A Matter of Choice

The IMDb need to revise their plot synopsis of this film as it reveals the ending, which is well worth waiting for.

Based on a story by the film's director and the actor Derren Nesbitt, who had recently worked together on 'The Man in the Back Seat' and 'Strongroom' and between them devised another engrossing account of escalating panic with a satisfyingly abrupt payoff at the conclusion; although the title and the opening narration that justifies it seem very much like last minute contrivances.

Like its predecessors it provides a vivid snapshot of life just after the Beatles' first LP (with London after dark full of men going home grumpy because all they'd got at the doorstep of the woman they'd just spent the evening lavishing what charm they could muster, along with their hard-earned money, was a quick "thank-you"). It's also crammed with fascinating period details like the nightclub which charges a whopping 5/- for admission - and the racial mixture of its clientele - and the malfunctioning sandwich machine which sets the whole final chain of events in motion.

Although top-billed, Anthony Steel is given very little to say or do...

Malcolm Gerald and Michael Davis get to their shared flat and find themselves at loose ends. They want to find some young women to have sex with, but a trip to a hip disco leaves them partnerless, so they head home. They want a sandwich, so they use an automat machine, but it doesn't work. This eventually results in their accidentally shoving a policeman in front of a car containing adulterers Anthony Steele and Jeanne Moody. Matters proceed from there with disaster all around.

There's an air of depression that overlays everything in this movie, a thorough sense of dissatisfaction with life and the world as matters ratchet forward; the young men want to do the right thing, but don't want any consequences. The lovers are unhappy with the situation, with Miss Moody preparing to go to California with her husband, leaving Steele to grumble and whine. I found myself wishing for a more moral world for this movie to take place in, but there's no sense of it, only consequences in a random universe.

It's been about 15 years since I saw this film but I recall it was actually a very good film. It deals with the implications of everyday decisions, in this case the decision made by two people over which route to take home, and how these fateful decisions can effect a wide circle of people. Low budget and black and white with no standout acting performances, it is nevertheless coherent and thought provoking.

Talking Pictures - 2025 Strange as I was expecting Anthony Steel to be the lead, but he did not have that much of a part at all.

The main parts were Mike and Tony whose introduction was very odd. They seemed like extras from Carrying On Camping rather than a couple of likely lads looking to pull girls.

Charles and Lisa Grant seemed ill-suited, although nice to see the Major from Fawlty Towers.

It was all rather wooden and didn't have the gritty realism of some of the kitchen-sink dramas of the time.

However, the plot was quite good and the ending had a twist which would have had serious implications for the "likely lads".

If A MATTER OF CHOICE didn't rely on the titular melodramatic fateful inevitability premise, it would more smoothly summarize the British New Wave of the 1960's, liken to THE LONELINESS OF A LONG DISTANCE RUNNER had Tom Courtenay and James Bolam never been arrested since the best scenes involve two young men just hanging out...

Herein lifted from Leopold and Loeb-inspired ROPE and COMPULSION as these fellas seem more interested in each other than women... and their goal to find the perfect chick's more a dare than possible conquest...

Malcolm Gerald and Michael Davis play the flamboyant alpha and beta males going from a diner to their adjoined apartments to a swinging jazz club, before which our cocky alpha (resembling a wimpy version of Maximilian Schell) targets squeaky-voiced SMOKESCREEN starlet Penny Morrell...

Their scene in Gerald's modern art bachelor pad is a standout; leading to gorgeous blonde Marie Noël as a French waitress in a nightclub with that period's blaring-jazz, coinciding with composer Robert Sharples doing his best John Barry BEAT GIRL impression...

Then the inevitable MATTER that takes up the entire second half as the boys accidentally (fatefully) connect with thirty-something lovers Anthony Steel and Jeanne Moody: she's cheating on her old rich husband and he's a handsome square-jawed dreamer...

Resulting in an accident that wounds a cop (via the boys), an even more wounded Steel (also from the boys), and that cheating dame's inevitable Noirish Guilt Trip, that, dragging far too long, puts a damper on the freewheeling good times leading up: Making CHOICE a far better time-filler than crime thriller.