The Knack ...and How To Get It

As comic book nerds, most of us think of director Richard Lester as the guy who took over directing Superman II after Richard Donner was fired, and then Superman III, the one with Richard Pryor in it more than Superman. As music nerds, most of us remember Richard Lester as the director of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and Help!, two of the greatest and most important rock and roll films of all time. Besides those two distinctly different sets of movies, Richard Lester's talents are not very often recognized, at least in the states.

1965's The Knack ...and How to Get It was Lester at his best, riding high between Beatles films. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Though it's based on a play, you can tell that this was the more personal film he got to make after the huge success of A Hard Day's Night.

The Knack ...and How to Get It is a playful exploration of the lives and sexual politics of young people in London in the 60's. It follows Colin, a young schoolteacher in London, who has difficulty talking to women, and opens the movie expressing his sexual frustration by imagining beautiful women lined up outside the bedroom door of his housemate, Tolen, a womanizing drummer who refuses to acknowledge that he has a first name. Timid Colin asks Tolen for help with the ladies. Tolen's philosophy is all about aggression and dominance. Rounding out the trio of guys is Tom, the third lodger in Colin's house, who wears all white, paints everything in the house white, and acts as a neutral third party to all the action. Into their life comes Nancy, a young woman, fresh off the bus to London and looking for the YWCA. Nancy and Colin begin to hit it off, while Tolen uses his mystique to go in for the kill.

Richard Lester brings his signature style from the Beatles movies to The Knack. His scenes are loaded with spirited back-and-forths between the characters, while simultaneously loading his backgrounds with fun little visual gags. Colin addresses the camera, and we sometimes hear the voices of disapproving older people commenting on the action. There's a fantastic sequence where Colin, Tom, and Nancy all go to the dump to get a bigger bed for Colin. They take an old metal bed on wheels and roll it across town, back to his house.

The most fun part of The Knack ...and How To Get It is definitely all the sexual innuendo. Lester mischievously pushes a lot of boundaries, and there are even some jokes in it that I couldn't imagine being deemed appropriate even today. Towards the end, Nancy figures out how to turn the tables on the power play between these two guys, and how she does it is hilarious and even a little bit shocking for our modern sensibilities.

One last thing I noticed: Hey, I think this movie is an influence on one of my favorite directors and frequent namedrop in this blog, Edgar Wright! I was reminded many times in this movie of his TV Show, Spaced (20-somethings in London in the late 90's) and his most recent film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (20-somethings in Toronto in the nows). Wright shares Lester's visual wit, and penchant for layering his scenes with background gags aplenty. Both Wright's and Lester's movies sort of inhabit a zany hyper-reality. Nobody breaks out into kung-fu battles in The Knack, but it wouldn't have felt too out of place if they had, you know?

Update: This came in on Twitter not long after I posted the link to this blog:

I was right! Thanks, Edgar Wright! Love your work!

This movie is a whole lot of fun. If you're a fan of clever comedies and the groovy style of the British Invasion era, like I very much am, you should definitely seek this out. It's currently on Netflix Instant, so get to it!