'Ladies' Night' is Nigel Kneale's episode of the 1986 IVT anthology series Unnatural Causes, a anthology serial about people dying in unusual circumstances. One of Kneale's lesser known works, it was released by Network on Air in 2017 on a DVD with 'The Crunch', making it available to a whole new audience. However, it isn't exactly his best work.
'Ladies' Night' takes place in a pompous, stuffy and traditional gentlemen's club, on the titular ladies' night when members are allowed to bring their wives, much to reluctance of some members. When Fiona Walker's Evelyn Tripp first mocks the absurd rituals and traditions of the misogynistic old club members and later furiously accuses Colonel Waley of being not just a bigot but a lunatic, she incurs the wrath of the club members, who expel her meek husband - prompting him to snap and bludgeon her almost to death with a statuette. This in turn prompts the club members uniting to try and cover up the crime, only to discover that Evelyn isn't actually dead, prompting a hunt for her throughout the building.
'Ladies' Night' is not terribly subtle, as Kneale goes for satire and threads a vein of black humour throughout his script. It sees him witheringly targeting sexist Gentlemen's Clubs, with the members of the Hunter's Club soon find themselves hunting human prey, very ineptly; for all their talk of manhood, Kneale makes them buffoonish, drunken and incompetent. The message is clear - the sexism of the club's members is as dated as such institutions themselves. In the ultimate irony, when Evelyn escapes from the club, the group of police officers who descend on the club to arrest its members are all women.
There's nothing particularly wrong with Kneale's script per se, even if his usual talent for characterisation is squandered as he deliberately creates stereotypes instead of believable characters, but the resulting episode isn't quite as good as it might have been, mainly due to some of the acting. Presented with a satirical script, several of the actors throw subtlety out of the window, with Alfred Burke chewing the furniture as Colonel Waley and Nigel Stock not much better as Monks. Ronald Pickup at least is quite good as attempted murderer James Tripp, whose emotional trauma when he realises what he has done is quite convincing. Fiona Walker also gives a decent performance as Evelyn.
Herbert Wise directs the studio-bound episode (he would also direct the Kneale-scripted The Woman in Black three years later) and does a decent job, making good use of the detailed studio sets (which, with their dusty old stuffed animal heads look every inch what one might imagine a Gentlemen's Club looks like), especially when the members are searching for Evelyn. Nevertheless, he has to take some of the blame for not getting more naturalistic performances out of his cast members. 'Ladies Night' is certainly worth watching, but Kneale could have tackled the subjects of misogyny and sexism better had he not decided to aim for satire (as Kinvig proved horribly well, he wasn't very good at it) and if Wise had reigned in his actors.
'Ladies' Night' takes place in a pompous, stuffy and traditional gentlemen's club, on the titular ladies' night when members are allowed to bring their wives, much to reluctance of some members. When Fiona Walker's Evelyn Tripp first mocks the absurd rituals and traditions of the misogynistic old club members and later furiously accuses Colonel Waley of being not just a bigot but a lunatic, she incurs the wrath of the club members, who expel her meek husband - prompting him to snap and bludgeon her almost to death with a statuette. This in turn prompts the club members uniting to try and cover up the crime, only to discover that Evelyn isn't actually dead, prompting a hunt for her throughout the building.
'Ladies' Night' is not terribly subtle, as Kneale goes for satire and threads a vein of black humour throughout his script. It sees him witheringly targeting sexist Gentlemen's Clubs, with the members of the Hunter's Club soon find themselves hunting human prey, very ineptly; for all their talk of manhood, Kneale makes them buffoonish, drunken and incompetent. The message is clear - the sexism of the club's members is as dated as such institutions themselves. In the ultimate irony, when Evelyn escapes from the club, the group of police officers who descend on the club to arrest its members are all women.
There's nothing particularly wrong with Kneale's script per se, even if his usual talent for characterisation is squandered as he deliberately creates stereotypes instead of believable characters, but the resulting episode isn't quite as good as it might have been, mainly due to some of the acting. Presented with a satirical script, several of the actors throw subtlety out of the window, with Alfred Burke chewing the furniture as Colonel Waley and Nigel Stock not much better as Monks. Ronald Pickup at least is quite good as attempted murderer James Tripp, whose emotional trauma when he realises what he has done is quite convincing. Fiona Walker also gives a decent performance as Evelyn.
Herbert Wise directs the studio-bound episode (he would also direct the Kneale-scripted The Woman in Black three years later) and does a decent job, making good use of the detailed studio sets (which, with their dusty old stuffed animal heads look every inch what one might imagine a Gentlemen's Club looks like), especially when the members are searching for Evelyn. Nevertheless, he has to take some of the blame for not getting more naturalistic performances out of his cast members. 'Ladies Night' is certainly worth watching, but Kneale could have tackled the subjects of misogyny and sexism better had he not decided to aim for satire (as Kinvig proved horribly well, he wasn't very good at it) and if Wise had reigned in his actors.
