THE GYPSY MOTHS (68)

Directed by: John Frankenheimer (1969)

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson, Deborah Kerr

The Pitch: A trio of sky-diving stuntmen, touring the Midwest, fetch up in a small Kansas town.

Theo Sez: Not in the same league as SECONDS or THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, but surprisingly fine - may well prove indelible, in fact, seen at an age sufficiently young and impressionable, not least for the tension it engenders : it's a fairly good bet - akin to the rule that, if a gun appears onscreen, someone's going to use it sooner or later - that, if you have people jumping out of planes on a regular basis, something's bound to go wrong. Frankenheimer's taste for hyper-detailed, elaborately staged action makes this a companion-piece of sorts to GRAND PRIX, but it's also a tale, as befits the counter-cultural times, of freedom vs. crushing Respectability, coming down hard on its staid, hypocritical small town (including, in the spirit of the New Permissiveness, a sleazy titty-bar) - though the prevailing tone is subtly melancholy, its heroes tired and over-the-hill, not so much roaming the world as drifting through it. The big, big problem is the inexpressive Wilson, a doleful presence who's like a black hole at the centre of the film, his pivotal role undermining the excellent work by Lancaster (at his most imposingly leonine) and Hackman, reminding you what a brilliant character actor he started out as (he gives a wild, voluble performance) ; one scene alone, the night-time walk (actually a seduction) through the empty town, sensuously lit by the great Philip Lathrop, would earn it a place among the most neglected films of the late 60s.