Villain (1971)

A bloated Richard Burton is in rare high spirits as vicious homosexual East End mob boss and protection racketeer Vic Dakin, whose sadism is offset by outpourings of sentimentality and a faintly weird devotion to his old mum (Cathleen Nesbit), who he brings a cup of tea and the morning paper and takes on Sunday treats down to Brighton for a stroll on the pier and a plate of whelks.

Dakin has a passion for violence, though, and rules by fear. But Bob Matthews (Nigel Davenport) and Tom Binney (Colin Welland) of the Crime Squad are watching for him to slip up, and they’re not a bit intimidated.

They are biding their time until Dakin makes just one error of judgement, and then they’ll finally get him behind bars for the first time. And Dakin is about to make that error.

He is tipped off about a plastics factory payroll worth £70,000, and the amount of loot interests him enough to step outside his usual mode of operation.

To keep the peace between his own gang and a rival gang (whose manor houses the factory he is about to rob), he tells the gang chiefs Fletcher (TP McKenna) and Lowis (Joss Ackland) about his proposal. They want to be in on the heist, and Dakin says he’ll use them – but not their men.

Circumstances turn the carefully planned robbery into a rush job, and it goes badly wrong when the guards put up a fight, and the crooks’ getaway cars are smashed up.

The share-out can’t take place – Lowis has hidden the money, and he has been connected with the crime and imprisoned.

Yet Matthews can’t touch Dakin, who has been unwillingly supplied with a cast-iron alibi by corrupt politician Gerald Draycott (Donald Sinden), who has a taste for sexual adventure and is thus highly susceptible to blackmail

So the policemen lay a trap.

A stew of Kray mythology and memories of White Heat, mixed with screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais’ talent for comic dialogue, makes Villain an uneasy mix of high camp and shocking violence.

Thought to be incredibly violent in 1971 – and featuring one of the toughest payroll robberies ever shown on a British screen – the film studies the villain in his habitat and shows how that habitat is enlarged by fear, sustained by vice, entrenched by profit, and only marginally diminished by the Law.

Burton’s performance is riveting, the most frightening he ever gave.

There is an unforgettable scene when smarmy, cringing MP Draycott finds himself alone with Dakin in the gents’ lavatory of the gambling club.

At first, terrified, Draycott attempts small talk but backs away as Dakin invades his personal space, and Draycott finds himself standing in the urinal’s floor-level drain. For its pure transgressive nastiness, that image will live in your mind forever.

A supporting cast usually associated with TV – most notably Ian Lovejoy McShane as Wolfie Lissner, the “nice peasant boy” who is the object of Dakin’s affections and the worst of his temper – only adds to the bizarre atmosphere.

Wolfie’s beautiful posh girlfriend, Venetia, is played by 60s “It-Girl” and author Fiona Lewis.

Although it’s no match for its contemporary Get Carter, Villain is still, without doubt, a unique viewing experience.

Based on James Barlow’s novel, The Burden of Proof.

Vic Dakin
Richard Burton
Wolfe Lissner
Ian McShane
Bob Matthews
Nigel Davenport
Gerald Draycott
Donald Sinden
Edgar Lowis
Joss Ackland
Tom Binney
Colin Welland
Duncan
Tony Selby
Mrs Matthews
Shirley Cain
Venetia
Fiona Lewis
Frank Fletcher
TP McKenna
Mrs Dakin
Cathleen Nesbitt
Patti
Elizabeth Knight
Terry
John Hallam
Webb
Del Henney
Henry
Ben Howard
Brown
James Cossins
Danny
Anthony Sagar
Vivian
Clive Francis
Benny Thompson
Stephen Sheppard

Director
Michael Tuchner

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