“I shall waste you and waste you and waste you”¦”
The Ballad of Tam Lin, Tam Lin, Games and Toys or The Devil’s Widow 1970
“McDowall builds a broodingly enigmatic sense of menace out of stray allusions and apparitions that hover without ever really being explained or over-exploited: the snatches of [Robert] Burns intimating the presence of diabolic machinations; the girl terrified by her own unspoken Tarot prophecies; the dialogue that rings like blank verse, as though it had been used over and over again. Above all, though, this menace is effective chiefly because it is rhymed with a mounting sense of quiet decorum, as though reality, the world of the ordinary, everyday banality, were suddenly present to Tom for the first time.”“¨”” Tom Milne, Monthly Film Bulletin, June 1977
“She Drained Them Of Their Manhood–And Then Of Their Lives! “
That’s the tagline American International Pictures exploited to promote this obscure British fantasy/horror film. Made as a last hurrah at the close of the 1960s, The Ballad of Tam Lin or Tam Lin, emerged from a singular blend of McDowall’s audacious, unwavering, and fearless vision to subvert cinematic tradition and bring on board first-rate talent to see that vision realized.
Back in the day, I was armed with my VCR at the ready to capture those late-night TV excursions into obscure horror. Tam Lin would be one of those hidden gems that still lingers in my mind like a nostalgia hangover.
Dear friends, Ava Gardner and Roddy McDowall on the Tam Lin set.
“The film is a gothic fairytale modernized. When viewed in those terms and in the context of the original folklore – it makes perfect sense.” -McDowall.
Legendary Hollywood Goddess Ava Gardner is the evil “Queen of the Fairies” in Roddy McDowall’s wickedly provocative adult fairytale. Initially presented as a horror film, Tam Lin, with its hauntingly beautiful narrative, emerges more as a tragic fable of love and revenge. Or it can be seen as a dark, cautionary adult fairytale with a tangible Brother’s Grimmesque tale of beware the wrath of a slighted Queen, or there is terror amidst the remote woods. With the emergence of the counterculture of the 1960s, there was a growing fascination with all things pagan and folk-sy, with the use of symbolism, iconography, and formal tropes. For instance, the use of bridges we see throughout Tam Lin has often represented those liminal spaces between divergent realms.
Among its myriad titles, at the heart of Tam Lin lies Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazarete – a worldly Aesthete or ‘sorceress,’ however you choose to see her… embodied by the luminous Ava Gardner in one of her 44th and final leading roles. As ravishingly beautiful as ever, Gardner plays the succubus-like enchantress always wrapped in stunning, opulent attire and a flickering flame, drawing the wings of any naive lad she captures for her bed.
This post contains SPOILER!:
READ PART 2 BABA YAGA: HERE
The story retells the artfulness of a wicked enchantress, a queen of the faeries who enraptures the young with her otherworldly beauty and beguiles and mesmerizes them to drain their vitality. And there is a cruel twist to this Gothic fable. At sunset of the seventh year, she is compelled to sacrifice her favorite male love to replenish her (life force or her desire.) Eternally restless, she is a damned soul; she is a paradox both breathtaking and horrifying, filled with a hunger that can never be satiated.
Psychedelic Folkloristic cinema like Tam Lin represents a cultural paradigm situated at a point in time where things were poised to move away from the psychedelic utopianism and iconoclasm of the 1960s, which began to pivot towards more introspective, darker turns. Similar in an impressionistic aesthetic, Tam Lin evokes for me another moody art piece horror, Queens Of Evil, aka /Le Regine 1970/Il delitto del diavolo.
Above are two images from Queens of Evil (1970).
Both films stylistically point to the florid decadence that was evolving into the weary and hostile era to come. Like Ian McShane, with his piercing and intense blue eyes crowned by dark brows and lashes, the charismatic bad boy with a sculpted physique, Ray Lovelock, is lavished with adoration within an idyllic setting until he is ultimately led as a lamb to the slaughter.
A striking parallel exists between the archetypal narratives of wayward, virile princes ensnared within a pastoral paradise and the insatiable, evil queens and seductive sirens who seek to possess them. This clash of archetypes, the untamed masculine spirit versus the ruthless feminine intellect, reflects the deep-seated cultural anxieties and preoccupations surrounding the nature of power, desire, and the fear of women’s primacy, in particular, as with Tam Lin, older women’s primacy.
Scene from The Night of the Iguana 1964.
Ava Gardner circa 1960.
I can include another early 70s horror favorite that registers with its mod/post-modern indulgence  – Messiah of Evil 1973. Messiah of Evil began to show signs of a crack in the shimmery good vibes of the 1960s as it dips its toes – heavily –  into the stark contrast of the coming brutal, gritty tone of later 1970s horror films. Tam Lin and Queens of Evil feel akin to the Psychedelic Folkloristic cinema, which captures that brief moment when fashionable trends were turning towards folklore motifs. Films thrive on a strong narrative, and legends are fed by things that are false and things that are true.
Some critics consider it as one of the original folk horror films. Others see it as an improvisation of the post-Rosemary’s Baby cycle of genre films.
Above are two scenes from the folk horror film The Wicker Man (1973).
A pioneering work of folk horror, Tam Lin can be considered a proto-folk horror film. Not only does it predate The Wicker Man by four years, but it shares some striking thematic similarities. Both films delve into the darkness of cults, driven by a need to appease deities through ritual sacrifice. An unsettling yet obscured supernatural atmosphere permeates both narratives, further accentuated by their remote, rural settings, fertile ground for tales of witchcraft and pagan practices. Notably, both films boast innovative and provocative British soundtracks and share the distinction of being primarily filmed in the evocative landscapes of Scotland.
Tam Lin anticipates Blood on Satan’s Claw, released in 1971, and yes, once again, like The Wicker Man in 1973, showcasing its creeping pastoral horrors. The film’s ’60s art-house decadence and its aesthetic serve as many of the films that could be perfectly placed inside a time capsule from the merging decades of the late ’60s & 1970s. A film movement that draws inspiration from the rich period of European art cinema. Tam Lin’s dreamy and, at times, barely lucid tone frames this moody lyrical love story set in the bucolic countryside of Scotland until it moves into a horror-filled, phantasmagorical manifestation of the original poem the story is based on. Midway, the film shows a visual shift of spiritual flight, transformation, and salvation from supernatural retribution.
ABOUT AVA :
A true movie star, Ava Gardner was the enchanting daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper. She became known as one of the most bewitching movie stars on the world stage and left behind a legacy etched in the hearts of cinephiles worldwide. Known for her intoxicating, longing, hazy green eyes, rich and deep mahogany hair, high cheekbones, and demanding lips that evoke a singular sensuality, she is one of the most photographable beauties in Hollywood and the world. Whether portraying sensuous heroines or deadly enthralling femme fatales, Ava Gardner manifested a tigress-like magnetism harmonized by the edginess of her smokey voice, bringing an earthy, worldly, audacious quality to her persona. “her laughter bordered on the lusty.” (Roddy McDowall)
However, her beauty did not overshadow the profound depth of her acting. Ava Gardner had a powerful inner strength she summoned for each of the characters she portrayed, though she would often make self-deprecating commentary about her acting. “Christ, what did I ever do worth talking about? Every time I tried to act, they stepped on me. That’s why it’s such a goddamn shame, I’ve been a movie star for 25 years, and I’ve got nothing, nothing to show for it.”
Ava in the 1946 film noir – The Killers.
Ava Gardner gained recognition when she played a femme fatale who betrays her lover (Burt Lancaster) in Robert Siodmak’s noir masterpiece – The Killers (1946).
In the late 1960s, she left behind Hollywood and lived quietly in her opulent home in London’s Kensington, succumbing to pneumonia at the age of 67. For over three decades, Ava had sought solace in the cobblestone streets of London, a respite from the relentless pursuit of paparazzi and journalists who chronicled her turbulent romances with men such as Mickey Rooney, the abusive maestro Artie Shaw, who treated her as if he was her intellectual superior and the inimitable crooner/actor Frank Sinatra. Her life was a tableau of glamour and intrigue, flamboyant dalliances with matadors, international playboys, and literati. Yet amidst the splendor, she found refuge in the quietude of London’s embrace, a sanctuary from the tumultuous spotlight that had once scrutinized her every move.
In her memoirs (one hell of a read), Ava Gardner expressed, “If you don’t tell your side, the self-appointed biographers step in, adding to the abysmal lies.”
Ava Gardner became fluent in portraying arresting vamps and free-spirited heroines, weaving her magic through the celluloid odysseys of Ernest Hemingway. Cinematic gems like the epic The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and The Sun Also Rises (1957), she breathed life into characters with an intoxicating blend of allure and independence.
In the autobiographically tinged masterpiece Barefoot Contessa (1954), she mesmerized audiences as a fiery dancer metamorphosing into a luminous star, her performance a tempestuous dance between passion and stardom.
Ava from 55 Day in Peking (1963)
She embodied the very essence of the Baronesses and Countesses””roles she would find herself cast as, and her beauty was the majestic pillar supporting the weight of such noble titles. Ava Gardner graced the silver screen with her unrivaled presence.
In the realm of torch singers, she set hearts ablaze in The Hucksters (1947) and Show Boat (1951), her voice a seductive flame that mesmerized audiences. A vivacious playgirl in Mogambo (1953), a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination, she moved through scenes with an irresistible, fiery charm.
Venturing into deeper waters, she portrayed a tortured British-Indian beauty in Bhowani Junction (1956), her performance a haunting melody of anguish and resilience. As a contemplative sophisticate in On the Beach (1959), she brought depth and class to the screen.
Ava Gardner in The Night of the Iguana (1964).
But perhaps her most captivating transformation was as the weathered and sexually irrepressible innkeeper Maxine Faulk in the cinematic adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s Night of the Iguana (1964), her portrayal of a symphony of faded glory and hidden depths. Maxine is my favorite of her performances as she douses herself in authentic pain; the night scene’s metaphor – where she plunges herself into the ocean waters – is a sensual ritual on screen.
Critics may have once dismissed her as merely decorative, her range deemed narrow, but with each role, she defied expectations and earned accolades. Yet, despite her success, she remained modest, dismissing her own talent with a self-effacing shrug.
