Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment

1966 British film

4 April 1966 (1966-04-04)

Running time

97 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£201,824^[1] or £191,674^[2]

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (also called Morgan!) is a 1966 comedy film directed by Karel Reisz and starring David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave, and Robert Stephens, with Irene Handl and Bernard Bresslaw. It was made by British Lion and produced by Leon Clore from a screenplay by David Mercer, adapted from his BBC television play A Suitable Case for Treatment (1962), in which the leading role was played by Ian Hendry.^[3] A film poster for the film is prominently shown in High-Rise (2015) .

Plot

Morgan Delt is a failed working-class London artist, who was raised as a communist by his parents. His upper-class wife, Leonie, has given up on him and is in the process of getting a divorce in order to marry Charles Napier, an art gallery owner of her own social standing. Locked into a personal world of fantasy, Morgan performs a series of bizarre stunts in a campaign to win back Leonie, including putting a skeleton in her bed and blowing up the bed as her mother sits on it. When these stunts fail, Morgan secures the help of Wally "The Gorilla", a pro wrestler friend of his mother, to kidnap Leonie, who still nurtures residual feelings of love tinged with pity for Morgan. Leonie is left with Morgan and Wally in the British countryside (clips from Tarzan (1943) are cut into the film). Leonie soon gets rescued, and Morgan is arrested and imprisoned.

After escaping, he dresses as a gorilla and crashes the wedding reception of Leonie and Charles. (Clips from King Kong (1933) are used to illustrate Morgan's fantasy world). Morgan flees the wedding on a motorcycle, his gorilla suit on fire, and subsequently is committed to an insane asylum. Later a visibly pregnant Leonie visits him. With a wink, Leonie tells him he is the child's father. Morgan returns to tending a flowerbed, as the camera pulls out to a longshot of the entire circular flowerbed with the enclosed flowers arranged into a hammer and sickle.

Cast

David Warner as Morgan Delt
Vanessa Redgrave as Leonie Delt
Robert Stephens as Charles Napier
Irene Handl as Mrs. Delt
Bernard Bresslaw as policeman
Arthur Mullard as Wally
Newton Blick as Mr. Henderson
Nan Munro as Mrs. Henderson
Peter Collingwood as Geoffrey
Graham Crowden as counsel
John Garrie as Tipstaff
John Rae as Judge
Peter Cellier as second counsel

Critical reception

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Angry young men were abundant in the British cinema of the 1960s, but they were never so irate as working-class artist David Warner, who tries to sabotage the second marriage of his middle-class ex-wife Vanessa Redgrave to art dealer Robert Stephens by rewiring their house and dressing in a gorilla suit. Adapted from David Mercer's television play, it's really a fable about the class society. Yet its dream sequences and surreal touches make it more odd than meaningful, and it now feels dated."^[4]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Archetypal sixties marital fantasy, an extension of Look Back in Anger [1959] in the mood of swinging London. As tiresome as it is funny – but it is funny."^[5]

Accolades

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Vanessa Redgrave) and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Jocelyn Rickards).^[6] It was also nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and Redgrave was awarded Best Actress.^[7]

References

^ Chapman, L. (2021). “They wanted a bigger, more ambitious film”: Film Finances and the American “Runaways” That Ran Away. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(2), 176–197 p 191. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2021.0565
^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360
^ Moat, Janet (2003–2014). "Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)". BFI screenonline. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 629. ISBN 9780992936440.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 695. ISBN 0586088946.
^ "Nominations and awards 1966". The Academy Awards. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
^ "Festival de Cannes: Morgan!". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 8 March 2009.