BFI Flipside DVD and Blu-Ray have released George Harrison's first foray into film production, Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974, directed by Stuart Cooper). Harrison financed the low-budget film after seeing John Hurt give a commanding performance in the stage play by David Halliwell in 1965. The bleak, black comedy once again becomes a tour de force for John Hurt as delusional, charismatic revolutionary art-student Malcolm Scrawdyke who, along with his gang of three hapless followers, form the quasi-fascist Party of Dynamic Erection. Their verbose vigour and half-baked political polemics, is contrasted by the sharp reality presented by Malcolm's would-be girlfriend Ann (Rosalind Ayres) who challenges his inability to act on real impulses. Indeed, the final climactic scene sees Malcolm's warped ideological fantasies collide with Ann's pragmatic assessment of his own impotent reality.
Angry young men, revolutionary students and the winter of discontent
The film of Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs takes in three strands of British culture – the angry young man of the 1950, the revolutionary student zeal of the 1960s and the winter of discontent in Britain in the early 1970s.
The angry young man in question is playwright David Halliwell who wrote the satirical play in 1965 and originally starred as Malcolm before John Hurt successfully took over the role in the play's brief West End run. The character of Malcolm rails against the eunuchs – those conforming to societies norms. His hate figure is the unseen character of art lecturer Phillip Allard who banishes Malcolm from art college.
Direct action is called for as Malcolm and his devoted followers Wicks (John McEnery) and Irwin (Raymond Platt) devise an elaborate scheme to kidnap and discredit Allard. With the film moving from the 1960s into to the 1970s, the Party of Dynamic Erection could also be seen to be challenging the flaccidity of inactivity caused by British industrial relations in the early 1970s, where a series of strikes led Britain to the three-day week in order to conserve electricity.
Indeed, the location of the grim streets of Oldham, the disused Gas Board building and the bitter winter snow all serve as perfect backdrop Malcolm's moody plans of revenge. Director of Photography John Alcott, who had filed A Clockwork Orange (1971), achieves an oppressive sense with his use of natural lighting.
While Malcolm gains unswerving allegiance from Wicks and Irwin he is challenged by argumentative, duffel-coated Dennis Charles Nipple (David Warner), who provides the film with its welcome comic moments, particularly when he graphically describes his unlikely sexual conquest at a party.
Though humourous in parts, Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs keeps its laughs to the dark side. A few years later in 1977, the true comic potential of a self-proclaimed revolutionary leader and his dim-witted mates was realized in Citizen Smith, the British television sitcom written by John Sullivan.
Power to the Eunuchs!
The great irony in Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs is Malcolm's vibrant energy in setting up his political party compensates for his social and sexual impotence. John Hurt's performance contains tremendous bursts of energy and passion whilst he is in fantasy dictator mode, however he cannot act on his real feelings for Ann. Indeed, he seems paralysed with fear and doubt in her presence.
When Malcolm does act decisively it is merely to take his followers into a fantasy world. The elaborate kidnapping scene, where the gang indulge in role-playing, is brought down to earth when an old man walking his dog crosses their path.
Even Malcolm's magnificent speech in the snow (complete with fantasy cheers) has no real effect other than to highlight his ability to be eloquent in front of his mates.
Fantasy and reality begin to merge in the tribunal hearing where Nipple is tried 'guilty or very guilty' and given a metaphorical death sentence. It becomes disturbing when he steps out of role-playing to speak to Malcolm as a friend, only to find Malcolm and the others impervious to his pleas.
This same reaction occurs in the shocking final scene when Malcolm exhorts his dim-witted followers to punish Ann with violence. Caught up in the deluded fervour of the moment Wicks and Irwin join in a brutal attack. If the audience had any doubts at how pathetic Malcolm really was before, they are under no illusions by the end of the film.
Staging a Play on Film
Writing in his review of the film in Films and Filming, February 1975 (reproduced in the booklet accompanying the release) Gordon Gow begins: "Here is one of those rarities, an actor's film." Indeed, the actors are given plenty of eloquent words to perform with (courtesy of David Woodward's adapted screenplay) – John Hurt taking the lion's share. The film makes no apology for the stagey way it sets out the scenes. The first scene of Malcolm (John Hurt looking a bit like George Harrison circa 1974) trying to get up from bed is typical of what is to follow – filmed in a medium shot.
Perhaps the film's best stagey scene comes when the gang play out their get away in a disused car. Their journey is assisted with special effects of lights changing and additional car noises.
Elsewhere director Stuart Cooper describes how the dialogue between Ann and Malcolm at the end of the film not only remains faithful to the play, but also maintains the staging with Ann on one side of the room and Malcolm sitting dumbfounded by the paraffin heater.
George Harrison's Involvement in the Film
Fans of George Harrison may well be intrigued by his involvement in the production of this film coming five years before Monty Python's the Life of Brian (1979), which Harrison also helped to finance and led to the formation of his Handmade Films company.
Musically, a snippet of Harrison's song Living in the Material World is heard coming from a jukebox when Malcolm, Wicks and Irwin go to the pub. There are also two acts in the club scene. One is band called Harpoon but the other band is Splinter who Harrison signed up on his Dark Horse record label. Splinter are seen performing the ballad Lonely Man, which features Harrison's trade mark slide guitar and was eventually released on Splinter's Harder to Live album in 1975.
However, Harrison's involvement (he is credited as Executive Producer) via Apple film's led to an unexpected and unfortunate delay in the release of the film. As the Beatles partnership was dissolved so too were their business dealings with Apple. Harrison had to fight to extract the film from the grasp of Apple's official receivers in order for it to be shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 1974, where Stuart Cooper picked up a Silver Berlin Bear Award.
Special Features
The DVD & Blu-ray release comes with extensive essays from Stuart Cooper, Mike Leigh (who directed the debut stage production), John Hurt and Yvonne Tasker, Professor of Film Studies at the University of East Anglia. While these essays are excellent in providing background and context to both the film and the play it might have been nice to have at least one filmed interview with the participants.
Instead, the DVD & Blu-ray presentation is accompanied with a very short original trailer for the film and what BFI Flipside describe as "thematically related archival short films". The first of these is Put Yourself in My Place (Francine Winham, 1974) and is an interesting role reversal piece starring Judy Geeson, who half-way through the film swaps personas with her husband as she becomes the businessmen and he becomes the housewife. The second short, The Contraption (James Dearden, 1977) shows a man (Richard O'Brien) building a large contraption, which he then uses upon himself in order to set up his wife's bitter punch line.
References
David Halliwell obituary in the Independent
Eddie Dyja - I have been working as a freelance editor/writer since 2006. My specialist subject is British film and television having worked at the ...
