Bitter Harvest

The stunning Eastmancolor photography of Ernest Steward, Acker Bilk's swanky Jackie Gleason like score, (particularly the lush main theme) and location shooting in London, do much to distinguish this cautionary tale of a young woman treading down the well worn primrose path.

Janet Munro convinces as a the naive Welsh rustic, ("Jennie Jones") after La Dolce Vita, to which end she tosses decency aside, and heads to the big city, in her pursuit of a theatrical career. That her career is only to be that of "kept woman" is the discovery leading to the titular harvest.

Performances are all very apt, (particulary Francis Matthews, who nails the characterization of a louche libertine)and Director Peter Graham Scott certainly keeps our interest.

But just when one is most absorbed, most ready to watch Jennie's world unravel, the film ends, and one comes away feeling slightly cheated, with the sense that this MIGHT have been a great film, with a running time of 30 more minutes.

Still, it invites and deserves consideration alongside "Darling," and "Taste of Honey," as films that were also exploring unsavoury misfits in swinging 60's Great Britain.