The Touchables (film)

The Touchables is a 1968 British crime drama film directed by Robert Freeman and written by Ian La Frenais from a story by Donald Cammell. It stars Judy Huxtable, Esther Anderson and James Villiers.

The Touchables
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Freeman
Screenplay by
Story byRobert Freeman
Produced byJohn Bryan
Starring
CinematographyAlan Pudney
Edited byRichard Bryan
Music byKen Thorne
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release date
  • 20 November 1968 (1968-11-20)
(US)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The screenplay was written by Ian La Frenais, who had created the comedy The Likely Lads for television with his partner Dick Clement. It was the first of only two films directed by Robert Freeman, the photographer responsible for a number of Beatles album covers.[1] A mannequin of Diana Dors which appears in the film was the same model as was used in the cover montage of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Other cast members include John Ronane, Peter Gordeno, Harry Baird, Simon Williams and Joan Bakewell in a cameo role as an interviewer. The cast also includes appearances by many popular British wrestlers, including Ricki Starr, Steve Veidor, Danny Lynch and Bruno Elrington.

Largely ignored on its release and since, owing to the scarcity of prints, it has recently acquired cult status of its type, in part due to a DVD release.[2]

Donald Cammell, who shares story credit, would later rework its themes in Performance (1970).

Plot

In Swinging London, four girls decide to kidnap their pop idol and hold him hostage in a giant plastic dome in the countryside. His manager tries desperately to find him, as does a wrestler and an upper-class London gangster. However, it becomes clear that the young man does not want to be freed from his glamorous captors.

Cast

Reception

Renata Adler, writing in The New York Times, described the film as

a sort of fidgety mod pornography, which uses the advertising convention for eroticism—cutting abruptly from teasing sex scenes to gadgetry, in this case pinball machines, trampolines and odd items of furniture and clothing. Robert Freeman, who directs (his first feature film) is a former fashion photographer... There is no question of acting, since the range of expressions runs from seductive to sinister to mod vacuous.[3]

Box Office

According to Fox records, the film required $2,600,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $825,000 so made a loss to the studio.[4]

References
  1. "Robert Freeman". IMDB. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  2. "Kier-La Janisse on THE TOUCHABLES". Trailers From Hell. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  3. "Movie Review". New York Times. 21 November 1968.
  4. Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 327.
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