Always quick to vilify her talent, “Listen, honey,” she joked cynically during an interview in 1985, “I was never really an actress. None of us kids who came from M-G-M were. We were just good to look at.”
Born from the harsh soil of poverty, she blossomed into a cinematic marvel, a testament to resilience and the transformative power of dreams.
“I’m a damned good friend.” Ava had said of herself. And playwright Tennessee Williams felt that “[Ava’s] ego was centered, it seemed to me, around friendships.”
Ava circa 1970.
McDowall, who contributed a chapter to Ava Gardner’s posthumously released autobiography Ava: My Story, wrote of his dear friend: “Ava was like the most fantastic relative because she didn’t make you pay a price for knowing her. She was the great older sister who just adored you. And spoils you. Her loyalty was devastating. In fact, it could be embarrassing. Because if she were your friend, she would kill for you, and sometimes you didn’t want her to. She believed in the good, decent things; she really did. And to the best of her ability, she lived that way.”
McDowall felt that Ava Gardner was the only possible choice to play Micky Cazaret. He envisioned a leading Hollywood actress who could carry the role with the primal life force needed to play the ballad’s godlike queen. Gardner not only projected the ultimate in elegance but also had the air of completion about her as a woman who has become Divine.
Without the original folktale’s magical realism, McDowall made Tam Lin purposely lacking clarity as to whether Micky is”¦ a devouring mother, a praying mantis, or a witch. This keeps Micky’s true nature open-ended.
Ava-original-caption-6161976-Brooklyn-New York-while-ava-gardner-views-a-profile-of-manhattan-a-photographer-captures-hers.-taking-a-break-during-her-Brooklyn-location-shooting-for–The Sentinel (1977).
While marking Roddy McDowall’s sole venture into the director’s chair amidst Ava Gardner’s extraordinary career, Tam Lin stands as one of her rare forays into the supernatural realm that precedes her cameo in Michael Winner’s The Sentinel 1977. True to the essence of the ballad, the screenplay navigates through the subjunctive state of mind of “Swinging London,” with its mod fashions and the spirited vernacular of the late 1960s. William Spier, who wrote mostly for television in the 60s, penned the screenplay.
Roddy McDowall on Ava Gardner, “This bottomless lack of confidence plagued her throughout her career and caused her no end of woe. She was an amazing force”¦ When action was called, she carried herself with feline grace and the dignity of an Empress”¦. She was the very definition of the word “˜breathtaking,’ but she had no emotional resources to deal with the fact of it. It was almost as if she was estranged from her own beauty and was as amazed about the awesome effect on those around her. If you told her she was beautiful – she would literally start to shake with displacement.
“One of the great compliments of my life is that Ava Gardner trusted me. Who had never directed a film before or since- to navigate her through a performance – of a very complicated scenario – I think her contribution to The Ballad of Tam Lin is formidable – she negotiates the labyrinthine of the villainess Micky Cazaret as a creature of seemingly opposite qualities – a soul only concerned with the welfare support happiness and matriculation of those who are in her orbit. Until”¦”
“She never once complained or took issue with my direction. She continually displayed confidence, and subscribed totally to my view, and demonstrated a confidence that was deeply supportive. The movie simply could not have worked without her. And at that time there were no other performers of the maturity, extravagant beauty, stature and though waning, the commercial viability to inhabit that role. And her legendary glamour permeates every moment she’s on the screen. “
Ava Gardner, embodying the role of the domineering “Faerie Queen,” stands fittingly in our gaze amidst the spiraling exploits of whimsy, debauchery, decadent revelry, and cruelty by her cult of followers. The narrative can suggest a straightforward interpretation of a woman driven by fiery obsession and a taste for vengeance, who devours her lovers when she is through with them.
When did filmmakers recognize this modernized archetype of the sensual witch””who gained a sexualized ideation and shattered the image of the monstrous old hag? There have been instances in Hollywood romantic comedies in the 1940s and 50s, for example, Kim Novak: Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and Veronica Lake in I Married a Witch (1942). Filmmakers may have found it easier to portray this reimagined witch character due to the lighthearted tone of the story.
In contrast to Hollywood’s tendency to relegate older actresses (who have merely embraced their 40s) to stereotypical roles like mothers or unmarried women, Tam Lin presents a refreshingly progressive view of female sexuality and beauty. Micky, in terms of the horror genre, defies the tropes of the asexual hag, the evil witch, or the bitter, crazy older woman.
Ava Gardner’s portrayal of a woman who embraces her sexuality without inhibition and who exploits and abuses less powerful young men was a courageous role for the star. Gardner masterfully captured Micky’s complex psyche, revealing the underlying vulnerability that stems from her inability to truly understand the essence of love, which is her most significant flaw. Micky only recognizes love through domination, manipulation, and control, drowning her young lovers in the treacherous waters of her desire; they are nothing more than playthings to her.
Unfortunately, it was a seldom-seen sub-genre of the 1960s, with few examples such as Damiani Damiani’s film The Strega, aka The Witch (1966). In a similar fashion, this film’s central figure, portrayed by the beautiful Rosanna Schiaffino, makes her male lovers sexually subservient through supernatural influence.
So, Is Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazaret a Witch?
Many critics have compared Micky Cazaret to a witch. In her essay The Mother, The Magus and The Crone, historian Kat Ellinger identifies Micky as a “˜gender code-breaking’ figure who defies cinematic gender norms surrounding our conceptions of the “˜witch.’ She cites this alongside Kay Walsh’s role in The Devil’s Own (also known as The Witches). Neither characters fit the pattern of the withered hag or grotesque crone, for instance, the witch of Hansel & Gretel who lures children in so she can eat them. The role of Micky avoids the typical cinematic trappings of grotesque villainy.
While she might seemingly wield dark magical powers and certainly challenge societal expectations, Micky is a formidable, beautiful “˜queen’ whose motivations are purely egocentric. If she embodies an ancient malevolence, its only purpose is to give herself absolute power, not to worship any darker forces other than herself.
A woman/witch/ethereal queen who truly has the power to destroy what she desires, as seen with Micky’s elaborate mask and the allusion to the young men she has sacrificed as an offering, much like the Scottish folktale.
Ironically, because Tam Lin is a genre film, though a fusion of several, Micky also stands as a mother figure to her pack, yet she is revealed as monstrous and grotesque. She holds sway over her coven as if she were treating them as her children, whom she will punish if they disobey. She can also devour them, essentially the archetypal “˜Devouring Mother’; in other words, she eats her own. I can think of a moment when she treats Tom as a little boy, as when she tells him to “Wipe your nose!” after he has a fight with Oliver. And then, once more, this comment will rear its ugly tone when Tom’s nose is bleeding after he is attacked by her menacing assassins.
“She can be nurturing and then become a cold, abusive, narcissistic mother. The young people all act appropriately all vying for her affection and attention while simultaneously trying to avoid her wrath and her punishment. What’s even more perverse about her cultish matriarchal rule is that she openly sleeps with many of her young male charges.
She also consumes her young quite literally, as dictated by the original story so that she will remain immortal and relatively untouched by age.” (Kat Ettinger)
Ava Gardner takes center stage as the decadent mistress Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazaret, a fabulously eccentric, affluent, and enigmatic cosmopolitan figure, secretly the “Queen of the Fairies,” wielding her “˜sorceress’ or “˜enigmatic’ powers over a cult-like following of glamorous youths.
Radiant as ever, Gardner delivers a seductive, captivating, and convincingly malevolent performance. Irresistible, insatiable, bewitching, and a vampiric mistress with dark desires, she compels her spellbound and ill-fated lovers to run toward their anticipated doom.
Her performance, with her sensual restraint, is quite reminiscent of Delphine Seyrig’s sinister allure in her portrayal of Countess Elizabeth Bathory in director Harry Kumel’s intoxicating 70s horror odyssey Daughters of Darkness, aka ‘LES LEVRES ROUGE’ in 1971. Both deliver their performances with a haunting edginess. The film’s narrative retells the allegory enchanted by the verses of Robert Burns, who based his work on the timeless Scottish folktale, “The Ballad of Tam-Lin.” The film is known by various alternative titles, including the delightfully absurd The Devil’s Widow, which unfurls it as a tale of mesmerizing intrigue.
The original story takes a darker turn when it reveals Tam Lin wasn’t always a creature of Faerie. Once a mortal man captured by the Queen, he’s now bound to her service. But Tam Lynn sees his chance to escape rests with Janet. Only she can rescue him from the deadly Faerie ceremony.
Central to the original fable’s narrative is the Elvin prince Tam Lin, who faces the grim fate of being offered as a sacrifice to hell by the faeries. However, the once majestic faerie court depicted in the original ballad has undergone a metamorphosis, evolving into a community of counter-culture idlers and eventually a menacing, murderous cabal for McDowall’s film.
This folk tale recounts the daring rescue of the young Tam Lin of the Elves from the clutches of the Queen of the Fairies by a maiden named Janet.
Tam Lin watches for maidens and takes a tax if they cross over into the realm. The tax could even be their virginity, as it is his joy to rob them of their virtue. Janet is discovered by him picking roses on his territory one day. It is his job to watch over the borderlands. Thus, the symbolism of the bridges. She tells him that she owns the land and that it was given to her by her father, a rich lord. The lovers are brought together again when she tells him she’s carrying his child. But he tells her he is to be sacrificed during a Halloween ritual, an event that occurs every seven years.
Set in the Scottish Borders, the story has undergone countless retellings, each with its unique twists. Perhaps most notably, Robert Burns penned his iteration of this supernatural ballad in 1770, drawing inspiration from the 16th-century fairy tale.
In McDowall’s film, Ian McShane portrays the eponymous knight/photographer Tom Lynn (Tam Lin). Tom Lynn finds himself entangled in a nomadic clique of the beautiful and the restless who follow around, the affluent American heiress, Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazaret. Entranced by Micky’s bewitching charm, Tom becomes caught in a complex love triangle that quickly begins to delve into a bit of the mystical when elements of an idyllic romance clash.
With psychedelic indulgences, the narrative ventures into a hinted realm of the supernatural. When Ava Gardner’s latest stud protege (McShane) finds solace in the arms of the local vicar’s (Cyril Cusack) daughter (Stephanie Beacham), our enchantress vows vengeance. Though seemingly straightforward, the narrative dances with complexity as first-time director Roddy McDowall masterfully intertwines layers of ambiguity, occult fetishism, and mystique, painting a vivid canvas of intrigue and mod fascination.
