Villain

Perhaps a poor relation to "Get Carter," (they were made around the same time as each other), this is nonetheless an underrated, interesting gangster film. Richard Burton is strangely cast as the violent East End villain, Vic Dakin. You can see that his character is obviously based on Ronnie Kray, and Burton has difficulty pulling off a cockney accent. He is often seen fumbling through his lines. With lots of London location filming and cockney banter, Americans will love this film. There is even a brilliant car chase during the violent wages snatch. Donald Sinden is brilliant as the sleazy, blackmailed MP who frequents high society sex parties. In this respect, the film is very satirical, the characters are stereotypical of an era where scandal amongst the English establishment and local "businessmen" was (and still is) rife.

Michael Tuchner's "Villain" is everything a gangster film should be; tough, violent, grim and filled with loathsome characters who have no redeeming features. The film is clearly influenced by the Krays and does an excellent job of creating a vision of what the real underworld is like, with no comical scenes or foolish characters - the overall tone is ice cold.

The film's plot is pretty familiar with Richard Burton playing Vic Dakin, one of the top crime bosses in London, who is seeking more power through controlling a prominent politician (Donald Sinden) and planning a major robbery.

The film benefits hugely from the casting of Richard Burton in the lead role of Vic Dakin who, like Ronnie Kray, is a gay, mother-fixated psychotic. Although the Welsh Burton does struggle with the Cockney accent, he is totally believable as the character and must be commended for his no-holds-barred performance, which few other Hollywood stars would have dared risk their career on. It is testament to Burton's performance that a former Kray henchman rates it as the most realistic portrayal of a British gangster on screen and very close to what Ronnie Kray was really like. In other words not a very nice man as the film stated at the time - "Meet Vic Dakin, then wish you hadn't."

Why "Villain" has become so forgotten is a mystery. It was made in the same year as "Get Carter" in 1971 but neither film was a hit. However "Get Carter" eventually found a large cult following and is now widely regarded as a British classic. Although "Villain" is one of the top five British gangster films it is not quite in the same league as "Get Carter", "The Long Good Friday" and "Brighton Rock" but it does deserve wider recognition.

British gangster films have always been with us, but in the case of this very rare and hardly ever shown on TV classic, VILLAIN was to be the real start of many vicious gangster films to follow. For some insane reason Richard Burton never got any real film awards for any films he did. His films were very varied indeed. And it probably came as a shock to many when he stepped into the role of vicious London crime boss Vic Dakin. It's a performance with such frightening menace, that you wonder why this film is not shown more on television. It is also not on DVD and videos of the movie are hard to find, or of a very high price sold by collectors who wish to make a profit on this very rare gem. People go on and on about Get Carter, another great film, and I agree on it also being a classic, but for me Villain is just as good. If you can watch this film and can get hold of a copy, I urge you to do so. You won't be disappointed.

The Leonard Maltin movie guide described this movie as being "nasty" and "stomach-churning". Actually, by today's standards, the level of violence on display here you could probably easily get away with on prime time network television. Anyway, the tame by today's standards violence wasn't an issue with me. The main problem is with the script. The movie starts off fairly well, but quickly becomes very slow and talky, and the dialogue isn't particularly colorful or interesting to grab the viewer. (This problem can be found with a lot of other British movies this age or older.) As for Richard Burton, while his performance here is not one of his worst, it's also not one of his better ones. One problem for him might have been the fact that his character's appearances are somewhat less in number than you might think. This is not an awful movie, but for the most part it's kind of bland and forgettable. If you want to see an early 1970s British crime drama, I would suggest you watch the 1971 Michael Caine movie "Get Carter" instead.

You have to live Burton camping it up as a psychotic mum loving gangster. It's all a bit small budget but if you stumble upon it you will enjoy it. It's quite violent in places as Burton is proper psych!!