Villain (1971)

So much average

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A bad act off between Richard Burton Joss Ackand and the Hammeister himself Donald Sinden -some of the dialogue is a treat and Dick Clement /Ian Le Frenais script is almost their most unintentional best comedy!-one redeeming feature is the well staged heist scene but otherwise it's a miscast extraordinare -by the way Joss Ackland clearly hadn't learned his lesson not to play a villain when returning as one in an episode of The Sweeney 7 years later

Released in 1971, "Villain" came hot on the heels of the British gangster classic, "Get Carter." There was a sudden popularity in producing a more gritty and violent kind of British film and later on, television. I remember my brother recorded this film on a late night showing and after I saw a clip, I decided it was a bit much on the violence front. Richard Burton plays the kind of London gangster who is modelled on real life thug and lowlife Ronnie Kray. As Vic Dakin, Burton is a sadistic, evil, mother-obsessed and gay mobster who runs an area of London via a money- laundering and protection racket. He has friends in high places and no one is brave enough to give a statement to Scotland Yard - who have been gunning for Dakin for years. Dakin gives a demonstration of his sadism in one of the opening scenes of "Villain" and for the times, it is quite shocking and graphic. Dakin makes the mistake of straying from his own comfort zone by planning an armed robbery and it proves to be his downfall....... Richard Burton doesn't always convince me as a hard nut, he is a bit miscast in this film. There is a great supporting cast here. Nigel Davenport, Donald Sinden, T.P McKenna and Joss Ackland all stand out. There isn't loads of action but "Villain" was never meant to be about that, the film is motivated by the writing and the acting. The direction is pretty solid. One action scene, is the robbery part of the film. It is well made. The pace rattles along agreeably enough and the climax is one to remember. "Villain" didn't do very well at the box office and Richard Burton's career wasn't done many favours. However, this is definitely worth a few viewings.

***SPOILERS*** Richard Burton burnt out on booze and after staring in some half dozen films, mostly flops, with his wife Elizabeth Taylor tried to and did make a comeback in what was his break-out movie "Villain" that put him back on the map or in demand. Burton playing against type as the mama's boy bi-sexual mob boss Vic Dakin who's major love interest in the film besides his bed ridden mother, Cathleen Nesbitt,is boyish looking fellow mobster and full time pimp Wolfe "Wolfie" Lissner, Ian McShane. In an amazing acting job Burton pulls it-not his pants- off in his both vicious as well as sensitive portrayal as the London gangster making you almost forget all the previous movies that he was in as the guy who gets the pretty girl not only throughout the film but as well as in the end of it, when he spots someone better looking, too.Brutal and sadistic Burton as Vic Dakin always gets his way in the operations of the East End mob that he controls but the next job he's involved in he has to take orders from his former associate Frank Fietcher, T.P McKenna, whom he had since had a falling out with. Added to all that Fietcher insists that his brother in law the weak willed and ulcer ridden Edgar Louis, Joss Akland, to take part in the gang's latest job the payroll robbery of an East London plastic company. What really gets Vic's goat is that his male lover "Wolfie" is making eyes as well as jumping into bed with the beautiful party girl Venetia, Fiona Lewis, whom he wants to get rid of.***SPOILERS**** After robbing the company payroll of some 70,000 pound sterling the money is entrusted with Edgar Louis who together with Louis himself in gone missing. This has Vic blow a fit in feeling that he was screwed by both Louis and his brother in law Fietcher out of his share of the loot. After kidnapping Louis out of his hospital bed Vic has him track down where he hid the money only to come up empty with an outraged Vic blasting him -in his ulcers-to death. It's then that a trap in sprung on Vic not only by the London police but dozen of eye witnesses who caught him red handed committing Louis's murder. It was too late to save Louis' life whom because of his serious and getting worse by the hour ulcer condition didn't have that long to live anyway. But by catching him in the act it put the crazed psycho killer Vic Dakin behind bars and away from society for the rest of his natural life.

Richard Burton as a mother-obsessed gay gangster modeled on Ronnie Kray. It wasn't the worst part he ever had and to be fair he does what he can with it but as British gangster pictures go, "Villain" has very little to recommend it. The director was Michael Tuchner who doesn't appear to have much interest in the material, though he does handle the film's heist scene with more brio than it or the film probably deserves.The script was by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who were better suited to comedy, (there aren't many laughs in this one). On the plus side, Burton was always worth watching, even when he was bad, while Ian McShane is fine as the pretty boy Burton likes to have rough sex with, discreetly off-screen, and Donald Sinden is excellent in much too small a part as a corrupt Member of Parliament. Watchable then, but certainly not memorable.