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Bookmark this pageVillain (1971)
Director: Michael Tuchner
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
An underworld saga scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who look as though they were disgorging a semi-masticated lesson culled from Nic Roeg, Donald Cammell and Performance. A ludicrous exposé of the lower depths of London crime, it tarts up the hoariest old gangster clichés with a bit of homosexuality and a lot of thuggery, and manages to be both brutish and maudlin. Burton gives a performance of ripe grotesquerie as the gay gang boss who is the spirit of devotion to his mother and a leering Marquis de Sade to his victims.Author: TM
User reviews of this film
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- mr.mike said...
- Posted on Nov 15 2009 23:11 Brisk Brit crime flick with an underplayed (for him) perf by Burton.
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- David Rowley said...
- Posted on May 05 2008 13:15 I would rate it as three stars
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- David Rowley said...
- Posted on May 05 2008 13:14 The film was made in 69/70? and therefore reflects that period with it's view of sexuality as dirty and sordid and of course Vic Dakin (Burton) is a pale imitation of Ronnie Kray with his psycopathic personality and homosexuality, in particular which was seen then as depraved and abnormal. It does look rather clumsy and brutish before the advent of the great gangster movies such as the Godfather and Goodfellahs, but Burton is always interesting whatever part he plays.
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Cast & crew
Director: Michael Tuchner
Producer: Alan Ladd Jr, Jay Kanter
Cast: Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, Donald Sinden, Fiona Lewis, TP McKenna, Joss Ackland, Cathleen Nesbitt full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 98 mins
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