The Collector
Directed by William Wyler
Written by John Kohn and Stanley Mann from a novel by John Fowles
1965/UK/USA
Collector Company/Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Freddie Clegg: There’d be a blooming lot more of this sort of thing, if more people had the time and the money.[/box]
Mild-mannered bank teller and butterfly collector Freddie Clegg (Terence Stamp) wins the National Lottery and is now financially able to start the next phase of his avocation –collecting pretty young women. He begins stalking art student Miranda Grey (Samantha Eggar) and captures her with – natch – chloroform.
The deranged Freddie tells Miranda he loves her and knows that she will learn to love him. But Miranda repeated desperate escape attempts take their relationship to a very dark place.
For all practical purposes, this is a two-person cast and both actors do excellent work under the capable hands of Wyler. The man could knock it out of the park in any genre. Truly a creepy thriller. Recommended.
The Collector was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
