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Edinburgh University
Film Society 47 Years of Student Run Cinema 1963-2010 Student Film Society of the Year 2002, 2005, 2006 |
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Karel Reisz, 1966 UK, 97 minutes
Morgan (David Warner) is obsessed with Karl Marx and gorillas (as you are). He is also obsessed with stopping his ex-wife (Vanessa Redgrave) from marrying a more normal art dealer (Robert Stephens) who is not obsessed with Karl Marx and gorillas.
Set in the London of the Swinging Sixties, this film is as zany as a zane and extremely funny. Morgan is several thousand sarnies short of a picnic but his wild imaginings and hysterical actions make him very funny and quite endearing (making it completely understandable why Vanessa Redgrave married him in the first place and then decided to divorce him).
Adapted from a play by David Mercer, in which Mercer seriously psychoanalysed the character and made a huge point about how Morgan was the true child in us, the anarchic spirit trying to get out but supressed by society etc., apparently David Warner who played Morgan had not got a clue what Mercer was talking about and instead played Morgan as simply a bloke who is very nuts and wants to be a gorilla. Robert Stephens and Vanessa Redgrave (in what was her film debut) also give very good performances and Karl Reisz's direction is for the most part assured.
"David Warner is perfectly cast" - Premiere
Review by Alicia Forsyth
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97
Scripted by David Mercer, Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment tells the tale of an outsider. The eponymous hero (David Warner) is a Marxist social misfit, at odds with the boring, conformist world. His unconventional behaviour is labelled nothing short of schizophrenic by the unsympathetic society. The love of his life is his enchanting ex-wife (Vanessa Redgrave) and throughout the film we observe his often hilarious attempts to win her back from her new beau (Robert Stevens). The celebrated scene of Morgan dressed in a gorilla suit is but one of the magical moments this movie has to offer.
Laingian influenced, Morgan is unmistakably a film of the 1960s, both thematically (belief in personal freedom, non-conformity) and stylistically (freeze framing, accelerated motion). The films sympathies clearly lie with the hero of the piece. Morgan is a superbly created character, perfectly incarnated by the gangling, woefully underused David Warner. A film to be enjoyed many times over.
Review by Stephen Townsend
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94