The Collector (1965) is a film based on the 1963 novel The Collector by John Fowles. The film was adapted by Stanley Mann and John Kohn and was directed by William Wyler, who turned down The Sound of Music to do it. It starred Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar.
Plot summary
Freddie Clegg is chasing a butterfly in a field to add to his colletion when he comes upon a country house for sale. Exploring the building he discovers it has a large cellar in an outbuilding, and in a voice over he explains he decided to buy the house because of its isolation, and because it suits a plan he has in mind. He doesn't think he will go through with it despite knowing where "she" is every moment of the day.
The "she" in question is Miranda Grey, a twenty year old auburn haired art student who is unaware she is being watched by Freddy, who follows her from his van. He watches her enter the Underground, and is waiting when she arrives back in London. We see Freddy get a snack out of the glove compartment while watching Miranda walking down the street, and catch sight of a bottle of chloroform ready to be used. Freddy follows Miranda into a pub, and watches her have a disturbing conversation with a man we only see from the back. Upset by it, she walks right past Freddy without noticing him.
Next we see Freddy driving the van past Miranda, and up a hill. As he watches her walking toward the hill, he takes the chloroform bottle out of the glove compartment and soaks a pad in a ziplock bag. Miranda walkes up the hill and seeing the alley way blocked by Freddy's van, moves around it and disappears from sight. We suddenly hear a cry for help cut off, and next see Miranda being chloroformed unconscious by Freddy. Miranda's unconscious body is loaded into the back of the van, and quickly bound. Freddy drives the van out of the city and it is evening by the time he returns to the country house.
He carefully carries the unconscious, bound, and gagged Miranda into the cellar, unties her, taking a moment to admire his prize. Noticing her skirt have ridden up, he carefully pulls it down to her knees, turns on a heater, turns off the lights, and leaves her to sleep off the chloroform. He returns to the main house, and so overjoyed with what he has done, dances like a child in the rain, and remembers how he was mocked for collecting butterflies while he worked at a back. Then he remembers his aunt coming to his work to tell him he's won seventy thousand pounds on the football pools.
Miranda comes around from the chloroform to find herself in the cellar. After attempting to open the large locked wooden door, she explores her prison to find clothes in her size, art books, and everything she needs. Freddy enters carry a tray of food, and Miranda demands to be released, informing him that she is not rich and he can expect no ransom. He tells her that he knows who her father is, and that he isn't rich, and it's not about money. Freddy leaves her after telling her he knows a lot about her, more then she thinks.
Freddy goes into town and sees an article about Miranda having gone missing. He returns to the cellar with more food, but Miranda refuses to eat, and has concluded that he wants her to be a happy prisoner. Their conversation reveals that Freddy is in love with her, but has no sexual desires. He wants her to get to know him. She tells him that if that is what he wants she will be there until she dies. The next day she tries to escape after faking an illness, and agrees to stay four weeks if he promises to let her go.
A few days later Freddy has agreed to take Miranda to the main house so she can have a bath. While walking he suddenly loses control and attempts to kiss her. After preventing her from screaming they enter the house, and Miranda asks him if that were to happen again, or worse, "not to do it in a mean way", and not to knock her unconscious or use chloroform again. Miranda says that if it does happen, she will never speak to him again. After settling into her bath a neighbor comes, causing Freddy to quickly wrap a robe around a screaming Miranda, gag her, and tie her to the pipes. He greets the neighbor at the door to prevent him from discovering the cellar prison, and Miranda attempts to get the neighbor's attention by using her foot to turn on the tub faucet and causing it to overfill. Freddy makes the excuse that his girlfriend was having trouble with the plumbing.
After Freddy unties her, Miranda is shown around the main house, and Freddy's massive butterfly collection. She is apalled by the living beauty he has destroyed, and realizes that he's collected her. During their conversation she realizes who he is from the story in the paper about his winning the football pool.
Miranda attempts to get a secret message to the police in a letter to her mother that Freddy promised to send, but it is discovered and it is clear that Miranda doesn't know enough to get help anyway.
The final day arrives and Miranda has put on the clothes she was kidnapped in. Freddy insists on their having dinner together, and after a heated conversation over art he storms out, and returns with a package, a dress for her to wear that evening. When he returns Miranda is in it, a white cocktail dress and pumps, and they attempt to have a civil conversation. Freddy surprises Miranda with a wedding ring, and asks her to marry him, telling her he doesn't expect sex. Miranda attempts to reason with him, but tells him she'll marry him right away. He sees through her attempt to get to a minister and freedom, and she panics. After a struggle Freddy chloroforms her, and carries her upstairs, and holds her unconscious body. She later wakes up in the cellar, and he lies and tells her he brought her right down, and has to keep her longer.
Miranda comes down stairs after a bath and attempts to seduce Freddy, who loses all respect for her. She realizes that she will never leave alive, and while being taken back to the cellar strikes Freddy in the head with a shovel. Seeing him bleeding causes her to run, but he manages to catch her while it starts to rain, and in the struggle to get her back into the cellar the heater is broken. Miranda is left in the cold cellar, soaking wet, unable to change her clothes because her hands are tied.
Freddy manages to drive to a hospital, and is helped inside by a nurse. He returns a few days later to find Miranda terribly ill, and he goes to get a doctor. Freddy stops himself from going inside a doctor's office, and instead returns with medicine, only to find Miranda dead. In a voice over he blames himself for a moment, and then thinks that it was her fault for not trying to get to know him, and for losing his respect. He reveals that Miranda is buried under a tree, in a box he made, and she got everything she deserved. His only fault was trying to deal with someone like Miranda who was too clever, and needed to find someone he could teach.
We see Freddy back in the van following the nurse who helped him into the hospital.
Cast
Reception
Stamp won the Best Actor Award and Eggar won the Best Actress Award at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Samantha Eggar), Best Director (William Wyler) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
Terence Stamp later confessed in his autobiography his own surprise as being chosen for the role, expecting Anthony Perkins or John Hurt to play Clegg. Having been chosen, he assumed (as had most others) that Julie Christie — regarded at that time as the best young actress of the era — would be given the role of Miranda, but Wyler chose Eggar because he thought it would introduce the correct air of sexual tension and awkwardness between the two protagonists — Stamp having been turned down by Eggar when both were at college.
Location
The location of the outdoor opening kidnap sequence is in Mount Vernon, Hampstead.
References
External links
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Films directed by William Wyler |
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| 1920s |
The Crook Buster (1925) • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) • Ridin' for Love (1926) • The Fire Barrier (1926) • Don't Shoot (1926) • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) • Martin of the Mounted (1926) • Lazy Lightning (1926) • The Stolen Ranch (1926) • The Two Fister (1927) • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) • The Silent Partner (1927) • Blazing Days (1927) • Shooting Straight (1927) • Galloping Justice (1927) • The Haunted Homestead (1927) • Hard Fists (1927) • The Lone Star (1927) • The Home Trail (1927) • Gun Justice (1927) • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) • The Square Shooter (1927) • The Horse Trader (1927) • Daze of the West (1927) • The Border Cavalier (1927) • Desert Dust (1927) • Thunder Riders (1928) • Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928) • The Shakedown (1929) • The Love Trap (1929)
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| 1960s |
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