's such hot stuff acting wise. He came onto the set and I was reading the Times in between set ups. He's a Geordie. He came and said (puts on a thick British accent), "Was alright for you then innit? Just sitting there reading the paper." "Yeah." "Well is that it for acting in the movies, eh? That's it is it? Eh, just read the paper ha!" "Well, OK fine." Then it comes to Alan's big entrance. He had to walk through a door and say "Are you comin' or stayin'?" That's all he had to do. Take 1. "Are you...eh...am I supposed to be standin' here?" That's right, in the doorway. Take 2. "Are you, eh...eh...eh...ahh...eh." I said, "Maybe you'd like a copy of The Times to give a quick glance?" It wasn't quite as easy as he thought, but as I must say as an actor he learned rather quickly and he is wonderful in the film. My dear friends Helen Mirren is brilliant in the film...they are all brilliant! Helen, I always adored her, she was in The Collection which you saw earlier today. We worked to together quite a lot.  I pulled her with me to Rome to do the dreaded Caligula. Thank god! At least I had Helen to talk to. She was a wonderful and loyal friend and I adored her. She was fabulous in this film. That rooftop scene was rather magical and David had a hell of a time writing it. He went through 20 rewrites before Lindsay would even read it properly. "No good...throw. No good...out." Can I stop now or I'll go on forever? Please enjoy. Am I doing questions after? Oh, then I'll shut up!

News

At the New Beverly Cinema, located at 7165 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA - If… and O Lucky Man! - screen as a double feature for only $7 admission 8/18/06

Film Encyclopedia: Museum of Cinema Program in St. Petersburg, Russia is showed the film 8/16/06 at 8:30pm.

Notes

Mick's sale sheet in the film was written by Malcolm and has in jokes. #1 is a reference to Malcolm's high school headmaster, #6 is his sister - a family reference to his birth name of Taylor,  #7 is a reference to his girlfriend at the time or possibly Alan Bennett, a friend of Lindsay's who co-wrote The Old Crowd, #9 is a reference to Alex from ACO.

Scan from film

1. ...er Stores - Mr. Baker - 2-80
2. ...Metals Miss Haur - No Sale
3. ...'s Coffee Ho. - Mr. Brown 1-65
4. (Crossed Out) Malcolm and Dool, Iron Mrs. Williams - No Sale
5. British International Mrs. Smith @ the post - No Sale
6. Growell Permutation in Miss G Taylor - 1-72
7. Bennett's Stores - No Sale
8. Cromwell Partners - by special - No Sale
9. De Large, Co. - No Sale
Total £5-97

Pictures

Behind the Scenes
B-A8 How to Do It - Malcolm and Lindsay

Movie
Comp 1 - Malcolm's four faces
Margot Bennett as a coffee picker
  (Malcolm's ex-wife)
Malcolm as the Plantation Thief

Christine as Coffee Packer & Mavis

OLM! Xmas Card

Mick on the research table

Mick shaking hands with Lindsey at the party

Mick hugging Lindsey at the party
Mick and Gloria Rowe at the party
Mick and the Vicar's Wife at the party


Memorabilia
DVD Menu - Disc 1
DVD Menu - Disc 2

Laserdisc Cover
VHS 1984 Cover - Front

VHS 1984 Cover - Back

Play

6/07

Alan Price will not be touring until after November because he will be recording and writing for the O Lucky Man! stage play project. There is still no actual date for the premiere, but it's at the stage now where the total finished package has to be complete for 'delivery' at a moments notice.

Q&A with Malcolm

At the US premiere of the uncut film in New York 5/25/02

Quotes

"Lindsay's vulnerability, I think, came from the fact that he was a homosexual who couldn't show it, and always fell in love with heterosexuals because then he couldn't do anything about it. This all came from the diaries, because, when he was alive, I had no idea. We always thought he was sort of neutral or asexual. I was in three of his films, and he only made six, so I presume he was in love with me. If he'd been openly gay, and comfortable with who he was, he never would have made if..., O Lucky Man!, or any of these great films because there would have been none of the repression, none of that volcanic emotion that was in all of his work." Malcolm - 4/02/04 Contact Music

"It was all sex, drugs and rock-n-roll" - Helen Mirren Mid 80s.

Script

Lindsay Anderson's Preface to the O Lucky Man! Script
David Sherwin's Diary of writing the script

Soundtrack - Lyrics & Track Listing

OLM! Lyrics page

1. O Lucky Man! (2:19)
2. Poor People (2:11)
3. Sell Sell (4:02)
4. Pastoral (2:12)
5. Arrival (3:03)
6. Look Over Your Shoulder (2:22)
7. Justice (1:48)
8. My Home Town (2:40)
9. Changes (2:02)
10. O Lucky Man! (2:26)

Malcolm's CD Liner Notes

Malcolm McDowell as told to Bob Merlis, October, 1995:

