Knack... And How to Get It

UPC: 027616879011

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Questionable for Children]

Summary: Colin (Michael Crawford, who much later won a Tony Award for his role in Broadway's Phantom of the Opera) is an uptight schoolteacher whose housemate, Tolen (Ray Brooks) is a consummate womanizer. Colin imagines a long line of young women in tight white sweaters on his stairwell, waiting to get into Tolen's room. Jealous of Tolen's incredible success with the ladies, Colin asks Tolen for advice on how to get a girl. When Tolen's advice doesn't seem very practical, Colin decides that his first order of business is to get a bigger bed. Colin is also trying to find a third roommate to take a spare room. Tom (Donal Donnelly), who seems compelled to paint everything in sight, happens by the house, and inserts himself in the spare room without so much as saying "hello." Nancy (Rita Tushingham of A Taste of Honey) is new in town, and wanders the streets of London in a fruitless search for the YWCA. She runs into Colin and Tom at the dump, where they are procuring a gigantic bed. They offer her a ride, and proceed to race through London on the bed. Colin seems too shy to speak much to Nancy, despite Tom's encouragement. Eventually, the trio reach Colin's house, where Tolen works his gruff magic on Nancy, and havoc ensues. Capturing late 1960s London in black-and-white, Richard Lester's The Knack. . .and How to Get It was released between the director's two successes with the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Help. The script, by Charles Wood (An Awfully Big Adventure) is based on a play by Ann Jellicoe. Future stars Jacqueline Bisset, Charlotte Rampling, and Jane Birkin appear briefly amid all the attractive young women in the film. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – null Best Foreign Film - English Language – null Grand Prix – Cannes Film Festival Best Foreign Film - English Language – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: ccOriginal theatrical trailer

Knack... And How to Get It

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 09/17/2002

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 85 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Main Title/The Call [6:49]
2. One For the Road [6:36]
3. Playmates [2:23]
4. Hanging On Every Word [2:34]
5. Driver's Seat [8:59]
6. Moving In [3:57]
7. Perfect Strangers [4:13]
8. Bed Time [10:11]
9. Dandy Lions [7:25]
10. Once More With Feeling [7:08]
11. A Lift [2:00]
12. Easy Rider [3:17]
13. Car's Meow [2:06]
14. Down for the Count [3:52]
15. Sweet Revenge [9:56]
16. Fantasy Isle/End Credits [3:30]

Josh Ralske

Richard Lester's The Knack. . .and How to Get It is thought by many to be a classic black-and-white comedy of sexual mores in swinging 60s London, but the film's value as more than a relic of its time is lessened by its frequently stagy dialogue and lighthearted view of sexual assault. Playfully ripping off everyone from Buster Keaton to Jean-Luc Godard, Lester uses the same offhand, non sequitur humor, jump cutting, and sight gags that made his Beatles film, A Hard Day's Night, such a joy. But while they all have their moments, Michael Crawford, Rita Tushingham, Ray Brooks, and Donal Donnelly are not the Beatles, and only Donnelly, given many of the script's funniest lines, approaches their realm of impudent charm. Lester's use of the voices of older Londoners as a kind of "square" Greek chorus is a hackneyed and sometimes irritating device. There are some funny moments in the film, but a lot of the humor is rooted in obvious Benny Hill-style double entendres (such as Colin's (Crawford) repeated whining about the size of his "bed"). The last third of the film, through which Tushingham runs through London, repeatedly (and wrongfully) crying "rape" was obviously meant to be irreverent, shocking, and funny. Nowadays, it's just discomfiting. The Knack is very watchable as a product of its times, but it doesn't deserve its reputation as a classic of the British cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jacqueline Bisset  Actor 
Charles Dyer  Actor 
John Porter Davison  Actor 
Lucy Bartlett  Actor 
William Dexter  Actor 
Helen Lennox  Actor 
Charles Wood  Actor 
Vincent Harding  Actor 
Frank Sieman  Actor 
Peter Copley  Actor 
Julian Holloway  Actor 
Bruce Lacey  Actor 
Wanda Ventham  Actor 
Timothy Bateson  Actor 
Dandy Nichols  Actor 
Walter Horsbrugh  Actor 
Kenneth Farrington  Actor 
Charlotte Rampling  Actor 
Katherine Page  Actor 
George Chisholm  Actor 
Rose Hillier  Actor 
Marlo Thomas  Actor 
John Barry  Composer (Music Score) 
Michael Deeley  Producer 
Richard Lester  Director 
Charles Wood  Screenwriter 
Oscar Lewenstein  Producer 
Rita Tushingham  Actor 
Ray Brooks  Actor 
Michael Crawford  Actor 
Donal Donnelly  Actor 
John Bluthal  Actor 
Wensley Pithey  Actor 

Country: UK