Once again Malcolm McDowell plays Mick Travis, who comes face to face with an even more troubled society than in If. . .(1968).
Here, he has become a conformist, caught up in rigid philosophies. Travis is now an ambitious coffee salesman (just like McDowell himself had been before taking up acting), whose sights are unswervingly set on success.
Travelling around and through society, trying to get up the ladder, he gets all the breaks.
His sincere smile gives him a head start with seductive Public Relations Officer Gloria Rowe (Rachel Roberts), and the sudden defection of one of the Imperial Coffee Company’s sales reps is a stroke of luck for him.
The Managing Director (Peter Jeffrey) dispatches him to the North-east to take over the whole area.
On the road North, Mick is overtaken by a young man driving a sports car – which immediately collides with a van, killing both drivers.
The traffic policemen who arrive to investigate the crash tell Mick to clear off so they can help themselves to the van’s contents . . .
Door after door is opened to Mick- and just as mysteriously, is slammed shut in his face. He is repeatedly used and abused, and everyone he trusts eventually disappoints him, as he gradually loses his faith in humanity along with his sunny optimism.
While selling his coffee, Mick discovers The North is corrupt. The mayor of one Yorkshire town introduces him to the police chief and tax inspector at a creepy strip club.
On the way to Scotland, he is tortured into a false confession by two genteel civil servants who think he is spying for the Russians.
He escapes from them during a fire and becomes a paid volunteer for medical research at a hospital where a mad doctor experiments horribly with human bodies.
He later meets up with a pop group and their rich groupie, Patricia (Helen Mirren), who introduces him to her daddy, Sir James (Ralph Richardson), a wealthy industrialist who is plotting genocide in an African state so that commercial interests remain “interesting”.
Mick is ultimately made the fall guy when the deal is busted by Scotland Yard. After some time in jail he is reformed and determines to do good, but on his release he is stoned by meths drinkers to whom he attempts to give soup.
Finally, while walking through Leicester Square in London, he is spotted by a film director (Lindsay Anderson) who gives him a part in his film, O Lucky Man!
It’s a stylised narrative, very carefully directed by Anderson (only his third film) with a surreal approach.
The same actors appear again and again in different roles and the story is strikingly intercut with scenes of Alan Price‘s band during rehearsals (Price provided the great rock score for the film).
Images of innocence and wonder are followed by images of horror, like the sequence at the human-animal transplant institute. All these elements fit together remarkably well, presenting a cynical overview of society.
McDowell is great as the wide-eyed and gullible epic traveller who has to move from two-bit salesman to nuclear spy, international courier to lonely tramp, and welfare worker to film star.
The handful of talented support players, sharing a bucket load of background roles between them, are Arthur Lowe (certainly a long way from Dad’s Army), Anthony Nicholls, Vivian Pickles and Mona Washbourne. But the best of these secondary players is Sir Ralph Richardson.
Michael Arnold (Mick) Travis
Malcolm McDowell
Sir James Burgess/Monty
Ralph Richardson
Gloria Rowe/Madame Paillard/Mrs Richards
Rachel Roberts
Mr Duff/Charlie Johnson/Dr Munda
Arthur Lowe
Patricia
Helen Mirren
Tea Lady/Neighbour
Dandy Nichols
Sister Hallett/Usher/Neighbour
Mona Washbourne
Professor Stewart/Dr Millar
Graham Crowden Managing Director/Factory chairman/Prison governor
Peter Jeffrey
Jenkins
Philip Stone
Mrs Ball
Mary MacLeod
William
Michael Bangerter
John Stone/Col. Steiger
Wallas Eaton
Warner
Warren Clarke
Supt. Barlow/Insp. Carding
Bill Owen
Duke of Belminster
Michael Medwin
Oswald
Edward Judd Mrs Naidu
Pearl Nunez
Director
Lindsay Anderson
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While selling his coffee, Mick discovers The North is corrupt. The mayor of one Yorkshire town introduces him to the police chief and tax inspector at a creepy strip club.
It’s a stylised narrative, very carefully directed by Anderson (only his third film) with a surreal approach.