     O Lucky Man! was Lindsay Anderson's most ambitious film because it's really about the world as a whole, rather than as a microcosm. O Lucky Man! like if.... before it, was an original screenplay. I had naively thought that we'd snap right into another movie after if.... because it was such a big hit. And so I remember saying to Lindsay, "Let's not sit around, let's do another film." He said, "Malcolm, what do you think? Scripts don't grow on trees; if you want to do another film, go and write it." So I told him I'd had an idea for a film about a coffee salesman and he said, "Oh good, all right, go write it." So I did. I wrote quite a few scenes and he read them. Of course, he thought they were awful and basically "no hopers," you know. He didn't think we'd have a chance. But I knew that was his way of encouraging me, so I kept on with it. When I met up with David Sherwin, the writer of 'if....', it became something else and so, we wrote it together.
     Of course, Lindsay had tremendous input. One of his ideas - although David tells me it was his - everyone is claiming ideas, but who knows now anyway? It was a collaboration, for God's sake! It's impossible to split it up. David says it was his idea to have the actors playing different roles. It doesn't sound right to me, it sounds like a Lindsay thing to me. But, of course it's possible. I do know that it was Lindsay's idea to have Alan Price do the music. Lindsay had known Alan quite a long time before this. Just after we made 'if....' he said to me, "Have you ever heard of a singer called Alan Price?" I said, "Of course, I've heard of him; he's very talented." He used to cover a lot of Randy Newman stuff - "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" was huge in England. Alan did a beautiful rendition of it. Lindsay also thought it would be a very good idea to have Alan and the band appear as themselves in the movie. He'd earlier gone on a trip with Alan in the van when the band was touring the north of England. Lindsay would sit in this van when they were coming away from a gig and going on to the next town; he thought this would be really brilliant in the film. He thought it would be a great idea to have the character Mick somehow meet with them and go in the van. He came up with the idea that it would be Alan who would actually drive him to London, which was, you know, one of the film's big scenes. The van you see on the screen may very well have been the same one in which Alan drove Lindsay around the North but I don't really know. I do know that's where the idea came from.
     We'd be writing the script and turn the pages over to Lindsay and he'd say, "We better get Alan to write a song here." So, during the process of writing the script the songs were simultaneously written. Only one was written after the fact. There had never before been a film that was not a proper musical where the songs were integral to the script. It's very revolutionary in that way. Altman's Nashville came later and I know that was inspired by O Lucky Man!. I'm sure it was. A very wonderful film, Nashville is too. I love it, I think it's one of Bob's best. In O Lucky Man! the songs on the soundtrack were used as a Greek chorus - that was what was so amazing about it.
     Lindsay asked Alan to do a song which included the lyrics "Everybody's goin' through changes, no one knows what's goin' on" set to the tune of one of his favorite hymns, "What a Friend We Have In Jesus." Alan said "Oh, all right. If you insist, it's a boring old song." What he did was a brilliant rendition. It was great, the lyrics were fantastic. "O Lucky Man!", the title song, was recorded at Riverside Studios and I remember one evening that Alan came from the recording studio with a tape of the last rendition of it. He was up in the clouds about it; we put it on, put up to full volume, and we just sat there and the goose bumps came all up. And I said, "Alan, that's genius. That's a work of pure genius, what a great end for the movie." And it was. And it actually changed my approach to the end of the film, where my character is reaching for the balloons and is understood to be forever reaching up for something in life. That just happened because of the music.
     Of the two versions of the title song in the film, the finale, the more fully realized one is, I think, wonderful. Lindsay was there when they were recording them. He and Alan had a few rows. Alan can be touchy and Lindsay was no peach - the creative process, the usual thing. I mean when I look back, I realize how damn lucky I was, you know? And I took it all for granted at the time. 'Cause you did. That's how life is. What else did we know about? But actually it was the most extraordinary period. Well, he did the two "O Lucky Man!" tracks and the next one was "Poor People" which is a very great song too. And that's where the lyrics are so incredible - "Smile while you're making it, even though you're faking it, nobody is gonna know." - such a great piece. And then "Sell Sell" which was used for a montage of my character, the coffee salesman theme.
    "Pastoral" and "Arrival" are rather nice - he's going to the church after Armageddon, after the world is blown up, and as he walks down and goes into the church you hear this beautiful pastoral piece. "Look Over Your Shoulder" is a bird singing on your windowsill. That's the only song that was written after the filming. Lindsay said, "Look I need a song here." They cut a reel and left it out, but it's been restored to the video version. Lindsay got it put back years later. I had to schlep back to Warner Bros. to check the prints.
     "Justice" is the courtroom scene - "we all want justice but you've got to have the money to buy it" rings true more than ever. It's a great lyric again. And then there was "My Home Town." It's one of those real Geordie songs, something which sets a Northern scene. This is an incredible region, an area of great hardship. Their industry had been mining, shipbuilding and, of course, it died economically as a region but now it's coming back. They have the great soccer team; they're the champions so there's a big revival of the Northeast. Just like in "Changes" - everybody's changing places, but the world still carries on. Ain't that the truth.
     When it came time for the Academy Awards I was absolutely shocked that Alan's music wasn't even nominated; it was one of the biggest travesties in history. It was staggering, and of course, the film wasn't nominated either. I suppose it was a bit ahead of its time. Who knows? But, you know, in those days look at the Academy members. I think the average age was seventy-five. Alan's work was so incredible in this film; of course, everyone's work was at a very high level. But the fact that it was so unique, that it had never been done before, I thought that Alan really deserved to at least get nominated. What they nominated that year was pathetic. It made you cry!
     I remember once when Alan came onto the set. He didn't come onto the set very much because we were shooting the film and his bits were done in a week, including the filming of the band sessions and all that. I remember him coming onto the set, and I don't know what we were shooting, but I remember I was reading the paper. And he comes in and he says in that Geordie accent, "Aaahhhh, so this is shootin' a movie, ay? Well this is pretty easy, ay? Pretty easy." I said, "Yeah, yeah," and continued to read my paper. So the next day, he had his first scene and I remember I was shooting with Helen Mirren, and he had to come on to the roof and say "Are you comin' or stayin'?" while looking at her. And he came on to the roof, and of course: nothing - he just couldn't get it out. I said, "Yeah, hey Alan, man, it's easy, it's easy like readin' the paper!" And of course I was teasing him terribly. He was really pissed off at me and I said to Lindsay, "Look, make it easy for him, have him shout it from the street up to the roof." Which is what they did. He just shouted it, and that's how they got around that. But after that he was fine. Alan is actually a rather good actor. He learned very quickly and he did a wonderful performance. Just working with him was a lot of fun, and being in that bloody van for a week, or whatever it was - I don't know how these musicians do it. "They earn their bread," as they say.
     Well, Alan is still doing the gigs up North, he's working away. He said to me once and I was furious with him, but he said "I have to bear the cross of 'O Lucky Man!'." Because he has to sing it every night. I said, "Alan, what a fucking great cross to bear. If all artists had that kind of cross to bear they'd be very happy. Mine is A Clockwork Orange." I think this is Alan Price's greatest work. Although Alan did the composing and songwriting, Lindsay focused him, and you know how wonderful that was with that man, a man who could be trusted and here was Alan, a great artist at the top of his powers. It was an amazing time. It really was.

