Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974) User Reviews

Little tyrants are funny, tragic and so much worse...

[bkernan-76883 · 6/10 · 10 March 2018]

This is an interesting film of the stage play. Part Withnail and I, but much darker. It satirizes political movements, yes, but it's also about men. It is quintessentially male to be arrogant and stupid...and dangerous. It makes for a very funny film until...well, watch the film to the end.

Hurt is great. It is fun to see him as a young, active man. The screenplay is well written and tight--a little Tom Stoppard-ish.

I'm glad to have seen it. So compelling, it made me want to write my first IMDB review.

Today Oldham, Tomorrow the World

[allenrogerj · 6/10 · 26 February 2010]

A flawed film, but still interesting and worth watching.

Faults first. The film is adapted from a play and it shows. Things that the audience will accept in the theatre don't work in the cinema- the absence of a plot; the emphasis and dependence on words- all of the characters are powerfully- magnificently- eloquent, even when it contradicts their personae; the fact that the actors are all obviously too old for the characters they play- actors in their thirties playing people in their late teens or early twenties.

Paradoxically, some of the most interesting aspects of the film derive from those flaws- there is little pretence of realism, so Malcolm Scrawdyke's speech to his (three) followers inspires invisible masses to frenzied cheers, drably realistic townscapes have unrealistic sound-backgrounds, fantasies of revenge and persecution are deliberately played as comic and unnatural grotesqueries, so we can see Scrawdyke as potentially dangerous as well as genuinely comic while remaining detached. Only the attack on Anne at the end is realistically- and deliberately nastily- depicted. The other male characters are unnatural but convincing- fine acting makes us suspend our disbelief and accept these absurd beings as real in the film. Indeed, Dennis Nipple- played by David Warner- moves from a two-dimensional autistic parody to a moral core in the film as the only one who can distinguish between reality and fantasy, games and crime, and who has to be "tried" and "killed" because he can accept his death by ostracism and still know there is a world elsewhere he can go to. He is Malcolm's rival as a rhetorician and so must go.

In short, if you look for the conventional virtues of a film, you will be disappointed, but if you are willing to accept the unexpected you will find qualities not many films have, qualities worth watching for and enjoying.

rebel without a cause

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 10 September 2020]

It is difficult to write about this film without mentioning its theatrical origins even though whilst watching it I was at first doubtful that this had ever have been performed on the stage. Gradually the stage origin becomes apparent but there is initially so much use of physical close-ups and street location action as to not make at all obvious at first. First performed in London's West End in 1965 the play had only modest success but drew a little more attention than had the original version, apparently running some five hours. John Hurt played in the later presentation at the Comedy Theatre and when a film version was muted suggested his pal George Harrison might be approached for funding. This would ultimately result in the setting up of HandMade Films who would go on to produce many a fine British film including Withnail & I (1987) which is often mentioned in the same context as this film, even though it were made some thirteen years later - it was admittedly set in the late 60s. The absurdist origins of the play/film are apparent and Beckett, Ionesco and Genet all come to mind as this swirling nihilist and absurdist drama with homosexual overtones speeds horribly, yet amusingly, out of control. Not an easy watch, being heavy in language with largely unlikeable characters but absorbing and mesmerising all the same with the most sensational central performance from Hurt and able support from the others in particular David Warner as the downtrodden, duffle coated English, rebel without a cause.