Friday 30 August 2019

THE COLLECTOR

William Wyler made "The Collector",, partly in England in 1965, and it earned him his 12th Oscar nomination as Best Director. At first glance it seems an unusual film for Wyler, small and introspective, a virtual two-hander, (there are only two other speaking parts), as psychotic Terence Stamp graduates from collecting butterflies to collecting a pretty girl, Samantha Eggar, and keeping her in his cellar. Both players are, of course, superb, (Wyler was always a great director of actors), and they both took acting prizes at Cannes. Eggar, too, was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actress as were script-writers Stanley Mann and John Kohn who did the fine adaptation of John Fowles' novel. It works both as a character study and as an extremely effective thriller, (though we could do without Maurice Jarre's highly intrusive score), but over the years its reputation has waned somewhat. It certainly not one of Wyler's masterpieces but it is very good and worthy of reassessment.

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