Given the number of films in existence about colorless middle-aged
men whose lives and (reasonably) happy marriages are upended by the initially-encouraged/ultimately-unwelcome
attentions of a comely lass with nothing better to do than wreak ‘round-the-clock
havoc on said upstanding citizen's designated symbols of stability: wife, child, home, job,
reputation, household pet; you’d think I’d be able to recall at least one or
two of these shopworn narratives told from the perspective of said “homewrecker.” Certainly if for no other reason than to provide some insight into what these often vibrant, attractive women see in these dull, unprepossessing, ethically challenged
men to begin with.
Forty-something Henrik Vinter (Roy Dotrice) is the respectable,
upright, newly-appointed director of a Danish automobile assembly plant.
Harried and ambitious, Henrik is nevertheless blessed with a comfortable
apartment he shares with his loving wife, adorable child, and cuddly dog. Best
of all, hardworking Henrik’s role in his company’s merger with a Japanese car
firm has afforded this devoted family man the long-hoped-for opportunity to leave apartment-dwelling behind and build a home in Copenhagen’s tony Bellevue district. Yes, Henrik is a
fine figure of a decent, upstanding citizen whose life reflects the core values
of the success ethic.
In reality, Henrik’s wife Berit (Zena Walker) is a dipsomaniac suffering from neglect born of Henrik's wholesale absorption in his work; at his job his success is resentfully tolerated by friend and co-worker Melchoir (Frederick Jaeger), who was narrowly passed over for the very promotion Henrik bagged; and Henrik himself, though he doesn’t yet know it, balances on the brink of a crisis of character.
Always known as one willing to do what's necessary to ensure the proper outcome in a business deal, Henrik’s straight-as-an-arrow life path takes a fateful detour one night when, despondent over his wife bailing on an important business dinner, he accepts an invitation from a beautiful young woman named Susanne (Geeson) to attend a “hippie” hash (hashish) party on the outskirts of town. Ultimately unable to really let himself go, it isn't long before Henrik’s judgmental instincts (“I mean, this is what it all adds up to? The hair, the pot, be neutral, be uninvolved, do nothing, want nothing, believe in nothing?”) clash with the more easygoing vibes of his impromptu hosts (Susanne dubs him “Nowhere Man”), sending Henrik out into the stormy night in a borrowed car, eager to make his way to a train station and a return to a world more familiar.
Just when it looks as though his actions will bear no consequence, out of nowhere—as if summoned by an innate need in Henrik to punish himself because no one else will—(re)appears Susanne. She knows of what he’s done (“I’d have done the same in your place”), has no interest in money (“That would be blackmail”), but is not above resorting to a bit of subtle coercion and upfront extortion to parlay the incriminating knowledge she possesses into a press secretary's job at his firm.
One Of Those Things was filmed in 1971, but according to IMDB, it didn’t make its way to these shores until 1974. If it did, it did so way under my radar, for I have no memory of its release at all, although I recall seeing a trade ad for it in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter. Considered something of a “lost film,” I came across it just a year ago, drawn by my fondness for actress Judy Geeson (To Sir With Love, Berserk) and suspense thrillers in which women propel the action of the plot rather than serve as victims or prey.
A theme particularly pertinent in today’s socio-political
climate of moral relativism and the-end-justifies-the-means self-rationalizations, One Of Those Things examines
the concept of “visible morality” vs. “authentic
morality”: self-identification as a moral person based on the external,
superficial appearance of goodness vs. what one is genuinely capable of when no
one is looking.
BONUS MATERIAL
Roy Dotrice as the disapproving Leopold Mozart in Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984), 1985 Best Picture Academy Award winner.
Copyright © Ken Anderson 2009 - 2018
In summary, the premise of the little-seen 1971 suspense drama
One of Those
Things (a Danish film with an exclusively British and Japanese cast) reads like just another—albeit very early—entry in the “domestic stalker” cycle of
thrillers that hit their popularity stride following the success
of 1987’s Fatal Attraction. But lurking behind this post-sexual revolution cautionary tale for the Viagra set is in fact a psychologically astute, unexpectedly dark examination of the principle of conspicuous
ethics vs. unobserved morality. All trussed up in the melodramatic trappings of the erotic thriller and crime
mystery.
