The Knack . . . And How to Get It (hereafter The Knack, for short) is a quintessentially British comedy, except that it was directed by American-born transplant Richard Lester, who built a career around discovering amusement in life and people.

Historical Background: Richard Lester was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1932. He was very intelligent and entered the university at just fifteen years of age, receiving a degree in clinical psychology. He went to Britain in 1954 and spent most of the rest of his life working there or elsewhere in Europe, only occasionally working in America. He initially took employment as a director for live television, which earned him a shot at a variety show, "The Dick Lester Show," which survived exactly one episode. That was enough, however, to garner the attention of Peter Sellers, who arranged a luncheon with Lester, where the two concocted the idea for a television version of the already popular BBC radio comedy, "The Goon Show." The result was "Idiot Weekly," which was not only a big success but also the true beginning of Richard Lester's vision as a comedian and filmmaker.

Lester's first film, The Running, Jumping, and Standing Still Film (1959), was produced during an afternoon in the country with some of the cast from "Idiot Weekly." It was given an Academy Award. That led to Rind-a-Ding Rhythm (1962) and The Mouse on the Moon (1963). Lester's career then moved into high gear when he was tapped to direct the first of the great Beatles' films, A Hard Day's Night (1964). He repeated that success with Help! (1965) (See review by Brendan2 at Review). During this time period, Lester was closely linked in the minds of the public to the "Swinging London" scene of the sixties, though he was not truly very centrally involved in it. This was the same time period and lifestyle that has been so ably satirized by Mike Myers's Austin Powers series (See MrsNormanMaine's review Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; Redmaple's review Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; and tbthorn's review Austin Powers in Goldmember). Richard Lester took his final crack at the swinging London scene with his Palme d'Or winning film, The Knack . . . And How to Get It (1965), which is the film presently under review. Lester's style in this group of films was somewhat frenetic and characterized by quick cuts and odd camera angles. Lester placed a lot of emphasis on physical humor and sight gags.

Lester was now in peak form and followed with a number of delicious comedies: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) (See Carrathon's Review), How I Won the War (1967), and Petulia (1968) (See BillTK's Review), one of his few films produced and set in America. Apparently carried away by the flush of success, Lester then directed The Bed Sitting Room (1969), an especially weird comedy that flopped so badly at the box-office that Lester had to wait over four years for funding for his next picture.

From here, Lester's career took a sharp turn, at least on the surface of it. He veered away from stories with a contemporary setting in preference for historical and fantasy-based pieces. It was now the mid-seventies and the film studios had renewed interest in working with so-called "maverick" directors like Lester. The result was Juggernaut (1974), starring Richard Harris and Omar Sharif. Now back in the good graces of the financiers, Lester next directed two consecutive delightful renditions of Dumas' musketeer stories, The Three Musketeers (1974) (see drdevience's Review) and The Four Musketeers (1975) (see telynor's Review). Another success from this period was Royal Flash (1975), featuring the bully from "Tom Brown's Schooldays." He continued in the period vein with Robin and Marian (1976) (See Redmaple's Review), a somewhat irreverent follow-up to the Robin Hood legend featuring Sean Connery as an aging Robin. In these classic romances, Lester's take in each case was, if not anti-romantic, distinctly anti-sentimental. For Lester, romance only exists in the context of turmoil and human foibles. Cuba (1979) (See soothsayer's Review) was closer to the present, set in the Cuba of Batista, just before the revolution. It, too, is a love story set against the darker realities of political and social upheaval.

Lester next turned his hand to the comic book-based fantasy pieces, Superman II (1980) (See JediKermit's Review) and Superman III (1983) (see KidFlash25's Review). The former film was much more successful and highly regarded than the latter one. It's amazing that Superman II was as good as it was, since Lester was only brought in after Richard Donner was dismissed as director with 20% of the film already completed. Similar to his view of romance, Lester's take on heroism is tinged by cynicism. The Superman of his conception is all too human as was his Robin in Robin and Marian and his musketeers. In Lester's view, heroes are not all that we might hope them to be. Superman II proved to be Lester's last great film, though he made a few more. He lost his taste for directing after his close friend Roy Kinnear died during the shooting of The Return of the Musketeers (1989).

The Story: There's not much story, here. What plot exists, based on a successful London and off-Broadway play by Ann Jellicoe, is mostly pretext for a variety of witticisms and sight gags. Set in London, Tolen (Ray Brooks) is a killer lady's man, smooth and suave and sometimes able to bed a woman in ten minutes flat, from "hello" to "goodbye." Colin (Michael Crawford), is Tolen's landlord in a small apartment building and a nerdy, school teacher whose success with women borders on nonexistent. He was a late starter, as he is at pains to explain. He is torn between envy and irritation at the noises emanating from Tolen's apartment, signifying his conquests, and the continuous line of beautiful women passing in and out. There is a spare room in the building that Colin is fixing up to let and Tolen wants it let to a friend of his who is similarly facile with the fair sex so that they can more readily share conquests. Colin suspects that having two Casanovas in his building would drive him over the edge.

