I love this movie so much

Wonderfully offbeat film!

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Based on an old Scottish folktale about a young man (Tamlin) enamored of a fairy queen, the film's tagline "She drained them of their manhood...and then of their lives!" naturally created certain expectations. Even after all these years, I still tend to buy into this brand of hyperbole so I assumed it'd be something along the lines of Antinea, Aeisha, or Catherine Deneuve in THE HUNGER but what I got was a novice director's self-consciously arty attempt at enchantment starring a past-her-prime Hollywood glamour girl who admittedly couldn't act. Former MGM goddess Ava Gardner plays a fabulously wealthy queen bee whose latest flame, "Tom Lynn" (duh), rebels after he knocks up the vicar's daughter and wants to (gasp) marry her. Obviously, this arouses Ava's anger and there's hell to pay ...or there should have been, anyway. "Bloodless" gialli have their place but the same can't be said for a horror film, even when the horror's psychological (which it isn't here). I don't know what this is and except for the '70s fashions and decor -and the sight of a legendary beauty's crumbling facade- there's really not much reason to tune in. Actor Roddy McDowell's no Charles Laughton and it's not a pity he never directed again. Just sayin'.

One should be a fan of British cinema, retro pop culture, fantasy/folklore, and personal auteur-ship for maximum enjoyment of this likable but format-challenged film from the late 1960's/early 70's. I sure am, and as such quite savored this cinematic retelling of the Tam Lin ballad.It's sufficiently enjoyable that I immediately transferred the VHS tape to DVD for future viewings. One suspects it had been slated for same, what with its 17 minute director's introduction, but remained lost in the ether of Republic Pictures' post-demise assorted distribution deals. One further suspects that its release under of aegis of an Ava Gardner tribute series was the ticket for its seeing light of day at all post theatrical debut. It's been written that Roddy McDowell lost control of this, his only directed film, with it subsequently languishing in drive-ins of the 1970's under such noms-du-exploitation as "The Devil's Widow!" As McDowell's sole direction job, this is a movie one ever so wants to be as good as Charles Laughton's similar solo effort "Night of the Hunter," which it isn't and cannot be, as few films can match "Hunter's" expert, mannerist weirdness. McDowell's is a B+ to Laughton's A+. What is it does share is the quirkiness of a singular vision, seeming unlike anything else of its respective era while still conforming to mainstream requisites, and the retelling of a dreamy but occasionally frightening fairy tale in modern clothes, with assorted decidedly odd touches. A true loss to cinema that both actors never directed another film.Simply put, it's the ballad of Tam Lin (its original title in fact) retold with late '60's characters, and peopled with a cast of still working, familiar British names like Ian McShane (representing the titular captured knight Tam Lin,) Joanna Lumley and Stephanie Beacham (the Hammer horror ingénue, here as the ballad's Janet) with both Cyril and Sinead Cusack in tow. Gardner as the controlling "Faerie Queen" seems an apt focus of the swirling debaucheries and cruelties rationalized as group activity fun. This, strangely, isn't so much part of the fantasy as modern viewers might conclude: some of us who were adolescents in the '60's remember the genuine, wealthy older types lending their mansions to us young'uns in order to share in the decadent fun, whether vicariously or actively.In "Tam Lin" you'll find a little seen but quite good updated fairy story, plus amusing music from jazz to the Pentangle, great costuming, retro period fun, gorgeous Scottish border scenery and an always great to watch cast. Time for whoever owns Republic's split assets this week to fund that DVD release.

Groovy! Roddy McDowell took the ancient fairy tale of TAM LIN -- a young knight captured by an evil witch, then saved by a fair damsel -- and turned it into a very demure slice of psychedelic romance. The daring camera angles and bizarre soundtrack make the movie work most of the time, but now and then the weird factor just turns funny.Ava Gardner, well over forty, plays the "immortal" Mrs. Cazaret. She's still an attractive lady, sort of, but not enough to be "hypnotic" and "irresistable." Between her and the young man she's entrancing, there is not a trace of attraction or chemistry. The scenes between the young man and his fair young maid are a bit better, but still lacking a certain natural sexual punch.The problem is, there are about a dozen gorgeous extras lounging around in most of the scenes, including a couple of famous faces. Watch for a luscious young Sinead Cusack and an even sexier young Joanna Lumley, both decked out in scrumptious Carnaby Street finery and looking ever so fresh and primly desirable. The movie would have worked much, much better if these two had had a larger part. Mrs. Cazaret should have used them to keep her young man satisfied. It's so easy to visualize him rising from her bed, seeing how tired and blowzy she looks in the morning light, and heading for the door -- only to be headed off by Sinead Cusack and Joanna Lumley. The two of them ask him to do something quite innocent and sweet -- like have some breakfast, or go for a walk in the garden. But as they ask, they also rub against him, licking his neck and purring into his ear, and before long he's forgotten all about escaping from Mrs. Cazaret!

What a terrible film! It's no wonder this is Roddy McDowall's only directorial effort ever; it's the kind of film nobody sees/likes/understands, and has only one category of possible defenders: those who like the "It's-incomprehensible-so-it-must-be-profound" school of filmmaking (examples: "Don't Look Now", "The Shout"). Has some tension at the end...enough for me to give it one star instead of none.