McDowall’s film embraces the core elements of the story but imbues Tam Lin with distinctly groovy flourishes and unique stylistic choices, infused with the biting social commentary that was characteristic of the late 1960s.
As Micky’s lover, Tom Lynn, succumbs to the young girl Janet, the picture of innocence, whom he believes is his soulmate, Micky’s enchantment over Tom is broken””shattered by this new young girl who enters his life. For this betrayal, Micky makes a vow to destroy him. The dark twist to follow echoes director Ernest B. Schoedsack’s timeless and chilling masterpiece The Most Dangerous Game 1932.
At times more akin to a whimsical fairytale allegory rather than a mere chilling terror flick, this cinematic gem was directed by actor Roddy McDowall, who began his career as a beloved child actor in films such as John Ford’s breathtaking masterpiece How Green Was My Valley in 1941. The production was finalized in the twilight of 1969 but not released until 1971. McDowall’s film sat on the shelf for three years. In 1971, McDowall returned to his film to do some post-production work, but due to its poor distribution, Its journey to the silver screen was thwarted as its production company, Commonwealth United, succumbed to bankruptcy, leaving it shelved and unseen.
The U.S. release of THE BALLAD OF TAM LIN underwent significant alterations, reportedly emphasizing its horror elements. This transformation occurred due to the financial collapse of Commonwealth United.
Along came AIP, who swept up the rights and took over the film’s distribution. In 1972, it was radically edited without McDowell’s consent, and despite McDowall’s vehement objections, they proceeded to edit it. AIP clearly didn’t get McDowall’s original vision at all.
With their trademark AIP and flair for sensationalism, they presented the film as if it were an exploitative shocker and crafted a lurid advertising blitz, branding it as one of those “aging glamour star horror films – or Hagsploitation “ (please don’t get me started””stay tuned for my feature project, Deconstructing the Myth of Hag Cinema) that had captured the taste for blood that audiences craved watching A-list actresses in B-horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.
AIP opted for a limited release of the film, but the confusion stemmed from their marketing it as a horror flick rather than a lyrical romance. They went as far as re-editing the film and were the ones who changed its title from the original “Ballad of Tam Lin” to “The Devil’s Widow” in an attempt to evoke a darker allure.
The film fell into obscurity after making sporadic appearances in grindhouses and drive-ins during the waning days of 1972. After AIP re-christened the film The Devil’s Widow, it subsequently languished in those drive-ins of the 1970s under that silly exploitative title.
This misalignment left both audiences and creators dissatisfied, leading the film to vanish without a trace, inevitably resulting in financial losses. It was Martin Scorsese who, so impressed by McDowall’s personal print of the film, set out to purchase the rights, took the 35mm film rescued, and restored the original elements of the print for circulation on VHS in the United States during the 1990s.
Tam Lin wound up being actor Roddy McDowall’s directorial debut and his swan song after disbanding his production company and the idea of ever directing another film. This is unfortunate because Tam Lin features striking cinematography, trendy sets, fashions, and evocative music that works well to evoke a turned-on mood. He also shows us that he has the skill to work well with his actors.
Roddy McDowall skillfully blends the story’s fairy tale essence with a seamless infusion of unearthly and hallucinatory elements that drew its breath from the psychedelic zeitgeist of the swinging sixties.
However, McDowall removes any suggestion of the supernatural and obscures any hint of it by making rational explanations readily available.
When put in context with the counterculture of the 60s, any allusion to the magic drink Micky forces Tom to drink can be explained as a bad acid trip and not a modern-day witch dabbling in potions.
Micky’s followers could just be a bunch of mercurial groupies who are more than happy to bask in the power, freedom, and luxuries she provides them with.
Tam Lin is very much a perfect distillation of the late 6os/ early 7os free-love ideology, devoting itself to the late ’60s vibe – lavishing itself on the stylistic experience of that decade. It echoes the excesses that were inherent in that fading era with an almost curious portrayal of modernity and offers insight into the inclination of a psychedelic alternate reality viewed through the amber lenses Gardner uses to view the world – a vision that distorts the imagination of the world and assumes the form of an allegory which touches on deviation and otherworldliness. Roddy McDowall himself described Tam Lin as a “swan song of the swinging sixties.”
Around this period, McDowall graced the screen in a small variety of odd ignominies belonging to British horror films like “It!” in 1967 and AIP’s profane Angel, Angel, Down We Go in 1969 (also known as “Cult of the Damned” starring Hollywood movie star Jennifer Jones.
McDowall would go on to captivate audiences as Cornelius in the iconic Planet of the Apes (1968), a role that would see him through four film sequels and even a spin-off TV series. His absence from Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) was solely due to his commitment to this film. McDowall was no stranger to cult films that dealt with the supernatural, such as the aforementioned It! (1967), the superior Richard Matheson’s Gothic horror The Legend of Hell House (1973), and his memorable appearances in the two Fright Night films in the latter part of the 1980s.
Tam Lin serves as McDowall’s profound and deeply personal artistic expression. Contrary to expectations, it unfolds as a dreamlike and meticulously paced occult-esque fable set in the rural rustic landscapes of Scotland.
The film also has an uncanny sense of the approaching intersectionality between the utopian ideals of the hippie counterculture and the looming specter of darker influences that cast a shadow over that generation of free spirits.
The free-spirits. The In Crowd.
Once Ian McShane dares to pursue a full-blown romance with the virtuous Stephanie Beacham, Ava Gardner’s scorn ignites a chilling sequence of events, and the film truly begins to strike an increasingly ominous tone. By the end, Micky’s new disciples become Manson-like, which adds an even more sinister depth to the horror elements of the film and mirrors the cultural zeitgeist, tinged by the unsettling undercurrent following the Manson Family murders.
The dark spirits.
After eight weeks of filming, the production wrapped in May of 1969 in an incredibly eerie auger. On Aug. 9th, the same year, Sharon Tate and her companions were massacred by the infamous Manson family. This horrific crime of the century ushered in the death of innocence and a newer anxiety and renouncement of the free love generation.
Tam Lin’s central figure, Michaela Cazaret, is herself a posh cult leader who orders her dark followers, driven by her possessiveness and jealousy, to commit acts of violence. The fact that McDowall could not have foreseen the events to come is uncannily prophetic.
Like the vibrant parrots confined in their gilded cages beyond Mickey’s opulent manor, these beautiful people flutter within a gilded prison of their own. The bewitching libertine’s pleasures hold them metaphorically captive, their facade masking a hollowness that lays wide open for Micky to exploit. However, Micky’s first group of ‘parrots’ are essentially harmless. The film culminates in a descent into madness, as a series of warped drug-fueled ‘freak outs’ and nightmares replace the once-alluring facade revealed by psychedelic, illusionary photography.
Extraordinary cinematographer Billy Williams photographed such films as The Magus in 1968, Women in Love in 1969, The Mind of Mr. Soames in 1970 featuring an astounding performance by Terance Stamp, Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1971, X, Y and Zee in 1972, Night Watch in 1973, both starring Elizabeth Taylor, The Wind and the Lion in 1975, Voyage of the Damned in 1976, On Golden Pond in 1981 and Gandhi in 1982 brought his keen eye for modish images, and capturing both the open spaces of Scotland and the closely wired spaces of Micky’s domain.
Filmed in London and around Selkirk in Scotland, in particular – Ettrick Forest, the scenes for the Scottish Borders were recreated in and around Peebles, where the story originated. Micky’s Scottish Manor was filmed on the grounds of Traquair House, while the interiors were filmed at Pinewood Studios.
Williams and Mcdowall’s meticulous attention to detail is evident in the vibrant, bold colors and the symmetry of the striking natural landscape with the breathtaking Scottish border scenery. The portrait of a romantic fairyland unfolds through a series of freeze-frames, a distinct nod to McDowall’s fervent love for photography.
Tam Lin also showcases a heady mix of musical narratives. The brilliant jazz soundtrack was composed by Stanley Myers and features music by the 1970s British electric-folk band Pentangle, including the groovy opening tune, The Best Part of You. This song evokes the film’s cool vibe that underscores the cult follower’s collective liberation and their rituals of easy escape. Pentangle’s music ranges from jazz to the more melodic and has been described as elegant, otherworldly, and less overblown than many of their contemporaries. A refined version of The Ballad of Tam Lin is sung by Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee.
Tam Lin’s entire musical experience, which is every part a character of the story, is a gorgeous journey that goes through many incarnations, with transformative brush strokes of dissonant, avant-garde, and ambient moments by Myers.
His melodies are darkly melodic, evocative, and emotionally resonant, with inspired chord changes and melodic nuances that defy conventional expectations from a soundtrack at that time.
Cast as the hero of the fable and representing the titular captured knight Tam Lin is Ian McShane. I’m particularly crazy about McShane’s pairing as Richard Burton’s lover, a nasty piece of work and notorious queer British gangster in 1971’s Villain. McShane, exuding his darkly sensuous good looks, portrays Michaela’s young plaything, and his striking nude scene lingers in memory.
Marlon Brando and Stephanie Beacham in The Nightcomers (1971).
Stephanie Beacham here as the ballad’s Janet Ashley also appeared in 1971 as Miss Jessel in Michael Winner’s retelling of the gothic Henry James mystery – The Turn of the Screw -the film was The Nightcomers, showcasing the twisted love affair between Marlon Brando’s groundskeeper Trent and Beacham’s beguiled governess. Beacham also appeared as the Hammer horror ingénue in Dracula A.D. 1972 and in Peter Walker’s Schizo 1976.
Janet, the local lass, comes from a place of simple, certain things. Yet Janet Ainsley, a sheltered vicar’s daughter, succumbs to Tom Lynn, a photographer oozing with sexual magnetism.
Ava Gardner’s entourage comprises a roster of future notable British actors. The cast includes cameos by Hammer starlet Joanna Lumley. The illustrious Joanna Lumley became beloved for her roles in The New Avengers and Absolutely Fabulous.
After Ava Gardner becomes vexed by her followers, Lumley as Georgia delivers an unintentionally hilarious line: She vacantly declares, “˜’Life is an illusion. Therefore, nothing is permanent. I think I shall go to Sweden.”
