Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)

Sadly Over-hyped

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I was primarily interested in watching MORGAN: A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT because it was the film that made David Warner famous, and I've enjoyed watching Warner's acting work over the years. Roles like the ones in STRAW DOGS and THE OMEN have made him one of those criminally underrated actors who really should have been as well known as the big shots.Sadly, this unworkable mental illness comedy must have been dated on release, although I understand it has a reputation as a cult film. I can't work out why. I don't mind stupid humour, and I actively like surreal humour, but the stuff that goes on in this film is random and pointless. Warner dresses up as a gorilla, wanders around a bit, smashes some stuff in his room, and goes on various escapades. In between there's a lot of dated dialogue in the form of cod psychological debates and the like. It seems to trivialise mental illness a lot and the execution is so poor it can't be taken seriously.It doesn't help that the film was shot in black and white, making it look cheap and old-fashioned; some colour would have better brought the decade to life. Warner does his best with the material, but the likes of Vanessa Redgrave seem stuffy and too focused on acting without feeling natural doing so. I did enjoy seeing supporting roles for the likes of Bernard Bresslaw, Irene Handl, and Graham Crowden, but that's just about all I got out of it.

Boy, did I love this movie in the Sixties when I was a left-wing radical college student. Everything about goofy Morgan (David Warner) was funny or likable or just plain cool, in a weird sort of way. This movie was so '60s with its mores and humor. If they had VHS tapes back then, I would have bought this in a heartbeat.When I began seriously collecting movies in the mid '90s, I was excited to see this again. Wow, what a disappointment. What was so great back then now looks so incredibly stupid. The film was so bad, and Warner was so annoying (hardly 'fab' anymore), I couldn't finish the film. I couldn't believe how incredibly inane this was and how much I used to like it. Like another '60s period piece, "Easy Rider," it's amazing how differently we see things depending on our age and/or how we have changed culturally, politically or religiously. I wonder if Warner looks back at this film and cringes, too.

In 1966 when I lived in London I fully expected to see this movie. Many of my friends, especially the girls, were raving about it. Funds diverted to beer, or girls, deprived me of the chance. So it has taken me nearly forty years to actually see it. Thoroughly of the time, and yet it must have seemed so radical even then. I watched it as a chaser to Alfie (Michael Caine) and it was interesting to compare the styles of two icons of British female acting, Redgrave and Asher, in one evening. Both movies dealt with serious and potentially unattractive issues; adultery, abortion, promiscuity and mental illness and injected enough humor into the screenplay to keep ones attention the while. I am prompted to revisit "Up the Junction" and " A Taste of Honey" with Rita Tushingham, another sixties icon.

A film that acheives what it sets out to be. It is an immature and unreasonable storyline that takes no account for anyones feelings but those of our hero, Morgan... But 1966 was a time of big brush strokes, not subtle pointers. Most of the situations and characters are cardboard and stereotypical, but done with a sense of style and flair that allows you not to get bogged down in it all. When at the end of the film, the seemingly battered and beaten Morgan still has the clenched fist of rebellion, it's time for a hot cocoa and then off to bed clutching Das Kapital in your rebellious mitts, with a wistful smile on your face for the simple values of yesteryear, when it was good versus evil. I gave it 9 0ut of 10. Very watchable and great fun