The Walking Stick

A very beatiful low key film about a woman and a man meeting and getting to know one another little by little. Underneath, things are not what they appear to be...

In "Walking Stick" Samantha Eggar and David Hemmings give very fine and clear performances as unseeming Londoners. The actors were very hot and coveted starlets at the end of the sixties, starring in loads of ambitious films and then later never to be heard from again... Shame really, they´re brilliant.

Based on a Winston Graham novel, (he of "Marnie" fame), Eric Till's "The Walking Stick" is, perhaps surprisingly, a good psychological thriller that came and went without too many people seeing it. Okay, Till was no Hitchcock, (this was only his second feature after the excellent, and again little-seen and underrated, "Hot Millions"), and the film does suffer from a little too much soft-focus prettiness at times but he does make great use of his London locations, draws first-rate performances from leads David Hemmings and Samantha Eggar and ensures the thriller plot builds to a reasonably satisfactory climax.

Eggar is the girl whose early polio means she has to use the walking stick of the title and Hemmings is the not particularly good painter she meets at a party. They start a romance but then she begins to suspect he may not be all that he first seemed. Others caught up in proceedings include Emlyn Williams as Hemmings' shady 'patron' and Phyllis Calvert as Eggar's somewhat aloof mother. It's certainly no classic but it is also much better than its original reputation might have suggested and is worth seeking out.

Pretty but man-shy art-appraiser in London, alienated from the opposite sex due to one leg affected by childhood polio, is courted by a struggling artist and falls in love; soon after moving in with him, however, he demands her help in a burglary, leaving her unsure whether he ever loved her or perhaps was simply using her. Flawlessly acted, rather brilliantly assembled adaptation of Winston Graham's book is a bit slow, yet incredibly assured. Director Eric Till shows a deft touch in weaving sequences together, keeping a fluid pace, and he's helped by wonderful editing and cinematography. The film examines deeply the issues of trust and love...and the consequences of those emotions when they are blind to reality. A real sleeper, with Samantha Eggar giving one of her finest performances. *** from ****

Director Eric Till keeps the action clipping along in this romantic thriller, a love story built around a heist. At the height of his fame, David Hemmings is effectively ambiguous as the thief, Leigh. He keeps you guessing about his true feelings for Deborah (Samantha Eggar, before she moved to L. A. and sunk to television), the young curator at his targeted auction house.

She is beautiful but standoffish, after polio left her with a withered leg and claustrophobia from time spent in an iron lung. She only slowly accepts Leigh's persistent attentions, which certainly seem genuine. He even persuades her to try walking without her cane, which liberates her. She eventually comes to trust him and leaves her family home and moves into his rundown riverfront lodgings. (Incidentally, it's a pleasure to see London circa 1969, minus the Carnaby Street clichés, filmed in locations from ever-posh Hampstead to the then-gritty London Docklands.)

Hemmings' and Eggar's chemistry is convincing, especially in scenes with Emlyn Williams as the elegant old white-haired mastermind who ropes her into helping them break into the auction house. As he pressures Deborah, Leigh squirms on the sidelines, apparently wanting to spare her almost as much as he wants her help in the robbery. Almost.

What is not convincing, unfortunately, is that this demure and dignified young woman would ever agree to help. It is not in her character. Though she eventually fell in love with Leigh, she was deeply alarmed when he revealed the plan for the heist. She tried to dissuade him, but he was all-in and wanted her help, even though it meant she had to hide in a closet at the auction house for hours to give them safe access. No. She would have gone to the police before the crime. Her self-respect, not to mention the claustrophobia, make her involvement unthinkable, and the movie ultimately disappointing.

There may be some people who will object to the core premise of "The Walking Stick" by saying that they've seen the same basic premise in other movies before. I don't object to seeing the same premise again as long as the story is retold professionally and with a fresh light. Indeed, one strength the movie has is that the performances are very good - Eggar and Hemmings manage to make their characters believable. Unfortunately, the script and direction are another matter. The story takes way too much time to get from one major plot turn to another - a lot of fat could have been trimmed before shooting started. Also, the direction for the most part is a little too low key. I'm not asking for a great deal of flashiness, but a little more life should have been put into the movie. I am not saying this is an awful or bad movie, but it is kind of disappointing.