Tushy Rittingham

The Knack...and How to Get It (1965) is a bit of the Swinging Sixties, from Richard Lester, between Hard Day's Night and Help! It has been called Hard Day's Night without the Beatles. But it does have Rita Tushingham.

Michael Crawford is a young school teacher who rents out a room in his house to champion Lothario Ray Brooks. Brooks is suave with sideburns, a quiff, and Italian sunglasses. Crawford looks a bit like Roger Daltrey with a bad haircut. He is driven to distraction by Brooks' kanck with the birds. He tries renting a spare room to give the house some "tone", but winds up with a wacky Irishman (Donal Donnelly) who piles all the furniture in the hall and paints his room white.

Meanwhile, we see Rita Tushingham arriving in London and trying to find the YWCA. Hey, Rita, Michael Crawford is renting a room - wait, it's already taken.

Finally, they meet up in a junkyard where Crawford is buying a bed. This leads to what I believe the Monkees called a "frolic": Our friends rolling a bed through London, riding on it, jumping on it, directing traffic, you know, frolicking. This is one of Lester's signature moves (his first short, The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, is reportedly nothing but). If you don't like it, you might want to skip this.

Of course, Rita is put to the test by Brooks - he attempts to seduce her. Her reactions are the realest thing in the movie: flattered, intrigued, disgusted, among others. When he goes too far, she shouts "RAPE!", which is a lot less funny now than it might have been then. Kind of takes you out of it.

Also of note, John Barry (James Bond theme) supplies a light, poppy, jazzy score. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much for me - I might have preferred a something Merseybeat or even trad jazz. (One of Lester's first films was It's Trad, Dad, about Britain's pre-Beatles love of traditional Dixieland-style jazz.)

I was worried about watching this, because I was afraid that a theoretically light-hearted comedy would be horribly dated, heartbreaking, or just horrible. It was not, it was fun. It is not my favorite Lester, but not the worst (Royal Flash). The best part is Rita Tushingham in a comic role - she is funny-looking and lovely in equal parts and a great comic actor. Now I want to see The Bed Sitting Room.