Villain

I wasn't expecting to do two British crime movies in close proximity after mentioning The League of Gentlemen the other day, but I wasn't thinking about that when I sat down to watch Villian.

Richard Burton plays Vic Dakin, a particularly brutal gangster. A croupier at a casino he gets protection money from has been getting ideas above his station, so Dakin and his men wait in the guy's apartment where Dakin slashes his throat to within an inch of his life and leaves the guy dangling off the balcony. Nice. Dakin goes home, where he's excessively devoted to his mother, like James Cagney in White Heat, except that Mom here (Cathleen Nesbitt) probably has no idea of what her son is doing.

Dakin's partner in crime is Wolfe (Ian McShane), a chancer who makes his living by providing all sorts of illicit services, whatever will pay the bills. That can be drugs to a nightclub, or young women for upper-class parties where the people are expecting sexual favors from the young ladies in return. Among the "respectable" people is MP Gerald Draycott (Donald Sinden), to whom Wolfe even offers his girlfriend Venetia (Fiona Lewis) at a party. Wolfe even provides services to Dakin, being a partner in more than just crime.

Anyhow, Dakin leaves Venetia at the country estate party because he's going to meet with Dakin and some other gangsters about a possible crime. A guy who's gotten into debt over a girl at a nightclub has offered information that would make a factory payroll robbery easier, earning a cool £60,000 or more. Dakin talks with Fletcher (T.P. McKenna) about it, since this is the sort of thing that's more Fletcher's area of expertise instead of Dakin's. However, the planning also brings in Fletcher's ulcerous brother-in-law Lowis (Joss Ackland), who really isn't physically up to this sort of crime any more.

Needless to say, the payroll heist doesn't quite go as expected, with Lowis ending up in bad shape and in need of hospital care, but with him also being the one who knows where the money is and unable to make the meetup with Dakin. The police, led by Inspector Matthews (Nigel Davenport) have collared Lowis, and use this to try to get at Dakin, especially after Dakin tries to blackmail Draycott into giving the police an ironclad alibi, because everybody back in 1971 would believe an MP, you see.

Villain is another of those movies that feels like it's plowing the same ground that's been done in a whole bunch of gangster movies, except that this one was done not too long after the disintegration of the Production Code. So there's a lot more violence than in earlier movies, as well as other adult situations, like Dakin's sexual relationship with Wolfe. It's finally revealed in an unintentionally hilarious scene when Venetia walks into Wolfe's apartment and realizes he's with somebody else. A few minutes later, out comes Dakin. Not what Venetia was expecting.

Even though there's relatively little new in terms of plotting, the movie is quite good thanks to the more permissively realistic 1970s atmosphere, and a daring performance from Richard Burton. The only real flaw I could find was at the very end, with Dakin getting to give some last lines I found somewhat unrealistic. But that's a minor quibble with an otherwise excellent movie.

Villain is available on DVD from the Warner Archive collection.