Bond Girl (Live and Let Die 1973), Hammer Scream Queen (The Vampire Lovers 1970, and Taste the Blood of Dracula 1970) – Madeline Smith plays the aerie-headed Sue, one of Gardner’s disciples.
Her character exhibits a youthful innocence by expressing a desire for a puppy, yet she manages to deliver a line that captures the prevailing liberal ideation of the time: “I’ll swallow anything as long as it’s illegal!”
Ingrid Pitt & Madeline Smith The Vampire Lovers (1970).
Horror Genre fans will surely love to see Hammer darling Jenny Hanley (Scars of Dracula 1970) and Peter Walker’s The Flesh and Blood Show 1972) plays Caroline, who has no lines.
Appearing in over 137 film and television roles is the wonderful veteran character actor Cyril Cusack, who plays Beacham’s father, the Vicar Julian Ainsley. Cusack was a prolific British actor appearing in such films as the dystopian – Fahrenheit 451 (1966), 1984 in (1984), Harold and Maude (1971), The Italian Connection (1972), The Day of the Jackel (1973), Juggernaut (1974) My Left Foot (1989) Rose is played by Cyril Cusack’s daughter Sinead.
In what would be an early role in Withnail and I (1983), actor/director Bruce Robinson plays Ava Gardner’s distraught, jilted lover Alan. Prolific British character actor Richard Wattis, the well-spoken, effete Richard Wattis (playing against type), plays Gardner’s sinister private secretary Elroy (Hobson’s Choice, 1954; Bunny Lake is Missing 1965).
Elroy is Micky’s “˜familiar,’ a melancholiac ‘queen’ who lingers at the edges of the frame in his scenes with his sinister glare and a murmur of spitefulness. He is the archetypal campy sidekick with a dash of malevolence.
Fabia Drake portrays the wise woman whom Janet turns to for help in obtaining an abortion. Her composed, reserved demeanor would lend itself perfectly to austere productions such as A Jewel in the Crown and A Room with a View.
Throughout the film, with a building menace, is David Whitman, the omnipresent Oliver.
THE PLOT :
The story opens with a Medieval woodblock-style print on an etched-glass panel depicting a scene from the Scottish tale. flutes and clarinet summon a dreamy, sultry jazz saxophone, and the illustrative image of a wild pack of dogs at a queen’s feet merges with a crystal chandelier that breaks apart into visual little bursts of light.
The mood has been shaped… The music recedes.
Set against a Swinging London obsessed with youth, Tam Lin opens in the lavish surroundings of a posh London pad. We find Micky and Tom Lynn (McShane) languishing in bed as a spellbound Tom professes his undying love for her.
Tom, “I love you.” Micky, “I’m immensely old” Tom, “I may not matter to you.” Micky, “You’ll grow older every year. I grow older every sordid second.” (Gardner says with her intoxicating, languid intonation) Tom, “It doesn’t matter… The older you get, the more beautiful you become – like that chandelier.” Micky assures him,“I shall love you, love you, and love you and leave you for dead.”
Micky surrounds herself with young bohemian souls and in-vogue pretty strays who show up on her doorstep. Among them is Tom Lynn – a young, roguishly handsome yet destitute photographer she embraces as her current lover.
Coming down the stairs, she encounters a young sax player wearing her amber-tinged glasses. Wondering how he got there, he tells her someone brought him. She tells him he looks starved. “Would you like to stay with me? A lot of people do. I’m immensely rich. The deal is this. You live as you choose. You stay as long as you want or as long as I can put up with you. Which the other period might be the shorter. “ He tells her, “Ma’am, I may be a bum, but I worry.”
Early in the film, she whisks the spirited gang away to her countryside estate for a getaway.
Tom has finished taking photos, and Micky gathers her youthful, beautiful entourage, declaring it is time for their journey north to begin.
Micky encounters the young, shaggy-haired Alan (Bruce Robinson), whom she swiftly brushes off, leaving him visibly upset. Desperate to stay near Micky, he crams himself into one of the sportscars along with a bunch of other young beautifuls, including the saxophonist and Rose (Sinead Cusack).
As they pile into the car, the young saxophonist asks, “Who is she, man?” “The Queen of diamonds, hearts and spades.”
For the free-lovers and free-thinkers, emerald valleys shimmer, graced by crystal streams, a verdant realm unfolds, and a solace for weary dreams. Far from that Swinging London that is seemingly fading, there’s no more restless beat, for a haven awaits, hushed and tranquil and ever so sweet. And like a race of ‘faeries’ ‘outsiders’ of the human realm, Micky’s group enters as ‘outsiders’ to the community at large.
With The Pentangle’s “The Best Part of You” setting the rhythm, a convoy of sports cars sets off northward. Micky and Tom Lynn lead the way in her Rolls-Royce while the others squeeze into the remaining cars.
Tom looks over at Micky and says, “I love you.” She suddenly feels a twinge of sadness””or is it remorse? As she turns the car radio on, Pentangle’s song comes alive.
The Best Part of You (lyrics)…
“The chosen few but take care their game may take the best part of you.”
“So let the queen bee take care of you but take care her games will take the best of you.”
As they depart, Micky gazes out at the scenery, commenting on the state of London, “Oh, what very forgettable ruins this town will make,” she comments, peering through her amber yellow-tinted sunglasses.
After the initial titles lure us in, the tone of the narrative shifts, and the vivid sights and sounds of the city give way to a romanticism seen through a hazy veil and a sense of unreality. The scene now unfolds against the impressive backdrop with the manor house’s grandeur, presenting a more dreamlike, idealized vision of the setup.
The stark realities of the urban environment have been softened and taken on a more wistful, almost nostalgic quality. With its stately architecture and imposing presence, the manor house creates a world that feels distinctly removed from the gritty details of everyday life in London.
The procession soon crosses the Tyne Bridge, and as night descends, they pass Hadrian’s Wall and begin to reach “˜Carterhaugh,’ Micky’s substantial mansion.
Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazaret, who presides over her Carterhaugh estate nestled in the Scottish countryside, is a charismatic millionairess who reigns over her flock of 20-something runaways.
There is a sculpture depicting this scene within the great manor house.
A voiceover sets the stage for the poem – The Ballad of Tam Lin about a young man held captive by the Queen of the Faeries. Accompanied by one solitary melancholy flute”¦
“There is a story in verse, that belongs to this country, the border of England and Scotland. It is hundreds of years old. It tells the adventures of a young man held in thrall by The Queen of The Faeries, who, in the centuries before Pantomime, was reckoned a dangerous lady. It is called The Ballad Of Tam Lin.”
As the entourage passes Hadrian’s Wall, at the Scottish-English border, the narrator tells us how Tam Lin, or “˜Tom’, was bewitched by the Queen of the Fairies or “˜Micky’ and set upon by her faeries or her entourage. And as a menacing portent warns, the Queen of the Faeries is a “dangerous woman.”
Armed with both opulence and sporadic spells of sorcery or enticements (whichever you believe), Micky orchestrates her enthralling ensemble of vibrant youth to celebrate life, weaving a tapestry of decadence and intrigue within her captivating realm and the young man, Tom Lynn, who has become the romantic prisoner of the dark enchantress. Though he doesn’t realize this yet.
Her quest for eternal youth sees her ensnaring the collective of free spirits within the sprawling expanse of her country estate. Set amidst the psychedelic backdrop of the “Age of Aquarius,” these free-spirited thrill seekers revel in uninhibited indulgence, dabbling in whimsical theatrics while they lounge about and daydream. Yet beneath their carefree façade lurks an unsettling undercurrent as even a harmless fortune-telling escapade takes an ominous turn. Amidst the splendor of indulgences and uncertainty, Micky’s allure proves irresistible, compelling all of her devotees, or aimless captives if you like, to beg for her eternal embrace whenever she decides she wants to send them away. Until then, they laze around taking part in tarot readings, and all their daily lauds and evening vespers are only to amuse Micky.
The days and nights are filled with drunken frisbee tosses in slow-motion against a backdrop of dreamy saxophone or simply reveling in an evening’s indulgence, characterized by smoking and riding space hoppers, tarot card readings, and Victorian parlor games. The estate has become an unending celebration, where Micky’s revelers occupy themselves with various diversions, and come nightfall, it turns slightly more decadent.
Yet she rules with an iron hand, a fierce determination, and an awareness of the unpredictability of her impulsive love.
Richard Wattis, as Elroy, orchestrates her affairs with a sharp wit and cunning finesse. He slyly divulges the grim fates of his mistress’s past paramours to her current beaus, suggesting their own destiny might be in peril should they dare challenge Micky and try to elude her.
When Janet Ainsley (Stephanie Beacham), a starry-eyed, naive village girl who resides nearby with her vicar father, comes to the mansion with a puppy to sell, she first encounters the flamboyant charmed circle. She is a plain girl with her hair pulled back in a modest ponytail. She is dressed in a simple brown cardigan and skirt. Janet stands out among the vogue young women of Carterhaugh.
Welcome to the manor house where the children play…
“I forbid you maidens all, who wear gold in your hair; to travel to Carterhaugh, for young Tam Lin is there.”
Janet flows past the greenie hills and cobblestones on her bicycle, a puppy in a basket, and enters through the opening to the estate flanked by two stone lions. She takes the breath of the decent world with her as she enters through the stone lions and makes her descent into the realm of the beautiful children who will be replaced by the amoral coven-like jackals and murderers. Janet is greeted by the quivering drum roll of a peacock.
Janet steps into the gardens and is introduced to a different reality. Tom and his companions fling a frisbee around the grounds, laughter echoing amidst clinking champagne glasses. Unburdened cares paint easy smiles on their faces. The spectacle unfolds like a slow ballet while a harpist’s whimsical cascades meet with the saxophone’s mournful cry. The versatile soundtrack, with its groovy joys, might well be hinting at a touch of melancholy.
This is the first time she meets Tom, and she is immediately transfixed by him, watching as he plays frisbee with the others. When Janet catches the frisbee, Tom offers her a smile as he comes over to take it off her hands. She smiles at him. But when Tom smiles at her – this handsome young Tom Lynn- she does not like this new sensation and throws it to the ground as if to defy what he has momentarily awakened in her. She walks away with the puppy. He looks baffled.
