Villain (1971)

I love this movie so much

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Richard Burton plays a sadistic, notorious, homosexual, British crime boss in Michael Tuchner directorial debut "Villain" with Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, Jose Ackland, and Donald Sinden. Loosely based on the life of Ronnie Kray, this grim, sometimes violent, but often dreary thriller is ostensibly based on James Barlow's novel "The Burden of Proof." The highlight of this atmospheric gangster saga is a robbery bid in broad daylight as Vic Dakin (Richard Burton) and his cronies grab sixty to seventy thousand pounds from an armored car. Dakin is a devoted son to his elderly mother (Cathleen Nesbitt) and lavishes attention on her when he isn't beating up his adversaries. Inspector Bob Matthews (Nigel Davenport of "Play Dirty") struggles to find enough evidence to arrest this elusive killer. Altogether unsavory but moments of violence that capture the era, "Villain" qualifies as a letdown and is nowhere as entertaining as Michael Caine's "Get Carter."

The Leonard Maltin movie guide described this movie as being "nasty" and "stomach-churning". Actually, by today's standards, the level of violence on display here you could probably easily get away with on prime time network television. Anyway, the tame by today's standards violence wasn't an issue with me. The main problem is with the script. The movie starts off fairly well, but quickly becomes very slow and talky, and the dialogue isn't particularly colorful or interesting to grab the viewer. (This problem can be found with a lot of other British movies this age or older.) As for Richard Burton, while his performance here is not one of his worst, it's also not one of his better ones. One problem for him might have been the fact that his character's appearances are somewhat less in number than you might think. This is not an awful movie, but for the most part it's kind of bland and forgettable. If you want to see an early 1970s British crime drama, I would suggest you watch the 1971 Michael Caine movie "Get Carter" instead.

VILLAIN is a fine British gangland film which stands up there with GET CARTER as one of the meanest and grittiest British gangster movies of the 1970s. Certainly it's a memorable effort, featuring an icy Richard Burton playing a truly repulsive master criminal who is behind a series of violent deaths and robberies. Burton's character was a thinly-disguised version of Ronnie Kray and it's one of his most sinister performances.A pity, then, that this film is really obscure especially in comparison to the likes of GET CARTER. I caught it on late night TV but as I understand it's remained fairly hard to come by over the years. It's a pity as this offers solid thrills from beginning to end, plus edgy content and some surprisingly graphic interludes. It also has a quite wonderful supporting cast of famous faces to see it by.Ian McShane bags a suave part as Burton's young lover in scenes which must have been considered quite racy for the time. The reliable Nigel Davenport is the dogged detective on Burton's tail and T.P. McKenna a oily government minister. Joss Ackland gives a memorable twitchy performance as one of the gang members and there are plenty of others around like James Cossins, Tony Selby, and Colin Welland. Michael Tuchner's direction is very fine and the robbery, hospital, and climactic scenes in particular are all very well realised making fine use of their surroundings. VILLAIN is an under-appreciated movie and a must for fans of the genre.

Villain is directed by Michael Tuchner and adapted to the screen by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Al Lettieri from the novel The Burden of Proof written by James Barlow. It stars Richard Burton, Ian McShane, T.P. McKenna, Donald Sinden, Nigel Davenport, Fiona Lewis, Joss Ackland, Cathleen Nesbitt, Colin Welland and Tony Selby. A Panavision/Technicolor production, music is by Jonathan Hodge and cinematography by Christopher Challis.Ruthless London gangster Vic Dakin (Burton) agrees to orchestrate the robbery of a wages van. However, when it is requested for him to work with another gangster's firm, Dakin is less than enthused, especially as his private life is hanging heavy on his shoulders.1971 saw the release of the magnificent Get Carter, surely a benchmark film in the pantheon of British neo-noirs. The year also witnessed Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange bursting forth to bother the tabloids and gnaw away at the paying public's conscious, there really was something stirring In the violent belly of Blighty. There was also another very violent British film out in 71, Villain, a criminally overlooked slice of grim Britannia.Richard Burton, he a bastion of rugged masculinity and hard drinking legends, is here playing a sadistic homosexual gangster with a paunch. He is not beyond using a razor to enact retribution on a squealer, or to beat his boyfriend Wolfie Lissner (McShane) before making love to him, but he loves his mother beyond compare though! This was a tough sell to Burton fans one would think, which may go some way to explaining why it disappeared quickly and has still to this day been largely consigned to cult status appraisals only. In fact some of the more intimate scenes between Burton and McShane were cut, so the supposed fall out could have been worse. I say supposed because there's conflicting stories as to how the film actually performed at the box office…Viewing it now reveals Villain to be a biting piece of British cinema, often uncompromising and filled to the brim with character's either damaged or carrying around some sort of affliction or kinky trait. It is pure neo-noir, both in characterisations and narrative drive. Dakin is a maelstrom of tortured emotions, his anger issues frightening but off set by his mother fixation. Wolfie is a bisexual pimp and in a rut, Gerald Draycott (Sinden) is the MP with a thirst for sex getting in deeper than he can handle and on it goes. Thug with an ulcer, hapless girlfriends, snitch, blackmail, murder, violence unbound, nudity, sadism and two hard bastard coppers not beyond giving someone a few lumps to get what they need.Then of course there is the robbery itself, a chase and heist sequence of events that are excellently constructed by the makers. The script pings with menacing humour and the writers have a good ear for London dialogue. The London backdrops are classic early 70s monuments and iconic period points of interest, all photographed in that grubby low key way that sits perfectly with the unfolding story. Cast is a who's who of British actors of the time, and all perform well up to standard to make this a riveting and potent viewing experience. There were some complaints about Burton's accent, but it really isn't that bad and only becomes noticeable when he is called on to shout. Burton is great, a bold role gets a bold performance and it is definitely one of his most under valued turns.Not as brill as Get Carter, but it's something of a must see for any fan of British gangster films, while it actually makes for the perfect companion piece to Michael Caine's magnum opus. 8.5/10