Summary - Official

When you're lucky, it also pays to be wise.

    Mick Travis is a lucky man. He's also an ordinary man who wants what we all want - success. It's just not going to come his way in quite the way he expects.
    Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time) stars as salesman Travis in O Lucky Man!, director Lindsay Anderson's hilariously satiric masterpiece. McDowell, who played Mick Travis the schoolboy rebel in if... and Mick Travis the hustling opportunist in Britannia Hospital (both directed by Anderson), here gives us Mick the wide-eyed innocent. Armed with ambition and a bedrock work ethic, Mick sets out on the road to success and finds that desire alone can't bring wealth and status.
    Director Anderson (This Sporting Life, The Whales of August) spins fate's wheel masterfully, landing hapless but never hopeless Travis in one uproariously improbable event after another. The optimistic Everyman rubs elbows with rich and poor alike... and learns firsthand the cruelty that comes from scamming an extra million or lifting a wallet. Ralph Richardson, Helen Mirren, Mona Washbourne and 10 more stars in multiple roles help knit the picaresque adventures together. And commenting with incisive wit and irony on the goings-on is musician Alan Price, the former Animals rocker who provides the film's incredible score.
    Watch closely as a smile forms on Mick's cherubic face during the finale. It could be the smile of enlightenment. Or the smile of a man who understands he'd rather be lucky than good.