Tom begins snapping more pictures of the gang, focusing his lens on Janet like a painter drawn to his muse. A young woman extends an invitation to Janet, presenting her with the opportunity to pluck a tarot card from the deck. She chooses The Lovers. The young woman explains that this card signifies the resolution of an ordeal.
She finds one of the girls sitting and asks, “Excuse me, someone wants a puppy?” A very young Joanna Lumley smiles. “Everything is possible.”
Janet encounters another of Micky’s young groupies, who points her toward the girl who wants the puppy, “One must speak to Susie very slowly. She’s dim”¦ as a little silky button.”
Janet grows uneasy as she considers entrusting the puppy to Sue (portrayed by Madeline Smith), who speaks in a childlike voice and begins gleefully shrieking excitedly at the sight of the “doggy.” Janet suspects Sue of being under the sway of drugs.
Enter Queen of the Faeries…
Micky appears at the top of the stone stairway, watching over her kingdom. She wears a gorgeous clementine-colored dress with marvelous sleeves that flow as if she had Faerie’s wings. Micky makes her grand entrance, accompanied by her faithful sidekick Elroy (Richard Wattis), and she greets Janet.
As her groupies look on, she shouts at them laughingly, “Scum!” she tells Janet as if it were quite natural to speak down to them like a band of beautiful misfits untamed and free, “You must treat them as scum.”
With an air of confidence, Micky assures Janet that the puppy will be taken care of and promptly tells Elroy to pay her for the dog. Janet asks for a very high price for the puppy, yet Micky agrees to buy it for £50.
In this scene, the manor house is lined with caged parrots, which is quite symbolic. Micky asks Janet if she’s the vicar’s daughter and invites her to visit her sometime.
Introduced to Elroy, he appears disdainful and inscrutably rude to Janet as he dismisses her as a “silly little girl… now you’ve lost your chance.” Having asked Micky for a price way more than she should have dared ask a lady as generous and classy as Micky, she has chosen to offend her in this way. He bluntly declares that she has missed her opportunity to fit in and be rewarded.
Later, while talking to her father, the venerable Vicar Ainsley (Cusack), Janet paints a vivid picture of Micky, rhapsodizing and romanticizing about her: “Oh, she’s so glamorous and grand. She looks like a goddess. She’s kind, too. I’m really cross and upset, but all the time I was with them, I knew that she could give me something I needed. “
Fueled by Gardner’s otherworldly charisma, Micky exudes a cunningly seductive allure. So much so that even Janet, who is unmoved by Micky’s illusory paradisiacal reign, is initially drawn to her. Her father tells Janet she’ll have to send back the check.
In the next scene, it is very clear how much McDowall worships Ava Gardner and how he uses the camera to translate this love on screen. There is a beautifully filmed visual refrain showing Micky wandering””no, floating””in a flowing pastel rainbow-colored dress with faerie-style sleeves, running through the fields beyond her manor house.
As Micky enters the manor looking for Tom, she sees poor Alan sitting and sobbing on the floor, leaning against the wall. He is lamenting his abandonment and declaring that he cannot exist without her. She suggests that he can now leave and live or stay and die.
Micky enters the house looking for Tom and finds the young boy from the opening scene who is sad because he knows he can’t have her attention, even if it’s just some of the time. She consoles him tenderly. He tells her, “I shouldn’t have said those things I’ve said. I just want to stay.” Micky explains with almost nurturing ease (but is it?), “One comes, another goes. That’s the economy of life.” He continues to sob, “But I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do without you. I don’t know what to do… Please.” She cradles him. ” You can live, you can live, and if it’s too late to live, you can die.” Is this a warning to Alan?
She tells him Elroy will drive him to the station. “But I love you. I love you.” He is crying like an inconsolable little boy. As she holds him, as he weeps into her breast – she shows her true nature, the coldness that she feels for him as she is done with this young man. She casually asks, “Have you seen Tom?”
While Tom develops his photographs of Janet, Caroline (played by Jenny Hanley) tells him about Micky’s desire to see him.
Caroline says, “She wants you” He asks, “Are you being a good little, good little girl? Being as good as you can?” Caroline presses on, “She wants you now.” He leans in, kisses her, and whispers “Thank you”, she says to herself, “That’s a good boy.”
On the staircase he sees Micky who is looking reflective, as the music echoes that impression. Staring into the flames in her fireplace she asks Tom, “Do you like Carterhaugh?”Â
He tells her, “It’s beautiful.” Micky, “I think I shall live here when I’m old. It’s good country for surviving it. They have villages with names like ‘stands against all. Where were you?” Tom says, “In Elroy’s darkroom.” Micky wants him to tell her, “Where will you be when I’m older?” He doesn’t answer her. She turns to look at him… then turns away. Off to the left of the screen, is a statue of the mythological Lamia – a fearsome female demon from Greek mythology who devoured children and seduced men. She often appeared to have the upper body of a woman and was either seen with the lower body of a serpent or, as with this statue, sphinx-like.
On the center screen, within the glass case, the statue tells the story of Tam Lin, and to the right is the statue of Lamia, she-demon.
Casting aside the uncertainties, she leads Tom to bed with the grace of a lioness and a bottle of champagne.
“You are about to get disgustingly drunk,” he laughs. She grabs a bottle, and they hold hands as they ascend the staircase that leads to her bedroom. The camera lingers on another statue, that of a figure wearing a crown on a horse that is vanquishing a man who has been slain.
The scene cross-fades to Tom lying face down in the bed, underscored by the jazz saxophone. Micky enters the room wearing a man-tailored nightshirt. She lies down on the bed and playfully climbs onto him. He is still in a waking sleep. As Tom begins to stir, Micky bites him in the ass. He gets up from the bed, and we get a full shot of his naked bum.
He tells her “When you’re old, I shall be in the prime of my life.” She is amused by him. He falls to the ground face down and hung over. The scene goes into a soft blur.
Until Janet and her father are in the garden. He is working on his sermon and asks where she’s off to. She tells him to Carterhaugh and begins to walk into the greening land. It is beautiful countryside.
Jacqui McShee sings, “You maidens all.. for young Tam Lin is there.”
Micky is sitting on the grounds with her young friends. While some bounce around the lawn on their space-hoppers, she is burning holes in a handkerchief with a few others. They all find this idle thing of cigarette burns and fresh air quite amusing.
Tom comes out hung over, holding a bottle. Micky tells him to come and kiss her. Wearing those fabulous amber-tinted glasses, she places them on Tom, transforming the screen. We see what he sees. Micky turns amber. “Off you go and drink your medicine.”
Oliver asks Tom, “Have you no greeting for all us lovely people?”
Ignoring him, he heads towards the woods, and Jacqui McShee begins vocalizing a piece of The Ballad of Tam Lin again,“”¦Walking one bright morning across the hills so green “¦ cross over the little footbridge.”
The camera keeps switching back and forth, showing Janet traversing the hills and Tom nursing a hangover, setting out to wander the nearby countryside, and drinking his medicine (a bottle of brandy) amidst the paradisiacal hills.
The two fatefully meet up by a small stream. And McDowall and cinematographer Billy Williams employ a photo-roman style to capture her smile, his smile, her smile, his smile. He sits down on a rock; she stares at him. Close-up stills of their expressions. Close up on their eyes and sweeping strings to go with it all. When Janet begins to look a bit reserved and a bit worried, she begins to walk away until he smashes his bottle against the rocks. It startles her.
After a hesitant exchange, there is some photo-roman frolicking, and they share a kiss. Suddenly, the paradisiacal scene gives way to two souls in the act of love. It is a bit overly sentimental and drenched in pop culture’s photo-roman dazzle.”¨However, all that passionate lovemaking has happened beyond the camera’s lens, lost in the abyss of moments uncollaged.
But for all that intimate time gone unseen by us, the slithering Elroy has unwittingly observed it.
As Tom and Janet begin to walk, he tells her, “She owns a house there.” Janet asks, “What’s she really like? I watched her there since she bought the house a year ago.” Tom says, “She’s a very splendid lady and immensely rich. She can afford to live in a dream since she takes us in for company.” Janet laughs, and Tom says, “Look, it’s a tough environment. You wouldn’t last a week in Micky’s dreams.” She wonders, “The bonuses are good?” Tom tells her, “Yes. You learn how not to care. Well, you simply don’t care. It’s like breathing pure oxygen.”
As they come to the bridge, he tells her, “You must not come any further.” He asks her if she’s sorry, and she says no. Then Tom asks her, “Why did you let me do it?”
She does not answer; she merely asks, “Shall I see you again?” He answers yes. He crosses the bridge, taking her ribbon with him.
As Janet walks away, she spots Elroy in the trees, watching in the shade. She runs.
Tom stops on the bridge and sits down. Micky approaches, sits down, and leans against him.
Micky tells Tom, “This is a very secret place. Tell me a secret.” He hesitates. She touches his face and kisses him, and at once knows of his transgression, ” I can taste her on you. She tastes like watered milk.” He laughs, and she answers for him, “Little lies scuttling about like beetles.” Tom wants to know, “How’d you find out?” She tells him, “Never mind”¦ “ putting her head on his shoulder. Micky asks, “Do you know? Do you know that I’m in love with you? Give me your comment on that.” Tom says, “Doesn’t seem likely.” “Nevertheless, it’s true. It has to do with a collection of quite futile things. For example. The shape of your upper lip. It’s almost mysterious and unlikely.” Tom tells her, “Doesn’t sound like love.” She insists with a warning attached, “It’s love, and you better believe me. Because it means that you’re in an awful lot of trouble.” She bites his hand. He cries out in pain.
Like a dark enchantress, Micky takes a brooch pin and pricks Tom’s finger til it bleeds.
“Don’t do that, Micky.” “There. (she jabs him) Swear that you’ll love me forever.” Wandering through the woods, after hearing Tom cry out, Sue and Oliver come looking for the source of the cries of pain. Micky hears them and tells Tom, “If they find us, our love is unlucky. I accept it as an omen.” Sue comes upon Tom, but he motions her to keep quiet, and she pretends that she hears the voices from near the house to distract Oliver.
