TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU is a filmed adaptation of a Kingsley Amis novel, directed by theatre figurehead Jonatha Miller. It's a slight and unwieldy affair that I found rather appalling in terms of subject matter - as cold and unyielding as a film gets when it comes to a relationship drama. Only the activities of the youthful cast lift this above tedium, with Hayley Mills in particular lovely and deserving better. Elsewhere, taciturn Oliver Reed still feels like a heavy from one of his earlier Hammer films, Noel Harrison is a real creep and gets too much screen time, Ronald Lacey is loveable, Sheila Hancock negligible, and John Bird sleazy. The ending in particular is a big a gut punch as cinema gets without resorting to death or violence.
Take a Girl Like You
1970
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
Take a Girl Like You
1970
Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance
5.6Plot summary
Upon moving to the South of England to start a public school teaching job and moving into the boarding house owned and operated by Labour councilor Dick Thompson (John Bird) and his long-suffering wife Martha Thompson (Sheila Hancock),Jenny Bunn (Hayley Mills) meets technical college graphics arts professor Patrick Standish (Oliver Reed),a "friend" of the other boarder, Anna (Geraldine Sherman). There is an attraction between Jenny and Patrick, one that Jenny refuses to act upon until she learns from Patrick that his relationship with Anna is strictly casual. However, Patrick and Jenny soon discover that there is an impasse between the two of them in having a relationship: Patrick, a confirmed bachelor, has never equated sex with love, while Jenny, a virgin, wants her first to be with someone she loves and loves her in return. While there is a possibility that one or the other may move closer mentally to the other for that relationship to flourish, what happens between the two of them, they who are thrown together regardless in working on Dick's re-election, is affected by others beyond Anna within their collective social circle, they who may be more perceptive about their want with Jenny or Patrick: Dick, who is known by Martha to have wandering eye especially when he's drunk, he who she just considers a dirty old man; Graham (Ronald Lacey),Patrick's friend who may respect Jenny's romantic wants more but to who Jenny is not remotely attracted; Julian Ormerod (Noel Harrison),Dick's hip and mod campaign strategist who is more worldly than Patrick; and Wendy (Aimi MacDonald),Julian's sexually aggressive, dumb blonde television spokes-model friend and casual sexual partner.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Hayley Mills as Jenny Bunn
Oliver Reed as Patrick Standish
Ronald Lacey as Graham
Penelope Keith as Tory Lady
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 807.42 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Rather unpleasant
Reviewed by
Reading Kingsley Amis's original novel is probably a better option
The opening titles (in funky 1970 font) are accompanied by the Foundations singing the title song, the hook of which sounds a lot like "Fly Me To The Moon" (aka "In Other Words"). If this film were set when Kingsley Amis, the novelist, set it, and when "Fly Me To The Moon" had its first success (mid-1950s) it might work better. Transposing the action to the dog-end of the swinging 60s is an awkward fit for a story about a young woman who comes from the North of England to a dull Southern town, and is determined to cling to her virginity, rings slightly false, but that's not the only problem. It's a curiously lifeless mix of sketch-comedy turns and a soapy boy-meets-girl sequences which never quite gels. Oliver Reed seems to be on automatic, Sheila Hancock is wasted, Noel Harrison is creepy, but Hayley Mills, despite being slightly too old for the central role of the girl is such a positive force, that every time she's on screen she almost saves this plod. She is a brilliant actress and an inspirational human being - at least that's the vibe I get from her performance in this pale adaptation of a very funny novel.
Reviewed by
Deflowering Miss Mills...
Exceptionally slight and meandering comedy has Hayley Mills portraying a twenty-ish girl from Northern England who relocates to London to teach school, taking a room in a boarding house and getting pawed at by various randy men. Of course, being a determined virgin until true love sets in, our heroine keeps all the beggars at bay. Adapted from a novel by Kingsley Amis, this a sex comedy with no sex in it. The Swinging Sixties having passed, what we get here is a rather staid and starchy London, and one quickly loses interest in the character's predicament since her rigid stance fails to propel the slim plot (even though Mills herself is a lovely screen presence). Best performance is given by Oliver Reed as a confirmed bachelor eager to deflower the pretty lass--even if it be on her terms. A few funny moments, but lazily put together and nearly crippled by a terrible finish. *1/2 from ****