Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment

Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment

French poster under the title Morgan!
Directed by Karel Reisz
Produced by Leon Clore
Written by David Mercer
Starring David Warner
Vanessa Redgrave
Robert Stephens
Irene Handl
Bernard Bresslaw
Arthur Mullard
Music by John Dankworth
Cinematography Larry Pizer
Distributed by British Lion Films
Release dates
 27 January 1966 (UK)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (also called Morgan!) is a 1966 comedy film made by British Lion. It was directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Leon Clore from a screenplay by David Mercer, based on his BBC television play A Suitable Case for Treatment (1962), the leading role at that time being played by Ian Hendry.[1]

The film stars David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave and Robert Stephens with Irene Handl and Bernard Bresslaw.

Plot

Morgan Delt (David Warner) is a failed artist, who was raised as a communist by his parents. His upper-class wife, Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave), has given up on him and is in the process of getting a divorce in order to marry Charles Napier (Robert Stephens), an art gallery owner of her own social standing. Given the innately rich and personal world of fantasy Morgan has locked himself into, he goes off the deep end. He 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 his mother's wrestler friend Wally "The Gorilla" (Arthur Mullard) to kidnap Leonie, who still nurtures residual feelings of love tinged with pity for Morgan. The plan fails, and Morgan is arrested and imprisoned.

On his release he crashes the wedding reception of Leonie and Charles dressed as a gorilla, for which scene Reisz borrows clips from King Kong to illustrate Morgan's fantasy world. Morgan flees the wedding on a motorcycle with his gorilla suit on fire. He is subsequently committed to an insane asylum. Here, Leonie visits him looking visibly pregnant. 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

Reception

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).

The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and Redgrave was awarded Best Actress.[2]

American actress Morgan Fairchild took her first name from this film.

A film poster for Morgan is prominently shown in the 2016 film High-Rise (adapted from the novel of the same name by JG Ballard).

References

  1. ↑ Moat, Janet. "Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)". BFI screenonline.
  2. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Morgan!". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
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