Still acting playful -yet always serious in her way- Micky looks up at Tom, who tells her, trying to convince her of the truth, “It’s not love.” Micky tells him, “It’s what I need most. Does that sound like love?” But Tom tells her, “I can’t. Mickey”¦ when I tell you I love you, I mean it. And I do love you. Almost all the time.” Micky says, ” But when I’m unkind to you”¦ (she whispers) you don’t love me.” He tells her, ” I do.” She laughs, “That’s because you’re a baby. But if you stay with me”¦ I’ll make you into a man.” They embark on a kiss, which fades into a fire.
Groovy music & a little night of fun & games at The Great House…
The beautiful people are exercising their free will to escape with untroubled pleasures, go-go dancing, and a bit of divination with an undercurrent of panic. Lyrics can be heard, such as “Stay at home and be sad.” Tom is burning Janet’s hair ribbon in the fire. Sue is offered a pill: “I’ll swallow anything as long as it’s illegal.”
They blindfold Victoria Fairbrother, who plays Vanna, the girl with tarot cards. Against her will, they are compelling her to do a bit of ‘fun’ fortunetelling. She tells them, “It isn’t a game.” Sweet Sue cries, “No, leave her alone. I don’t want to know about the future.” Oliver, who is turning darker in every scene, insists, “Go on, describe your anxieties.” Tom enters the room.
She begins to tell fortunes and divine prophecies by holding various objects on the table. They hand her something. She recognizes that it’s Rose’s pendant. If she knows whose it is she can’t say anything about it. Still blindfolded, she handles the next item. “Lots of money. Lots of wants. Very strong. Something to do with driving in the dark. Might be lucky.” “In what way lucky?” ” I don’t know. Look, I don’t want to do this.” Next, the saxophone player throws something onto the table, but Vanna reaches for the amber-tinted glasses instead.
Those glasses have some strange energy attached to them. They symbolize something, but what? By this time, Oliver has emerged as a quite sinister soul.
Suddenly, Vanna drops the glasses as if they are burning hot. She rips the blindfold off. “Who do they belong to? ” They all look to Tom. He asks, “What’s the matter? What of?” She tells him, “I don’t know, I don’t know!!” ” Tell me! “ Tom insists. She cries, “Look, I didn’t ask to do this. You put up with what you get.” ” Rose says, “Poor sweet Van – you shall have my white dress.” She gets up and screams in Rose’s face, “I don’t want your dress!!!” They all follow after her, “Leave her alone.”Â
Tom is left with Oliver, who says, “Pick “˜em up. They’re your future.” Tom laughs, puts them on, and happily smiles, and heads upstairs.
The next day, the church bells ring. It is time for the Vicar’s sermon. Tom is sitting atop the hill. He hops over the stone wall and enters the church, where the congregation is singing hymns. He takes a seat and watches Janet.
The Vicar’s sermon, “We always hope that love will make us happy. But in this life outside of the storybooks, there are no happy ever afters. Love is ingrained with anxiety and sorrow, In love in ways we cannot turn aside from and we learn what a heavy thing it is to be human and that’s the start of growing wise. A poet said we must love one another or die. Well, this is very true, but a second truth cuts deeper. You must love one another and die. If we have the courage and patience to accept both these truths together and try and live by them as best we can then we are human-hearted.”
Once again, Jacqui McShee begins to sing something from the Ballad of Tam Lin. Outside Tom walks toward Janet.
Suddenly, a car pulls up with Sue and Oliver. Sue tells Tom that Micky will be looking for him. Oliver says, “Get in, friend.” Janet breaks in, “Would you like to have lunch with us?” Oliver snidely asks, “Would you like to have lunch with her?”
And so, Tom gets invited to a Vicarage lunch”¦ He tells Janet he’d like that very much and tells Oliver, “Off you go, friend.” Tom decides to have a picnic for him, Janet, and the little girl Lofty, who is staying with them while ‘mother is in hospital.’ But word gets back to Micky about this new transgression.
One of McDowall’s close-ups shows Gardner’s warm malachite eyes. She asks where Tom is. He tells her that he went to church. “Oh, did he now? And what would he expect to find there?” Oliver says, “Soul food.” They share a laugh.
We are back at the manor house, where the gang is building a house of cards. There is more symbolism and more idle distractions from the beautiful people.
Elroy passes Tom, “Your absence has been remarked.” Tom just nods his head and moves toward the parlor, where Micky and the gang play parlor tricks.
As Tom sits down, Micky asks, “I heard you were at the church. What did you pick up there? Homely wisdom. You take care of that frail flesh, my love, the wiser you get the farther it takes you from home. We must find you some new interests mustn’t we.” She looks toward Oliver, who says, “Let’s play a soothing game. Something very old-fashioned. And restrained. Tableau Vivant, scenes of rustic life. And Tom can photograph them for us.” Micky says, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Shall we be entertained?” Oliver assures her, “I guarantee it.” Micky says, “Then go ahead.” Oliver says, “Tableau Vivant, who will offer a subject? Anybody?””¨“Well, I have a subject.” Elroy looks on disdainfully. “It takes handling and a lot of heart, but I think it’ll be commercial. She was only a vicar’s daughter.” Rose chimes in, “It all sounds very vulgar and boring.” Oliver, “Not at all. This is an unflinching glimpse of a love that dares not speak its name.”
Tom suggests Elroy in the part of the vicar’s daughter – Micky tells him, “Elroy does not play with the children.” Oliver takes Rosy and places her on her back on pillows, and exclaims, “I’m the boy from the big city, and I’ll be doing a certain amount of pawing and fumbling.” When he turns to tell Tom, “Camera!” Tom takes his glass and throws it in Oliver’s face.
They begin to fight. Micky steps in. “That’s enough. You made your experiment. I hope you enjoyed it. If you ever cause trouble in my house again you’ll leave at once. Is that understood.? Answer me” “Yes.”
She turns and looks at Tom, whose nose is bleeding, and tells him as if he’s a little boy, “Wipe your nose.” Micky will once again instruct him to wipe his nose toward the end of their affair at the climax of the film. She turns to the group and says with righteous disgust, “You torpid collection!” Micky storms away. And that’s the end of that party.
Lumley gives her droll line, “Life is an illusion; therefore, nothing is permanent. I think I shall go to Sweden.” Next, Sue says, “I have a dog to feed.” Oliver approaches Tom, “Tom you old gladiator are we all reconciled?” Tom walks away.
Warning of the 7 years…
Elroy, the baleful private secretary, beckons Tom into his half-dark office to share ‘two little stories,’ warning after every seven years, there’s a chilling pattern of Micky’s former lovers coming to tragic ends in car accidents. “Work it out yourself,” he suggests, leaving Tom to decipher the clue that Micky had a hand in both deaths. Elroy also tells Tom that he can back up his claims with the incriminating photographs to prove it and that he could meet a similar fate if he dares to stray.
Elory explains, “I’ve been Mrs. Cazaret’s personal assistant and account for about sixteen years. During that time, I bought lots of suits for lots of children. Bright boys. And out they go, their suits on their backs. Nothing more.” Elroy scoffs. Tom tells him, “You rancid old queen. What can I do for you?” Elroy says, “Nothing, dear. I need to do something for you. Stories”¦ about dead children. Long ago.” He begins to share names, personal details, and the deaths of past boys who have been involved with Micky. “What’s this got to do with me?” Elroy looks up at him, “Make an effort, dear, look out for yourself.” He continues to recite the details of past lovers.
He shows him a photograph of one of the dead boys. “You would believe that a face could spread so wide.” Tom asks, “Who took this?” He tells him, “I did.” Tom looks down with disgust at Elroy’s ghoulish joy at reliving the past gruesome details of death. He slams down his bottle on Elroy’s desk and startles the old boy. “Silly boy. Don’t thrash about. Think. Don’t think was made to think. Don’t care was made to care. That was a great pity, really.” He laments sardonically, ” He was such a lovely boy.”
Jacqui McShee sings more about Tam Lin as Tom looks up at the light on in Micky’s room.
The lyrics speak truth, “And at the end of seven years, she pays a tithe to hell..”
As he enters Micky’s room, there is a jump cut to a close-up of Micky wearing an elaborate ritual mask. As intense as they are, the sharp metal eyelashes cannot obscure her eyes. She growls a low and nasty chuckle behind that mask until she takes it off when Tom demands, “No more games, Micky.” ” Oh, you are my perfect joy.” He accuses her, “You told Elroy to show me that photograph. (She torments him playfully, muttering under her breath about the kind of perfect he is) Did you tell him? No more games, Micky.”
She tells him, “But people don’t have anything to share with each other except games. Games and toys.” Suddenly, she presses a button, and the sharp knife concealed in the handle of the mask comes out close to his throat. “Say you love me.” Tom tells her, “I’m going to leave,” Micky says, “But why? I make you happy.” He yells, “You waste my life! You waste it!.” She questions him, cajoling his anguish, “What is your sovereign affliction? Boredom, anxiety?” ” I want to leave!” She tells him, ” If you say you’re afraid of me, I’ll let you go.”
He laughs and shakes his head in disbelief. He calmly says to her, “You won’t let me go.” “Quite right, I won’t. But will you stay?” He says, ” No, I won’t stay.” She walks to him, “I love you. You belong to me. I love you, please, I love you.” “Micky, please let me go.” She tries to reveal something to him, “With real tears. Look, I love you. Real tears.” She holds his face. And kisses him. “I’ll give you a lick of my tears. Because I love you. Say you’re afraid of me! Say you’re afraid of me, then you won’t be so frightened.” He tells her, “I’m afraid.” He embraces her. A view of the hills, their lovemaking, and her voiceover vowed, “I shall waste you. I shall waste you.”
Tom and Janet meet again and talk under a tree. He tells her, ” I live in a bloody daze. I’m trying to see you clearly. I really am. It’s very hard.” Janet tells him, “We don’t have to meet again; it’s up to you.” “Sunshine.”“You just have to tell me. Are you afraid of her? She can’t kill you”¦. You can’t stay a boy all your life”” You don’t know anything about it.”“Well, then tell me.” “There’s no way you could understand” “I think I could if you’d only tell me. “ He leaves because he truly is fearful, so he tells her he’s got to get back.