Judy Geeson as Susanne Strauss |
Roy Dotrice as Henrik Vinter |
Zena Walker as Berit Vinter |
Frederick Jaeger as Melchoir |
Geoffrey Chater as Mr. Falck |
That is, if appearances count for anything.
In reality, Henrik’s wife Berit (Zena Walker) is a dipsomaniac suffering from neglect born of Henrik's wholesale absorption in his work; at his job his success is resentfully tolerated by friend and co-worker Melchoir (Frederick Jaeger), who was narrowly passed over for the very promotion Henrik bagged; and Henrik himself, though he doesn’t yet know it, balances on the brink of a crisis of character.
Henrik Vinter sees himself as a good, moral man, a self-image
both supported and reinforced by those around him. That he unquestioningly
sustains this higher sense of self in the face of moral and ethical contradictions
(he dissociates himself from the “business as usual” legal duplicity he engages in on a daily basis, and is casually racist when speaking of his Asian business partners), proves to
be the tragic flaw that sets in motion a chain of events that ultimately leave Henrik
wondering if he ever knew himself at all.
"Can you see me?" |
"Are you there at all?" |
One of the wonderful things about movies is that every
social movement and subtle shift in culture mores tends to bring about a subliminal, unconscious “response”
in the content and focus of films. The confluence of the sexual revolution and
the women’s movement in the late 1960s brought about a rash of mainstream films
indicative of the middle-aged male’s unease with the shifting sexual paradigm. Where it was once common to depict men as sexual adventurers and women as passive targets of desire, the newfound sexual license afforded women after "the pill" was represented as something threatening and destructive to the status quo
in films like 1969s Three Into Two Won’t
Go (also starring Judy Geeson), Play Misty for Me (1971), and Something to Hide
(1972). Even a period film like Clint Eastwood’s The Beguiled (1971) succumbed to the trap of only being able to
picture women with sexual agency as threats to men.
One Of Those Things
definitely qualifies as archetypal male angst melodrama, but like the
characters themselves, there’s more going on here than what initially meets the
eye.
Heihachiro Okawa (Bridge on the River Kwai) as Mr. Kawasaki |
Always known as one willing to do what's necessary to ensure the proper outcome in a business deal, Henrik’s straight-as-an-arrow life path takes a fateful detour one night when, despondent over his wife bailing on an important business dinner, he accepts an invitation from a beautiful young woman named Susanne (Geeson) to attend a “hippie” hash (hashish) party on the outskirts of town. Ultimately unable to really let himself go, it isn't long before Henrik’s judgmental instincts (“I mean, this is what it all adds up to? The hair, the pot, be neutral, be uninvolved, do nothing, want nothing, believe in nothing?”) clash with the more easygoing vibes of his impromptu hosts (Susanne dubs him “Nowhere Man”), sending Henrik out into the stormy night in a borrowed car, eager to make his way to a train station and a return to a world more familiar.
Alas, the combination of low visibility, a malfunctioning
automobile, and an unseen bicyclist result in a fatal hit and run accident. But rather than going back to the house and reporting the incident (an accident, ironically, for which no blame to either party could be ascribed), Henrik, relying on darkness
and anonymity to conceal the truth, chooses to continue on his course home; hopeful that the mess will somehow take care of itself, grateful to have no witnesses to the unfortunate event. If Henrik is shaken at all--and he is--he nevertheless knows how important it is for it to remain indiscernibly so to others. Working in his favor is the fact that in the realm of moral displacement, feelings of remorse and the fear of detection both look very much the same.
"Remember me?" Henrik's past catches up with him |
Just when it looks as though his actions will bear no consequence, out of nowhere—as if summoned by an innate need in Henrik to punish himself because no one else will—(re)appears Susanne. She knows of what he’s done (“I’d have done the same in your place”), has no interest in money (“That would be blackmail”), but is not above resorting to a bit of subtle coercion and upfront extortion to parlay the incriminating knowledge she possesses into a press secretary's job at his firm.