My Summary

    The story starts out as a silent black and white Russian style film that is only 1/4 the normal size. It is set on an unknown South American coffee plantation where workers are picking coffee beans under the eyes of the foreman guard. A pretty girl is shown picking beans and then a man is shown stealing beans by putting them into a pouch around his neck. The foreman sees this, catching him in the act. 'Unlucky!' the title card reads.
    He is taken before the judge and is sentenced. He is found 'Guilty' - the title card repeats again and again. His punishment is to have his hands chopped off. The last shot shows his hands about to be chopped off by the guard as he screams.
    The story then switches to normal color and full screen. As the credits role Alan Price and his band are shown rehearsing the song "O Lucky Man!" as Lindsay Anderson sits and listens. Other crew members are also there and at one point Lindsay gets up to check a lyric.
    Now to present day. Mick Travis is a salesman trainee for the Imperial Coffee company in England. He is inside their coffee factory taking the tour given by foreman John Stone. There are also another five men in training and all are wearing long white coats and hats. Mr. Stone leads the trainees down to the shop floor where many women are working packing coffee beans in boxes to ship them off to Nigeria. Mick breaks away from the group and slips under a conveyer belt to flirt with one of the girls. He doesn't get very far when Mr. Stone notices he is gone and calls out to him. He is demonstrating their latest packing machine and asks a question of Mr. Biles who gets it wrong. Mick jumps in with the correct and answer and Mr. Duff, the works manager, comes over to take the group to a lecture hall.
    The hall is where the trainees learn the tricks of the selling trade. Mr. Duff speaks his propaganda and all Mick wants to know is how much a salesman can make. Mr. Duff tells him and soon turns the floor over to Gloria Rowe, the Public Relations Director. She is to teach them the psychology of selling. She invites Mr. McIntyre up to the front of the class and wants him to smile and shake her hand. He fails miserably. He is too nervous and can't even smile. She calls Mick down and he grabs her hand and smiles warmly. She is very impressed and says that she would buy what Mr. Travis is selling. She then wants Mick to show the others how to do it right. Mr. Duff suddenly gets a call from the chairman and he and Gloria both have to quickly exit.
    The chairman is not a happy man. Oswald, their number one salesman in charge of their biggest region, the North-East, has disappeared. No one knows where he is and they need an immediate replacement. They insist the trainees need another two weeks, but the chairman can't wait. He tells Gloria to pick one. Miss Rowe looks down a window at the shop floor and sees Travis and tells him that is his man.
    Mick is brought up to the chairman's office and tells him what an opportunity he has. In one day he has climbed the ladder to the top sales spot. He tells him what he needs to do and sends him off with an apple.
    Mick goes back with Miss Rowe to her office. She has three pots of coffee brewing and wants to give him a taste test to see if he can identify them. She pours the first one and he gets it right. For the second cup she drinks it herself and passes it from her mouth to his. The two begin to kiss and disappear behind the brewing pots.
    The shot cuts back to Alan Price in the studio singing "Poor People", which then cuts to the song playing over the radio in Mick's car.
    He can't afford a car stereo, so he has a small transistor radio hanging from the rearview mirror. A man in a sports car passes Mick and looks over at him when he does. He speeds off into the foggy weather and shortly after there is a crashing sound. Mick can't see what happened until he gets close. The man in the sports car crashed into a food delivery truck, spilling all kinds of groceries onto the road. The man in the car has smashed into the windshield and is bleeding from the head. Mick stops and goes over to check on the bleeding man and puts his coat around him. He is still alive, but dies after giving him a message. Mick checks on the truck driver, but he is dead as well. Shortly after two policemen arrive. Mick is ready to give a statement, but the police aren't interested. He wants to help, but they tell him that if he doesn't take off he might be charged with a crime. The police could say it was his fault. Mick goes to leave and one cop picks up a bag of cheese and gives it to Mick. He drives off and the two policemen starting filling their truck with the spilled food.
    It is nighttime when Mick pulls up to the Southerland House Hotel which will be his home base from now on. Mary Ball runs the place and welcomes him at the door. Bill takes his luggage and leads him up to his room, which until yesterday was Oswald's room. Mary has put all of Oswald's things in a drawer because she didn't want to throw them out.
    Mick goes through Oswald's things when Monty comes in the other door. He is his neighbor and questions Mick about what he is doing and asks if he knew Oswald. Mick tells him he didn't and find some booze and porno magazines and checks them out. Monty wonders if Mick has what it takes to handle the job. Soon after Mary calls up to Mick that dinner is ready.
    Once again we cut back to Alan Price in the studio signing "Sell, Sell, Sell". The music keeps playing as we see Mick doing his job. He goes from store to store, makes deliveries, drives, sells, makes notes and keeps going and going. He goes from town to town with his note cards about the people and what they want.  Mick pulls up to a large steel works that seems abandoned. He finds out they are closing the place down.
    He sits in his car and adds up his totals for the day which aren't even 6 pounds, not a good start. He then heads to the Wakedale Hotel which is very upscale and asks for the catering manager, Mr. Faulkner, at the front desk. He is told to sit and wait while they look for him. After a short time a man comes up to him, not the catering manager, but the hotel manager. He is also the mayor of the town. He tells Mick they can do business together and makes cryptic statements about Oswald. He then tells Mick he has arrived at the perfect time for a party as they have one every Tuesday. He leads him out the back of the hotel to a place in the back called the Nightspot.
    Upon entering the secret location Mick learns it isn't what he thought as all the women working there are scantily clad. Linda, the door girl, takes Mick's briefcase and gives the mayor a smoking jacket and they head off to the main room.
    There is a very crowded barroom and the people are packed at the tables watching a stag film. Mick and the mayor make their way to a nearby table.  The films sows a woman waiting on her bed as Santa comes down the chimney, undresses her and prepares to have sex with her.