When Janet discovers she is carrying Tom’s child after their afternoon tryst, she retreats from the world, which worries her father. When he leaves on a trip, she seeks help from a local woman – Miss Gibson (Fabia Drake), and confesses she is pregnant, asking for help to arrange an abortion. The woman hands her a note with details of a surgeon who would be willing to take care of her.
Micky sees Tom and jumps out of bed to show Tom her new hat. He smiles and laughs.
She asks him, “Haven’t I given you a rather good time.” He assures her, “Yes.” She asks this, “Made you happy?” He tells her, “Oh yes.” She asks again, “Then stay with me. You choose to stay you choose to go, the rest is all lies.” Tom begs, “Micky, I don’t want to tell you lies. I want you to help me.” She tells him, “I’ll help you. You go. And think as much and as long as you like. But let’s have one more evening together and behave like a couple of perfect darlings. “ He agrees.
The jazz scene…
It is her immortal longing for Ian McShane as Tom that gives way to her fatal flaw- a vulnerability that Gardner is masterful at portraying. She will unleash the fury of centuries past to seek vengeance for his rejection. Her vulnerable place is beautifully captured in the scene at the nightclub as she spends her final night with McShane. Gardner and McShane sit solemnly drinking and drowning their sorrows in brandy and cigarettes as they listen to the sultry notes of a blues singer.
The dim glow of the low-lit nightclub, amidst a haze of melancholy, brandy fumes, and swirling cigarette smoke doing its spectral dance weaving intricate patterns in the dark, seems to mirror Micky’s emotional turmoil unfolding in the scene. Each wisp of smoke carries with it a hint of melancholy.
Gardner’s magnetism is almost Mephistophelean. With a single glance, she summons the poignant end of bedeviled romance; her revelation is tinged with agony. Outwardly regal and as composed as an Olympian Goddess yet internally shattered by her yearning, Gardner is utterly magnificent as she walks purposefully, tyrannically in her wardrobe of haute couture and chiffon caftans. Her fashions were designed by Beatrice Dawson and executed by the Balmain fashion house.
Though silence hangs heavy between them, there’s a profound sense of empathy as you witness her anguish and sorrow. Through the expressive language of Gardner’s deeply soulful eyes, her fear is laid bare as if she’s desperately searching for a way to bring Tom back to her again. Yet she is resigned to the bitter truth that he is slipping through her grasp and that his departure is inevitable. She has lost him for good.
The mesmerizing sway of Micky’s shifting moods as her darker pain unravels transfixes us as we witness her transformation into a truly formidable presence. It is nothing short of chilling.
“I give you one week’s truce. Then I’ll hunt you down”¦ and I’ll kill you.”
At the Blues club, the torch singer cries, “You think your love is golden, but it’s turned to lead.””¨ As Micky listens, she looks over her brandy glass, her eyes set on Tom. Another line from the song is, “It’s sad, sad when you’re old. And it stops when you’re dead.” Within this story, within a story, there is So much that is being said about the immortality of women’s beauty and the price tag on her desirability.
There are no words between them. Just the cigarette smoke and the lyrics to the song. Tom can barely look at her. Guilt – shame. She goes to pour him more brandy, but he puts his hand over the glass. She looks upset by this. She knows he will not get drunk enough to be taken to her bed. Then he pulls out her keys from his pockets and hands them back to her.
“What happens now?” He asks Micky, “I give you one week’s truce. Then I’ll hunt you down”¦ and I’ll kill you.” The rage inside you seeps out her eyes like a tigress that is warning the prey to be prepared to give their blood over to her to drink with his flesh. She storms out, but not before she says, “It’ll do my heart good!”
Back at Carterhaugh, Micky hurls her fury at her ‘children.’Â “You’re nothing but a group of breastfed teenagers. Get out! All of you! You leave for London now!”
She meets Elroy on the landing. “I want to give a party. For all your special friends. I want a whole new world.”
A whole new world…
Micky, fueled by rejection and having grown weary of her current companions, banishes these more playful, vibrant young folk from her circle. Yet she spares only one of them””Oliver, who will fervently pursue Tom for his betrayal. Micky replaces them with a group of evil thrill seekers and shadowy figures.
These will be a troupe of malevolent counterparts who obediently comply with her every desire, including the abduction of Tom, whom they deliver back to Carterhaugh. This casts an ominous pall over the surroundings as they hatch a scheme to put Tom on trial.
Janet heads to the estate in search of Tom. Elroy shows her into his office. Micky is there, “What do you want?” She tells Micky, ” I came to see Tom.” Micky informs her, “Oh, he left two days ago.”“Do you know where I can find him.”“You know, there are days when I lose my taste for the young. Perhaps it has something to do with all that secrecy and flesh. No, I cannot tell you where to find him” Janet says, “When we last met I remember you being very understanding. Please.” Micky wonders, “Why do you want to find him? If you could produce a reason that impresses me. My moods may be changeable, but I always keep my word.”“¨Janet tells her that she’s going to have his baby. She laughs, “I’ve seen a lot of girls go through that little crisis. Still, I’m not unimpressed.” “Will you help me find him?”
The screen turns Ava completely a monochrome charcoal green.
Tom is sitting in his room smoking a cigarette and looking at a picture of his love, Janet. Janet stops at a street cart selling flowers outside the doctor’s office in Edinburgh where she, as the lyrics say, has pulled a double rose, “a rose but only two.” As Janet picks the roses, Jacqui McShee continues to sing more of the story, telling us this sad detail, “You must not kill the bonnie babe, that we got us between.”
Then, Tom shows up before it’s too late, and she enters the surgery. The camera pulls away to see the entire city of London. She cries, and they embrace. He tells her it doesn’t matter when she apologizes. Janet asks, “How did you find me?” He tells her, “Miss Gibson – she got a postcard with his address on it.”
But Elroy is watching Tom and Janet from his car. Tom is still on borrowed time before Micky hunts him down and kills him. Tom brings Janet to his little caravan parked on the flowing riverbank by the old and new Firth Of Forth bridges”¦ the two make love.
Back at the new world of Carterhaugh… The new lot is there – and the house has much darker oxygen. Micky is smoking a cigarette and watching them. The music is now more discordant. Oliver is watching her. She is displeased at this point. He goes to meet her by the stairs. “You’re restless,” she says to him. He’s bored with that lot. “On account of you’re a college boy? You’ve managed to outlast the rest of them. Tell me, what do you attribute your success?” Oliver confidently tells her, “Perseverance, as far as it goes.” Micky asks, “What makes you persevere?” “Times have changed I think I might be, as they say, the man of the hour.”
Clearly, Oliver will be taking Tom’s place as Micky’s new lover. ” If not I’d really ought to be wandering on.” Micky asks him, “What do you think is expected of the man of the hour?” “Oh, something imprudent. “ “Like what?” “Anything,” he says in an open-ended way. “Do you still feel up to that glittering prize?” “Up to taking it?” Micky strikes back, maintaining her authority, “Up to earning it.” Annoyed at his insolence. He backs down – a bit, “Yes, I see. Yes, I think so.” Oliver does not possess the sweeter, lighter nature that Tom possesses. Oliver is a devil. He is the perfect replacement to keep up with Micky’s appetites.
The saxophone sings a turbulent, insolent riff as if coming from a nightclub in hell. Signaling something darker than blackness is about to happen.
As Tom is loading up the car outside the caravan, two goons in black ambush him in the dark. Elroy is watching from inside his car. He tells them “˜That will do.” Beaten up, they kidnap Tom and haul him back to Carterhaugh. Janet comes out of the caravan and finds Tom has disappeared.
He is now surrounded by her brand new groupies and a reinvented Tom for Micky to play with – her newest young lover-to-be – Oliver.
Micky greets Tom, “How perfect to see you again. You look very beautiful. A little starchy. Was it a strain playing house with Miss Muffet?“ Tom asks, “What are you going to do?” Micky condemns him, “I’m going to have you put down. You don’t believe me. For love is kind, suffers long. And stews gently in its own sickening juice. Isn’t that the accepted theory?” “What do you want, Micky? am I supposed to cry in your lap?” Micky tells him, ” I won’t deny you any of the comforts of home.” She picks up a goblet. “I want you to drink that.” Her eyes open wider, “If you prefer not to swallow it I can have it poured down your throat. I see I have to teach you, as humanely as possible, how to become a victim. A victim ought to be empty of any response except humility and despair. Nothing else is appropriate.”
For as much as she professed to love him, she shows the depth her hate will take her.
Tom tells Micky, “You wasted my life”¦ you won’t let me go!”
“Micky, you are a monster”¦. You probably can arrange my death. But you can’t arrange the way I feel about it. I want to tell you something, Micky. I want to tell you how you’re going to die. It’s a game. And you know about games don’t you Micky? Heart attack game, sclerosis game, cancer game.“
She tells him, “I won’t die!!” He asks, “How do you intend to kill me?” She tells him, “You, in fact, will kill yourself. And I shall arrange the way you feel about it. Drink that.” She laughs, “Perhaps you do want to be force-fed. And this won’t hurt you. It’s only the beginning. And you have a chance. What sort of game would it be if you didn’t have a chance? An outside chance of course.”
Tom takes the goblet to his lips and drinks. “You see, I never resign myself. I never give in, and I never let go. That my lamb is the elixir of life.” Her cutthroat resolve seamlessly switches back and forth with sadness and longing for Tom. Gardner is a wonder as she can hold onto these two emotions simultaneously without a word being said. It’s in her eyes.
“Say something nice to me. I’m feeling rather miserable.” He stays silent. She says, “Come with me.”
For the evening’s diversion, the whimsical bounce of space-hoppers is replaced by a more cerebral pursuit: a game of “murder.” It is a mesmerizing tableau, and McDowall, who spent many years acting in offbeat cinema, does well in showing off his understanding of a good set piece.
Micky brings Tom downstairs to be with her new followers. The women are not the ethereal lasses who inhabited the manor house. They are sinister and hollow. There is no more playfulness, only wickedness.
Micky whispers something to Elroy. Then Micky says to Tom, “Brandy for mother.”
