You either have it or you don't. The knack, that is, of seduction! From the
director of the Beatles' movies A Hard Day's Night and Help! comes this
“inventive and hilarious” (Time) romp through love and sex in
1960's London. Featuring Richard Lester's frenetic filmmaking style –
careening from slapstick to serious to avant-garde – this “genuinely
dazzling” (Los Angeles Times) film is a mod masterpiece!
Cool and sophisticated Tolen (Ray Brooks) has a monopoly on womanizing –
with a long line of conquests to prove it – while the naïve and
awkward Colin (Michael Crawford) desperately wants a piece of it. But when Colin
falls for an innocent country girl (Rita Tushingham), it's not long before the
self-assured Tolen moves in for the kill. Is all fair in love and war, or can
Colin get the knack and beat Tolen at his own game?
Critic reviews
“The sets by television designer Assheton Gorton only emphasise
one's earlier mystification that the British cinema has not made more use of
his remarkable talents.”
John Russell Taylor – Sight and Sound
“The screenplay by Charles Wood (based on the play by Ann Jellicoe) is
alive, written for the cinema with as many sight gags and visual trips as can be
packed or stacked into the thin little story line.”
Edward Zatlyn- Los Angeles Free Press
“Everything about the film feels genuine and uncalculated, and it
finally comes across as one joyous celebration of life and of being
alive.”
Ken Hanke – Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)