    The lights come up and everyone applauds. The mayor introduces Mick to everyone at the table including a girl named Mavis sitting on the lap of the man next to him.  An MC in a silver jacket comes up and asks the crowd what they'd like to see first. Choices are yelled out like 'Roman Candles' and 'Tutti Frutti'. One man yells 'Chocolate Sandwich' and soon the whole crowd, including Mick, starts chanting 'Chocolate Sandwich' over and over. The MC knows they have made their choice and calls out to two white woman and a black man in the crowd. On the stage a fold out bed appears and the two girls in negligee sit on it and start to strip as a black man joins them. During this a woman named Rebecca puts the moves on Mick and sits on his lap. They all watch the activity on the stage as Rebecca pours drinks for them.
    Mick returns back to the hotel late that night with a complimentary case of whisky. He staggers into his room and is about to collapse when he finds Mary naked in his bed waiting for him. She motions to him and he starts to undress and join her.
    It is the next morning and the phone is ringing. Bill comes upstairs and tells Mick the phone is for him. He leaves Mary's sleeping arms and hurriedly dresses and goes down to answer it. It is Gloria and she is telling him he now has to take over Scotland as well as the North-East. Mick can't believe his ears as he has just gotten started and has to travel north another 200 miles and has no clothes for the cold weather, but he has little choice.
    He gets off the phone and heads back upstairs and Monty is waiting for him. He has made a gold suit for Mick and wants to give it to him. Mick doesn't know what to do, but is in little position to turn it down and Monty assures him it will keep him warm.
    Mick, now in the gold suit, grabs his things from his room and tells Mary he'll be back. She knows what he doesn't - that he will never be back. Mick goes into his car and drives off as she watches from the window with tears streaming down her cheeks.
    Mick drives down a long dirt road and must be lost as the road ends at a gate to a government base. The radio is playing and a man is talking about the meaning of Zen. Mick pulls out his map and takes a look to no avail. He then pulls out a pair of binoculars and climbs on the roof of the car for a better look. He has now brought unwanted attention to himself and very quickly two trucks full of soldiers pull up to him. They have him at gunpoint and the captain orders him down. He is taken into the back of the truck and a black bag is put over his head as they drive off.
    The guards lead him into a small room in the giant Atomic Research plant where he is left at a table and the men leave, locking the door behind him. He sits and nothing happens. He tries to open the door and it is locked. He goes to a door on the other side of the room and tries it as well. Surprisingly it is open and he heads out. He goes down a corridor and looks down at some kind of bizarre experiment going on below. It doesn't take long for the guards to catch up to him and take him to a new room with a sort of electric chair they sit him in. Two men are now questioning him and want to know why he is there and where is pass is. He doesn't have a pass and tells him he is looking for Mr. Woolley, his catering contact. They don't believe his is a coffee salesman and think he is a spy. A woman comes in with a beverage cart and sells tea to the two inspectors. 
    They want him to sign a confession and when he refuses a guard ties him down and they zap him. They ask him a battery of questions and cut open his coffee samples looking for evidence. Mick isn't happy about that as he has to pay for them now. Soon after he is willing to sign anything to get out of there. Suddenly an alarm goes off which startles the men and they get up and leave. No one unties Mick and he is stuck there until the tea lady comes back to clean up. She isn't the least bit interested in the alarm, only in cleaning up the mess. She sees Mick still there and unties him. He makes a mad dash for the exit and people are running everywhere on the compound. He leaves through the front and there is thick black smoke pouring from a lab and the staff fleeing everywhere. Soldiers and heavy equipment are rolling in the compound and Mick is able to go right out the front gate with a crowd unchecked. He runs through a wooded area as the sirens continue to wail, hoping to reach his car. Before he gets there a tremendous explosion is heard and debris rain down starting fires all around him. He slides down a sandy slope to his car, but it is on fire. He tries in vain to rescue his radio and his other things, but the gas tank blows up.
    He heads away from the facility and is soon in open green country space. He follows a road to a church where a service is in session. He sits in the back unnoticed and soon passes out.
    When he wakes up the church is empty. There are food offerings all over the altar and he heads up there to get something to eat. Before he can the Vicar's Wife spots him and tells him he can't have any because it is god's food. She then says he is only a boy and cradles him in his lap and pulls out her breast for him to suck on and he does.
    Afterwards she leads him out and tells him the path to take to get back on the main road and has her children lead him. They cross a giant valley that is thick with grass and sheep and arrive at a gate. There he says goodbye to the kids and heads toward the road.
    He stands by the edge of the road trying to hitch a ride to London. A black car stops and a male nurse gets out. He asks Mick if he would like to pick up some cash. Mick asks what he has to do. The nurse tells him he has to be a part of medical research and will get 100 quid. Mick tells him 150 and he has a deal. The nurse says he can't authorize that, but he can talk it over at the facility. Mick agrees and gets in the back with an old lady who has also agreed to go.
    The car pulls up to a building called The Millar Clinic. They are taken inside and Mick and the woman are given ID tags and put in wheelchairs. Soon after Professor Miller, the project leader, arrives and inspects the new arrivals. He checks Mick out and seems pleased. He gives instruction to take him to room nine and wants a complete analysis on him.
    The porters wheel them into the elevator and when they reach their floor they split up. Mick is  taken to the Analysis Room. We  next see him stripped down to only surgical underwear and he is sitting on a reclining hospital table with a large amount of wires strapped to his head. Two doctors and a nurse ask him general questions about his health until Professor Miller enters. He is very happy with the results so far.
    In the next stage Mick is tied to a spinning contraption and the professor has to keep moving around to talk to him. He goes through more tests and then is taken back to his room.
    Mick is sitting up in bed and the professor explains to him what he hopes to accomplish. Basically he wants to genetically engineer humans to the point of perfection. He needs Micks' help and will pay him 100 pounds for the week if he signs. Mick haggles with him until he gets a better deal. The professor gives him a shot to put him to sleep and leaves.
    He doesn't go to sleep though and overhears how they are going to perform surgery and sterilize him. When the coast is clear he makes his escape. He puts on his suit and tiptoes down the hall. He hears approaching voices of the nurse and ducks into another room. He hears the sound of a man whimpering and turns on the light to comfort him. When the man won't stop he pulls back the sheet and screams in horror. The man's head has been grafted onto the body of a giant pig. Mick tears out of the room, slams into a nurse and dives head first out of a window.