One of the girls asks, “What are we going to do then?” “We’re going to play a nice old-fashioned party game. ” “What game?” Oliver says quite casually, “Murder.” One of the guys says, “That’s a kid’s game.” “We shall play an adult version.” “You mean for real?” “For fun… for real fun. “
After talking a bit about the rules of the game, Micky says she will dispense justice. Oliver says, “Next, we need a murderer. Who wants to be a murderer? Well, you force me. I shall be the murderer. And finally, we need a victim?” One of the girls points to Tom and says, “him?” Oliver says right “him.” Micky says to Tom. “You will be the victim,” she says with absolute glee. He leans down and defiantly kisses her on the forehead. He will not give her any power over his fear. One of the boys trips him as he begins to walk out, and they all crowd over him as if to tear him apart. Micky subtly shows a sudden regret and a fear for her Tom.
Oliver yells, “Leave him, leave him. You may prevent him from leaving the house. Otherwise, he is not to be touched. I am the hunter.” Tom begins to run through the house, but the drugs are starting to take effect. Micky calls out that it is time to hold court and mete out his punishment.
Oliver tells her, “But you’re the murderer.”And she assures him, “There are subtleties to this game as yet undisclosed.”
Before the Caterhaugh hunt, Micky succeeds in drugging Tom, and her plan is to set him loose into the dense woods where the malevolent hippies pursue him relentlessly, their dark scheme aimed at driving him to a panicked frenzy, hoping he will kill himself first or fall prey to their bloodlust.
We hear Tom’s heart beating. Myer creates an electronic wailing, like a dark wind or a pack of hounds on the hunt. It is very effective. Tom falls into Micky’s closet, touches Micky’s rainbow-colored faerie dress, and holds it to his lips. He misses those times. The paranoia is setting in now.
Tom is now starting to trip, like an acid trip, trip, or maybe a witch’s elixir. He heads downstairs, and everything is a blur. He falls down the stone steps. Staring up at a sky of distorted faces.
The Queen of the Faeries holds court on her throne
Ava Gardner has all at once taken her throne as The Queen of The Faeries; her Faerie court has arisen with bloodlust and revenge in their hearts. This is not a parlor trick, an innocent evening’s cabaret. These are Micky’s “˜ angry “˜creatures.’
Micky asks, ” What was the cause of the victim’s death?” Oliver tells her, “He fell and broke his neck.” She insists, “Bring him back to life.” Oliver’s voice: “It has been discovered that the victim has been suspected of a grave crime. Are you guilty? Are you guilty?” Micky decrees, “The victim is guilty.”
She sits on the floor with Tom and tells him, “Take the white Aston Martin and drive away as far as you can. I shall send my creatures after you. If they catch you”¦ They’ll tear you to pieces.”
In a dark twist of fate, Micky presents Tom with a slim opportunity for survival: he has drunk the mysterious potion, and now he must try and evade her freshly assembled pack of followers. Should he manage to outmaneuver them, freedom awaits. Micky’s enigmatic companions, draped in shadows, toy with Tom, indulging in the sport of the hunt as they chase him through the labyrinthine woods, their voices laced with macabre musings on the thrill of murdering him.
Ensnared in Micky’s sinister play, besieged by her eerie “creatures” dressed in all black – a chilling warning must be echoing in his ears: “If they catch you, they’ll tear you to pieces.”
With his time running out, Micky gives him the set of car keys and urges him to leave before it’s too late. He staggers from the house and gets into the white Aston Martin.
Janet catches sight of Tom as he flees the estate and gets into the car with him. Together, they hastily depart in the car. However, Tom’s hallucinations intervene, leading to a chaotic crash. He staggers out of the car, propelled by his delirium, and in his frenzied state, he steps on the amber-tinged glasses, crushing them beneath his feet. More symbolism. Determined, Janet races after him.
In the hauntingly surreal and delusory sequence, Tom, spaced out on drugs, is chased by the homicidal acolytes who have turned malevolent under the spell of the enchanting Micky Cazaret.
“But tonight [ ] the fairy folk ride, those that would their true love win”¨. At Mile’s cross they must hide. [ ]”¨ Quickly run to the white steed. And pull the rider down”¨. For I’ll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town. For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown.”
Then Janet sees the headlights of several cars. The group exits. Micky is with them. They follow in pursuit through the greenish mist and the tree branches.
As Micky’s creatures hunt”¦ with Oliver as the lead hunter, they are close behind.
With a shiver of visual effects, tinted gels, and experimental photography, Tom’s senses waver from the fog in his brain, and he has a vision of Micky as a Goddess overseeing a blood sacrifice. She and her sinister devotees have done well to release him into the forest deep as they pursue him like a hunted animal. Drugged and rendered delirious and sent on a nightmarish journey, he finds himself transformed into a giant stuffed bear, and water turns to fire. He is confronted by a monstrous snake and consumed by imaginary flames, the same fate as in the original ballad.
Micky’s followers emerge, their cries echoing through the woods like a pack of relentless hounds in pursuit. Meanwhile, Micky watches the spectacle, the queen of the hunt.
Janet tracks Tom’s erratic path, resembling a guardian angel amidst his fevered delusions. As Tom envisions himself as a giant stuffed bear, Janet releases him from the clutches of the tangled branches. Then, in his moment of imagined peril, Tom is convinced he is being strangled by a snake, and Janet is able to pull him from the mire. Finally, as Tom’s mind conjures the sensation of flames engulfing him, Janet rushes to his aid once again, rescuing him from the treacherous currents of the river and guiding him to safety upon the distant shore, where he collapses from his exhausting trial.
“Oh they will turn me in your arms, to a newt, or a snake”¨. But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby’s father”¨. And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight. But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight”¨ [ ] She heeded what he did say and young Tam Lin did win.”
Janet has stayed by Tom’s side as he traveled through his hallucinatory transformations and has escaped Micky’s punishments alongside his love. Micky’s retribution hasn’t worked.
The pure of heart has kept him alive through his trial in the deep marshland; as he is broken in the waters, half-naked and drained, Janet embraces him as Micky, Elroy, Oliver, and the creatures leave, and, Tom comes out through the other side of the nightmare and he and Janet have beaten the Queen of the Faeries.
Oliver says, vexed, “It’s finished. It hasn’t worked.” Micky: “How dare you!”
Oliver, “Well, it’s finished.” Oliver calls to the mob to come back, but they leave the woods bored with the outcome and not willing to pursue the murder. Micky, enraged, slaps Oliver, drawing blood on his cheek. With a more subdued, sincere tone, he tells her for the first time, “It wasn’t my fault.”
She says, drained and weak in tone, “No”¦ it wasn’t your fault.” As if to say she is the one who failed.
Elroy shows up and hands her the glasses. “Musn’t forget these.”
At first defeated then, she regains her composure, and the strength comes back to her face, and she smiles that serpentine grin. And takes them from Elroy.
Micky, having abandoned her new pack – goes in search of kicks elsewhere.
On the plane heading somewhere new, Mickey is accompanied by Elroy and her new lover, Oliver, who has seamlessly assumed Tom’s role. Oliver asks Micky, “Shall I be alright for money?” She tells him, “I have money everywhere – Here’ put these on.” He now wears the amber-tinged glasses.
Jacquie McShee sings this little aside: “Queen of the Faerie land and an angry woman was she”¦”
The close-up of Ava Gardner’s face shows that she is very deeply sad about Tom. I do believe he was the one prince – she truly loved.
This darkly romantic saga explores the primacy of one woman, undoubtedly a “˜queen’ of any kind, whose commanding presence, unyielding in her mastery over her subjects, weaves an iron spell. Ava exudes an unapologetically assertive sexuality. Another young woman possesses resolute grace and asserts control over her own body. She emerges as the heroine who valiantly rescues the seductive, imperiled hero from the brink of sacrifice and guides him toward redemption.
McDowall’s revisionist point of view stays true to the original storyline while eschewing fantastical elements. It thrives on ambiguity, leaving much unsaid for the audience to interpret.
This has been part of The 2nd Annual ‘Favorite Stars in B Movies’ Blogathon! Hosted by Brian Schuck of Films From Beyond the Time Barrier!
Read the first half of this to the plot. And loved reading more on this film. I love Ava in this and she’s beguiling as you say. Wonderfully written and adored your passionate take on this. Thanks Joey, this was such a lovely read. Looking forward to your hagsploitation piece.
Thanks so much Gil. You know, I might just be asking you to chime in a bit when I’m ready to work on my piece that tackles Hagsploitation – that horrible term has done such an injustice to our beloved actresses from the golden years of Hollywood and painted them in an awful light. I aim to take that issue head on with my upcoming project.
No problem, happy to help if I can with your post. It is a horrible term, as is geezer teasers. I am sure it’s put a lot of older actors and actresses working with the fear of being labelled in this genre as this age seems to change everything 5 minutes.
This is truly epic, Joey! Loved reading Roddy’s memories of his beloved Ava. I agree with you about her performance in Night Of The Iguana. For me her performance as Maxine is her most raw and real.
Eagerly awaiting part two.
Hope all good with you.
Maddy
Thank you so much Maddy! Yes, it’s wonderful how much McDowall worshipped Ava Gardner. It’s such an incredibly touching and heartfelt kind of admiration… that she completely deserves. I remember how much her performance in Iguana made me ache. Well put… it was raw and real. Hope you enjoy Part 2 that focuses on Carroll Baker and another rare gem whose genre is fluid – Cheers, Joey
Just back for the remaining and these are such a stunning selection of photos. You have so done the film a wonderful tribute. Thanks Joey! This was a fantastic read.
Thank you Gil! I do love to tell a story through visuals.
And you find such a lovely apt selection of photos too, most of which I’ve never seen elsewhere – with this the perfect example.
This is a film I’ve never heard of until now. Your review makes it sound fascinating. I love the quotes from Roddy McDowell. I didn’t know he ever directed a film.
Hi! You should absolutely try and see Tam Lin. It’s an interesting blend of genres and uniquely atmospheric. I love how much McDowell (who i’ve been a fan of for ages) worships Ava Gardner, and that she was the only choice to play Micky. Hope you enjoy the film! Cheers, joey
Joey, Thank you so much for this wonderful contribution to the blogathon! You point out in so many different ways that this is a special film that has been criminally neglected. I first came across references to Tam Lin a couple of years ago, and I briefly considered writing about it. Now, with your piece, I realize I must get ahold of the restored version that honors McDowell’s vision — and features an underrated actress at the height of her powers.