In any case, that dispute is settled when Tom (Donal Donnelly), a fastidious painter, moves in on his own initiative. Though the room is advertised as furnished, Tom removes the furniture to the hallway and proceeds to paint the entire room, windows and all, entirely white. Tom doesn't much take to Tolen, mocking him by suggesting that if he is really so successful with women, he ought to be able to accomplish a seduction in just four minutes – like Roger Bannister's four minute mile. Meanwhile, Nancy Jones (Rita Tushingham), arrives in London fresh from the country, a naïve and innocent bumpkin if ever there was one. She is searching for the YWCA, which seems to have been badly misplaced. She does at least have the perspicacity to recognize that Buckingham Palace is not the Y.

Colin is convinced that his love life might improve if his bed were larger. He and Tom go searching at the dump and come up with a king size brass bed on wheels, just about the same time that Nancy shows up there, still searching for the YWCA. The young men promise to show her how to get to the Y on their way back to the apartment building with the bed, which they proceed to roll through the streets of London, pulling, pushing, and attaching it to the back of an unsuspecting car, all the while using the bed as a trampoline. One segment of the trip involves attaching the bed to oil drums and floating it down The Thames River. Back on land, the boys tell Nancy to hop on the bed while they carry it down a set of steps, causing her to naively opine, "You're picking me up, aren't you?" Fact is, Colin is taking a bit of shine to her and vice versa.

Trouble arises, however, with the bed jammed irrevocably in the stairwell of the apartment, as Tolen waltzes home. Tolen has never seen a woman as wide-eyed and innocent as Nancy who he did not desire and has never desired a woman without conquering her. For her part, Nancy is hopelessly mesmerized by Tolen's smooth advances and he's soon whisking her off on his motorcycle. Tom and Colin, however, are in hot pursuit on foot, leading to a zany chase reminiscent of the keystone cops. Riotous sight gags and physical humor abound! There is an outrageously funny segment near the end built on the exceptional power of one particular word (which I'll leave unnamed) to discombobulate male-female relations.

Themes: Comedies mostly don't have much thematic content. The Knack is pretty much pure farce, although, as a stretch, one might argue that Lester is simultaneously mocking the excess of sexual liberation of the mod world of London in the sixties and the up-tight, nostalgia of the old folks for a time of greater hardship and moral purity that probably never existed in the first place. Lester had no patience for nostalgia for the past or one's childhood. "I'm talking about that false nostalgia," he said, "that dictates that everything was wonderful in the past. If someone talks to me about the good old days, I positively rush to find out what was horrible – kids with no shoes, working down the pits, all of that, in an attempt to find balance."

Production Values: The script is lively and quick paced, packed with one-liners and opportunities for physical humor. Wrapped around the story itself is an on-going commentary from a crowd of elderly people remarking disapprovingly on the action of these wild youth. It's in the general character of "Well, in my day, we walked eight miles to school in the rain and now all these young people want to do is ride around in cars and waste their time." These elders act as a kind of Greek chorus, adding another layer of consciousness to the proceedings. The script is also nicely supplemented by a breezy, upbeat score provided by John Barry.

All of the performances are delightful. Michael Crawford has quite a flair for physical humor, whether falling in the river, getting his trousers caught as he tries to scale a spiked wrought-iron fence, or trampolining through a priceless painting. Rita Tushingham has this one scene in a park amidst Magnolia petals where she delivers a soliloquy with as much wide-eyed innocence as I ever seen on a face. She made her film debut starring in A Taste of Honey (1961). Ray Brooks plays a part a bit reminiscent of Fonzi in the American television series "Happy Days." Donal Donnelly, as Tom the artist, delivers his lines with great timing and a wide range of facial expressions.

Bottom-Line: For me, comedies only have one bottom-line. Did it make me laugh? For the first fifteen minutes of this film, I thought it was going to be a dud and was already anticipating whacking it with maybe a two-star rating. After that, it kept getting better and better until I was forced to muffle my outright laughter because I was watching the film after the rest of my family was already asleep. Richard Lester has stated that his main cinematic influence was Buster Keaton but one can certainly also see shades of Jacques Tati in his style. Tati's style, however, is almost entirely sight gags with very little dialog (see Mon Oncle) while Lester combines sight gags with verbal banter and one-liners. The combination works better for me personally. I like to be surprised by the sight gags, which isn't going to happen with Tati.

If you liked the two great Beatles' films, A Hard Day's Night and Help!, as much for the humor as for the Fab-Four themselves, then you're sure to like this movie as well. It has the same quirky sensibility, though it's more of a standard bedroom farce. I personally rate it below A Hard Day's Night but above Help!. The Knack won the Golden Palm from the Cannes Film Festival in 1965. The Knack is in English with a brisk running time of just 85 minutes.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age