    He doesn't die as the next shot shows him furiously peddling a bike out the main gate. A white van is coming up the road and nearly collides with him. Mick swerves hard to avoid it and winds up crashing into the bushes. He is mad and wet from the fall and his bike is ruined. The roadie driver gets out to see if he is OK and then Alan Price gets out and asks who is suing who. Mick asks him if he is going to London and he says he was. He asks him for a ride and he agrees.
    Inside the van it is pretty cramped. Alan is in the back with another man watching two other band mates who are playing chess and two men are up in the front. He tells Mick to sit in the back and be quiet. After a little bit something moves next to him. It is a girl, Patricia. She instantly comes on to him and has him remove his wet clothes so she can warm him up. Mick asks who they are and what they do. Alan tells them they are musicians. Mick removes most of his clothes and curls up with Patricia in a rug. One thing leads to another and they soon have sex.
    Alan has gone up front and after Mick finishes he joins him. It is nearly dawn and they are getting close to London.
    The next morning Mick wakes up in Patricia's bed, but she is nowhere to be found. He pulls a sweater out of a closet and puts his gold suit on over it. He hears Alan singing and heads in that direction. The band is rehearsing in the main room and Mick asks her where Patricia is. He tells him she is upstairs. The crew points the way and Mick climbs a ladder that leads to the roof. She is wearing a long flowing dress that is see through and painting on a chimney, it is like an open air apartment up there. She greets him and gets some champagne out of a refrigerator that is up there.  He talks about making it and the opportunity of London. She tells him if he really wants it to just take it. He asks where all the stuff she has comes from. She tells him from home and that her father never misses it. Mick wonders about the cost of a nearby large skyscraper and Patricia tells him. When he asks how she knows she explains it is because her father owns it. He is very intrigued. She gets in the mood and starts kissing him, but he is more interested in her father. Alan then calls up from the street if she is coming with him and she leaves Mick alone.
    He goes back down to find a good suit as his gold one is worn all over. During the scene we can hear "Poor People" playing in the background. Mick finds new clothes and Patricia's address book. He calls over to her father, Sir James, and cons his way into a meeting with him by saying that his daughter is in trouble.
    He arrives at the building, takes the elevator up and enters the lobby and is instructed to wait for Sir James. Professor Stewart is in Sir James office and is loudly arguing. His not happy and is getting belligerent. James wants him out and soon his assistant William and the professor grab each other and start pushing out into the lobby. They wind up knocking Mick out of his chair and the professor breaks down crying and the secretary gets some liquor to come him down. William invites Mick into Sir James' office reminding him how important Sir James is.
    Mick sits down and explains that Patricia is in trouble and how he can help her. No matter what he says though, Sir James doesn't seem interested. There is a ruckus as the professor comes back in the office all crazy. Since he can't get his way he is going to jump out the window of the high rise office. William rushes over to stop him, but the professor has the window open by now. William grabs him and starts to scuffle, but the men lose their balance and both go tumbling out the window to their deaths.
    Sir James calls all the executives in for a quick memorial, tells his secretary to get him Vancouver and then gives Mick the job of his personal assistant and heads out with him. In Sir James Rolls Royce a phone rings. Mick answers and it is the call Sir James is expecting. He talks of severance pay as the car pulls up to a mansion.
    The mansion belongs to Dr, Munda, a wealthy black leader. Introductions are made to Munda's people. Munda has brought everyone together to make a proposal to Sir James. One of the men is introduced as Oswald and we know know where the ex-coffee salesman has ended up.
    They get a film ready and dim the lights. The presentation is about Zingara, an island nation of which Dr. Munda is president. There is only one small hotel and Munda's proposal is a giant 500 room hotel complex to capitalize on tourism. Sir James asks questions and Munda answers. When he can't answer he defers the questions to one of his experts who comes up to speak. This continues until Sir James gets to the question of the threats of civil war. Munda gives Colonel Steiger the floor who is in charge of putting down the insurrection. He shows them a war reel and explains that Sir James can get a partnership in the entire deal not by investing money, but by securing an adequate supply of honey for him to finish the job of squashing the revolt. Honey is a nickname for napalm.
    Sir James is interested, but hides his emotions. He wants to work over the details with Basil. Madam Paillard, Munda's French companion, offers Mick a drink and Oswald congratulates him. Sir James offers to send Mick to finalize the details and Munda tells a story about how Sir James used to drink with his brother. He then reveals he has had him arrested, but hasn't hung him yet.
   The next day Mick is chauffeured to the National Political Club. He exits the car in an expensive suit and bowler hat. Basil meets him there and both men have magazine they place on the table. Basil orders them drinks and each picks up the others magazine. They pocket the envelopes with the instructions within each magazine.
    Shots of Sir James Rolls going along are shown. The scene breaks to Alan singing "Look Over Your Shoulder", then back to the car. Mick is in the back. He lights a cigarette, pours himself a drink and checks himself out. The car soon pulls up to a RAF base. Mick meets with the Group Captain who is supervising the loading of honey into a massive transport plane. Mick gives him the papers and signs for the 12,000 gallons of the honey and the deal is done.
    That night there is a dinner celebration at Sir James' house and Dr. Munda and his guests are in attendance. There is a bit of small talk and Sir James sends Mick into his study with a combination to his safe and tells him to bring back the briefcase inside. 
    Mick goes down the hall and into the study and finds the wall safe and opens it, takes the briefcase out and hears voices on the other side of the room behind a screen. He goes over and is quite surprised to find Patricia there, completely dressed up and made up with diamond jewelry as well. She is lying on a sofa and a man is on his knees proposing. Mick startles the man and he runs off. He wants to know what she is doing there and who that was. She tells him she lives there and that he is a duke who wants to marry her. Mick is not happy about that, but she admits she hasn't decided yet. He tells her he is going to marry her and shows him what a success he has become by revealing the gold bars in the briefcase. They kiss and he tells her to wait there and he'll come for her after he is done.
