RARE MALCOLM MCDOWELL FILMS

ACES HIGH  (1976)

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 A moving story of comradeship and bravery, loneliness and fear, from director Jack Gold (The Medusa Touch).
Contains some of the most magnificent aerial battles ever staged. Under Gold's sensitive direction, this is a moving
portrayal of the futility of war.  Malcolm plays a World War 1 air ace, in charge of the elite 76 Squadron. Outwardly
a bastion of courage, Malcolm dies a little every time one of his boys is killed. To steel his nerves, he takes to drink,
which has an adverse effect on his abilities. Christopher Plummer is staunchness personified as Malcolm's commanding
officer. Aces High is a remake of Journey's End (1930), which in turn was based on a play by R. C. Sheriff.
With Sir John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Simon Ward, Peter Firth, and Richard Johnson.

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GET CRAZY  (1983)

Director Allan Arkush knew whereof he spoke in Get Crazy. A longtime employee of Fillmore East, a popular
rock-concert locale of the 1960s and 1970s, Arkush brought a great deal of insider's savvy to this comedy about the
concert circuit and its denizens. Malcolm McDowell stars as a Mick Jagger-type rocker who is one of several acts
lined up for a big New Years' Eve show. If villains Ed Begley Jr., Bobby Sherman and Fabian have their way,
however, the show will never get off the ground. The supporting cast is dotted with such cult-flick icons as Dick Miller,
Jackie Joseph and Mary Woronov. The musical portion of the program is handled by the likes of Malcolm, Lou Reed
(as a Bob Dylan type) and Fletcher Henderson (as a Muddy Waters takeoff). In case it hasn't been made clear
already, the main "joke" of Get Crazy is the presence in the cast of actors as musicians and musicians as actors;
it is to the film's credit that this one joke never wears out its welcome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

IF... (1969)

Rebellious students at an English private school plan a violent revolt against their repressive environment
in director Lindsay Anderson's highly acclaimed but extremely controversial drama. Centering on a small
group of non-conformists led by Mick Travis (Malcolm), the film paints a distinctly negative picture of the British
school system and, by extension, English society. Seeing the powers-that-be as humorless, bureaucratic, and
needlessly restrictive, Mick and his cohorts indulge in small acts of rebellion, including sneaking into town to
romance a local waitress.   Their actions are discovered and punished with harsh beatings, leading the students
to plot revenge. This effort culminates in the film's most famous sequence, a surrealistic depiction of a bloody uprising
by the students against the adult world. Daring and unpredictable in content and form, If... mixes color and
black-and-white cinematography as easily as it mingles satire with dark fantasy. The film's ambiguous attitude
toward violence caused controversy at the time, as many commentators saw the film as a potential incitement to
violence. It became a great success among younger, counter-culture audiences who appreciated the audacious
shock tactics and embraced the satirical, anti-establishment message. Often compared to Jean Vigo's
French classic Zéro de conduite, which also featured surrealistic boarding-school rebellion, If... has become
a high point in the cinema of youth rebellion. Anderson and Malcolm later collaborated on O Lucky Man! (1973),
Look Back in Anger (1980), and Brittania Hospital (1982).   ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

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O LUCKY MAN!  (1975)

Who better to play the coffee salesman protagonist in Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man than Malcolm, who himself
peddled coffee in his pre-acting years? (In fact, the plot of the film was Malcolm's idea.)  This rambling 166-minute
effort features Malcolm as a slave to the Work Ethic, never allowing himself to be dissuaded from his work despite
such distractions as fatal car accidents, crooked cops, physical torture, a stint as a laboratory "guinea pig," and
seductive customers. The hallucinatory quality of O Lucky Man is augmented by having most of its supporting cast
(Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Helen Mirren et. al.) "double up" in parts: for example, Rachel Roberts plays
Malcolm's boss and two of his customers, one French, one English - and all of them end up in bed with the hero. Watch
for director Lindsay Anderson in the closing scene, bringing the events in the story
full circle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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ROYAL FLASH(1976)

Novelist George MacDonald Fraser penned the script for this swashbuckling, picaresque adventure tale. The
story is based on one of the books in his "Harry Flashman" series, loose sequels to "Tom Brown's Schooldays"
that followed that story's central bully character through his checkered post-graduate military career.
Malcolm plays Captain Harry Flashman, a cowardly, lascivious poseur who desperately seeks entry
into high European society. Recognizing an opportunity to advance their own sinister political agendas, scheming
Otto Von Bismarck (Oliver Reed) and Rudi Von Sternberg (Alan Bates) convince Flashman to masquerade as a
Prussian noble and marry a beautiful duchess (Britt Ekland), a flawed plan to which Flashman agrees. Inevitably,
the transparent ruse is discovered, and Flashman is forced to try to escape across 19th century Europe, narrowly
missing one disaster after another and experiencing first-hand some of history's most momentous events. Director
Richard Lester and Fraser used similar baroque settings, tongue-in-cheek characterizations, elaborate stunts and
breakneck pacing for The Three Musketeers (1973) and its sequel, The Four Musketeers (1974) with similar efficacy.
Fraser would try again with analogous material three years later with Crossed Swords (1978), a lavish version of
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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