If Henrik initially thinks the granting of a
close-proximity job to this total stranger is a small price to pay for her
silence, he soon comes to learn that the cost to his peace of mind is one far dearer. Susanne immediately embarks upon an
aggressive, ever-escalating campaign of seduction, stalking, and harassment which appears orchestrated to bring about nothing less than the total destruction of Henrik’s
marriage, reputation, and professional standing. But does her denial of malicious
intent (“I don’t want to ruin you. I just
want to get to know you.”) hint that perhaps the motives behind her actions have more to do with the reclamation of his soul than revenge on his actions?
In the Middle Perpetually guilty-looking, the object of office gossip, and suspected of not being able to handle his work duties, Henrik's once-stable life begins to crumble beneath him |
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT
THIS FILM
Directed and produced by Danish filmmaker Erik Balling, One Of Those Things is based on 1968
novel Haeneligt Uheld by Anders
Bodelsen (Haeneligt Uheld roughly
translates as Accidentally Accidental
or Incidental Accident - which is
when an accident occurs for which no one is at fault). Anders Bodelsen, who
co-wrote the film’s screenplay with director Erik Balling, is a popular author
of contemporary crime thrillers whose themes often involve characters grappling
with morality vs. materialism. Although not particularly well-known in this
country, one of his novels was the source for the brilliant but underrated 1978
thriller The Silent Partner starring
Elliot Gould, Susannah York, and Christopher Plummer. If you’ve never seen it,
I highly recommend.
"I'm not a toy to be played with. And you're not capable of playing that game anyway." |
One Of Those Things was filmed in 1971, but according to IMDB, it didn’t make its way to these shores until 1974. If it did, it did so way under my radar, for I have no memory of its release at all, although I recall seeing a trade ad for it in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter. Considered something of a “lost film,” I came across it just a year ago, drawn by my fondness for actress Judy Geeson (To Sir With Love, Berserk) and suspense thrillers in which women propel the action of the plot rather than serve as victims or prey.
While more of a psychological
character piece than an out-and-out thriller, One Of Those Things is a pretty gripping ride as Geeson’s
character (compellingly played, but no more fleshed out than the usual Destroying
Angel type in movies like this) is a genuine enigma and force to be reckoned
with. And while I enjoyed the suspense and melodramatic elements of the film a
great deal, I was more than pleasantly surprised to find them to be in service of darker,
more thought-provoking themes relating to character and the imperceptible
nature of moral erosion.
Sobering News |
It’s like that old schoolbook ethics debate about the driver
who claims “entrapment” when ticketed for speeding through a stop sign when a police
car is concealed behind a billboard (twisted logic: Had the police car had been
visible, the driver wouldn’t have done the wrong thing).
Automobiles and their potential for accidental harm serve as
a dynamic visual motif in One Of Those
Things, a film shot in the flat, pedestrian tile of television movies yet
enlivened by a nicely modulated tension and mounting sense of unease. The smart
script, which never tells you how you should feel about these characters,
engages the viewer in unexpected ways. For example, just when the film has really drawn us
into the complex dynamics of the almost kinky antagonism between Henrik and
Susanne, Susanne startles Henrik (and implicates us, the viewer) by asking: “Do you ever think of the man we killed?” (it
was with her borrowed car). In that moment we’re caught off guard because, in
allowing ourselves to be swept up in the excitement and suspense of the erotic
thriller plot, have we, like Henrik, not given much thought to the fact that
someone has died?
This kind of narrative sleight-of-hand is typical of One Of Those Things, as our sympathies for the two not-particularly-likable leads shifts from scene to scene.
"Getting angry suits you. It's almost as if you were here." |
THE STUFF OF DREAMS
The final image in the film turns out to be a succinct visual metaphor of all that came before: a character peers through the colored glass of a
bottle and looks out at a distorted, hazy image of a world from which they are emotionally
alienated. For a movie this visually undistinguished, One Of Those Things is fairly spot-on in cleverly enlisting the motifs
of sight, vision, and perception to underscore its themes of moral relativity.
In one of the film's many instances of black comedy, several weeks after the accident, Henrik is forced to appear on television as a representative of his automobile company. His pathetic attempt to conceal his identity is so conspicuous it turns out to be precisely how Susanne is able to track him down.