    Mick places the case on the table. Sir James brings out the papers and they sign them with Mick signing as a witness. Suddenly the phone rings. The Fraud Squad is at the door and on their way up. Sir James gives Mick the briefcase and the papers. The inspector checks him out and everyone denies signing the papers except for Mick and he is arrested. Sir James says he'll take care of the briefcase and the inspector takes Mick away. Sir James sits and things resume as before. Before they even get Mick into the car the police take turns beating him up.
    Cut to Alan singing "Justice" at his piano. The song fades out and the scene changes to a court room.
    Mick is standing trial for trying to smuggle 10 million pounds of gold from his employer. It doesn't matter what he says, he is found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail. During a break the judge goes in the back and takes off his robe. He is only wearing read briefs and lays on a table. The bailiff takes out a whip and whips him across the back.
    Mick is shown in his cell on his last day of sentence. Each day has been counted off on the wall in chalk.  He is a changed man, no longer consumed with greed. He is spending the last time with a pet dove before he sets it loose through the bars.
    The guard is impressed with him and leads him to the warden's office. The warden also likes him and talks a bit about his future and reads him an inspirational passage from a book his grandmother gave him. After he finishes he then gives the book to Mick. He is released with two other men. Both of them have rides waiting for them and are quickly out of sight. One later comes back for Mick, but he declines. He says his final goodbye to the warder and departs.
    Mick is walking down the road and comes across a Salvation army gathering. A major is speaking, women are singing and there is a band playing. One woman comes up to him for donations and he gladly gives two pounds. The woman is so impressed by his generosity since he has just gotten out of prison and has almost nothing. She makes a point of telling the major. He halts the band and proudly announces what Mick has done. Everything is going well until the major asks him to come up and bear witness for his sins. Mick tells him he doesn't believe in sin which doesn't make the major happy. Mick tells him he used to think that way, but now he knows that people are good if you give them a chance. Two bums eye Mick and take advantage of his naivety and pick pocket everything he has including his money. When Mick goes to get his book the Warden gave him he can't find it. One of the bums quickly sticks it in a different pocket so he won't suspect anything. He reads from the book and only upsets the major more who replies and then gets the band started up again to drown Mick out.
    Mick heads off again and some men run by and bump into him, knocking the book from his hands. The men pick up a ladder and are trying to get up to a second story window. There are people all over the alley and women shouting from the upper stairwell. The men with the ladder come up short and are mocked. Mick asks what is going on and is told a woman, Mrs. Richards, is going to kill herself. Mick is deeply troubled by this and sets out to stop her. The door to her apartment is locked and he can't get in so he climbs out on a ledge and over to the window which he is able to open a crack. He can't get in, but can see the woman with her two children and talk to her. She is cleaning the floor and he asks why. She says she doesn't want to be accused of leaving a mess behind. He tries to comfort her with passages from the book the warden gave him. It doesn't work, she is fed up and has made up her mind. They go back and forth a bit and then she goes into the next room to finish the job. He scrambles to climb across to the next ledge to stay with her and grabs onto a drain pipe. Right away the pipe starts to come loose and he falls into the garbage below, knocking himself out. 
    Cut to Alan at his piano singing "My Home Town". When Mick awakes it is nighttime and a policeman finds him. Mick has no ID or anything on him and the policeman is not happy to see him. He then finds out he hadn't been able to stop Mrs. Richards. The policeman finds Mick's bag and harshly sends him on his way.
    He wanders down the street and soon finds a women in a vacant lot who has set up an impromptu soup kitchen out of the back of her truck. She is feeding some old bums when Mick comes up to her. She gives him something and he asks her if she does this every night. She tells him she does it when she can. He asks her if she gets paid for and and she tells him no. Mick then happily asks if he can help and she is pleased. She gives him a big soup tureen and cups and instructs him to feed her regular derelicts around a nearby bonfire and then leaves him there. He isn't sure what to do, she tells him to be herself and she'll be back around five.
    He hands out cups to a dirty women and some others and gives them soup. Then he suddenly recognizes with horror that the filthy woman is Patricia. He asks what happen to the duke? She tells him the sickly man on her lap is the duke. Just then one of the meths drinkers goes into the bonfire and Mick drops everything to try and help him from burning to death. Instead of pleasing the bums, this angers them as the man was trying to commit suicide. Mick can't understand their anger and tries to comfort them. He preaches about how they are all brothers and how great the world is. They start attacking him and he runs. The mob catches up to him and start pelting him with rocks. He loses his footing and falls into a pit. They then roll a fifty-five gallon drum at him to crush him.
    The screen goes black and then once again we see Alan in his rehearsal room. Now he is singing "Changes."
    We then cut to Mick walking on busy street corner looking for food and money. He picks up a cigarette butt and stops a man asking for change. He then comes upon a young man wearing his old gold suit with a large sandwich board which reads "Want to be a star?". He hands Mick a flyer telling him to try his luck.
    Mick enters the cattle call audition hall. Tons of hopeful men are there and a woman that looks like Patricia, but doesn't acknowledge him. She takes his info and he takes a seat. Lindsay Anderson is on stage casting his film if.... and a few men have their pictures taken. Lindsay notices Mick in the crowd and instructs his casting agent to go get him. 
    They put him in front of a screen and take his picture holding books and then a gun. Lindsay tells him to be aggressive, then he tells him to smile. Mick has lost his smile and tells him he can't smile without a reason. Lindsay tells him to just do it, but he can't and argues about it until Lindsay smacks him across the face. Suddenly, he starts to smile.
    There is a blackout and then Alan is in a tuxedo up on stage in the audition hall singing "O Lucky Man." 
    Mick is then in the middle of the crowd in his gold suit and Lindsay comes over to congratulate him. Then other actors from the film come up to him. The music is still playing and all the actors wearing in costume are dancing together for the wrap party. Then balloons drop from the ceiling and people are reaching for them Mick jumps up and hits one and the scenes fades on him reaching for the balloons. The End

