The arrival of a new addition to the script collection in the morning post is always an exciting occasion. And it’s made all the more exciting when after closer examination you find an actor’s name written inside.
‘The Uncle’ (1965) - a film you’ve likely never heard of - is a little gem, from a team of filmmakers responsible for some of the best films of 1960s British New Wave cinema.
It tells the story of 7 year old Gus, who struggles with the responsibility placed upon him when his nephew Tom arrives to spend summer holidays with his family and they are teased because they are the same age.
And to think I’m holding actress Helen Fraser’s actual working copy of the script.
Original theatrical trailer, 1965.
Seven year old Gus Morton is a quiet and inquisitive boy, whose world is turned upside down when his much older sister, her husband and their cheeky-faced, rambunctious son Tom come to stay for the summer. As events escalate throughout the summer, Gus contemplates birth, life, death...and if he can ever get his budgie to say ‘bloody damn’.
The Uncle is a wonderful slice of childhood life in the 1960’s; trips to the local sweet shop, dressing up and creating your own adventures with friends, cap gun and water pistol battles, playing outside from sunrise until sunset, being dropped off by a parent in the middle of nowhere to play with your friends and make your own way back. Things were so very different back then. Watching the film was like opening a time capsule of memories for me.
‘The Uncle’, novel by Margaret Abrams. The Riverside Press, 1962. First edition.
Margaret Abram’s novel is a sensitive portrayal of life's issues as seen through the eyes of a young boy. An American novel set in Texas, the film relocates the story to England, setting it in Plymouth in Devon.
The film was directed by Desmond Davis, one of the key figures to emerge from the new wave of British filmmaking in the early 1960s. He worked as camera operator on A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), both directed by Tony Richardson, and it was Richardson who gave Davis the chance to direct his own films, which began with Girl with Green Eyes (1964).
Davis took the novel by Margaret Abrams and invited her to write the screenplay with him, the result being one of a small number of films about children that were not necessarily for that age group.
In keeping with the style of British new wave films of the the early 1960s, Davis shot The Uncle on black & white film stock, and imbued it with his own unique touch, rendering it a poetic essay on the mysteries of life, death, love and childhood.
Sadly, the film failed to get a British cinema release, which is something of a scandal, especially as Desmond Davis’ film Girl With Green Eyes made the year before was praised by critics and cinema-goers alike. The film was made for British Lion, a company which was in pretty bad shape by the mid-1960s, who were known for shelving films for years before getting shown in cinemas.
One of several film scripts in my collection from the 1960s, The Uncle is all the more special for its place as a hidden gem that really needs to be seen by a wider audience.
Sounds like a real find Peter.