"It's strange...there you were hiding in your dark glasses. All it did was make you look more like yourself than ever." |
One of Those Things' central dramatic conflict confronts how the conspicuous ethics of those society views as persons of principle can be compromised (if not outright betrayed) when unobserved. These days it has become almost a social cliche to discover that the married, anti-gay legislator is a closet case with a male lover on the side, or the bible-thumping, "family values" politician to be a morally corrupt adulterer. But this doesn't mean we've grown any savvier in understanding human nature, nor does it explain why we so persistently cling to the false notion that anything which makes a human being valuable is something perceptible to the eye.
Behind Closed Doors When Susanne breaks out the party favors, Henrik's uptight neighbors (Ann Firbank & Frederick Jaeger) unleash their wanton side |
PERFORMANCES
In speaking of One Of Those Things, director Erik Balling observed: “It did not really appeal to an American
audience. It was too slow and too nice. It wore a grey suit and never went to
the kind of extremes they’re used to over there. It came across a bit too
serene.”
Which, if indeed anybody in America actually got to see it, is
a pretty accurate description of what might be viewed as the film’s
limitations. I, for one, am grateful for the lack of boiling bunnies or butcher
knife standoffs, for One Of Those Things is at its most persuasive when the camera simply
captures the subtle interplay of emotions on the actors’ faces.
Like so many others of my generation, I developed a crush on
Judy Geeson when I saw her in To Sir,
With Love. Since then I’ve enjoyed her work immensely over the years (10
Rillington Place), even when the material was far beneath her talent. Often
categorized as the quintessential Swinging ‘60s British London dolly bird, she
was nevertheless an actress who, as someone once astutely observed, “didn’t do
‘dumb’” and brought considerable intelligence and emotional heft to many an
underwritten role.
Playing a role in One Of
Those Things that is in many ways similar to the character she played in Three Into Two Won’t Go (in which we’re
asked to endure the sci-fi absurdity of Geeson and the exquisite Claire Bloom squaring
off over the pasty, dough-boy charms of Rod Steiger [Mr. Claire Bloom in real
life]); Geeson gives a remarkably strong and nuanced performance, one of my
all-time favorites of hers, in fact. She gets bonus points for making
flesh-and-blood a character who, as written, needs to be enigmatic, but whose behavior too
often crosses over into incomprehensible.
Beyond his role in Milos Foreman's Amadeus, I'm less familiar than I should be with the work of the late Tony, BAFTA, and Grammy-winning Shakespearean actor Roy Dotrice, but if his performance here is any indication, I've been missing out on a lot. I'm astounded at the skill of an actor being able to mine the tortured humanity in such a complex and conflicted character, all the while conveying--very clearly-- the internal struggle of a Nowhere Man. The scenes he shares with Geeson are such forceful emotional jousting matches that I initially thought the film was adapted from a stage play. They make quite a tense, high-strung pair.
Roy Dotrice is the father of actress Karen Dotrice, best known as Jane Banks in Mary Poppins (1964)- here with Matthew Garber |
THE STUFF OF FANTASY
Someone once said that the human tendency to plan, organize
and structure is but man’s way of dealing with the terrifying realization that a
great many life-altering events occur by accident. These accidents are often neutral
in nature, neither bad nor good, with nothing or no one at fault save for the
fact that life has to be lived and life can’t be lived without error.
This theme flows like an undercurrent throughout One Of Those Things, and perhaps in the
hands of a more inventive director it would have been applied in ways that
enriched the storytelling and gave more depth to the characters.
As it is, One Of Those
Things is a structurally flawed film that nevertheless manages to effectively balance the story's curious mix of drama, black comedy, and suspense. An unusual example of forgotten ‘70s cinema, its a throwback melodrama whose period-specific details (hippies, drug use, The Beatles, and Geeson’s
mini-skirted wardrobe) contemporary viewers should find engaging.
While no
unearthed classic, One Of Those Things is an atmospheric genre film that I hope one day gets a legitimate DVD release.
BONUS MATERIAL
Roy Dotrice as the disapproving Leopold Mozart in Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984), 1985 Best Picture Academy Award winner.