Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Karel Reisz

Writer:

David Mercer (writer)

Release Date:

20 October 1966 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Morgan, an aggressive and self-admitted dreamer, a fantasist who uses his flights of fancy as refuge from external reality...

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | Flight Of Fancy | Lake | Prison | Gorilla Suit

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

David Warner	...	Morgan Delt
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Leonie Delt
Robert Stephens	...	Charles Napier
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Delt
Bernard Bresslaw	...	Policeman
Arthur Mullard	...	Wally
Newton Blick	...	Mr. Henderson
Nan Munro	...	Mrs. Henderson
Peter Collingwood	...	Geoffrey
Graham Crowden	...	Counsel
John Garrie	...	Tipstatt
John Rae	...	Judge
Angus MacKay	...	Best Man
Marvis Edwards	...	Maid
Peter Cellier	...	Second Counsel

Also Known As:

Morgan! (USA)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | West Germany:16 (bw)

Filming Locations:

Hampstead, London, England, UK

Company:

British Lion Film Corporation

Trivia:

Vanessa Redgrave's Best Actress Oscar nomination for this movie coincided with sister Lynn Redgrave's similar nomination for Georgy Girl (1966). Such a coincidence had occurred only once before when sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland respectively vied for the Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion (1941) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941).

Goofs:

Factual errors: After Morgan awakens after spending the night in his car, a radio announcer states the time as 6:30 am, even though the nearly non-existent shadows indicate it's clearly near noon.

Quotes:

Morgan Delt: You don't know Leoni! She married me to achieve insecurity and you're trying to take it away from her. She won't thank you for that!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Morgan: A Suitable Case For Swinging London Froth

The trouble with Morgan is:

a) it is too quick to ingratiate itself with the swinging London scene,

b) it glosses over the dichotomy between Morgan's Communist upbringing and his love for his posh, monied wife from which his madness arises,

c) it fails to note that although the 60s may have been 'fab' for those with the money to enjoy it, it was as drab and hellish as any other decade for those that didn't,

d) it treats mental illness as just another whacky, modish, romantic 60s fad which only groovy artists were privy to.

e) all of the above continuously.

What's good about Morgan:

a) the cast,

b) Karel Reisz's strong direction,

c) Johnny Dankworth's music score,

d) it's funny here and there.

All in all worth seeing for the moment when British cinema truly and guiltily turned its back on the gut-wrenching social realism of Saturday Night Sunday Morning (and more especially This Sporting Life) to face the oncoming nightmare of Confessions of a Window Cleaner arriving less than ten years later.

We never truly recovered the lost ground.