FILM REVIEW -THE SMASHING BIRD I USED TO KNOW (1969 - DVD REVIEWED - 10/03/08)

Region 2 DVD cover - this issue has been released under its alternate title School For Unclaimed Girls.

*This comment may contain spoilers*

A 16-year-old girl called Nicki Johnson (Madeleine Hinde) is scarred by the death of her father seven years previously at a day out at the fair. It occurred when the father (David Lodge) took her for a ride on the merry-go-round, which frightened her and she pleaded with him to take her off. When he tried to reach her in order to comfort her he was accidentally crushed to death and ever since, Nicki has suffered from a guilt complex. Things are made worse when Nicki's mother, Anne (Renee Asherson), has an affair with Harry Spenton (Patrick Mower) who is in fact a crook known for seducing women and then getting money off of them under false pretenses. Nicki dislikes Spenton intensely and after an argument between them occurs, she stabs him and is sent to a remand home where she meets several teenage girls of her own age with different problems. Here she strikes up a friendship with Sarah (Maureen Lipman), who ran away from home at fourteen because her mother was having several relationships with different men and one of them tried it on with Sarah. Then later Sarah was taken in by a woman who was good to her but unfortunately she died and her brother would not let her attend the funeral, which sent Sarah into a violent rage hence why she is in the remand home. Both Sarah and Nicki are able to understand each others problems and they decide to try and break out of the home. Sarah is caught and brought back but Madeleine succeeds in getting away to her boyfriend, Peter's (Dennis Waterman), place in Oxford. Peter tells her that she must face up to her problems and she finally sees that he is right. But as they drive along the road in Peter's car, tragedy strikes!

A bizarre piece of sixties exploitation cinema courtesy of director Robert Hartford-Davies, an unsung hero of the British horror wave as anybody who has seen the delightfully demented Corruption (q.v) will most likely concur. The Smashing Bird I Used To Know is a rather odd prison drama in that it is never quite sure about how to take itself. In the style which was rather typical of this director, he insists on a series of sensational repeated flashbacks of the death of Nicki's father and the subsequent stabbing of Spenton saturated in a wash of psychedelic colours which seem a lot like somebody having an LSD trip, which are supposed to depict what's going on in Nicki's mind as she mulls things over in her guilt complex and at times it seems to settle down into a more bland and straight drama during the scenes in the remand home. I couldn't help but think that a more conventional style of film making would have suited the film better as there are plenty of opportunities in the script for emotional drama but most of the performances from the largely young cast while competent are not really sufficient to stir our emotions including Madeleine Hinde who clearly lacked the dramatic range to make the audience sympathise with her plight. Patrick Mower plays it suitably smarmy in the role of the money grabbing and lechrous Harry Spenton but the acting honours go to Maureen Lipman who offers a genuinely moving performance as troubled teenager Sarah.

Overall, The Smashing Bird I Used To Know is not very good in itself but collectors of obscure British films of the sixties will most likely have a ball in watching the hallucinogenic directorial style and its young cast, a number of whom were destined to enjoy greater fame on TV such as Dennis Waterman (Minder), Maureen Lipman and even Joanna David has a small part in there somewhere. Trivia buffs should also note that in a little scene where Mower's Harry Spenton meets one of his girlfriends outside of a cinema, the film being advertised for showing is Hartford-Davis's own film Corruption!