Originally posted on 6/1/21
Currently watching: TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU (1970) with Hayley Mills and Oliver Reed.
Former child star Hayley Mills was well into adulthood when she starred as school teacher Jenny Bunn, just arrived in town and moving into a boarding house owned by a bickering couple, local political candidate Dick Thompson (John Bird) and his domineering, unhappy wife Martha (Sheila Hancock).
Jenny's roommate, a free-spirited young girl named Anna (Geraldine Sherman), introduces her to a friend, confirmed bachelor and insatiable ladies' man Patrick Standish (Oliver Reed), who takes an instant fancy to Jenny.
Patrick's a fast worker and in no time has Jenny in his apartment to see how far he can go and how fast. Jenny throws a huge roadblock in his path--namely, the fact that she's a virgin (which shocks him) and doesn't want to have sex until it's with someone she loves and who loves her in return.
This, of course, is the spark that ignites the perpetually aroused and resolutely single-minded Patrick's manic attempts to get the reluctant Jenny into bed with him for literally the rest of the film.
So adamant is Jenny's refusal to give in that Hayley and Oliver's scenes together, she standoffish and he bearishly insistent, have an uncomfortable edge to them, as though we can feel her nervous claustrophobia in his overbearing presence.
This is acerbated by the fact that Oliver Reed was simply a big, overbearing actor, one who was so well cast in the lead role in CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF that we almost expect him to turn into a raging, snarling lycanthrope every time his wishes and desires are thwarted.
Which doesn't happen, thank goodness, although he is, at the very least, a really big pest, a matter that's only aggravated by his mutually sex-obsessed friend Julian (Noel Harrison). Julian is Dick's campaign advisor when not spending his time as an idle playboy in a huge mansion (one that's about to be torn down to make way for a new roadway, which is why he wants Dick elected).
Julian's ultra-casual view of sex makes him a bad influence on Patrick, as does Julian's ultra-amorous spokesmodel girlfriend Wendy (Aimi MacDonald), who oozes pheromones and throws herself at men like a linebacker.
Adding fuel to this slow-burning pyre of social anxiety is Julian's other bachelor friend Graham, a romantically needy shlub who takes an unrequited fancy to Jenny. Graham is played by Ronald Lacey (CRUCIBLE OF TERROR, "The Avengers: The Joker") , best known as Gestapo bad guy Toht in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but who in this case is a rather meek and sympathetic little fellow.
With all of these characters repeatedly gathered together at cross purposes and in the most unromantic and emotionally inhospitable social situations one might imagine, TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU is the sort of film that calls itself a comedy but is more like a human demolition derby that we watch in constant apprehension of what will transpire next.
That all this manages to remain rather pleasantly entertaining is a credit to original novel author Kingsley Amis and to Jonathan Miller, a prolific television writer/producer (BBC's "Alice In Wonderland") making his sole feature film as director.
Miller gives the whole affair enough of a light, casual touch to keep it palatable even though he lacks the sharp visual and verbal wit of a Mike Nichols or Elaine May. He's helped in no small part by a musical score by Stanley Myers (THE DEER HUNTER) which is surprisingly rich and vibrant for a film of this kind and also includes some very catchy pop songs.
Hayley, of course, is a delight throughout, and we can understand why Patrick, the urbanely sleazy Julian, and the rest all end up with their sights on her. What finally happens when she can't put them all off anymore is what makes the slow but reasonably involving TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU worth staying with till the end.
