Trapper Oliver Reed -- whose accent seems French Canadian, but whose character claims to hail from San Francisco -- shows up in town with furs, gets drunk, and buys mute serving girl Rita Tushingham to take to his cabin by Birkinhead Lake.
The ornamentation of the story is excellent, with a great score by Ron Goodwin ad some fine scenic shots of British Columbia, but with just two actors to hold down the great majority of the film, they need to do a lot to fill in the time, and Miss Tushigham's performance wanders between sullen and terrified, and Reed's performance doesn't vary much from drunken masculinity. He's very good at performing that, of course, but 105 minutes of screen time needs more, even though Mis Tushingham does gt to chop one of his legs off.
The ornamentation of the story is excellent, with a great score by Ron Goodwin ad some fine scenic shots of British Columbia, but with just two actors to hold down the great majority of the film, they need to do a lot to fill in the time, and Miss Tushigham's performance wanders between sullen and terrified, and Reed's performance doesn't vary much from drunken masculinity. He's very good at performing that, of course, but 105 minutes of screen time needs more, even though Mis Tushingham does gt to chop one of his legs off.