My Review

    At first glimpse the film seems very British, but the essence of the story is universal. Granted the entire cast, crew and setting is British, but it really is an epic everyman story. Who of us hasn't just been going along as we always do when something totally unexpected comes along and changes everything? Whether it is an accident or a chance meeting that develops into a lifelong romance. From then on we are completely changed and this is what I get from the film. One day Mick is training to sell coffee and the next day he running the largest area the company has, then Scotland and then he is arrested as a spy.  If he hadn't been trying to escape from the hospital on his bike he never would've almost gotten hit by Alan's bus and never would met Patricia. Then he works for her father and goes to jail. Every new event leads into another path.
    Even after nearly 30 years this remains Malcolm's longest film and will probably always hold that title. Other films came along like Voyage of the Damned and Firestarter that were quite long, but they were far from Malcolm vehicles. In OLM! Malcolm is in every scene for the entire three hours. It is also the first time he plays multiple roles as he plays the nameless thief in the intro.
    Even though it is billed as a sequel to if..., it is not a sequel in the sense you expect when the first film ends and the second film takes it from there. Malcolm's character could've been named anything at all, but by keeping his character's name the same as in if.... it makes it continuous. Even though a dozen actors appeared in both films, only Mick and Biles are the same characters from the first film. Hugh Thomas who played Denson is the only other student from if...., but he plays other characters. Like the switching from black and white to color in if... the fact that every main actor plays multiple roles and was another groundbreaking aspect of the film. Arthur Lowe appears as he did in all of Lindsay's films, so it is a Lindsay tradition to include his "cinematic" family. In fact the actor who played the headmaster from if.... is once again Mick's boss in the coffee factory.  There is only one little throwaway line to link the films when Mick is asked "if the headmaster was right to expel him from school." The line is funny for those familiar from if.... because to think the only that happened to Mick for machine gun killing a bunch of people at the school was just an expulsion. Otherwise there is no explanation. He didn't go to prison and isn't even bitter at this point.
    Unfortunately if you haven't seen OLM! in the theater, then you really haven't seen it. The new print is better than any new film, it is that stunning and until there is a DVD release it is the only way to see it. Until I saw this new 35mm print I didn't even think a film could be this perfect in the theater. It is like a DVD projection on the big screen.
    Like if.... I see this film as a bunch of short stories woven together. I think even more so in OLM! because so many actors appear later in different roles, so it doesn't even matter that they appeared before - they have no relation to the previous characters and with the exception of Patricia, never appear again. Even at the end Helen is playing the casting director, and we are left to wonder if it is Patricia, but they do not acknowledge each other. 
    Unlike if... Mick is the central character throughout while during if.... we aren't even sure who the main character is as it shifts perspective. Because of this it is up to Malcolm to carry the entire film which he does without a doubt. Sadly, because of the length the film didn't get the rollout it deserved upon first release in 1973 and was not widely seen. It is also one of the first long films that wasn't a historic epic. In the 50s and early 60s the only epic films were things like Ben Hur, Spartacus and Cleopatra. I think OLM! broke boundaries by saying a film doesn't have to be set thousands of years ago to be epic.  If it had been a "hit" the world would've been able to see Malcolm as a leading man instead of just Alex.
    The amazing thing which is really a tribute to the great man, Lindsay Anderson, is that even though the film is 30 years old, it hasn't dated at all. In fact it has become even more relevant today with medical experimentation on humans and cloning that was going on in the film. Malcolm said in NY, "The only thing that dates the film in the cars." For those of us who haven't grown up in England it is easy to look past the cars and locales since they aren't familiar to us anyway. In many cases those locales have stayed the same anyway. When Mick enters the busy streets at the end an LED ticker goes by that reads "Troops and terrorists clash". This really hits home as it could say the same thing today. In this case I feel the film is even more important today than it was when it was made. A long time ago Malcolm said Lindsay wouldn't truly be appreciated until after he was gone and sadly I think he was right.
    Another original concept was to include clips of Alan Price actually playing the songs live instead of just playing them in the background which is always the way it is done now. This really puts them in your face and they can't be ignored. The songs aren't just background fodder, but lead into the next scene. I think the most effective song is "Sell, Sell" which plays as Mick is shown on his first day going from place to place going through the routine. There is no dialog at all as the song plays like a music video. In that way it was also groundbreaking.
    There is also a weird religious scene in the film that takes you by surprise. In if.... it is the chaplain in the drawer in the headmasters office. In OLM! it is when the Vicar's wife breast feeds Mick near the altar. Both scenes are over the top and unexpected. It seems that from these scenes Lindsay was against religion saying it is something you can pull out of a drawer when you need it and is fed to you like a child.
    The other exciting part about seeing the film in the theater was this showing was the first time the film had ever been played in the US with the missing reel. The scene is when Mick tries to stop Mrs. Richards from killing herself. The deed isn't shown, so we don't know how it happened, just that it did happen which makes it more poignant. It was such a great scene and a very special treat to see it for the first time - like finding a lost treasure.
    I can't recommend the film enough. Now you can only watch and old VHS release or if you are fortunate enough and willing to spend some bucks - get the laserdisc. This is OK, but it just won't give you the full effect. With no official DVD release yet, I wish everyone could experience it in the theater the way it was meant to be seen. This film is a benchmark in Malcolm's career as it was the basically the last film he had to completely carry and that it marked his longest time away from acting. Because it was disappointing at the box office, Malcolm took over a year off from filming. Something he hasn't done since.

Rating: 9.75/10

Together Again

1975 - Malcolm and Helen Mirren were in The Collection.
1976 - Malcolm and Philip Stone were in Voyage of the Damned.
1979 - Malcolm and Helen Mirren were in Caligula.
1980 - Malcolm and Lindsay did the play Look Back in Anger at the Roundabout in NY.
1982 - Malcolm, Graham Crowden, Patricia Healey, Peter Jeffrey, Arthur Lowe, Mary MacLeod, Dandy Nichols, Vivian Pickles, Brian Pettifer were in Britannia Hospital.
1985 - Malcolm, Warren Clarke and Brian Pettifer were in Gulag.
1987 - Malcolm and Lindsay did the play Holiday at the Old Vic.
1997 - Philip Stone and Warren Clarke were in Dalziel and Pascoe: Deadheads.

Together Before

1963 - Lindsay and Arthur Lowe worked on This Sporting Life.
1966 - Lindsay and Arthur Lowe worked on The White Bus.
1966 - Malcolm and Helen Mirren were both in the Royal Shakespeare Company  
1968 - Malcolm, Ben Aris, Geoffrey Chater, Graham Crowden, Peter Jeffrey, Arthur Lowe, Mary MacLeod, Anthony Nicholls, Christine Noonan, Brian Pettifer, Hugh Thomas and Mona Washbourne were in if....
4/6/70 - Lindsay and Philip Stone did the play 'The Contractor' at the Fortune Theatre London.
11/9/71 - Lindsay and Warren Clarke did the play 'The Changing Room' at the Royal Court.
1971 - Malcolm, Philip Stone and Warren Clarke were in A Clockwork Orange.

This page © 1997-07 Alex D. Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net

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